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?

We find that with Cockapoos all the time. Snappy.

My dog almost had his face ripped off by a golden retriever

Poor training accounts for a lot.

You do what you like 😂

You really can't compare a breed with 62,000 annual registrations to one with only 430 registrations.

But it's worth pointing out that the bite statistics around Labradors come from an insurance company (Animal Friends) - so of course we're only looking at a tiny and potentially inaccurate set of data:

So all those "statistics" actually prove is that the breed of dog insured by Animal Friends that is mostly likely to be involved in a reported bite/attack is a Labrador.

We don't know the circumstances around the bites. We don't know whether the dogs were provoked. We don't know how many other bites occurred (by labs or other breeds) that have never been reported as they're so minor etc etc.

Again, you need to look at the type of dog owner these breeds attract. The majority of the time the cause of aggression in a dog is at the other end of the leash.

Dobermans, Rotties, Staffs, etc will have a higher statistic for biting because they attract owners who want an aggressive dog. When was the last time you spotted the local hardman walking his toy poodle?

Very few dogs are bred to be aggressive toward humans or are inherently prone to aggression. At worst, you have dogs who are genetically prone to becoming fiercely protective of their family i.e Akitas. Even then with careful handling and socialization, you can overcome this.

I don't think there will ever be a reliable study into how breed affects temperament. There are too many uncontrollable variables.

For a study into aggression/breed to be reliable you'd need to take dogs of the same age, owned by the same type of family, trained in the same way, exposed to the same environmental triggers, fed the same food etc etc. It's quite simply not possible.

Exactly, and even then there are differential factors at play.

And let's be fair - there's a good reason Labradors are so popular, and there's also a good reason why breeds like Dobermans and German Shepherds are used by police or for guard work.

Of course, that doesn't mean all Dobermans are dangerous or that all Labradors are soft as butter, but dog breeds exist for a reason. You wouldn't ask a beagle to herd sheep or a chihuahua to defend against burglars.