Mary Allen
The Doberman is an elegant but demanding dog. Things you should know about husbandry, grooming, and health.
If there were supermodels in the canine world, the Doberman would certainly be at the forefront of the modeling business. His appearance is elegant and sporty, his character proud and watchful and, as is often the case in the fashion world, also somewhat stubborn and complicated to deal with.
The dog breed does not require much grooming, but plenty of experience and expertise, because Dobermans are true workhorses with high demands.
In our breed portrait, we have summarized all the important information about the Doberman for you, from its appearance and character to its history, which can be almost exactly dated back to the 1880s.
How big is a Doberman?
The Doberman is one of the larger dog breeds and males reach an average height of between 68 and 72 cm at the withers. Bitches can grow between 63 and 68 cm in the Doberman.
How heavy is a Doberman?
Despite their size, the elegant dogs weigh less than other large dog breeds such as the Rottweiler. Adult Doberman pinscher males weigh between 40 and 45 kg and females between 32 and 35 kg.
What does a Doberman look like?
For many lovers, the breed is considered the ideal image of a dog because of its appearance. The Doberman Pinscher has an elegant, lean yet muscular body with long and defined legs.
The stature of the Doberman
Its back is straight and stretched, the neck long and the head narrow with a long snout and large floppy ears.
His appearance, demeanor, and gait are said to always exude pride, dignity, and vigilance, but this also makes him appear “tough” or aggressive to many people, although this is by no means his character.
The coat of the Doberman
The Doberman’s coat is short, smooth, and dense, has no undercoat, and, according to breeding specifications, can come in two different colors:
- Black
- Brown
In both colors, the dog has rust-red spots, especially on the legs and around the muzzle. There are also dogs that have a bluish or white coat, but these colors are banned from breeding in Germany and are rather rare in this country.
Crop? No way!
Until a few decades ago, it was still standard in breeding to amputate the puppies’ tails and clip their ears into shape. The puppies had to wear a frame and tape around their heads for weeks to convert their original floppy ears to pricked ears.
This desired appearance is probably due to the use of the Dobermann as a guard and protection dog. By cropping their tails and ears, they should be less vulnerable to attack in an emergency.
Fortunately, tail and ear docking, which is very painful and traumatizing for puppies, is now banned in most European countries.
How old does a Doberman get?
The life expectancy of the dog breed is an average of 8 to 13 years and, as with all dogs, depends heavily on health, care and origin.
Unfortunately, the Doberman is a prime example of a breeding dog where historically there has been much more emphasis on looks than on health or grooming, with the average age of Dobermans at times being as little as 7 years.
In the meantime, the breeding regulations have been tightened. More attention is now paid to a natural and healthy appearance, which means that the life expectancy of the animals increases again.
What character or nature does the Dobermann have?
The breed was and is still very popular as a service dog. Its physical fitness, high intelligence, and fearless, courageous character make the Doberman ideal protection and guard dog.
But despite its impressive appearance, the elegant dog is basically a gentle, cuddly, and affectionate family animal that loves its caregivers more than anything and wants to please them at all costs.
The Doberman pinscher usually bonds particularly strongly to just one person, whom he unconditionally recognizes as the leader of the pack. With appropriate socialization, however, the dog quickly accepts and submits to other family members or caregivers. At the same time, by nature and due to certain preferences in breeding, he has a relatively strong protective and hunting instinct.
If the Doberman behaves very gently, lovingly, and submissively within his family with the appropriate upbringing, he usually encounters strangers with suspicion and vigilance. As a result, Dobermans have unfortunately been attributed by many people to the stereotype of the aggressive fighting dog. However, increased aggressiveness is – as with all other often prejudiced dog breeds – mainly due to incorrect training, lack of socialization, and neglect of the dog.
The dog has a strong willingness to work by nature and is at its best both mentally and physically when it can take on a task that challenges it every day.
Where does the Doberman come from?
The Doberman is one of the more recent dog breeds whose origins can be traced back to a single breeder in Germany.
In the 1880s, the German tax collector Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann from the small town of Apolda in Thuringia was looking for a reliable, loyal companion who would protect him at work and also give him respect when a debtor was reluctant to hand over his money.
Dissatisfied with existing protection dogs, he laid the foundations for a new dog that should combine strength, courage, intelligence, and assertiveness.
What breeds did the Doberman originate from?
Which original dog breeds the Dobermann is based on can no longer be proven today. However, most experts assume that mainly Pinschers, German Shepherds, Great Danes, Rottweilers, and Weimaraners were mixed into the Doberman.
After Karl Dobermann’s death, Otto Göller took over the breeding, and as early as 1895 the new breed was recognized in Germany. The dogs still carry out their original purpose as working dogs and they are popular working animals for the police, in dog sports, and even as service dogs.
Dobermann: The right attitude and upbringing
First things first: A Doberman is not a dog for everyone. The hard-working animals require a lot of willpower, empathy, time, patience, and expertise when keeping them.
Their willingness to work makes them perfect service and companion dogs, but they also require a high level of physical and mental exertion, because the Doberman is one of the 10 smartest dog breeds in the world. With intelligence games for dogs, you can make the elegant four-legged friend very happy.
The lifestyle on the couch with only short walks where a stick is thrown here and there is out of the question for him, just as little as life in the kennel. Challenging retrieval games are more for him.
The Doberman needs a close and trusting relationship with his caregiver, who deals with him daily, challenges him, and calmly but consistently directs his temperament in meaningful ways.
The Doberman as a city and family dog?
The powerful animals are less suited to the big city than to the country, where they have plenty of exercise and outdoor activities.
They get along very well with their household and they usually subordinate themselves easily and quickly to other people. It is important that the dog is appropriately socialized as a puppy so that it does not approach unfamiliar people and animals with suspicion and aggression.
With consistent training and socialization, the Doberman is suitable as a loving, playful family dog, although its strong protective instinct should always be taken into account.
What care does the Doberman need?
If the dog demands a lot of time, especially with its training and occupation, then it is very frugal when it comes to grooming. The coat should be brushed every few days and the ears, eyes, claws, and skin should be checked regularly, otherwise, the Doberman needs no other special care.
Make sure the Doberman has a high-quality diet. The dog has a fairly high energy requirement with a corresponding workload. You should cover this with a high-quality lining. BARF is also suitable for the Doberman as a species-appropriate alternative in the diet.
What typical diseases does the Doberman have?
Health is a big issue with the Doberman. Due to incorrect priorities, ignorance, and mistakes in breeding in the past, dogs today have to struggle with a number of breed-specific diseases, which unfortunately still occur very frequently, even with the best care and nutrition.
These hereditary diseases include dilated cardiomyopathy, a very aggressive disease of the heart that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest even in otherwise healthy dogs. It occurs in no other breed of dog as often as in Dobermans.
There are also other health problems such as Congenital Vestibular Syndrome, which causes deafness and balance problems, Wobbler’s Syndrome, which causes severe damage to the spinal cord in the cervical spine, and blood clotting disorders.
How much does a Doberman cost?
Because of the hereditary diseases, puppies of this breed should only be bought from reputable breeders from an association or club. There, of course, docking is avoided and attention is paid to healthy parent animals. In addition, the puppies get the right nutrition and care there in the first few weeks of life.
Doberman puppies cost between €1,200 and €1,800 on average. Before you buy, be sure to find out about the breeding goal of a litter, as breeders usually differentiate between working dogs and family dogs. They exhibit different traits, particularly in the areas of irritability and hunting and protective instincts, and are therefore less suited to one purpose than another.
If you choose this elegant, but also demanding dog breed, we wish you a wonderful time with your fantastically beautiful animal.