Confused about declination

The books say that M81 and M82 have declinations of 69 degrees and that M51 has a declination of 47 degrees.

Yet when I look in the night sky these days the Big Dipper is angled such that M51 is actually higher above the horizon than either M81 or M82.

I thought that the greater the delination, the higher a galaxy will be above the horizon? Please clarify.

Thanks........Mike