A little about us

  

Kennel Slettemosegård consist of Søren & Marianne Valente and our 4 wonderful Deutsche Dogge (Great Danes), Bea, Aya, Elite og Galla.  

Bea    Aya    Elite    Galla

After a break for 20 years we took up again in 1997 our interest in the marvellous breed named Deutsche Dogge (see button “FCI Standard” on our web page), in English Great Dane. This year we bought an abolished farm (Slettemosegård) and we then had the opportunity to start our dream to breed Great Danes. Our primary goal is to breed good and healthy family dogs of the strong and robust type with a super temperament. We exclusively breed in the colours black and harlequin.

In 2005 we sold the farm and bought a little country house at the inlet of Præstø where our 5 dogs (at that time) have gotten their own fenced area of 8.500 m².

In 1997 we bought our wonderful male Absalon and in the Spring 1998 we got our lovely Ariel (see Memories).
We bought our breeding name in 2000 and here we got our sweet Luna (see Memories)
In 2001 we got our first litter of 6 puppies where the parents were Absalon and Ariel were the parents (German and Polish lines). This litter was with many colour varieties. This became the starting point for our study in Colour genetics for Black/Mantel/Harlequin breeding.

In 2002 came our B-litter where the parents were Ilja vom Thuner Schloss and Ariel (German and Polish lines). Here we kept our sweet and loving Bea. This litter was on total 14 puppies but since our Luna at the same time had given birth to a stillborn (C-litter) and since she loved to take care of Ariel’s puppies, we chose to keep them all. This we have never ever regretted. It was a huge work but it became 14 good and healthy puppies and we had a experience for life.

In 2003 came our D-litter in to the world. The parents were Elwood vom Dünner Land and Ariel (German and Polish lines).

In 2005 we imported a French female, Aya. We had for quite a while studied the French lines and dreamt about taking this marvellous type to Denmark. It is type with a strong muscular body with a beautiful chiselled head and a fantastic personal magnetism. Our Aya has in addition a super temperament and a delightfully mind. The French type is though softer at mind than the Danish/German type and is later fully mentally developed.
In this year Bea had her first litter (E-litter, 6 puppies), where the father was a beautiful Hungarian male, Nilusparti Aroma. And I 2007 came Bea’s second litter (F-kuld, 8 puppies), where the father is a wonderful German male, Mitch von der Ofnethöhle.  

In July 2009 we imported a new French female, Elite. Since we have had Aya we have dreamt about taking another female of this marvellous type to Denmark. And with Elite we hope to gain just such a wonderful girl as we have gained with our Aya.

We have since our beginning with Great Dane breed (2001-2007) been one of the few breeders in Denmark which entirely only have bred with the good old originally German lines and Polish and Hungarian lines. This gives dogs with a lovely robust substance, lovely marked, fine chiselled and expressive heads and a super temperament. This is not the general type one sees in the Danish genetic mass but this is the type our hearts belong to. But after having our French Aya our hearts are fallen totally to this wonderful big girl with her delightfully mind and soul. So our future breed will all be after French lines.

In the pedigrees of our dogs you can see a lot of beautiful photos of the dogs behind our dogs. Just click on the “active” names.

We find when breeding it is very important not to “hang” around in the same lines too long but instead bring new blood lines into the breed so the genetic variation can be enlarged and improved.
Besides we never use the same male to the same bitch more than one time. This we stick to so we can increase the gene variance in our gene pool.

Our goal is to breed lovely healthy, robust and happy family dogs. A second goal is to get control of the Colour Genetic. We believe that it is possible (theoretically) to entirely only breed towards a given colour coat, when we know the parent animals colour codes. With this tool one can breed one’s desired colour coats and without having the albinos and the extreme white harlequins. These dogs are often deaf/ hard of hearing and visually impaired. Further more, because of their white coat, the often have skin problems (eczema, can’t bear the sunlight (sunburnt)).

We are strong opponents of colour mixture by this we mean fawn with harlequin, fawn with black etc. In the FCI standard 235 (which Denmark is placed under) it’s actually written that the breed Great Dane is bred in 3 separate colour varieties but in spite of the fact the Danish Kennel Klub (DKK) allows that we in Denmark can colour mix across all 5 colours that the breed consist of. The breed is also shown at dog shows in the 3 separate colour varieties, so how come we in Denmark when breeding do not respect this is a mystery for us.
We only use black with harlequin never harlequin with harlequin, since we know that this outcast theoretically can give 25% albinos. This can be avoided by only using a black with a harlequin.


All our dogs are family dogs which live in our home all day. We have in our disposal a large outdoor fenced fold of 7500 m² where our dogs can exercise and use their energy. Our dog/puppy room has free access to a smaller area of 1000 m². 

