Great Danes come in a huge variety of coat colors and patterns. The most commonly seen Great Danes are the fawn and the black and white Great Danes.
The blue Great Dane has a magnificent coat and is rarer than some of this breed’s other colors and patterns.
What Does a Blue Great Dane Look Like?
The highest quality blue Great Danes will have a steel blue shade of coat. Some may have white markings on their chest or feet, but this is less desirable. Other shades of the blue Great Dane are deep blue, chocolate blue, and slate blue.
They may also be shades of slate, pale gray, and charcoal, where the gray color is considered a blue Great Dane.
Depending on his parents and breeding lineage, a blue Dane can have striking blue eyes at birth that remain this color or light, dark or amber-colored eyes.
To be a true blue Great Dane, a puppy will have a black nose, black lips, gums, black eye rims on the top and bottom of his eyes, and black toenails.
He will also have black paw pads, lower legs, ears, a black-tipped tail, and black hair between all four paw pads.
They also display black hair on their tails and black-tipped hair on their backs with black hair also appearing on the ears, back of the legs, and muzzle.
What are the Great Dane Color Families?
Great Dane breeders have 3 color families in which each of the colors of a dog fits. It’s best to keep breeding between two dogs in the same color family to get dogs that are standard colors.
The first color family includes fawns and brindles. Fawn and brindles, when bred together, will have fawn and brindle puppies in the litter. Solid black Great Danes are also bred to fawns and brindles as well.
The second color family consists of blues and blacks. The blues are usually bred to another blue for the gorgeous blue coat, but blacks can also be bred to blues.
The third color family includes harlequins, mantles, merles, and black and white dogs. Harlequins have a complicated genetic code with very specific color genes.
When you breed two harlequins together, you can produce harlequins, black and white mantles, merles, or even white puppies.
Interesting Genetics of Blue Great Danes
The blue coloration of a Great Dane is controlled by the parents having a black gene and a recessive gene. This will dilute all of the black to a steely gray color.
Just because you see two parents of a litter that is blue doesn’t mean that all the puppies in the litter will be blue as well.
It depends highly on the previous generations of the parent dogs and if they carried the correct black and diluted genes. Some blue Great Danes are such a dark shade that they appear black.
It’s possible to breed a true blue Great Dane with the recessive black gene to a black Great Dane with the recessive black gene in his lineage even though he appears to be black, and this match will also produce blue puppies as well.
Do Puppies Get More Genes from The Mom or the Dad?
Puppies get more gene expression from the mother dog than the father dog. The male dog transfers some of his genetic matter to the female when he fertilizes the eggs.
Male dogs have XY chromosomes, and female dogs have XX chromosomes, so the offspring will have more X chromosomes. Each puppy will be either an XX as a female puppy or an XY as a male puppy.
Each dog, male or female, has the same number of chromosomes as humans. Their specific makeup determines their breed, and Great Dane dog breeders should have the DNA analyzed before mating two dogs together for a litter of puppies.
If dogs are inbred, they can have many health issues, and a professional breeder should supply you with the genetics and health screening papers when you adopt a puppy from them.
Other Great Danes with Blue Coloring
Finding a true blue Great Dane in a solid slate color can be hard. However, many other variations of Great Danes have the same blue in their markings.
If you are seeking a dog for a family pet and not a show dog, you may want to choose a non-AKC-colored blue Great Dane.
All dogs that carry the K locus of K for dominant black and the D locus of d for dilute will have some blue markings on them even if they are not solid blue dogs.
A mantle pattern on a Great Dane includes a black blanket over the dog’s back with a white chest and white on the face.
The blue mantle has the same pattern as a standard black and white mantle but is blue, whereas the standard color is black. The white markings will be the same.
A brindle Great Dane has a striped pattern of tan and black all over the body with no white markings.
A brindle Great Dane and a blue Great Dane will produce a blue brindle puppy. The pup will have the addition of blue stripes on his coat color.
A blue brindle mantle Great Dane has the same brown and black stripes with blue stripes as well, as four white paws, a white chest, white on the head, and on the tip of his tail.
When a brindle mantle Great Dane is bred to a blue Great Dane, it produces blue brindle mantles in the litter of puppies.
This dog will look the same as the brindle color, adding blue stripes on the brindling and possibly blue ears and markings on the face. It will also include the white markings of the mantle.
As you can see, there are many variations of Great Danes, including the blue color of their coats.
The blue fawn Great Dane is a tan color over his entire body, with blue ears and a blue mask on his muzzle.
A blue fawn mantle will have the same white markings as a mantle and most likely a fawn-colored body with blue ears and markings on its face.
There are other variations, such as the blue dilute merle, the blue brindle merle, the blue brindle merle mantle, the blue fawn merle, the blue harlequin, the blue harlequin mantle, and several others in combinations of the different coat patterns with blue included.
So, you can now see that it may be harder to find a solid blue Great Dane, but with all the variations in the color genetic codes, you can find a Dane with some beautiful blues in his coat.
Some breeders mix the color patterns outside of the color families to get specific colors and characteristics of puppies.
While looking for a new family member with a beautiful blue coat, you might also look for some of the variations explained here to find a new four-legged family member that you will love.