Dobermann?

[Salamamca]

Can anyone tell me about the Dobermann? Good with kids? Good with other dogs? Reactive? Male or female? Anything else I should know?

Oh and we can’t take ours anywhere. No pub gardens, no garden centres, no city centres, carnivals or anywhere where there are likely to be a lot of people. We can never take her on holiday as the change in scenery would send her over the edge and I can’t put her in kennels as I couldn’t guarantee the safety of the staff. It’s going to be a long, lonely 10 or whatever years.

Btw - regarding the health of the breed, it’s incredibly rare to see one reach the age of 10. In the past year alone I’ve seen Dobermanns on our group pass away at 2 years old and 3 years old (both heart failure), 4 and 5 years old (cancer), 7 and 8 years old (cancer and heart failure).

My dogs mum died at 6 years old (a stroke).

I forgot one … another dog died at 5 years old - PTS due to incurable and uncontrollable aggression. The owners were devastated as to their own family they are the most loving and loyal dogs. But outside their own immediate family … not so much

If you're in the UK report them, it's illegal

There's so many wonderful breeds out there, I have a toddler so went for a Shihtzu cross they're soppy as anything you won't have any bother from a Shihtzu

If you wanted a bigger dog I know lots of people (with children) went for retrievers the first year is hard work but once you've put the work in they make incredibly loving loyal family dogs

Good luck 🤞

This.

Join a Dobermann group on Facebook and see how many struggle with reactive and aggressive dogs. It’s very common in the breed. Also something like 70% of Dobermanns end up with dilated cardiomyopathy, cancer is also a big killer in the breed.

The breed was developed by H. Doberman to ‘assist him in his work as a tax and rent collector ’.Says it all, really.

We have a two year old Doberman rottie cross. He is beautifully natured and well socialised. Everyone locally knows him and brings their puppies to play with him, we also have cats and children at home.

BUT they are a breed which needs a lot of training and rules in place, because of their size if nothing else; they can also be stubborn. And they are needy Velcro dogs

This is one thing I like - people don't want to come to my house 😂

We have the sweetest most loving Dobbie!
She’s such a big baby, she needed a vets appointment last week and when the vet opened the door to take her back to the waiting room she hid behind the door and me!
She loves other dogs, especially little ones, absolutely fine with people coming into the house, but has no interest in people she doesn’t know.
I can take her anywhere and when out people constantly try and stroke her, but she just moves her head away at the last second, it’s actually quite funny.
she’s great with the cats and cleans them like she would pups.
Our only issue is she has a high chase drive, but that’s my fault from taking her and another dog out running in the woods where they sniffed out deer.
She wouldn’t harm anything once she’d caught it, it’s just the chase.
At 4 1/2 she’s still very puppy like and bouncy / playful.
I’d be concerned with small children she might knock them over as she doesn’t realise her size.
she’s from a Hungarian line, so not worried about the closed breeding issues.
Id have more Dobbies and we’re considering pups maybe one day…

@Newusernameaug oh wow absolutely beautiful! My boy hasn't knocked anyone over but he is big and bouncy and does jump up a fair bit.

A Labrador or golden retriever makes a good family dog....

A Doberman was bred to guard and ultimately you won't know how strong that instinct is until you being a puppy home.

Plus I agree that no one (especially people with kids) will want to come to your house.

That's fundamentally incorrect.

Labs are far more likely to bite a child than a Doberman.

Do your research.

Actually, I think you're the one who needs to do your research.

There were nearly 62,000 Labradors registered with the KC in 2021.
In 2022, there were 431 Dobermans registered with the same organisation (I couldn't find the 2021 stats)

The only reason Labs are "far more likely to bite a child" is because there are so many more of them and they typically live in family homes with children.

Everytime someone posts about a potentially dangerous dog, someone comes out with the fact that "labs are the breed most likely to bite" - but without looking at the numbers, it's meaningless and doesn't mean anything other than "there are lots of labs living with children".

Aww thank you!

Yes, the problem is she thinks she’s a little lapdog and has no idea how big she actually is 😂

@cinnamonfrenchtoast

Right..... and now if you could post links to reputable sites where dog bites by breed in the UK are recorded and we will compare the percentage vs number of dogs.

I'm not doing your research for you lol.

If you want to argue that labs are dangerous to children, it's up to you to prove it, not me.

@cinnamonfrenchtoast

I'll take that as a no then.

Another sweeping statement about a breed you clearly know nothing about.

Talk about judge a book by its cover.

What are you talking about?

You're the one going on about labradors being more likely to bite a child - so why haven't you included "links reputable sites where dog bites by breed in the UK are recorded", then?

We had a dobe when I was young. I don't remember her puppy years but my mum told me she used to despise her. I have a rott/beagle x now who is utterly insane. When he was a puppy you could be sat nice and quiet while he appeared to be asleep in his bed then within a nanosecond he was launching himself full force at your head. She says he reminds her of our old Doberman.

She turned into the most wonderful family dog, though. She wanted to be friends with everyone and everything. Neighborhood kids used to knock on the door and ask if she was allowed to come out to play with them.

She died of cancer when she was 10. She passed away in my arms.

@cinnamonfrenchtoast

You were quick enough to find some statistics whilst conveniently forgetting the rest.

At least I posted some statistics. Where are yours?

I've had two interactions with Dobermans. One attacked another puppy at training. One attacked my DM with zero provocation as she walked past the dog.

Not for me.

I had one, she was lovely. Good with people and other dogs and any kids she met.

She wasn't really interested in anything other than running on a walk. Big huge circles around me.

I lost her aged 12 in the end. She was relatively healthy until 4 months before she died. I'd have another one.

@cinnamonfrenchtoast
23 reported bites since 1982.

Shall I continue?