What got you started? - Doberman Forum : Doberman Breed Dog Forums

WorkingDobie · 12-29-2012, 12:31 PM

I noticed a lot of people on this forum do some type of competitive working sports with their Dobermans, I was just wondering how everyone got started.

In our case when we got Princess 3 1/2 years ago, after puppy class and basic Obedience we realized that she was so smart that we needed to keep challenging her and continue doing something with her that she really seemed to enjoy. Having never been to any type of event we decided to try Rally, well 2 1/2 years later are still at it and training all our dogs to eventually compete in some type of event.

The whole family loves our new hobby, now our vacations are planned around dog events or places we can have our dogs with us. I don't think most our family and friends understand our new lifestyle but we couldn't be happier.

Michael

the_discowhore · 12-29-2012, 12:57 PM

When I was 12 we had two dogs, Poppy the Dobe and an elderly GSD... when the GSD passed away poor Poppy seemed very depressed and bored. One day I saw a flyer for agility at the vets, took it home and off we went to agility classes - have not looked back since

VZ-Doberman · 12-29-2012, 12:59 PM

I saw agility on tv and thought that it looked like fun.

Rally happened when a woman I ran into at Petsmart told me about it.

Beaker · 12-29-2012, 01:35 PM

When we decided to adopt a doberman we knew it needed to be well trained. Neither my husband nor I had ever formally trained dogs before so we started going to classes with our hound. The hound loved it, I started competing as a project for my "little" (I volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters) and I to do together.

The doberman is still a work in progress, sometimes she seems to be a dream and other times the classes are just work!

I'll continue to go to obedience classes etc... with my dogs to give them some structure and something to do.

Jazi · 12-29-2012, 02:28 PM

Growing up I watched the Eukanuba Animal Planet special along with various shows on various dog spots, read dog breed reference books, etc rather religiously and since we had registered GSDs (byb, but papered) my ignorant child mind was convinced that I was going to take them and prance around on TV in those shows when I got older.

Obviously that didn't happen, but I've still got my eye on dog sports.

Rosemary · 12-29-2012, 09:48 PM

I wanted to to obedience for years, but never had a purebred AKC dog (Ratties were not rcognized when I got Lucky). Then, a couple of years ago, the AKC rolled out their Canine Partners mixed breed program. Hmmm...... spayed mutt bitch: Check. Canine Partners application filled out: check. Insane quest for obedience and rally titles on a dog patently unsuited for such pursuits: check. Results to date: one BN, one RE, and 2/3 of a CD.

Australdi · 12-29-2012, 10:01 PM

Having had a working dobe in my late 20's to late 30's, I knew how much work those levels of drive could be. Back then luckily, I was young, energetic and was out camping all the time and my dobe went everywhere with me.

Suddening finding myself with a working terrier x under the age of 2 and being much less energetic thanks to residual disability from a fall from my horse....I knew I had to find an "occupation" for the little terriorist. His natural ability at running twisting and jumping makes me think he had the potential to be an agility star. ....all our training so far is getting him ready for agility, but he's doing really well in all he does so far (obedience, rally-o) I'll also try him with tracking as well as agility....then let him pick which sport he enjoys the most and does best at. He's one of those all round sports dogs that seems to excell at everything...except concentration! LOL a bit of everything at the moment is suiting his ADD personality.

PorschaLei · 12-29-2012, 10:27 PM

Kratos has a point on his Akc confirmation Ive been showing for around 10yrs but this is my first dobe in the ring i would like to add some obedience titles soon

Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App

Cathy43 · 12-30-2012, 06:36 AM

It was over 20 yrs ago and I had my first pet dobe. When I have an interest, I like to immerse myself fully in it but I live in a very rural area. That led me to dobe magazines which lead me to find the closest all-breed club. Some of the same people were also in a Dog training club in the same city. Lucky for me, that was a very active show-giving club. Since I like to compete, it was a natural progression.

Beaumont67 · 12-30-2012, 08:31 AM

When I was 21, my wife and I wanted a dobe and the only one we had seen in the flesh was a big male and fully security trained.
- how you say probably with a wooden 2x4
I asked the owner if I could walk him down the block, a little bit and when he looked up at me, I was thinking this boy could eat me (LOL) if he didn't like me. The owner saw my insecurity to and advised me to buy a puppy instead of a full grown dobe.

