I give the same advice to all @puppy buying.Noone much ever follows it, <VBG>but the few that do all tell me it worked for them. The problem is it IS work & required delaying gratification done my way. This is my advice:
PET PUP: IF you want a pet Dane (that is a dog sold exclusively as a companion & sold on a spay/neuter contract & Limited Registration), buy from someone preferably within driving distance. To find breeders, turn your computer off<G>. Then go to visit 1 breeder a month for AT LEAST SIX MONTHS. Never take your checkbook, never promise to buy & never get in a hurry. There are always more pups, but there is never time to go backwards. Get referrals: compare & contrast. Go slow. Take a year if you need to to FIND a breeder and get on the waiting list for a decent litter (this time frame NOT to get a pup) & expect it to take at least the 6 mo. you've promised yourself you'll commit to looking & learning. Buy in haste & you'll have time to repent at leisure. Learn the territory & you'll know where to look for what you want.
To me nothing is more important than a pet. A pet dog lives in your house, your heart & your home & is worth the trouble. Further I KNOW that cutting corners too often ends in dissapoitment & even disaster, so I know there isn't always an easier & likely isn't a safer way. Most have to find this out the hard way. Too bad.
SHOW/BREED PUP: IF you want a show Dane the first thing you do is buy a pet & live with it for at least 2 years while you join the local dog clubs & attend dog shows on a regular basis (that means at least 1 show every 2-3 months). For at least two years, you need to participate in club activities, help out, learn who is who, what is what & what you like & don't like--both about all these people & the breed. (You may think you know this now, but nobody knows anything really about the breed for at least a couple of years as your experience is simply too limited. You've simply seen too few dogs, too few breeders, too few contracts, breedings, shows, etc. to know anything really important yet about the breed, conformation, breeding etc. Accept that's just part of being new-not a comment on who you are.)
IF & when your pet dane is grown & trained (here is a place to do CGC, even CD, TD, NA, and other performance titles!), then you can decide if spending every other weekend & at least two nites a week training & showing dogs is really your interest in life & where you want to spend your disposable income. Before you know this, IMO, you shouldn't be "experimenting" on dogs. Serious breeders want buyers with a track record if they have serious show prospects, not hopeful newcomers. And no litter IMO deserves to be bred by someone who is learning the ropes with their first dog. Puppies deserve better surely?
The only possible exception I can see to this would be IF you can find a co-own show (potential?) bitch/dog (more likely dog) that you show to finish for the breeder understanding he is a "finishable pet" who will NOT likely be used at stud or the foundation of your breeding program, but just give you a chance to show a decent, if not first class, animal, so you can gain experience & develop a relationship with the dog's breeder as your mentor. That *sometimes* works. But too often the two involved who were strangers become enemies, so I don't generally recommend it. It's best to first learn about danes & the daneworld BEFORE you haul off & buy a breed-potential dog.
Learn about varying breeders. Visit them, ask them for events & other breeders to visit & don't plan to actually purchase a pup this year. Compare & contrast. Learn the breed before you start to breed. Start with a pet pup even if you think you want to show/breed. That's my advice. (Lots of others with other advice. ) Mine's not easy to follow, but it's nearly guaranteed to work. cheers, jpY
PS__I'd love it if others, breeders & buyers alike, would give their own advice, as I'd think that would be quite educational-- as long as <VBG>it doesn't turn into another p*ssing contest between "you say toMAto & I say toMaaTo" <VBG> camps. Let's agree there are more than one description of an elephant amoung all us blind men from the start<G>so we can share the bit of the world we *do* know about with each other. Please?

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