Our Rearing & Adoption Process
What our process is like from inquiry, video or in person interview, applications, deposit, puppy match making and pickup. What comes with our puppies and what to expect. Puppies are raised with great care and early learning concepts to help shape who they become as resilient, confident, and well-adjusted adult dogs.
Great Dane Puppy Adoption
Contributions have been made by Paige Horne of Royalworth Kennel
1. Look around our Website, if you have interest in a future litter, fill out the “Puppy Waitlist” Form located on this page.
2. Schedule a Video chat by filling out the “Puppy Wait List Form” or sending a text to 203-815-0035 and let us know if their is a specific puppy you are looking for. The video chat gives you an opportunity to see the puppies interact in their environment and get to know them.
3. If you are comfortable with your commitment after the video call, fill out our Puppy Application.
4. The Deposit (Non-refundable) is due once you complete your Puppy Appliction. You may pay your deposit by going to our Shop and checking out through the Paypal style checkout, Zelle (Laura Trumpold: info@followmyleadfl.com), Gooddog.com , or a Cash Drop Off.
5. Please allow at least 3 business days to review your application- we want to ensure we pick the perfect homes for all of our puppies!
6. Once your application has been approved, we will schedule a visit, and or pickup. We will go over an extensive contract clearly outlining what you should expect, our expectations of care, our 5 Year Limited Lifetime Health Warranty, Our Forever Home Pledge, and more.
7. Just before your pup's homecoming, we'll take them for a dedicated physical, obtain a Health Certificate from a USDA accredited Veterinarian and follow through with your preferred pickup arrangements.
8. Once your puppy is settled at home, we can schedule your 3 FREE 30 minute Remote or In Person Training Sessions with the Master Dog Trainer to ensure your puppy is adjusting well.
What Comes with Our Puppies
When a puppy leaves our home, they don’t leave unprepared. Each puppy from Follow My Lead, LLC is sent home with a strong foundation, thoughtful care, and ongoing support to help ensure a smooth transition and long-term success.
✔️Veterinary Care & Health Records
Each puppy goes home with:
Age-appropriate veterinary care
Health records documenting vaccines and deworming
A clear outline of care completed prior to placement
We work closely with veterinary professionals to ensure puppies are healthy, thriving, and developmentally ready for their next step.
✔️AKC Registration
All puppies are AKC registered. Families receive the appropriate documentation to complete registration, ensuring your puppy’s pedigree and lineage are properly recorded. All puppies come with limited registration (without breeding rights) unless authorized in the contract. This is typically a service that is an additional cost. At this time I am only offering co-ownership to those with prior experience with the breed as I want to ensure continued ethical breeding practices.
✔️30 days of free pet insurance & AKC Reunite with Registration
✔️microchip identification
All puppies come with pre-registered microchips with our (Follow My Lead’s contact) information providing permanent identification and added peace of mind. Simply scan the QR Code that comes with your puppies paperwork to add your contact information as well. Microchipping is a standard part of our program and reflects our commitment to responsible breeding and lifelong accountability.
✔️5 year limited lifetime health guarantee
As detailed in our contract, we guarantee our puppies to be clear from any life altering genetic conditions. Any genetic health diagnosis that is severely detrimental to the dogs quality of life is covered by this policy.
✔️Early Socialization & Foundation Work
Our puppies are raised in a trainer-led environment and benefit from:
Daily handling and routine exposure
Early confidence-building experiences
Observation of temperament, engagement, and resilience
This early foundation helps puppies transition more easily into their new homes and training routines.
✔️Temperament Insight & Placement Guidance
Before puppies go home, we spend time observing individual personalities and tendencies. Families receive honest insight into:
Energy levels
Sensitivity and confidence
Social tendencies
This allows us to help guide each puppy into a home that best fits their temperament, lifestyle, and goals.
✔️Training Support & Guidance
3 Hours of In Person Training or Remote Coaching. Because training doesn’t stop when puppies go home, families receive:
Guidance on household routines and structure
Recommendations for early training priorities
Access to continued support through private training or remote coaching, should they choose
Our goal is consistency and clarity — not leaving families to figure it out alone.
✔️puppy go-home gift basket complete with blanket with mother’s scent
✔️Ear Cropping Support (If Applicable)
For families who choose ear cropping:
Procedures are performed by experienced veterinarians
Guidance is provided for aftercare and posting
Ongoing support is available to help ensure proper healing and results
Ear cropping is optional, and puppies with natural ears receive the same care and placement consideration.
✔️Lifetime Breeder Support
We believe responsible breeding includes lifelong accountability. Families are always welcome to reach out with questions related to:
Training
Behavior
Development
Transitions through different life stages
We value long-term relationships with our puppy families and remain a resource well beyond pickup day.
