eat a number for
a bitch to suckle in a breed where great size is a desideratum. Not
more than four, or at the outside five, should be left with the bitch;
the others should be put to a foster mother, or if they are weaklings
or foul-marked, it is best to destroy them. After the puppies are
weaned, their food should be of bone-making quality, and they require
ample space for exercise and play. Nothing is worse than to take the
youngsters for forced marches before their bones have become firm.

Before giving the description and standard which have been adopted
by the Great Dane Clubs, a few remarks on some of the leading points
will be useful. The general characteristic of the Great Dane is a
combination of grace and power, and therefore the lightness of the
Greyhound, as well as the heaviness of the Mastiff, must be avoided.

The head should be powerful, but at the same time show quality by
its nice modelling.

The eyes should be intelligent and vivacious, but not have the hard
expression of the terrier. The distance between the eyes is of great
importance; if too wide apart they give the dog a stupid appearance,
and if too close he has a treacherous look.

Another very important point is the graceful carriage of the tail.
When it is curled over the back it makes an otherwise handsome dog
look mean, and a tail that curls at the end like a corkscrew is also
very ugly. In former times "faking" was not infrequently resorted
to to correct a faulty tail carriage, but it is easily detected. Great
Danes sometimes injure the end of the tail by hitting it against a
hard substance, and those with a good carriage of tail are most liable
to this because in excitement they slash it about, whereas the faulty
position of the tail, curled over the back, insures immunity from
harm.

Until recently British Great Dane breeders and exhibitors have paid
very little attention to colour, on the principle that, like a good
horse, a good Great Dane cannot be a bad colour. The English clubs,
however, have now in this particular also adopted the German standard.
The orthodox colours are brindle, fawn, blue, black, and harlequin.
In the brindle dogs the ground colour should be any shade from light
yellow to dark red-yellow on which the brindle appears in darker
stripes. The harlequins have on a pure white ground fairly large black
patches, which must be of irregular shape, broken up as if they had
been torn, and not have rounded outlines. Wh