You make every effort however useless and fruitless to educate and lead people in the right direction worthwhile.
Let us know if and when you have any questions.
We will all be delighted to help if we can. Many nice pets are available through Great Dane rescues, and this may be a viable alternative for you. You could likely get a young dog that could be exrayed for hip and elbow issues, and whose size, temperament etc is pretty much what you see is what you get.
You have options, and I bet you really enjoy exploring them, altho some of the decisions may be nerve wracking and heart ( maybe even wallet ) wrenching.
Welcome to the most wonderful exhilarating heady way to fall in love I know of. There is absolutely NOTHING like a puppy search. Make it last, you will find the dog or the breeder that is the perfect fit, I guarantee you.
And I will just leave you with a poem that is one of my all time favorites, and celebrates both that first blush of new love with a new puppy, and the bittersweet ending to a long lived companion's life.
Enjoy...
THE POWER OF THE DOG
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
But when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.
When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find--it's your own affair
But . . . you've given your heart to a dog to tear.
When the body that lived at your single will
When the whimper of welcome is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone wherever it goes--for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear!
We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent. T
hough it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em,
the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long
So why in Heaven (before we are there!)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?
---Rudyard Kipling