There was a little baby girl, who was a 'ONE and Only', but she had some very 'special' big friends to play with.
Their names were 'Gretil' and 'Brunhilda'.
Now these special friends thought that THEY were human too and their humans felt this was the way it was always meant to be, so they were treated no different.
So 'Gretil' and 'Brunhilda' watched out for and looked after the little girl like any other guardian would ... And the little girl grew up raising mayham ... with her two Great Danes.
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It wasn't long before the little girl was showing the world what amazing things she could get her Great Danes to do!
34 years later, the little girl is all grown up and still has danes by her side. Now as a grown up she realizes how many others would love to grow up or enjoy raising this beautiful breed, but over the years things have changed and the dane life span is not as long as it should be and other people who try to own and love this dog have had many health problems plaguing them. So in the realization of this she set out to be a "breed preservationist" meaning my main goal in breeding is to keep this breed alive forever so others after me may enjoy this breed as I have.
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Here's me and the girls...
I think I was around a 1yr old.. with Gretil and Brunhilda
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So ... as the old saying goes "If you want somthing done right, you have to do it yourself."
Hence,
'Stonehenge' commenced it's breeding programme back in 1996.
Being blessed with finding a foundation female 'Madison Bailey'
who, upon seeing her, was instantly reminded of my family's old dog 'Brunhilda' (except for her colouring);
'Madison' was a Blue Merle.
The instant she was seen, there was no doubt that she was the 'Right One'.
Before serious thought of acquiring her came about, her background and health were checked.
It was a delight to find that she had already had 2 litters on the ground - the last consisted of 14 which were all in excellent health with superb temperaments.
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|  | 7.5 years old 'Madison' in 1999
34 inches at the shoulder
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Referred to as 'Old Type',
'Madison' passed away at age 11 years.
 | Pedigree
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'WATCH' for this 'Tree'
throughout the site ...
it signifies a 'Family Tree' or 'Pedigree'.
'Click' on the 'Tree' to view the Pedigree for a specific dog.
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| So now the search was on to find the Right Mate. One of quality that would compliment 'Madison' in every way.
Eventually 'Hustdane's Harley' was found. His lines were of excellent health and type and although he was 6 yrs.old, he was in great shape.
We bred 'Madison' (now 7 yrs.old but retaining excellent health and activity) to 'Harley' (who was of course a Harlequin) and the 2 produced Five beautiful puppies.
2 blacks, 2 blue merles and 1 harlequin.
From this Litter (First for Stonehenge and 3rd for 'Madison') a Black female was kept and took 'Madison's place as a Foundation bitch.
'Stone's Athena' is a black and is now 3 yrs.old. The litter of 10 that she whelped on Aug. 27th/02 was her 2nd litter.
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Now, being raised as a "Breed Preservationist", you may wonder what other things are done with our breeding program to improve the health and life span of these dogs.
Well my Mother, has been breeding Danes for over 35 years and she has always been ahead of her time in reasearching the health issues of this breed. Over the years we have discovered that Danes have a very bad reaction to 'vaccines'.
Through study, research, discussions with other breeders and of course our own experiences, we have gone about cleaning the lines.
Our goal is to go 3, 4, 5 generations and so on, Free of Vaccines and with this we have had great success in improving the health of this breed.
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| Personally, I am on my second generation of No vaccines and my mom is on her 3rd. All my dogs have done and are doing extremely well not being vaccinated.
 | 'Madison Bailey',with her litter in 1999 from
'Hulstdanes Harley'.
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One of the Blacks is 'Stone's Jem Athena'
Since we do not vaccinate, we use holistic methods to improve the health of our dogs.
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| Holistic means the WHOLE thing; body, mind and soul.
The first step with this is a healthy Diet; we try to stick to as organic as possible in raw or kibble. We believe this to be the 'foundation' to good health.
Next we use homeopathic and herbal remedies, as much as we can, to treat our animals instead of just giving our dogs a pill and hoping every thing is fine.
We believe in "Questioning everything." and we will find the way back to better health.
Of course, to balance it all out; loving them, lots of room to play and a cozy, comfy couch to sleep on... keeps the doctor away!
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'Stone's Jem Athena' - Spring 2002
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| CLICK ON THE PAWS TO FIND MORE HEALTH ARTICLES... |  |
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*WITH DANES 34 YEARS
*SPECIALIZING IN HOLISTICALLY RAISED DANES
*BREEDING FOR HEALTH, TEMPERAMENT, OLD TYPE,
AND ATHLETIC-WORK ABILITY
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