Doberman - Guard Dog or Watch Dog?

Whether your Doberman will become a good guard dog or just a family pet and watch dog, it is dependent on how you train your Doberman.

A Doberman is a very muscular, courageous and a very intelligent dog. It has a great ability with speed and endurance that makes them a great guard.

The Doberman has often been mistaken as a mean or aggressive dog. Actually, they are usually lovable and lazy. But, the Doberman can turn into an active clown dog in seconds from their laziness and make you laugh.

Just like any dog, a Doberman needs to be socialized with other pets, animals and your neighbors. Socialize your Doberman to every family member as early as during their puppy-hood. Your Doberman can be a great member of your family. 

Do not worry that your Doberman may become too friendly with your neighbors. The natural instinct of the Doberman to protect the family will take over, when a stranger comes unannounced or intruded into their space. Doberman will be very protective of family members. It will not tolerate strangers intruding their space until their owner has introduced them to each other.

Obedience training is a must with a Doberman. You don't want to have a dog that is big and aggressive looking that does not follow your command. Basic command like sit, down, come, stay and no must be responded immediately by your Doberman.

 

Doberman make excellent guard dogs, military dogs, working dogs, hospital therapy dogs, and loyal family pets. To make your Doberman a guard dog specialized training is needed. Usually, this specialized training is done after your Doberman have excel in basic obedience’s training. 

Lastly, if no consistent training is given to your Doberman, it will just be a normal intelligent playful dog but a watchful one.

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my

Whelping, Feeding and Nursing Doberman Puppies

Do you want to be a breeder?







When the puppies were born, I tagged each puppy with a colored ribbon for identification.

During the first few weeks of the of the puppies' life to ensure the puppies survive I kept the puppies in a warm and dry place. I bought a plastic bin and installed heating provided by an incandescent bulb. The temperature within the bin was kept warm at 28 deg Celsius. The bin also protected the puppies from wind.


I was fortunate that the weather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was warm everyday, except some night when it was raining and very windy. Anyway, I kept the puppies indoor for the first 4 weeks.


Feeding and nursing the puppies
Fortunately, the dame has a natural mother's instinct of protecting, feeding and nursing the puppies. But, I have to earn the trust of the dame that I was helping her to look after the puppies.

The puppy sucked and is attached to the nipple very strongly 

In the beginning, the dame was reluctant to let me take the puppies away to the puppy bin. What I did was, I placed a new unfed puppy into the dame's cage each time I took a fully fed puppy away into the puppy bin. The dame learned very fast and trusted me.


The last litter was 9 puppies and I have to divide the puppies into 2 batches for feeding. The first 2 weeks was a lot of work changing each batch on an hourly basis. The last feeding of the day was done at 2 am and the first feeding was done at 6 am.


When the puppies was 2 weeks' old, the dame's milk was not enough for 9 of them. I have to supplement with hand feeding them with goat's milk. Please do not supplement puppies with cow's milk.

With bottle feeding, we have to make sure :-
1) the milk flow very slowly from the bottle
2) that the puppy is held up so that the milk will not rush to their lungs. Otherwise it can be fatal.

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my

Well-Trained Doberman Puppies

Dobermann puppies are easy to trained. But, if you do not have a good understanding of the way dogs think and learn, training can be very difficult. You may wish to read my previous post on "Basic in Dog and Puppy Training".


This video below show a very well-trained dobermann puppy. Watch the way, command was given and how the trainer uses positive rewarding way to trained her puppy. Each time the puppy responded correctly to her command, the puppy is immediate given her reward and praise. Through repetition, the puppy respond to command is immediate.

Watch also this video, how the trainer walk in a commanding and lead his dog as a pack leader. No confusing command or action.

The basic in dog or puppy training is our body posture. Dogs read our body language. Do you have a commanding body posture as a leader? If not, your dog will look at you as a weak leader and would not take you as the pack leader.

For more information about Dobermann, visit us at Dobermann.com.my