Hello

729 Views 10 Replies 10 Participants Last post by the_discowhore, Oct 10, 2011

jbreed1987

Discussion Starter · Oct 9, 2011

Got our first Dobie(Cocoa) as a family pet. He is 12 almost 13 weeks. Getting his ears cropped this week. I was told by the Breeder that the father was like 32" and over 100lbs, but after reading on here his dad seems too big. Hopefully this won't run into problems later!! Should have done some research, but it was mainly for my wife and daughter since I might be getting deployed sometime soon.

Any comments would be nice. I have been reading this site some to see what I should be doing as far as food and health evaluations. The dog will not be in shows, or anything like that. I go running every morning so the most he will do is run with me.

Also, I tried to get the dog to stand like I see in pictures all the time.. damn most of you must have a TON of patience or I'm just lacking the experience.. probably both.

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ShelianDobe

· #2 · Oct 9, 2011

Welcome to you and Cocoa from Michigan.

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PatchworkRobot

· #3 · Oct 9, 2011

Congrats on your new puppy and welcome from TX!

Most people recommend to not do any forced running until a dog is full grown around 18 months to 2 years of age. It's better for their joints and bone growth.

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robinb

· #4 · Oct 9, 2011

Welcome!

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jbreed1987

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 9, 2011

PatchworkRobot said:
Congrats on your new puppy and welcome from TX!

Most people recommend to not do any forced running until a dog is full grown around 18 months to 2 years of age. It's better for their joints and bone growth.

Ok thanks for that info.

I walked not even 1/4 mile when he was 8 weeks taking my daughter to our neighborhood park and he was stopping under every shade tree refusing to walk lol acting like he was going to have a heat stroke. Ended up carrying him.

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dax0402

· #6 · Oct 9, 2011

Hi and welcome to forum from PA. Best of luck with your new puppy.

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Darkevs

· #7 · Oct 9, 2011

Hello and Welcome to DT!

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dobebug

· #8 · Oct 9, 2011

Hey! For an outright novice you did a pretty good job of stacking that puppy.

I'm just going by the number of people who tell me about all of their giant Dobermans and those owned by their relatives and suggest you not worry about size at this point. A lot of those dogs that people think are 30 inches or 32 inches tall just plain aren't and a good many of the "My dog weighs 120 pounds" have dogs that are either hog fat or they haven't actually weighed them and it's just a bragging point.

Beyond me why people tend to think that bigger is better.

Yeah, go easy on those long walks until he's somewhat older. He has growth plates that need to close before he does a lot of forced exercise (like jogging with you) particularly on hard surfaces like cement and asphalt.

Welcome to the group.

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ZeldaRules

· #9 · Oct 10, 2011

Welcome from TX. Grats on your new pup, Dobermans are amazing companions

I'm glad you are sticking around and wanting to learn. Bigger is definitely not better in this medium sized working breed for health and structural reasons. There are breeds like Great Danes and Mastiffs for people who want a really big dog, I hate to see a breeder reeling in the unsuspecting public with their size marketing gimmicks. The good news is there are so many educated and experienced dobie people on here who you can truly absorb some great knowledge from to raise your Doberman up right and to make better informed choices in the future regarding the breed. DT is great and I hope you like it here, and please keep sharing photos!