[Seoushi]

I've been looking into get a dog (for quite awhile) and the Doberman is the next breed on my list to look into. If anyone can tell me if this breed would suit me or perhaps guide me a little bit on my decision that would be great.

Anyhow, I'm a college student and I'm usualy gone for 4-5 hours for work then come home for an hour or so then head to class for 2-3 hours then I'm mostley at home for the rest of the night. I don't work weekends but I usualy hang out with friends or have them come over for part of the day. I also rent housing as I can't afford a house of my own right now and every single place I've had doesn't have a fensed yard so I doubt I will get one in the future. I also live with three other roommate and plan to atleast have one other roommate until I get my own place.

So now that you know a little about my situation my questions are:
1) Does the doberman handle being alone for hours at a time? I don't want to make my neighbor angry by having a whiney dog.
2) Is not having a yard really ok? I was planning on walking the dog for 30 minutes to an hour on weekdays and then taking him/her to the park on weekends.
3) Are dobermans friendly? I know there is always the view that they hate everyone except thier masters (tv, movies, etc) but from the reading I know this not to be true. What I really want to know is how they react to guests.
4) Would raising a puppy be a horrible idea? I've looked at the local rescues and I didn't find something that suited me so I figure the next best thing would to be getting one from a breeder. I also have had experiance with dogs before (grew up with a weimaraner).

I'm sure there is some I forgot to ask (there always is) but those are my major questions. If there are other concerns or questions for me then feel free to ask.

Thanks much for bearing with my long post.
-Sean

 

[Seoushi]

Thanks everyone for the informative comments. They are mostley what I expected to hear so thats good.

At this point my only real concerns are the bad-dog image and the fact that I might raise a bad dog. I think I could pull it off tho. A lot of places here do have breed restrictions on what kinda pet you can have which I'm sure would put a damper on thing, although I heard of people telling thier landlords that thier dog was a mixed breed when it was realyl a GSD and they didn't know (not sure if I would like to lie like that however). I'll just have to think about this some more.

As for other breeds I'm interested in, well I've basically just been going down the list at dogbreedinfo.com and checking out dogs that fit my critera. Right now the only other breed that I feel may be a match is the welsh corgi, but I have a lot of other breeds to look into still. My problem is that I like the personality of the high energy dogs but don't feel I could take care of one in my state (huskies, old english sheepdog, malamutes, etc).

I'll add more to this when I return from work but I'm gonna be late if I don't stop typing. Thanks again for the input.

 

[Seoushi]

Again, thanks for all the information. While I'm still interested in getting doberman sometime in the future I'm leaning towards not getting one right now. I talked to my landlord about getting a dog and looked arround the internet at apartments. My landlord said that he usualy doesn't allow bigger dogs as they tear up stuff more and the fact that there is no yard. Apartments usualy say small dogs only or a weight limit of 25 pounds or so. So my conclusion is that if I get a doberman I'm gonna have a harder time finding a place and it might be too expensive or in a bad location for me. I'm fine with waiting till I finaly buy a place to get a bigger dog, for now I'm looking more closely at that corgi and a few terrier breeds.

Thanks for your guys time and help,
-Sean

 

[Seoushi]

Yeah, I didn't want to be one of those people who just rush into getting a dog thinking thier life will be the same and all they have to do is feed him/her. Generaly I tend to research things before I get too involved, I guess being an Engineer does that to you hah. Thanks for the compliments (everyone that gave them).

-Sean