Aristodane is a new kennel, located in Quebec, Canada.We took our time,learned about the breed, genetic, the show world and how we wanted our kennel to be compare to what we had seen before.

We started our breeding program recently; first we choose our foundation bitch very carefully; I lived with her mother who is now past 8 years old and very healthy.I was very satisfied with her health, temperament and conformation, so when a daughter of her became available, we went for her.

Then again, we are still satisfied with that bitch and with her first litter.  We also have seen lots of Danes coming from the same breeder over the years and spoke to a lot of recent and older owners of these Danes; we are positive that this is what Danes should be.

We can offer some very nice conditions to breed Great Danes, space, exercises, training, time, socialization with kids from both sexes and different ages, interest in knowing more and open minds about almost everything from food to shows to ownership.

Basically, we choose the Danes for their temperament; they are highly sensible dogs with great working skills when trained with sensitivity.They also are very great looking dogs of a nice size with smooth coat that requires very little grooming.They also do not require too much exercise and can makes good pets to people with a relatively small city place.

So, we decided to have our own line in which we would like to see (like every sensible breeder); health, beauty and good temperaments.That’s the goals of almost everyone in this world, but there are different ways to achieve it.

So, with lots of help and information we are ready to have our first litter in January 2001.We are supported by the breeder and by André Desrosiers, some vets and the ton of information we can get from the Web and lots of other sources.

We feel that our association is also promising since Suzanne is the one who is really interested in the shows, she does the handling and she is also a magister cyno-professionel.She knows a lot about education, training, behavior.

On the other hand, I am more interested in care and study.I am the one who study the lines, the health care, pedigrees.

But, as associates, we are looking for the same goals: healthy well-conformed and sound tempered dogs.We won’t jeopardize the health of our Danes just to win more ribbons.We make sure that every stud or bitch is healthy and come from a healthy line.We also are concerned about the trainability of our Danes; they are not bimbos and they can work fine.They have caracter, so the new owner will have to make sure they can handle their dog decently.They are not aggressive, but to have nice working dogs, we need dogs that are strong, that make them want to work.Our bitches have that in them and we’ll keep that.

So, our main goals are to produce healthy, well-conformed and nice working dogs meeting the standard requirements.We’ll give them the best care we can and every person who will show interest in owning one should show us the same approach.This is a two-ways relashionship and we would like to know that our dogs are in good hands.

BUT…

We also decided not to breed bimbos Danes, so we work with them.Our foundation bitch sometimes acts as a therapy dog, a job that requires lot of compassion! And, we’ll probably subscribe to some tracking lessons soon.Just to ensure that our dogs keeps their basic trainability.We don’t put much importance in the work itself, only that the dog works on something, can be agility, obedience, it just keep him from dying of boredom and keeps his instincts in the line.

And, as for the health, we decided to test our dogs for hips, elbows, thyroid , cardiac, all problems that are in the breed.

We also decided that, since most of the dogs in our breeding program will live with different people, we will focus on having them nicely socialized and highly trainable.We don’t want to be the kind of breeder that works only for ribbons, for BIS titles.We are concerned that our dogs will have to find a nice place to live and feel that they are going to be happier without hyperactivity or agressivity.Sure, the new owner has to do his part; make sure the dog is not too bored and gets plenty of exercise.We won’t sell to somebody who doesn’t has a fence either an electronic one or a frost one, it is a very basic requirementto plenty enjoy your dog and will keep us from having nightmares about our pups being killed by a car.

We will also always be there to help the new owner with their dogs, either to handle the dog in dog shows or simply to help get through the housebreaking process.We believe that every responsible breeder should do so.