Dobermann

General Appearance

Medium size, muscular and elegant, with well set body. Of proud carriage, compact and tough. Capable of great speed.

Characteristics

Intelligent and firm of character, loyal and obedient

Temperament

Bold and alert. Shyness or viciousness very highly undesirable.

Head and Skull

In proportion to body. Long, well filled out under eyes and clean cut, with good depth of muzzle. Seen from above and side, resembles an elongated blunt wedge. Upper part of head flat and free from wrinkle. Top of skull flat, slight stop; muzzle line extending parallel to top line of skull. Cheeks flat, lips tight. Nose solid black in black dogs, solid dark brown in brown dogs, solid dark grey in blue dogs and light brown in fawn dogs. Head out of balance in proportion to body, dish-faced, snipy or cheeky very highly undesirable.

Eyes

Almond-shaped, not round, moderately deep set, not prominent, with lively, alert expression. Iris of uniform colour, ranging from medium to darkest brown in black dogs, the darker shade being more desirable. In browns, blues, or fawns, colour of iris blends with that of markings, but not of lighter hue than markings; light eyes in black dogs highly undesirable.

Ears

Small, neat, set high on head. Normally dropped, but may be erect.

Mouth

Well developed, solid and strong with complete dentition and a perfect, regular and complete scissor bite, i.e. upper teeth closely overlapping lower teeth and set square to the jaws. Evenly placed teeth. Undershot, overshot or badly arranged teeth highly undesirable.

Neck

Fairly long and lean, carried with considerable nobility; slightly convex and in proportion to shape of dog. Region of nape very muscular. Dewlap and loose skin undesirable.

Forequarters

Shoulder blade and upper arm meet at an angle of 90 degrees. Shoulder blade and upper arm approximately equal in length. Short upper arm relative to shoulder blade highly undesirable. Legs seen from front and side, perfectly straight and parallel to each other from elbow to pastern; muscled and sinewy, with round bone in proportion to body structure. Standing or gaiting, elbow lies close to brisket.

Body

Square, height measured vertically from ground to highest point at withers equal to length from forechest to rear projection of upper thigh. Forechest well developed. Back short and firm, with strong, straight topline sloping slightly from withers to croup; bitches may be slightly longer to loin. Ribs deep and well sprung, reaching to elbow. Belly fairly well tucked up. Long, weak, or roach backs highly undesirable.

Hindquarters
Legs parallel to each other and moderately wide apart. Pelvis falling away from spinal column at an angle of about 30 degrees. Croup well filled out. Hindquarters well developed and muscular; long, well bent stifle; hocks turning neither in nor out. When standing, hock to heel perpendicular to the ground.

Feet

Well arched, compact, and cat-like, turning neither in nor out. All dewclaws removed. Long, flat deviating feet and/or weak pasterns highly undesirable.

Tail

Customarily docked.

Docked: Docked at 1st or 2nd joint. Appears to be a continuation of spine without material drop.

Undocked: Appears to be a continuation of spine without material drop, or slightly raised when the dog is moving.

Gait/Movement

Elastic, free, balanced and vigorous, with good reach in forequarters and driving power in hindquarters. When trotting, should have strong rear drive, with apparent rotary motion of hindquarters. Rear and front legs thrown neither in nor out. Back remains strong and firm.

Coat

Smooth, short, hard, thick and close-lying. Imperceptible undercoat on neck permissible. Hair forming a ridge on back of neck and/or along spine highly undesirable.


Colour

Definite black, brown, blue or fawn (Isabella) only, with rust red markings. Markings to be sharply defined, appearing above each eye, on muzzle, throat and forechest, on all legs and feet and below tail. White markings of any kind highly undesirable.

Size

Ideal height at withers: dogs: 69 cms (27 ins); bitches: 65 cms (251/2 ins). Considerable deviation from this ideal undesirable.

Faults

Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree and its effect upon the health and welfare of the dog.

Note

Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.

Published with kind permission from The Kennel Club

©The Kennel Club

www.the-kennel-club.org.uk.

Khan is 3 years and 4 months old and is bang on 27 inches. Have fun!


This was taken in October 2007

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August 2007

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August 2007


March 2007

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March 2007

Ahh my breed!
Lovely neck, topline and tail set. Would prefer a better bend of stifle, plenty of bone and substance. Feet look to be longish and not cat like. Gives an overall impression of strength and elegance.

Head. This is MY opinion, and Dobermann heads are "my thing" so please do not be offended. I dont care for his head. His head planes are not level, he has round eyes and they lack filling underneath them. Good eye colour. When viewed from the side does not have the desired wedge shape appearance and he little underjaw, also a bit "throaty" but nowhere near as bad as some these days. His ears are too big for me too. Doesnt look masculine enough for me.

Movement looks very good from the side, has reach and drive and appears to retain his topline well, LIKE his movement on those pics!

Hope you dont shoot me!

BANG.
No only joking.
Breed standard is open to intepretation and personal opinions, I know what I've got and the 'perfect' dog hasn't been born yet. Wouldn't put him on here if was going to take offence, this is just for fun.
Have sent you a PM saying what I agree/disagree with, based on his past critiques and knowledgeable dobe peoples opinions. Will be interesting to see what other people have to say and if they agree/disagree with you.
When alls said and done he is 10% show dog and 90% pet (which is what I bought him for), with a temperament to die for. So even if he was roached backed, upright in shoulder and moved like a donkey he would still be the best for me.

I agree its everyones own opinion. I had my first Dobe in 1988 and a second in 1991. I also have one now, a male in co-ownership. Two of my best friends, have them also, one since 1986 and the other years before that. One gives CC's in Dobes, the other is on the A2 list I think, and handles successfully for several people.