We breed 1 litter per year since it’s only a hobby for us and since we very much devote our minds to a good marking (socialization) of our puppies. The puppies stay with us until they are 8 weeks old. The first 3-4 weeks of their life they live in our living room with the mother. At the age 3-4 weeks they move to the puppy room where the mother has her own section so she freely can come and leave the puppies as she likes. The puppies have here a sleeping box, toilet area, playing tools and music. From thepuppy room our puppies can go during the day into a special baby fencing on grass, where they have plenty of toys, activities and other facilities. From the age of 5 weeks we daily take two puppies in to spend some time in our home for training in a good home behaviour and to tolerance the different sounds of a home. Daily they will get a little “trip” to the larger fenced area (1000 m²). Daily they meet our adult dogs and weekly we have a puppy visitor day. Besides this we see to that they meet as many different people (adult and children) as possible. When you buy one of our puppies, we have made “The puppy’s book” where we in the first 8 weeks have noted relevant information for the new owners. Furthermore there will be good practical information regarding feeding and daily doings, veterinarian visits and useful tricks. We also make a DVD with video recordings from the first 8 weeks and also a photo CD with all the photos we have taken of the litter (see more on the Puppy page).  

We hold a puppy reunion when the puppies are 6 months old and one about 1 year old at our place. After this we will currently follow our puppies/dogs development and health during rest of their life. We keep good contact with the owners of our puppies which we find very naturally and very important.    

Marianne has taken the Breeder Course arranged by DKK (Danish Kennel Club)
 

A little about our dogs

Today we have 2 Black females and 2 Harlequin females.

Bea is born March 25. 2002 and has German and a little Polish behind her. She is our own breed from litter B. She is a lovely high bitch with a very beautiful fine chiselled head. She has a lovable mind and is extreme fond of children. She is absolutely Mom’s lass but impossible to take good photos of. She wants to be fondled all the time. She likes her sofa but lays actually rather on the madras on the floor, she loves her pen where she enjoys herself by rolling in the grass, she loves to bask in the shadow, loves going into the water but not if the waves are to big,, loves her daily apple, eating half rotten slain grass, picking/nipping strawberries, plumbs, apples and tomatoes, she loves her car, a good ox bone and of course run after us in every of our doings. Bea has retired regarding breed.

Aya is born April 18. 2005 and is our new wonderful import from France. We have chosen her especially from the kennel Les Terres de la Rairie after closely having studied her lines. She is a very lovely and strong female with a very beautiful fine chiselled head and a marvellous muscular strong body with and a fantastic personal magnetism. She moves very elegantly. She has a lovable mind and is quite intelligent. She is absolutely Mom’s lass. She likes her sofa but she lay actually rather in her armchair which she actually has outgrown but it’s hers. She loves her pen where she digs a lot or throne over her land as a queen. She loves going into the water but not if the waves are to big,, loves her daily apple, her little sip of Friday’s beer, she loves her car, a good ox bone. She also loves to on a show, or show training and model jobs  and of course run after us in every of our doings. Aya has retired regarding breed.  

Elite is born April 13. 2009 and is our newest wonderful import from France. We have chosen her especially from the Domaine de l'Ostrevent after closely having studied her lines.  She is a very nice strong female with a fabulous chiseled head and a nice well built muscular body with a great charisma. She moves very gracefully. She has the best mind you can imagine. So gentle and loving. Very good with other dogs and puppies. She is a very happy girl with a sensible mind. She quickly got a taste for being on the couch. She loves her pen where she digs and sits on the top garding her erea. Loves to drive and her Friday beer. And then she obviously also likes to run after us in every of our doings.

Galla is born September 7. 2009 and is our lovely girl after Aya and Eros. She is a very nice strong female with a fabulous chiseled head and a nice well built muscular body with a great charisma. She has a lovely happy mind, a bit reseveret to strangers and quite predictive but also something of a tomboy. Absolute mother's girl. She likes to lie on the couch. She loves her pen where she digs or lie and enthroned as a queen in addition to her area. She is not very fond of water but has been taught to drink from the tap in the great pen. But her feet must not get wet. She loves apples and to sip her beer on Fridays. She's really good to squeal if one of the others are doing something they are not allowed to do. Is not quite happy to drive in the car, but accompanied by one of the others it's OK and also she obviously also likes to run after us in every of our doings.

We are members of the Danish Kennel Club (DKK) and Deutscher Doggen Club (DDC) i Germany 

Please contact us if we can be to any assistance regarding the Great Dane.

Søren & Marianne Valente

+45 46403205     mail@sletmose.dk