The Gouda Danes are raised by a small two members family, the Goudas; the father (Paul Gouda) & his only begotten son (Pele`) residing on Vancouver Island, in the beautiful city of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.
We are not a Danes kennel. We are a Danes family. Our Danes live inside at home with us; and they aren't just simply the best, they are indeed family members.
I have had Great Danes all my life and I claim, there are no other dogs. Indeed there is nothing like a Dane.
This site will introduce you to three members of our family .. and I have to warn you, short & sweet is not one of my qualities! You'll find a lot of information that would help any Dane lover or owner; but you'll also find a lot of lengthy chat & boasting. Well, we love Danes and we're proud of ours! ... Also ... this site was voted by EWAS and Dogs Magazinethe best breeder site. You must visit our library.
Anubis .. the stud .. a New Zealand Line crossed with French & African lines. The line was first developed by us back in Ontario as I'll explain. We did our homework, thanks to the Internet search tool and we traced Aunbis' line beyond what his sire's breeder in Texas knows. We developed the origin or the founder of this line. We didn't know that at the time. Ch. Helisan Matahari's sire was sired by my Dane Lt. Columbo whom I had to sell leaving for an oversees contract. That was back in Ontario and the produced pup that became the sire - which was named after a member of our family (see the attached link) - was bred to several dams and established three Texas & Mississippi lines! It's beyond coincidental or luck, it's the irony of fate that we got Anubis. It was such a surprise to find out. And, the founding sire which I obtained from a French- New Zealand cross line produced 3 other pups that established famous Great Dane lines in New York, Ontario and Brazil. How about that!
Nifirtiti "Nifi" the Dam .. again, the Internet search and Kennel records show a Dutch - Danish line imported to Ohio .. and now ..
Cleopatra "Cleo" the Dam .. A line developed in Egypt from 3 African - Egyptian and Eastern European lines .. imported to Canada from Egypt.
His roots go back to two great champions, an African Champion Dane that was brought to New Zealand, crossed with a French Dane from an African background and the Sire Lt. Columbo II, a pup I had in Ontario which produced Ch. Matahari that was sent to Texasand Alexander The Great (New York).
The French Dane "Blateau" 's dam was from Hungry where Danes have large heads with a bit of St. Bernard's image; big lips and a large head. These Danes are the origin of such kennels as the indicated Hungarian, Polish and French top breeds.
Anubis was imported to Canada at age 6 months. The breeder assured me he is the best pup they were ever blessed with in years of breeding, having acquired the best genetic characteristics from his great background top Danes. They planned to be keep him for breeding in Texas and Mississippi. I talked them into selling him on a co-ownership contract and with the agreement that they will get one of his offspring to replace him when sole ownership is complete and If I am to sell his pups for breeding purpose. His pedigree shows an impressive background of top quality champion studs and dams.
He has the Lovely Dane personality, a great head, lips, chest, temperament and size (191 lb of Dane fun). The grand-father is a famous stud known for his TV commercial and the caption "ahead above the rest" .. and his sire and dam are again the two famous American champions, Ch. VKMs Antonio "Tony" and Ch. VKMs Cache at Alpine .. the top North American Danes for years. You'll be able to view all that when you enter Anubis' pages.
To my disappointment, these places were puppy mills, with dozens of pups in small kennel cages, and they were by no means good (let alone great) Great Danes. In fact, some seem like a cross with a hound, a boxer, a rhodesian ridgeback or God knows what!!
One breeder had a picture of a good Dane advertised on line and when I asked to see him, he said he never claimed it was the sire, but he is a related Dane and he is not around!! clearly a scam! The advertised or displayed Dane is not even theirs!!!! Not to put down all American online breeders of course, but - my search came up with only 2 good breeders with good Danes; only two .. and they charge $2500 to $3,500 a pet pup on a co-ownership contract (and very few other good breeders in Brazil, Egypt, Russia and Holland) .. a couple others were good and I mean just that, good Danes, not GREAT Great Danes. The large majority of cheaper online pups are scams and terrible quality. I know two people who purchased American pups on line and were sadly disappointed when it's too late and the dog is already a loved member of the family.
It is perhaps important to understand the basic concept of breeding to produce great pups. Any breeder may have one "good" pup every now and then - if there are "some" genetically great dogs in the pedigree. But, that good pup would not produce good pups if bred as he is carrying "bad" or inferior genes. Thus if the breeding line has weak background points, there is a bigger risk.
Second, the same breeder who has 2 good looking Danes (carrying not-so-good genes), will produce many modest and even poor quality pups - with a few reasonable pups - and the occasional good pup perhaps once in several breedings. So, to get a great pup, you need more than two great parents and you need more than two great lines; you need to get the exceptional dog that inherited only the superior Dane genes, from 2 superior Danes who had the full superior Dane genes packages (the good genes only) - and who again came from two selected perfect Danes.
In other words, you need a pup from continued generation of selected perfect parents with selected perfect chain of direct lines (not just the general breeder line). The grandparents may be great dogs, but if one of their pups wasn't perfect and is bred, that risk will be there. You need a direct and specific line of the lucky pups that collected only the good genes out of two exceptional parents and great parents to create the pup's personal direct line - then breed him/her to a similar case perfect dog.
