[Leo's Human]

my name is vanessa. i have seen different post and many people seem to know alot about the breed. my grandma bought my puppy for $600 from a friend of a friend as a surprise gift. she doesnt know much about breeding and was trying to do something nice. i love my puppy very much, i have questions and no one to ask. i have researched the breed for awhile and was planning on buying one in the future but investing in a show dog because i wanted to start learning about showing because its something that always caught my interest. i also wanted to participate in schutzhund. i know my dear puppy is not show quality and i was wondering if he could be schuthund material. im also worried about him when i got him he was a just a tad thin but has fattend up since coming home with me. and the bones on his behind poke out a little bit could i perhaps take some pictures of him and email them to you so you could tell me the quality of doberman i have. not that it will affect my love at all i just wanted to know. we have a vet appointment next week as well. he's really a great puppy and learns fast i have been crate training him, and we have been working on his bite inhibitions. his ears stink a little for some reason. he has some pretty large paws and he is akc registered... could you pleas let me know what you think i would greatly appriciate it also how much does an average "pet" doberman cost? thanx again

 

[the_discowhore]

Welcome to the forum from New Zealand, I will try to answer a couple of your questions

i was wondering if he could be schuthund material.

Do you have a schutzhund club near you? I think your best bet would be to take him to be evaluated by an experienced trainer. Getting involved in any dog sports is a great start to prepare yourself for a show quality puppy later on in life, if you can prove your dedication by titling your dog in sport, it will make a breeder more confident about letting a show quality puppy come live with you. Even if your pup is not cut out for schutzhund, you will learn a great deal through doing obedience, agility, rally, tracking or some of the other many dog sports!

his ears stink a little for some reason.

What is he being fed on? Is he cropped or uncropped?


[/QUOTE]how much does an average "pet" doberman cost? thanx again[/QUOTE]
An average pet Doberman will cost in the range of $1,000-$2,000.

 

[Leo's Human]

thanx, i was told puppy chow and he is uncropped, i have called many many vet clinics and i am being very picky about his ears turns out i will have to drive about 2 hrs to a place i selected it a clinic the the breeders than angiesdobies use. i am changing his food to wellness, i hear its a good brand and yes there is a club near me but the said to wait about 7 months because a puppys mind isnt ready till hes older

 

[omikron]

Does your dog have pedigree papers? Morphology is important for show dogs but not for schutzhund. Also is an american or a european type doberman? $600 for a dobie is not much and probably not from a champion bloodline but do you know how many people own dogs and just because they don't care about shows nobody thinks they are valueble but in fact they are better than many champions? So don't give your hopes up

 

[mmctaq]

Does your dog have pedigree papers? Morphology is important for show dogs but not for schutzhund. Also is an american or a european type doberman? $600 for a dobie is not much and probably not from a champion bloodline but do you know how many people own dogs and just because they don't care about shows nobody thinks they are valueble but in fact they are better than many champions? So don't give your hopes up

Morphology is unimportant for Schutzhund? I don't think so! The breed standard exists as a blueprint for the ideal animal to fulfill a purpose... in the Doberman's case, it describes proper working structure. How is that unimportant for the working sports? A dog with improper structure will physically break down.

You need to watch your generalizations. "Nobody thinks they [pet dogs, I assume] are valuable"? Really? A lot of people would take exception to this... a lot of people would be insulted by this! And, in what way are non-show dogs BETTER than many champions?

This may be one of the weirder posts I have read today...

 

[mmctaq]

thanx, i was told puppy chow and he is uncropped, i have called many many vet clinics and i am being very picky about his ears turns out i will have to drive about 2 hrs to a place i selected it a clinic the the breeders than angiesdobies use. i am changing his food to wellness, i hear its a good brand and yes there is a club near me but the said to wait about 7 months because a puppys mind isnt ready till hes older

Many dogs have an intolerance to certain grains, corn and wheat being probably most common. Some of the typical results of consuming an inappropriate grain are ear infections, itchy paws, other itchies. The first (primary) ingredient of Puppy Chow is corn. Wellness is decent food... get your pup switched promptly!

You might post your location and ask here for recommendations for ear croppers. A lot of vets, even vets who do a lot of ears, do not do particularly good jobs. You will only have this done once, and you will hopefully be living with the results for many, many years... buy a good job and do well with the aftercare... nice ears are worth it!

