I grew up with dobermans from when i was born up untill i was 13, i dont know too much about them except i used to try to ride them and they did like me.

I have had a couple of Dobermans, and love them. Dobermans are very alert, fearless (except the occasional thunder storm might drive them into a closet) and intelligent. They are a high energy dog and will require a LOT of attention and exercise, they are known as velcro dogs because they love to stick to the side of their owner. Among other pets in the house they absolutely love being the boss and the center of attention and contrary to popular belief they are very friendly who want nothing more than to please their owners. They are not the type of dog you can stick out in your yard and forget about and never give any attention to, they will require a strong leader to give them direction otherwise the doberman will assume the leadership role itself and this is where problems can occur because if it thinks it's the leader then why should it take direction from you. They tend to bond with one person in the family, that person would most likely be the leader of the family, but its possible that it isn't. They are really just a 70lb lap dog and they will jump in your lap if you let them.

THAT is not a confident dog there. Likely ruined by the owner... Poor dog does not get to do what he was BORN and BRED to do because the owners are idiots...

A properly raised and trained Doberman is not going to back up like that dog did...

thanks for all the replys guys and the pictures. we have some one 4 hours away with puppies. It would be less worrie having one at home with the family while i am at work.

stuck

Not going to go into detail. I've had other breeds and loved them but had to come back to the Doberman.

Hard to beat a well bred Dobe.

IM me if you want breeder info.

Have to agree with this. Never make an impulse buy on a pup from the first local breeder you find.

Do your research and have patience. I waited 6 months for my current female and she was from another state.

A long crop (show crop) like in Doberdudes pictures does require a little more work on the part of the owner but it is not that bad. A medium crop like what you see in my picture is less work to get them to stand properly. Neither of my girls needed more than 10 tapings/postings before their ears were standing on their own. (ears tend to stand faster when you have more than one dog around as they (the dogs) tend to keep each other 'excited' and this helps the ears to perk up)

Ears are not as hard to post/tape as many will have you believe. Most all Vets that I know of that do ears will be there to help every step of the way and give instructions/help as to how exactly you need to be doing things. I had no trouble training my current girls to come put their head on my knee back when we were still taping ears. They quickly figured out they got a reward for 'helping me out' and behaving. The important thing is to find a good Vet (that does ears and has experience with that) that will help you through the process and answer any questions... Not all Vets do ears or know squat about that sort of thing... This crap blows my mind. When a Vet says that they will NOT crop ears because they think it is 'wrong' to do - but that same Vet will not hesitate to offer to chop out your dogs ovaries or cut their balls off...



Lucky for me - My girls clean each others ears now. LOL!

The Dobermann and the German shepherd Dog both have a shared issue- for all practical purposes there are three different breeds of Dobermanns and three different breeds of German Shepherd Dogs.

Both Breeds originated in Germany. The Germans are a fairly organized. They try to maintain some semblance of conformity to a breed standard, not just how a dog looks, but also its temperament or how it acts. With dogs like the GSD and Dobermann they have tests that dogs must pass before breeding. What this means to a puppy buyer is that you can reasonably expect what a German Dobermann’s looks and behavior will be.

In the USA no testing is required by the breed clubs to breed dogs. Here in the USA any one who can get two Dobermann’s collected can let them screw and make puppies. The dogs don’t have to meet any standards. As long as someone has paid to keep up the AKC registrations of the dogs the resulting pups will be “Purebred” Dobermann’s. What this means is that both the looks and behavior can be all over the board. You can have large heavy Dobermann’s, small skinny ones, dogs with narrow skulls, dogs with bow legs, etc, etc. Same with the temperament- it can be all over the place with some dogs that are shy and skittish, others that are everyone best friend others that are suspicious, etc, etc.

Just checking out the parents may not tell you much because traits can come from further up the family tree (just as an example- the parents may be stable but one grand parent was shy so half the litter ends up shy)

Much of Europe follows the German lead when it comes to dogs and generally speaking dogs of European pedigrees will have gone through some sort of testing to be qualified for breeding. So this give you two distinct breeds- the “American’ Dobermann and the “European” Dobermann.

With the Europeans, even though the dogs go through testing to establish a minimum standard, the breeders from that point have their priorities.

Some breeders are dog show enthusiasts and they breed for looks. These lines of dogs are referred as “show” lines. Sometimes “show” lines have passed the looks evaluation or testing with flying colors but barely passed minimal standards for working ability.

Other breeders compete with their dogs in work and of course breed for working ability. These lines of dogs are referred to as “Working” lines. These lines can sometimes be the opposite of “show” lines in that they barely pass the standards for looks, but pass the working ability tests with flying colors.

Ideally good breeders produce beautiful hard working dogs, but the reality is that they tend to specialize one way or the other.

ALL the European Dobermanns will have some standardization. They will tend to be more “drivey” than American dogs and a have slightly different look than American Dobermanns. The European look doesn’t do well in the American AKC show ring. European “show’ line dogs may act a little like a very well bred American Dobermann. A European “working” line dog will be a fairly hard assed, high drive dog; capable of protection work, agility, search & rescue, bite sports, etc.

The American Doberman’s from breeders who are heavy into show dogs will have some standardization of looks, but temperament/behavior can vary all over the place.

So in summery you have three breeds-
the American Dobermann,
the European show line Dobermann,
the European working line Dobermann.

The “working” line Dobermanns are closest to the original Dobermann breed, but they are a lot of dog to handle. A “real” Dobermann is not for the faint of heart and definitely not a dog you can let run loose or entertain himself.