The result will be a secured perfection. The probabilities of genetic formations are so great and the risk will be there if there are poor dogs in the background. If the negative or imperfect genes are persistently eliminated breeding after breeding by selecting that one pup only out of even several breedings by two great parents, and that process is repeated for each breeding / generation, the probability of imperfection is eliminated or reduced beyond concern and one can get to a point of producing a full or close to a full litter of show perfection. I must admit however that in my 25+ years of Dane experience I have seen many breeders make many simple mistakes. Recently, a breeder with a good male but the legs are stretched too far out; and a good female with legs stretched too far in were bred, thinking he would then get Danes with perfectly shaped legs. Of course he got half the litter with legs stretched too far out and the other half stretched too far in!!!
Carefully planned breeding is how the line can be improved and a breeder can produce better Danes than those produced by the breeder who produced the parents. Improving the breed confirmation and securing it is what breeding is all about and we have proven it in our displayed litter with what is now proven to be very well 100% show quality pups. It is no surprise that so far we had 6 inquiries from breeders who want a pup with full breeding rights. And it is sad that there are so many breeders out there who just breed for numbers.
I also found several cheap $600-$800 pups in the states .. I took the time to see for myself. Price is not always indicative of quality (some $4000+ pups were very poor Danes lines priced to deceive the uneducated buyer). However, if you read the page on breeder's cost per pup (see the library or the puppies page) you'll see it's impossible to raise a healthy litter on such low cost..
As we explained in Anubis page-2, we went through 2 years of search to get him. We dealt with several breeders some of whom asked for less than the apparent $1,500 average price while a few others wanted from US$2,800 to US$4,500 (that's well over CAN$5,500 after shipping & ears cropping) yet many of those over-priced pups were by no means great. Actually I found a few $7,000+ pups (read how the $7000 pup breeder compared her pups to ours.Click HERE!!
The new family members .. Cleopatra's Egyptian parents,
Ali Baba the brindle male
and Warda the fawn dam.
Visit Cleopatra's page ..
Both dogs have traveled with Lord Basha and were bred in several Eastern European and North African countries.
Picture made front cover of
"Green Africa" magazine.
Top African Dane for 3 years.
Cleo, just a 25 weeks
pup, in the front yard
watching traffic.
Danes love the car ride!
Anubis, Nifi and Cleo are certainly no exception!
Visit the photo library for more similar shots.
See the link below.
Anubis; a recent shot.
All our Dogs are AKC-CKC-EAWS registered and they have passed all health checks including: heart, hips, elbow, thyroid, skin, ears, teeth & eyes and are reported very healthy. As well, Anubis' parents & grand parents on both sides, Nifi's parents and grand parents on the sire side, and Cleo's parents and grandparents on both sides are all health checked.
And, our show pups have already made best in show and best in breed and obtained their CH titles in 3 countries.
Imported from Egypt
Finally, on the subject of our new Egyptian Dane, to the right, 3 ancient Egyptian dogs that are the origin of 3 contemporary dogs.
The Pharaoh is the origin of the greyhound which was crossed with the Mastiff to produce the most recent version now known as Great Dane.
Notice the naturally pointed ears in all 3 breeds converted by man with cross-breeding into floppy ears. In fact, in nature, all wild dogs have pointed ears. Only breeds developed by man via cross breeding that have floppy ears. A fact against those in favour of no-cropping, thinking they are sticking to the origin of nature.
Below to the right, an actual Ancient Egyptian drawing that dates back some 5,000 years. The dog on the left looks just like a drawing you would think was drawn recently of a Great Dane.
By-the-way, the Great Dane, no matter what it was called before over the centuries, had normally pointed ears and it is only recently when crossed with the Mastiff that the floppy large ears were produced.
Note the "Dane" head, ears and body structure in this 5000 years old dog Egyptian drawing.
To the left, Nifirtiti .. "Nifi" ..
the most perfect female Dane I have ever seen in 25 years of Dane experience - and with the exception.of Cleo and her Egyptian mom Warda, no other female Dane on any present site comes close.
Nifi is an elite Dane with a long documented history. Nifi has a European bloodline - 8 French champions background; the last of which was imported to Ohio and Alabama (click below to see her European - French Dane roots). Her father is a rare 200 Lbs and 37-38" tall sire with a Dutch line origin; and her mother's line is originally from Denmark, traced back to the famous "late" European Champion Dane "Vitsiki".
Her Dane line was brought to Ohio and the two best off-spring pups were taken to Alabama and California.
As her direct breeder stated, she is the most exceptional pup produced by them in 5 years of breeding with the best genetic characteristics seen in her background top Danes. That's why they were going to keep her for themselves!
She was described as a rare quality that places her in a breeding category by herself!
Nifi is over 34 inches (near 35") at the shoulders - with a long graceful neck & body structure; and is over 163 lb.
Below, Anubis. It's fate that my search for a Dane ended with a line I claim credit for producing its root as I discovered.
That's why it took me years to get my Danes. I had no intention to breed Danes at the time .. just wanted to have a good Dane again. However, I decided why go through years of hassle again!? It's hard to find a good Dane. And after acquiring the exceptional Nifi and seeing how she & Anubis developed beyond normal expectation, I accepted that everyone was right that I should breed my Danes and I realized why the breeder insisted on a clause whereby I must give them an off-spring pup. They knew my Danes will produce even better and a greater number per litter of great pups than what their parents - which they have.
Of course for Anubis to produce a great line it also took his partner - the dam. We we lucky to allocate two exceptional female pups, Nifi and later in an exchange deal with an overseas breeder, Cleo. They both shined with perfect genetic formation collected only from the best Danes in thier background. After all, Cleo was the result of a line featuring tours throughout Europe and Egypt involving the best of the best Danes.
