Where can I find a female Great Dane or Bull Mastiff with little or no adoption fee?
Ohio or surrounding area - We have adopted 2 dogs already, one from the pound and another we took in for a friend. Both are smaller breeds and we have a large home on a 2-lot property. We'd love to give a loving home to a female Dane or Mastiff. Prefer they be fixed if there is an adoption fee, but will cover the expense ourselves if there is no fee. Thanks!
Great Dane Rescue: http://www.hogdc.org/hogdc2/HOGDC.htm Contact someone from this Ohio Great Dane club – I bet they can put you in touch with a rescue person or two.
Mastiff Rescue: http://mastiff.org/rescue/rescue_index.htm
Bullmastiff (one word) Rescue: http://www.bullmastiff.us/rescue/index.html
General Rescue: http://www.petfinder.com
All these groups will charge adoption fees. Usually this covers spay/neuter, vet checks, vaccinations, fostering, temperament checks, etc.
If ya cant afford to buy it you cant afford to own it!
Honestly, you won’t find a great dane or mastiff, that is purebred from a respectable breeder for very cheap. We got out great dane west of Cincinnati (live in Vandalia) and normally at 8 weeks the breeder charged $1200 which is actually still pretty cheap for a purebred dane. Since ours was the last boy left and was 11 weeks old when we got him we got him for $700.
I would just suggest craigslist, in fact, I saw an 8 month old great dane on there just this morning. Search under the dayton/springfield location.
Also, I’d just like to add, that please be sure you know how to care for a giant breed before you decide to get one
Trust me they eat TONS. at 7 months old he eats 8 cups a day, and 9 months old he will move up to about 9.5-10 cups a day, and you can’t just feed them anything. They need a specific amount of protein (we like 24-26%) so that way they grow, but they don’t grow to fast and take the chance of serious injury. Also, you will need to get his stomach tacked so it does not have a chance to flip. Ours had staples for ten days and healed up very nicely. I’m not trying to insuate you won’t take care of the dog I just thought I’d throw out a few pointers 
This isn’t our first dane either.
And if you do get a dane, a great website to c heck out is http://www.greatdanelady.com
good luck!
try http://www.petfinder.com
you wont likely find a dog for free, but you should be able to find a vetted dog for a fair adoption fee there.
Contrary to what another answerer recommended, I advise against the surgery in which the stomach is tacked in place. (It’s called gastropexy, by the way.) If you adopt an intact female, you may go ahead and do it, but otherwise, it’s very invasive. If you adopt an altered (spayed or neutered) dog, I REALLY do not recommend this procedure because giants tend to have a lot of trouble under anesthesia. Since you could do it while the dog’s knocked out for the neuter/spay, they’d already be under the anesthesia, but if the dog doesn’t need that surgery, there’s no sense in putting the dog through another risky procedure. It’s also not very necessary for males; females need to be opened up for the spay anyway, but males do not, so to do the gastropexy on the male would make it a lot more invasive. Anyway, there are no guarantees to doing the gastropexy, either. It’s a relatively new procedure and opinions *are* divided. The dog *can* still bloat, and there *can* still be torsion. (That’s when the stomach flips over. Although the stomach would be tacked, the spleen can still flip!)
As mentioned, using anesthesia on a giant breed is always risky. If you adopt a giant that is older than four and is still intact, I recommend you leave the dog intact. The older the dog, the harder surgery is, so just don’t bother unless there are real reasons to do so. If you adopt a young dog who is still intact, I recommend leaving the dog intact until about 18 months to 2 years of age in order to allow the body to develop properly.
If you dislike the idea of a fee, I hope you’re able to cover the huge costs of caring for the dog. As someone else said, they eat a lot, and they literally require high quality diets! Giants are also prone to serious health problems, and the bigger the dog, the bigger the vet bills may be.
Have you checked Petfinder? I’m sure you can find what you’re looking for! There *will* be an adoption fee for any dog you find there, though, and this is for a very good reason. After all, it costs money to care for the dogs in rescues and shelters and foster families! Reliable sources only adopt out dogs who are vaccinated and altered, and these procedures can be costly.
Good luck!