We found a good breeder in their 80 years of age, that confirmation showed their dobes for decades (house full of trophies) and bought our puppy girl Tanya from them.
The next summer we found a real good trainer and professional handler and took 27 straight weeks confirmation/OB training (both on & off leash) while practicing together 6 days/week - we followed this work up with a few shows in confirmation and obedience.
- OB trials were more to our liking and we obtained high scores, but I was not confident in confirmation and it clearly showed / so a learning experience

Second dobe Amy...I trained her privately and I had a work friend seriously competing in agility that said my dobe could not be titled in OB, since she hadn't had the distractions of class training with other dogs.
So for fun and a few years after our early training we practiced OB for a week and competed in a novice obedience one weekend (to prove a point) and acquired 3 passing scores (with one 2nd & 3rd place finish).
- we went to agility class with Amy, but she didn't like it, so we stopped after the intro. classes finished

Kelly and our third puppy will be OB trained by myself and shown to get her title, that is the goal. No additional plans beyong that, right now.

**dax0402** · 12-30-2012, 03:52 PM

I never had any interest in competitions until we got Baron and got hooked up with this terrific and wonderful trainer. She nudged us along and we actually did better than I ever would have expected. Even DH got into it!

Adara · 12-31-2012, 10:06 AM

A friend started agility. I was bored and went and watched. It seemed very interesting but I wasn't positive. Then Dobe breeder was doing it. We went to Nationals and they took me to the top 20 agility event...oh it was ON after that

mfkelly66 · 12-31-2012, 11:39 PM

I started learning and training dogs 36 yrs ago. I was 10 and my Dad was a Sergeant in the NYPD Bomb Squad. The NYPD was one the first police departments to get these sniffer dogs! They got 2 - a lab named Sally and a GSD named Brandy. I got to do kennel cleaning and their handlers started to teach me about dogs and training. Thats when the fire got lit, for me. I started training and learning from them on and I am still learning to this day! I got very lucky, as after becoming a NYCity Police officer myself, I eventually wound up the head trainer and kennel master for the NYPD Bomb Squad, taking things full circle. Nothing gets me going more than watching a dogs light go on - that time when you know they GET IT! Thats how it all started for me and why it still continues to this day.
Happy New Year!
Mike Kelly

AgileDobe · 01-01-2013, 12:28 AM

I had always been interested in agility. Even before I ever got serious about agility we had all of the equipment and had some fun with it. I joined 4-H after that and was part of the Dog Project where we did Showmanship, Obedience and Agility. It really peaked my interest in dog sports and after randomly meeting an AKC agility judge I decided to give it a try. I have been hooked ever since.

About a year after I started competing in agility, I started in junior showmanship. I worked hard in juniors and decided to venture into the breed ring. I ended up with a wonderful girl I finished owner handled.

It's now been 7.5 years since I started and I am now at shows 45+ weekends a year between agility and breed. There has been a smattering of obedience and rally over the years too. The number of dogs in my family has grown from two to five and I have progress to teaching classes.

Things have changed a little bit! Dog shows have brought some incredible people into my life (some who are no longer with us) and have taught me many life lessons over the years.

mangomunchyz · 01-01-2013, 01:32 AM

3 years ago, I went to a CGC class with my first Dobe.. trainer had a Malinois and after witnessing his amazing heelwork/obedience, I knew that I wanted to do competitive sports with my dog

alwayshadpets · 01-01-2013, 02:42 AM

I have always wanted to work/train dogs even as a little girl. Read every book in the library and my poor (not really he loved it) was a dog we rescued from a not very good neighborhood home named Popeye (whom I trained from a book). He was a great dog, saved us from an attempted break in, in our home at the time--thats another story.

Many years later (when I was all grown up, married with a family of my own. my sister presented me with a doberman puppy when my youngest was in diapers--she said we needed a dog in the family. From than on we always had a doberman. I dabbled with training, but nothing serious. Too busy chasing kids and their dreams.

Than I retired early and decided I would get (my current dobe had died) a doberman puppy (Tamora) and do what I wanted to do. Took awhile to find the right instructors--I wanted a competitive instructor not a pet instructor. Started out with OB (which I still dabble in) met a woman who was taking an OB class I was in, but really did agility. I took an agility class and fell in love with agility. At the time I thought I would continue down the hard core OB path and dabble in agility, but it ended up being the other way around.

Tamora was my learn everything on dog and I still can`t believe I have taken her to the top in agility, with only me showing her.

What a thrill.