I thought rotties had it bad...

[my2rotties]

Well, I went into town with my newest addition and had to tell my friends at the grocery store. I was so excited about having a Doberman, and man, was I surprised. I got the same old BS, about them turning on their owners, or their brains grow too big for their skulls, and that they are unpredictable.... blah, blah blah....

In the 2o years I have loved and owned rotties, I heard it all too. I used to have people swearing at me for having the dogs in public or having the windows rolled down with them in my vehicles!!! I went through hell with the rotties, but they are worth it and I never has a single issue with any single one of them.

I noticed walking with Prince and the rest of the pack... people that drove by just glared at my new boy. The people that live around here know and love my rottie and staffies... they always smile and wave. Now the look on people's faces is quite shocking. I guess Dobes look pretty intense unless you know them. My other dogs happy pant and smile down the street. Prince just is always alert, head held high and ears pointed forward. I laugh at him and tell him to tone it down a notch since he looks too serious.

I just cannot believe the opinions people have of these dogs. Dobes have not been in the limelight for a very long time. It has been pit bulls and rotties these days. I have had pit bulls as well, but most people do not even know what they even are. Most people think rotties are pit bulls, since they are so uneducated.

So... does it ever get better or do people freak right out when they see your dogs and cross the street? Thank goodness don't live in the city. Even when he was quietly sitting in my truck waiting for me, people were pointing at him in the front seat, and you could see the fear and distrust...

So here I go again. Now I have a rottie, two staffies AND a dobe. Should be interesting at best.

[Rhiannon]

Wow some things never change. My daughter's in-laws came unglued when they found out that we had dobermans that we raise and show around our three granddaughters. OMG. They were so sure that the dobermans were going to eat their grandchildren. People need to get with the times. We have even gone to dogshows and been treated like idiots for taking our granddaughter's ringside. Our granddaughters know how to behave at the shows. And my opinion is if another dobe owner or handler has to worry about what their dobe is going to do to children at a dog show they had better leave them at home. The girls are taught to never approach anyone else's dog without permission from the owner. These dogs are ambassadors of the breed. It is up to us to make sure that they are trustworthy in any public situation. If not leave them at home. I don't know about Canada but we did have a situation that happened in the last year or two involving a doberman and a baby. It was a bad situation. But to my knowledge there has been nothing else since then that we are aware of. We have through the years seen the breed being shown by junior handlers and never seen a problem with the junior and the doberman. I feel bad that people are so afraid of a doberman because of Hollywood Hype as I call it. It is a shame that people feel this way as they don't know what they are missing by not seeing what the breed is like. I hope that Prince quickly learns what his new boundries and expectations are. Sounds like he is in a better place with someone who knows the working breeds. :)

[my2rotties]

Prince is doing great. The lady that gave him to me had him with a 2 year old girl and never once worried about it... he just does not like strangers or being leashed around strangers... I know he will be fine. He is on the couch sleeping beside my hubby. Prince looks a little intense, and even if he is smiling it is hard to convince someone he is friendly. Sort of reminds me of the the great white shark on that Pixar movie trying to smile and look friendly...

[SnuzerDog]

Well, as per usual, the problem starts with humans, not the canines IMHO. Just like pit bulls are now going to be (unjustly) feared and remembered for the next 50 years, so Dobes are still dealing with old pre-conceived notions and fears.

Also, you have people who will do anything to own anything that will impress and intimidate others. Big trucks and SUV's, loud motorcycles, scary dogs. Of course, these are also the same people with no clues at all about dog behavior and proper training (and usually human social behavior for that matter), so the animals are left to their instincts. Presas, Rotties, GSDs, Pit Bulls, Akitas, Chows, Dobes- all get lumped into the same group because of the clueless morons who can't or worse, won't, control them.

I take pride in introducing my boy Deano to all the people we meet on walks, and especially those with dogs and children if they are willing. Still, I see people cross the street occasionally, and I can't really blame them- so many large breed owners do not take the time to socialize and train their dogs in any way at all. And they wonder why nobody wants to come to their homes or interact with them on walks! :rolleyes: I do think though that there are a lot of people out there who just aren't comfortable around dogs for whatever reason, especially large breeds- and that's OK too. If I'm friendly, that might help bring them a little closer to getting past it, maybe.

But, I just figure over time, it will change, and the more good ambassadors there are out there the quicker it will happen.

[my2rotties]

I have had people scream and yell at me for the rotties back in the city... I never lost my cool and stayed nice, and it was bloody hard!!! Plus I had to stay calm or my dogs might have tried to get involved they just walked beside me, looking at me. I just told them lets go and you guys are such good dogs and I love you...

Dobies don't look all the friendly when you see them out and about. Now that I am getting to know Prince, I can tell he is very happy, but he is always at full alert out and about.

I have always had scores of children come see the rotties and I have always embraced them. I am not a big kid person and there were days you really did not want to befriend a group of dog starved children but I did it for the breed. Most kids in the city are never allowed to have pets so I took the time to teach them how to deal with dogs, taught them how to approach them and told them to never go pet a dog without its owner or without permission. I did that neighborhood a big service with my dogs. Now living out here, every body has a dog, they run free... well most of them. Mine do not unless I am there with them of course.