If you are serious about Schutzhund, get some info now on raising a sport dog. Most folks who intend to do this or similar sports with their pups will raise the pups some differently than pet pups are raised. Look up Ivan Balabanov and Michael Ellis... they both have info out there (videos and such) on raising pups properly. For example, the bite inhibition training you are doing now would probably not be advisable with a sport puppy.

 

[omikron]

Morphology is unimportant for Schutzhund? I don't think so! The breed standard exists as a blueprint for the ideal animal to fulfill a purpose... in the Doberman's case, it describes proper working structure. How is that unimportant for the working sports? A dog with improper structure will physically break down.

You need to watch your generalizations. "Nobody thinks they [pet dogs, I assume] are valuable"? Really? A lot of people would take exception to this... a lot of people would be insulted by this! And, in what way are non-show dogs BETTER than many champions?

This may be one of the weirder posts I have read today...

Not everyone cares about shows and championships. Many people buy dogs from good breeders paying thousands of euros and nobody sees those dogs untill they die. Between those dogs there are many who could beat champion bloodlines. Capish? Now I don't know what is the person he bought the dog, if he has pedigree, etc. Questions being asked and everyone has his opinion. I don't see why would someone get insulted by my post. Is it like am not speaking the truth or am I attacking a group of people or dogs with intention to prove they are incapable? Dude, its a forum and people can say whatever they want, freedom of speech you know? I am not a politician to be liked by everyone.

 

[Reds]

Have the vet take a look at those ears to make sure no infection is present. You will not want to have the ears cropped if the puppy is dealing with an ear infection.

I paid $400 for my very first dobe, he was the best I ever had. I would not purchase a puppy from a byb breeder ever again due to various reasons, but don't get too hung up on where your puppy came from at this point. Just take good care and Leo, enroll him in a good puppy class and have fun with him. Once he's older you can figure out what you want to do with him.

Don't forget to post lots of pictures of you cutie!

 

[LindaH]

The best advice I can give you is to read and read DT as there is a wealth of information on here. Grandmothers are wonderful and your must love you very much. Most of us started out w/byb puppies and they sold us on the breed. Just do better with your next purchase. If you want to do schutzhund, ask the trainer how to raise your pup as they are raised with different rules. You need to find out now. Try asking down in the training section as their might be some schutzhund peeps down there. You can also do obedience, agility, rally and other sports. Be sure to mention the ears to the vet his next appointment. Pet pups from show breeders are $1000-2000 and bad breeders can charge that amount, too. So dont think price equates quality, far from it. Without proper stacked pics it is hard to evaluate a pup. Besides, a pup grows all wonky. Try taking a good stacked pic at 6 months for us. You could try to catch him in a natural stack when he is looking at something. Best wishes to you. Read, read, read. Dont spank.

 

[RedFawnRising]

Does your dog have pedigree papers? Morphology is important for show dogs but not for schutzhund. Also is an american or a european type doberman? $600 for a dobie is not much and probably not from a champion bloodline but do you know how many people own dogs and just because they don't care about shows nobody thinks they are valueble but in fact they are better than many champions? So don't give your hopes up

So much wrong in this post, hard to know where to start.

Not everyone cares about shows and championships. Many people buy dogs from good breeders paying thousands of euros and nobody sees those dogs untill they die. Between those dogs there are many who could beat champion bloodlines. Capish? Now I don't know what is the person he bought the dog, if he has pedigree, etc. Questions being asked and everyone has his opinion. I don't see why would someone get insulted by my post. Is it like am not speaking the truth or am I attacking a group of people or dogs with intention to prove they are incapable? Dude, its a forum and people can say whatever they want, freedom of speech you know? I am not a politician to be liked by everyone.

Hmm, I'm sniffing eau du troll, at this point--correct use of an anglicized word, but misspelled...syntax changes, hot buttons, yep, this one is fishy.

...Read, read, read. Dont spank.

Possibly the best puppy-raising advice ever posted on here

 

[DreamValley]

If his ears stink he may have an infection. Does he have any dark discharge there?
Do you clean his ears? Do you know how to do it?

 

[MsMoppett]

Also, your pup is very, very young to be away from his mother. I'm sure your vet knows this. You may have to supplement his diet, especially if he came to you scrawny already.

When switching the puppy food, PLEASE take your time, as it's worse to change foods too fast and cause stomach disruption. Start mixing just a little new food with the old, add more little by little and less of the old little by little until the full switch his made.

