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DOBERMAN PINSCHER DOG BREED INFORMATION

Family	Pinscher, Beauceron, Rottweiler
Life Span	9-12 years
Avg Size of Male:	Height: 26-28 inches Weight:75-100 pounds
Avg Size of Female:	Height: 24-26 inches Weight: 70-90pounds
Original Function:	Strength, loyalty, intelligence, and ferocity
Overall Rating (out of 5)	The Doberman Pinscher (alternatively spelled Dobermann in many countries) or Doberman is a breed of domestic dog. Doberman Pinschers are among the most common of pet breeds, and the breed is well known as an intelligent, alert, and loyal companion dog. Although once commonly used as guard dogs, watch dogs, or police dogs, this is less common today. In many countries, Doberman Pinschers are one of the most recognizable breeds, in part because of their actual roles in society, and in part because of media attention (see temperament). Careful breeding has improved the disposition of this breed, and the modern Doberman Pinscher is an energetic and lively breed ideally suited for companionship and family life.

Doberman Pinschers typically have a deep, broad chest, and a powerful, compact, and square muscular body of medium size. However, in recent years some breeders have primarily bred, shown, and sold a slimmer or more sleek-looking Doberman Pinscher. This has become a popular body type among many owners, especially those who show their Doberman Pinschers competitively.

The traditional body type is still more desirable to many casual owners and to those who want the dog for protection. Dogs bred to standard should possess a body meeting the "Breed type", and able to withstand the physical rigors for which the breed was originally intended. Generally speaking, show animals must fall within the ideal range of both size and weight (for that country's breed standard), but it is not unusual to find individual dogs not bred to the standard, for example males 100 pounds (45 kg) or females correspondingly oversized.

Temperament

Doberman Pinschers are, in general, gentle, loyal, loving, and intelligent dogs. Statistical techniques for assessing personality traits in humans have been applied to dogs, and show that Doberman Pinschers rank relatively high in playfulness, average in curiosity/fearlessness, low on aggressiveness and low on sociability. Historically, the Doberman Pinscher has been used as a protection and guard dog, due to its intelligence, loyalty, and ability to physically challenge human aggressors. Doberman Pinschers are commonly used in police work and in the military. The breed was used extensively by the United States Marine Corps in World War II, and 25 Marine War Dogs died in the Battle of Guam in 1944: there is a memorial in Guam in honor of these Doberman Pinschers

.A related problem is the misunderstanding of their legitimate roles; because guard dogs are trained to neutralize unwelcome intruders, many people mistakenly believe that Doberman Pinschers are vicious. Due to these misconceptions it is not uncommon to see this breed mentioned in forms of breed specific legislation. Studies of dog bites and dog bite fatalities, have shown that the danger of attack by Dobermans is less than that of a number of other breeds which are not commonly named in breed-specific legislation. Although there is variation in temperament, a typical pet Doberman attacks only if it has been mistreated or believes that it or its family are in danger. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Doberman Pinscher is less frequently involved in attacks on humans resulting in fatalities than several other dog breeds such as pit bull–type dogs, German Shepherd Dogs, Rottweilers and Alaskan Malamutes.

Health

An average, healthy Doberman Pinscher is expected to live about 10–14 years, although some have been reported to live to 16 years old. Common health problems are dilated cardiomyopathy, cervical vertebral instability - CVI, von Willebrand's disease (a bleeding disorder for which there is genetic testing). Other problems that are less severe or seen less frequently include:
Hypothyroidism
Cancer
Progressive retinal atrophy
Cataracts
Glaucoma
Copper toxicosis
Color dilution alopecia in blues and fawn Hip dysplasia
Peripheral neuropathy ("Dancing Doberman disease", very rare)

History

Doberman Pinschers were first bred in the town of Apolda, in the German state of Thueringen around 1890, following the Franco-Prussian War by Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann. Dobermann served in the dangerous role of local tax collector, and ran the Apolda dog pound. With access to dogs of many breeds, he aimed to create a breed that would be ideal for protecting him during his collections, which took him through many bandit-infested areas. He set out to breed a new type of dog that, in his opinion, would be the perfect combination of strength, loyalty, intelligence, and ferocity. Later, Otto Goeller and Philip Gruening continued to develop the breed to become the dog that is seen today.

The breed is believed to have been created from several different breeds of dogs that had the characteristics that Dobermann was looking for, including the Pinscher, the Beauceron, the Rottweiler, the Thuringian Shepherd Dog, the black Greyhound, the Great Dane, the Weimaraner, the German Shorthaired Pointer, the Manchester Terrier and the old German Shepherd Dog - now extinct. The exact ratios of mixing, and even the exact breeds that were used, remains uncertain to this day, although many experts believe that the Doberman Pinscher is a combination of at least four of these breeds. The single exception is the documented cross with the Greyhound. It is also widely believed that the old German Shepherd (now extinct) gene pool, was the single largest contributor to the Doberman breed.

The book entitled "The Dobermann Pinscher", written by Philip Greunig (first printing in 1939), is considered the foremost study of the development of the breed by its most ardent students. It describes the breed's early development by Otto Goeller, whose hand allowed the Doberman to become the dog we recognize today. After his death in 1894, the Germans named the breed Dobermann-pinscher in his honor, but a half century later dropped the pinscher on the grounds that this German word for terrier was no longer appropriate. The British did the same thing a few years later.