What breed is Scooby-Doo?
Scooby-Doo is a Great Dane, a breed from Germany, though his designer drew him as the opposite of a good one. Iwao Takamoto, who designed him for Hanna-Barbera, told CBS News that a Great Dane breeder at the studio showed him the breed’s important points, and that he “decided to go the opposite”.
Would you know a real Great Dane?
Three big fawn dogs. Which one is the Great Dane?
Where do Great Danes come from?
How tall is a male Great Dane at the shoulder, by the breed standard?
Which of these is a Great Dane colour in the breed standard?
What did the designer change?
| What the breeder showed him | What he gave Scooby | The breed standard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back | A straight back | A hump back | Short and firm, in an almost straight line |
| Legs | Straight legs | Bowed legs | Front legs straight and parallel, seen from the front |
| Chin | A small chin | A big chin | An especially expressive head |
| Colour | Wrong too, he said | Fawn, brindle, harlequin, merle, black or blue |
The first two columns are Takamoto’s account in the CBS News obituary (9 January 2007). The last is the Great Dane breed standard (No. 235, 21 August 2024). Scooby-Doo first appeared in 1969 (Wikipedia).
Where do Great Danes come from?
Germany. The breed’s standard traces it to the old Bullenbeisser, a bulldog type, and to boar-hunting hounds that sat between the heavy English mastiff and the fast greyhound. “Dogge” first meant any large, powerful dog. In 1878 a committee of breeders and judges in Berlin grouped the different types, from the Ulmer Dogge to the Great Dane, as one German breed, the Deutsche Dogge, and its first standard followed at a Berlin show in 1880.
Today the standard describes a companion, watch and guard dog: friendly and devoted to its owners, almost square in build, and big. Males stand at least 80 cm at the shoulder.