Just to confirm what IMO is a good Dobermann head, Id like to show people this one, French import in this country, regardless of whether you like cropped ears, IMO she is a most beautiful classicly headed Dobermann you are likely to find. Correct head planes, correct eye shape, correct blunt shaped wedge when viewed from the side. Good eye shape and colour.
http://www.firekhan.co.uk/soraya

To me, you'll be hard pushed to find a better one, but its my opinion only.
Dawn.

She has got a lovely head, and just like I said in the PM to get a cracking dobe head you have to look to the continentals, heads are distinctly lacking and not many perfect breed standard heads are around in the American/English type dobes.

I have spoken to several breeders about this subject and they aren't prepared to go down the continental route for various reasons but if the heads are to be brought back to breed standard then imo it is the only way to go. However I am far from being an expert on the subject and would certainly not even think about telling them how they should or should not be breeding their dogs, would get my ass kicked and rightly so!

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Tumbleweed[/QUOTE]

Couldn't agree more. Thing is what do you class as a fairly long neck? or a well bent stifle? How muscular should the hind quarters be? Mike Tyson size or Barry McGuigan size? This is where the personal interpretation comes in.
Khan is bang on breed standard height wise and yet looks small compared to some other dogs who are getting tickets etc. The standard calls for a medium compact,elegant dog, some are absolutely huge, some even on a par with Rottie build and have no elegance at all, but are still up there. Not so long ago there was a dog who was so big he was put up to Limit/open straight after puppy.
I saw a dog in Open back away from a judge 3 times, roll it's eyes showing the whites so the judge couldn't go over it, it jumped up on the move or paced and yet not only did it win the class it went on to get the ticket. So many times it is the person on the end of the lead that gets the big prizes and it is ruining the breed standard you are 100% correct, because people look to the big winners for what a standard dobe/dog should look like.
I only talk about dobes cos thats what I know a bit about but this happens across many other breeds as well.
Khan had 2 critiques in DW at the same time, one saying what a lovely head and expression the other judge said he preferred a more masculine head!! Yet both were for 1st.My friend says he doesn't have a strong head, yet another friend who gives out tickets in dobes says "nothing major wrong with it because the standard calls for a blunt wedge shape and thats what it is"!
And thats showing for us!

Hi again.
I cant agree Khan has a blunt shaped wedge head, a blunt wedge is what you see in that photo. I agree with you about judging and its only one persons opinion, just like this is. I also agree that conyinental bred dogs have better heads and its the main reason went to them, but many say they have sharp temperaments, NO! they have the CORRECT Dobermann temperament, we have just bred animals that look like Dobes with placid and non typical temperaments, suited to living as pets and standing in a show ring! When I started showing Dobes there were none of these weedy heads with no underjaw, but we did have dog aggressive dogs (mainly male) that couldnt stand near eachother in the ring, even the late great "Ferris" was "sparky" but perfectly manageable. Now, we rarely see this behaviour, many will say its good, I say its untypical. The American standard says "an aggressive or beligerant attitude towards other dogs shall not be deemed visciousness" which is what we used to see, but now we have a lot of people shy animals too, but will stand among other males easily. What do you do? I think European bred dogs are good in many points, but many are "all front" again untypical. However, you have to ask yourself what the "English" breeding really is producing, when practically if not every Dobermann WORKING in ANY capacity (proper work) is of Continental breeding.

Swings and roundabouts. Good discussion,
Dawn.

You are right on so many points, the continentals do have the correct temperament for a dobe but the English bred ones are much safer for the general public for the reasons you outline above and that is where the majority of pups end up. Many people can't handle an English dobe let alone a continental. My friend has a continental pup and she is much more hard work than her other English pup (that I handle in the ring). I can handle her but I wouldn't want to have the added responsibility of constantly being on my guard incase she decides to fly for whatever correct or incorrect perception she makes. I think the people shy dogs are more down to incorrect socialisation and unaware owners as much as anything else.
I think it is down to each individual breeder to decide which way they want to go, but to me breeding is to improve the breed and if it means mating a continental to an English then that is the way to go, unless people are prepared to be very selective on their English lines and wait 3 generations for a good 'all English' head. However alot of them are only interested in getting their dogs progeny in the ring and upping their status.
Alot of the older dogs like Ferris and Holtzburg Mayhem had it all but much of this has been lost, though looking through all my books many of the 'original dobes' didn't have much substance or forechest. Mind you nowadays many dogs have far too much front and are out of proportion.
As you so rightly said, swings and roundabouts!

Possibly, in some cases, however I have seen many "names" with unhandlable dogs in the ring, puppies mainly, and even a CC winner shying away but still awarded the CC!!
I absolutely agree, but you have to have decent specimens of both types in the first place. I mean mating a Continental male with an excellen head, to a bitch with a poor head and weak underjaw, would be useless if they both had poor hind angulation. Im back on heads again, its probably the most important "tool" the Dobermann possesses, its the one thing he relies on in most of the work he was designed for, which is why, for me, it needs to be a good one.

Ferris and Mayhem were very different to look at, I dont know if you saw either of them, but I watched them both gain their titles and many a time watched Dave Anderson with Ferris in the "big ring" with him, he floated! (Ferris not Dave!) his movement was perfection, a lot of this has gone too now, with poor angulation, many dogs go up and down on the spot, no reach or drive, which is what I liked about your dog in the photo, he appears to have very good reach and drive.

Mayhem was a standard sized dog, some said Ferris was too big, didnt stop him winning 40 odd CC's though! Mayhem did a lot for the breed in many ways, but like anything else, you can have too much of a good thing.

Can I ask what dog you think is the ideal Dobermann, in your opinion (not your own) and is the most typical of its breed, alive or dead.