✔️Prepared for Life, Not Just Pickup Day
Our puppies leave our care with more than paperwork — they leave with a foundation built on structure, thoughtful handling, and intentional development. This approach reflects our belief that early experiences matter and that responsible breeding extends far beyond the day a puppy goes home.
Additional Resources
The Great Dane Breed Standard
For a deeper understanding of what makes a good Great Dane, please see the Great Dane Club of America, Great Dane Breed Standard in print
Keeping Your Great Dane Healthy
Great Dane Club of America
The Great Dane Lady
Preferred Rescues
Florida Great Dane Rescue
Hernando County Animal Services
A Breeding Program Built on Structure, Temperament & Health
Our breeding program is intentionally small, family-run, and rooted in quality over quantity. Each pairing is thoughtfully planned using proven bloodlines, health testing, and temperament considerations. Structure and soundness matter — both physically and mentally. We prioritize stable nerves, balanced energy, and clear-headed temperaments, producing Great Danes that are not only beautiful representations of the breed, but also reliable companions suited for real life. Puppies temperaments are assessed at 7 weeks old and matched to their forever home based on the objective of the adopter- Service work, Therapy Work, Show Home/Breeder, or wonderful loving family dog.
Our puppies are raised in a professional training environment, not a kennel setting. From birth, they are exposed to structured routines, gentle handling, problem solving enrichment exercises for emotional regulation and real-world household experiences that support confidence, resilience, and adaptability. As a certified professional dog trainer and AKC evaluator, we observe each puppy closely during early development to better understand temperament, drive, and social tendencies. This trainer-raised foundation allows our puppies to transition more smoothly into their new homes and sets them up for long-term success.
Why Training-Focused Breeding Matters
Training doesn’t start when a puppy goes home — it starts from day one. Puppies raised in an environment that understands canine behavior, learning theory, and emotional development gain an early advantage. By integrating training principles into our breeding program, we are able to support impulse control, confidence building, and stress resilience long before formal obedience begins. This approach helps prevent common behavioral challenges and creates a stronger foundation for lifelong learning.
Early Socialization & Temperament Evaluation
Our puppies are gently exposed to age-appropriate stimuli, surfaces, sounds, and human interaction during critical developmental windows. We carefully monitor responses to novelty, handling, and environmental changes, allowing us to begin early temperament evaluation. This process helps us guide families toward the puppy that best fits their lifestyle — whether that’s a laid-back companion, an active family dog, or a future performance or service prospect.
Puppy Rearing
When a puppy is born, we have 12 weeks to get them ready for you. We devote our time, energy, knowledge and our hearts to ensure they are the best they can be before they go home to their forever humans.
By the time they go home we ensure they believe in their own abilities.
That they know the world is safe.
That they know dogs are friendly.
That they know people are kind.
And most of all, that their voice is heard in their placement so that they are understood, honored, respected, and empowered to be the best they can be.
It does make a difference how puppies are raised.
Empowering puppies to believe in themselves is a gift that we cannot take for granted.
The impact of instilling confidence in puppies extends beyond their early years, laying the groundwork for a lifetime of resilience, adaptability, and success.
Our puppies are raised in our family home and training headquarters in sunny Brooksville, FL; ensuring the early socialization exposure that is critical to creating a confident adult dog. We expose them to children, cats, adult men and women, several other adult dogs on our property, along with small animals such as our farmstead chickens, turkeys, and rabbits, and pigs. We live in a beautifully wooded rural area, so we also make it a point to take several short “field trips” to visit with the sights, sounds, and smells of a more urban setting with cars, traffic, and people creating several impactful positive experiences around new things.
From research done by the U.S. Military Canine Program, we know that the period of time between day 3 through 16 is the most crucial window of time for the rapid neurological growth and development in puppies, and therefore is of great importance to the individual.
Documented Benefits of Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS):
Improved cardio vascular performance
Stronger heart beats
Stronger adrenal glands
More tolerance to stress
Greater resistance to disease
Check out our blog article about our Puppy Raising Training Protocols
EARLY NEUROLOGICAL STIMULATION
PUPPY CULTURE A scientific system created by experts in the field with a very specific timeline to introduce different exercises to enhance cardiac function, the immune system, the adrenaline system, the prevention of behavioral problems, and much more. This system is considered to be the gold standard in puppy raising.
At 7 weeks old, we use The Volhard “Puppy Aptitude Test or “PAT”. The Volhard Test was created by Joachim and Wendy Volhard as a way to test behavioral tendencies and predict what a puppy will be like as an adult also commonly called a “Puppy Temperament Test” or “Puppy Personality Test”. This helps guide us to a more perfect match between the puppy and their new family.
Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test (PAT) At 49 Days, a PAT will be administered by a professional dog trainer to access each puppy’s temperament which will allow us to match them more perfectly with their new owners.