Great Weimar

The Great Weimar is a designer dog, a deliberate cross between two different types of hunting dogs with a German background. The Weimaraner is a versatile and highly intelligent pointer, and the Great Dane, a giant canine originally developed to hunt the vicious wild Boar of Europe.  The Great Dane dog, as we know the breed, is a molosser type canine that has been selectively bred for tenacity, strength, and intelligence for at least 400 years. They are widely believed to be the descendants of crosses between English Mastiffs and Irish Wolfhounds and were developed specifically for the purpose of hunting wild European boar, an extremely savage and dangerous prey. They became particularly popular in Germany in the early 1500s and by 1876 the Great Dane had been declared the National Dog of Germany where it is known as the Deutsche Dogge. This breed became popular in the United States in the late 1800’s and was recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1887. The Weimaraner is a somewhat newer breed than the Great Dane, developed in the 1800s by the noblemen of Weimar, a German city that dates back to 899 BC. The breeding program that produced this unusually colored breed was developed with an eye towards exceptional tracking skill along with speed, courage, and durability. Originally developed for hunting deer and bear, they were converted to fur and feathers dogs in the late 1800s when the popularity of big game hunting began to wane and they became prized as a waterfowl retriever due to their soft mouths. The Weimaraner Club that began in Germany was particularly strict about what could and could not be considered a Weimaraner and did not allow for anyone outside of the Club to own a Weimaraner breed dog. It wasn’t until the avid American sportsman and breeder of dogs, Howard Knight, was accepted into the Weimaraner Club that the breed was allowed to the United States for the first time. Although the first dogs that Mr. Knight imported were sterilized animals, he was eventually able to acquire breeding stock, and just before the start of World War II and by 1941 he established the American Weimaraner Club and served as the President until his death in 1965.