 

[mmctaq]

When switching the puppy food, PLEASE take your time, as it's worse to change foods too fast and cause stomach disruption. Start mixing just a little new food with the old, add more little by little and less of the old little by little until the full switch his made.

The pup isn't even seven weeks old now... how used to anything could a pup get in that time? All things considered (Puppy Chow!), if this was my pup I would just ditch the old food and fill up the bowl with new food.

Changing foods is NOT a bad thing! When I still fed kibble, I used to switch between half a dozen foods with no transition period at all. What can happen is that if you only ever feed one food, you can sort of "train" the digestive system to become inflexible. I think this inflexibility is a bad thing, and routinely advise people against feeding the same thing for any length of time. Eating something different every day is normal and natural, and should not cause any kind of disruption... it is eating the same thing every day which is kind of weird, if you think about it.

 

[RedFawnRising]

The pup isn't even seven weeks old now... how used to anything could a pup get in that time? All things considered (Puppy Chow!), if this was my pup I would just ditch the old food and fill up the bowl with new food.

Changing foods is NOT a bad thing! When I still fed kibble, I used to switch between half a dozen foods with no transition period at all. What can happen is that if you only ever feed one food, you can sort of "train" the digestive system to become inflexible. I think this inflexibility is a bad thing, and routinely advise people against feeding the same thing for any length of time. Eating something different every day is normal and natural, and should not cause any kind of disruption... it is eating the same thing every day which is kind of weird, if you think about it.

I would have to agree with the above advice, and add that even with adult rescue dogs I've rarely, if ever, had digestive upsets when--and this part is key--upgrading to a much better quality kibble. I've always done "cold-turkey" switches to better food, when medically safe to do so.

I suspect the reverse is NOT true, and if you were suddenly to switch to craptastic food like Purina Puppy Chow, from a good kibble, you'd have all sorts of troubles.

 

[mmctaq]

Hmm, I'm sniffing eau du troll, at this point--correct use of an anglicized word, but misspelled...syntax changes, hot buttons, yep, this one is fishy.

I dunno. Much of the world is different from the U.S., and English as a second language is difficult.

I have re-read this post a lot of times. It is possible that I mis-interpretted some of it.

The morphology part I did not, but might be willing to concede a bit, anyway. This after remembering an article I read some time ago by a very old-time Saluki guy who was one of the last true dogmen. In the article, he talked about many individual animals with glaring conformational faults who nonetheless in many cases would outperform more correct animals. He theorized some about the reasons for this, and what some of the individual faults may have leant to certain aspects of performance. It was a fascinating article, and almost guaranteed to give conformation folks nightmares LOL!

The part about unseen dogs being superior to champion dogs I think I may have misunderstood. If it is true in the part of Southern Europe where he lives that a breeder is willing to sell the best pup in the litter without any obligation to get that pup out and seen, then I am wondering if this is what was meant. In the U.S., at least, such pups tend to come with contractual obligation to show and title them... if such pups end up in European backyards of folks who can afford them but are content to keep them as pets, then what was written could be a valid point, and I misunderstood.

 

[mmctaq]

if you were suddenly to switch to craptastic food like Purina Puppy Chow, from a good kibble, you'd have all sorts of troubles.

Well, yeah... and, you'd totally deserve it LOL!

 

[LindaH]

What would it hurt to do a slow switchover? I dont know how long this pup has been eating puppy chow. Maybe he was weaned onto it beginning at 4 wks. If you have ever had a dog with a screaming projectile diarrhea, caused by an immediate switch in kibble, where the dog actually hollars with pain then you know how awful and guilt you feel over just slamming a dog onto another food, even one that is part of his rotation diet. A slow switch wont hurt anything, but an immediate changeover could disrupt this pups digestive system. That is my opinion resulting from past bad experience anyway.

 

[LindaH]

Been meaning to give you, OP, the name of the best ear cropper around Houston. Gianna Crouch at Park Animal Clinic in Katy. Supposed to be close to Houston. Dont know if anyone has given you her name yet, but I believe she does crops for the show breeders around that area. You 2n get her number off the internet.

 

[LindaH]

It is Grand Park Animal Clinic, Gianna Crouch at Katy. Found phone number, 281-392-3127.

 

[SReed912]

A little off topic, but there has been some discussion earlier on this thread about Purina puppy chow.....I was wondering what people's thoughts were about the Purina Pro Plan puppy chow as this is what I have been feeding my boy.