.gif)
.gif)
DOBERMAN PINSCHER HISTORY
The Doberman Pincher was very selectively engineered in the New Age of Purebred Dogs during the 19th century to become one of the most popular dogs in today's competitive trials and exhibitions. In Thuringia in Eastern Germany in a town called Apolda Herr Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann, employed in his careers as a slaughterhouse worker, official of the tax office, and night police officer, once saw a tough aggressive black-and-tan dog on the street and remark to friends " That is my kind of dog ". In his passion to breed the perfect guard dog he founded the beginnings of what we know today as the Doberman Pinscher.
The breeds believed to have contributed in the development of the Doberman Pinscher are: Rottweiler, Great Dane, the old bobtailed German Shepherd (not the modern breed), the original black-and-tan German Pincher, the Weimeraner, the German Short haired Pointer, plus the French herding and guard dog the Beauceron and two English breeds the Greyhound and Manchester Terrier.
While the breed is named after Dobermann, establishing the breed was Otto Goeller's work. Goeller produced his own superstar in 1904, Hellegraf v.Thueringin, a red male that historian of the breed Philipp Gruenig called in his book, "one of the mightiest stud dogs of any age or breed...Let the name be written in letters of fire." His stock was of course in great demand and two animals were sent together to the United States in 1908, Annagret II v.Thueringen and a Stud dog Claudius v.Thueringen.
The early dogs from Otto Goeller`s Kennel looked more like the Beauceron than they did modern Doberman Pinschers. To establish the look we know today took a long process of experimentation and refinement.
During the years of WWI Phillip Gruenig wrote with pain about how dogs were trapped and used for food by desperate people. Many breeders sent their dogs to neutral countries, hoping they would be spared. After the war the German breeders began with great vigor to rebuild their breeding stock.
The 119 Dobermans at the Munich Sieger Show in 1921 where considered excellent. Just 1 year later 223 dogs represented the breed at the Berliner Sieger Show. Authority William Sidney Shmidt remarked, "The breed had reached almost perfection. It was at its pinnacle carving through on the same level during a number of years to follow."