About Us

A little bit about us...

Our love for Great Danes

It was always going to be a small but extremely select kennel of Great Danes. We want to enjoy the Danes we have and for them to enjoy our lifestyle, it is paramount that the Danes are part of our family, part of our home and share almost everything we undertake. With no more than six Danes at any one time we have been fortunate in many respects to maintain our line for almost twenty-five years and to be able to continue generation after generation with tremendous success along the way.

A tough start..

However back in the late 1970s the showing and breeding side of Danes did not get off to the best of starts! Our first Dane, a Fawn named Whisper, came to us and unfortunately we never received her papers, something we later found her breeder to be notorious for! Regrettably the next arrival, a Blue named Basil, did have his papers but was far from being the successful show prospect we had paid good money for. Both Whisper and Basil remained with us for life.

Success just around the corner..

In 1983 we bought in from the late Joy Butcher’s Daneton kennel a fawn puppy bitch, Louisiana. We enjoyed more success with her and despite her maturing late she really did blossom into a wonderful specimen. Equally she was, despite many failed attempts, to later provide us with our first home bred Champion. We were really excited about the quality of the Danes at the Walkmyll kennel and with several failed attempts to produce puppies we purchased Flare from Ron and Freda Lewis.

So by 1988 we finally tasted the success that we had so wanted to achieve. Flare was blossoming nicely and late ’89 the progeny from Louisiana’s final mating was hitting the ring, mainly in the form of our Fawn male, Rainbow Warrior. In 1990 Flare gained her title, the only ever Walkmyll bitch to gain her title outside of the kennel and the following year Rainbow Warrior won his and prospects for our future were looking great.

From here on in the website really does cover it all. There has been, and always will be, unexplainable heartache but we are both firm believers in fate and the situations have arisen and totally knocked us sideways has made us stronger and more determined. What ever will be will be and you must learn from that and move on which is exactly as we have done whenever we have been dealt a blow.

We are both Championship Show judges and enjoyed the privilege of judging both Specialities and International shows throughout the World including Finland (twice), Denmark (twice), Sweden, Latvia, Australia, South Africa and closer to home, Ireland. Our success is reflected in the fact that Selmalda is currently 4th in the all time Top 20 Breeders and 4th in the Top 20 owners, a record we are justifiably proud of!. In 2012 we were delighted to be nominated by one of the breed clubs for an ‘Accolade Of Excellence’ award. The Royal Kennel Club’s recognition for the ‘Assured Breeder Scheme’ members who adhere to and ‘follow responsible practices’ having achieved various milestone accolades. We are honoured by our peers in the breed and The Royal Kennel Club. We had the Top Winning Great Dane in the UK (’21, ’22 and ’23) and Top Brood Bitch (’21, All Breeds ’22) and are Top Breeders (’21, ’22 and ’23) culminating in achieving Top Breeder in the WORKING Group for both ’22 and ’23! In March ’23 we recorded our 150th Challenge Certificate with Danes bred by Selmalda when Ch. Selmalda Jealous Guy won Best of Breed at Crufts and that total now stands at 175 from 25 different Danes.

Please explore and enjoy our site, which we shall update regularly and keep you up to speed with everything as it happens.

Lesley and Adam Chappell.

Lesley & Adam with Rocco

Lottie & Ralph at 6 Months

Adam with Ryder & ZiZi

Lesley and Chase