I can't wait until the day Prince and I can go meet people and he enjoys the attention. Heck only knows when that day is... but it will come. My other dogs love people and meet and greet everyone, people adore and love them out here. I hope while I am working with Prince, he is smart enough to see how my other dogs reap the benefits of socializing with people. He is now watching them and sees how they respond to things around here. He is not barking nearly as much, which makes me so happy!!! I still have to go see why he is barking from time to time. He did see a person walking at the end of the drive way last night, and I went to quiet him at the window. He was pogo sticking on his front legs getting upset with me, since he knew this was something I had to know and acknowledge. I just told him he was a good boy and lets go sit down again. He really gets upset when he feels we should deal with something he has alerted me to, and I do nothing about it, just walk away.

Prince is an amazing animal... so smart and sharp. I really won the lottery here!!!

[Big Dogs]

I't is amazing how people can stereo type dogs through there ignorance and it only takes one bad action for everyone to hear about and all of a sudden they are all that way. Our red dobe Thor was what I would call an ambassador for the breed he was protection trained and they only ones who new that was our family and a few close friends. I had him at our vets a few years back and there was a young girl across from us maybe 12 or 13 at the time with her father who I recognized as the husband of one of the nurses who worked with my wife. They had there cat with them which Thor totally ignored and just kept starring at the girl she asked if she could pet him and I said of course you can at which time she came over and he licked her face which she seemed startled by but quickly recovered and continued to pet him which he really liked and licked her some more. That evening I told my wife about our visit and seeing the girl and her father and my wife asked me if I was crazy which I said why? Here several months before the girl had been bitten in the face by German Shepard that they were going to adopt at which I said I didn't know but I thought it was strange he would key in on the girl and he wasn't real big on kissing any one. Well my wife was hesitant when she went back to work the following day only to be bombarded from the girls mother asking her if we could bring him over to see her which she also told just about everyone in the Hospital about him and how great he was. To this day I think he new that girl needed that and several months latter I told her he was protection trained which she couldn't believe. I had several people offer me quite a bit of money for him and my response was always the same no one has enough. I have said this before but I read an article that I think said Dobermans were in the top 5 smartest dogs and my reply to that is a Doberman can do any of the jobs the Dogs that were rated higher can do can any of they other dogs say that?

[RKCM]

I't is amazing how people can stereo type dogs through there ignorance and it only takes one bad action for everyone to hear about and all of a sudden they are all that way. Our red dobe Thor was what I would call an ambassador for the breed he was protection trained and they only ones who new that was our family and a few close friends. I had him at our vets a few years back and there was a young girl across from us maybe 12 or 13 at the time with her father who I recognized as the husband of one of the nurses who worked with my wife. They had there cat with them which Thor totally ignored and just kept starring at the girl she asked if she could pet him and I said of course you can at which time she came over and he licked her face which she seemed startled by but quickly recovered and continued to pet him which he really liked and licked her some more. That evening I told my wife about our visit and seeing the girl and her father and my wife asked me if I was crazy which I said why? Here several months before the girl had been bitten in the face by German Shepard that they were going to adopt at which I said I didn't know but I thought it was strange he would key in on the girl and he wasn't real big on kissing any one. Well my wife was hesitant when she went back to work the following day only to be bombarded from the girls mother asking her if we could bring him over to see her which she also told just about everyone in the Hospital about him and how great he was. To this day I think he new that girl needed that and several months latter I told her he was protection trained which she couldn't believe. I had several people offer me quite a bit of money for him and my response was always the same no one has enough. I have said this before but I read an article that I think said Dobermans were in the top 5 smartest dogs and my reply to that is a Doberman can do any of the jobs the Dogs that were rated higher can do can any of they other dogs say that?

Great story and you are so right! As doberman owners, we have a responsibility to make sure our dogs don't harm other people because it hurts the breed. Each incident by people that don't know their dog and allow them to injure others reflects on our dog and with all the dog pacific legislation endangers them. Knowing your dog and using common sense works most of the time, but there is always a few people that don't think.

If everyone trained and realized like you that we are the ambassador of our breed good or bad. I thank you for helping that little girl and the breed thanks you. Great story....wish they would put it in the paper!

[RKCM]

All good Big Dog, except we don't lick here. LOL

And Rott, your dog should come off the alert when you tell him. And putting with a group of wild children, I wouldn't until you know him better and can guarantee he will not bite someone. Children make mistakes and the dog will always be blamed and you. It takes time.

[Big Dogs]

RKCM the funny thing is of all our dogs he wasn't a licker you really had to beg for one, although he would give my son one with very little request but they had that bond everyone strives for and is so hard to obtain they lived for each other. I have so many stories about this dog doing this type of thing and never really realizing it until years latter. When you have a dog that is perceived to be a bad breed you have to realize that you are going to immediately get more attention than you want so that means in order to level the playing field you have to be twice as good and they only good thing about that is you are dealing with a breed that has the ability to do that. When a Dobe does one bad thing people forget the other twenty good things he did so thats where we as owners have to try and make them as ne'er perfect as possible.

[RKCM]

RKCM the funny thing is of all our dogs he wasn't a licker you really had to beg for one, although he would give my son one with very little request but they had that bond everyone strives for and is so hard to obtain they lived for each other. I have so many stories about this dog doing this type of thing and never really realizing it until years latter. When you have a dog that is perceived to be a bad breed you have to realize that you are going to immediately get more attention than you want so that means in order to level the playing field you have to be twice as good and they only good thing about that is you are dealing with a breed that has the ability to do that. When a Dobe does one bad thing people forget the other twenty good things he did so thats where we as owners have to try and make them as ne'er perfect as possible.

Was just messing with ya Big Dog. We do dog kisses too. I always love your posts.