Back in the 70's it was a popular breed of dog. Now it's the pit bull that's a popular guard dog. Anyone seen a doberman recently?
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Whatever Happened to the Doberman Pinscher?
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I see them all the time.
i have seen them, it just depends what people are into at the time. pischers are a lot more work.
Not as often as I would like but yes from time to time. They are great loving dogs, so are pit bulls. I really enjoy both breeds, I agree too with the guy above me, rotties are fantastic dogs too….there are no bad breeds…just bad owners
yep – I see loads
Luckily these days most people who own Dobermans are responsible owners who care for them, train them and keep them under control. They have the dogs in their homes, in fenced yards and on leashes. Dobes are not used to guard crack houses or for dog fighting, so you will not be finding them on page one or in an episode of COPS. Dobermans are alive and well, but no longer the dog of choice for the wrong people.
there r several over where i live. 1 is an albino doberman
i see them around often. but you are right, pits are gaining popularity and rotts and dobbies aren’t being bred as frequently. i think there are just too many irresponsible pitbull owners, and people who want to breed them just to make a buck. The owners of rotts and dobbies are more responsible with less back yard breeders, thus less of them around.
pits are a big fad, but it’s alright with me XD i love pits!
As I own 2 and my g/f 1 I see them frequently. There are many in rescues awaiting their furever homes. Popularity, in general, hurts a breed, more than normal irresponsible breeders breed defective dogs who end up homeless and put to death for poor temperament and poor health.
They are popular- just not among the morons who buy a dog and expect it to be a trained guard dog.
Thank God, now they’re more popular in mainstream America, among responsible owners for the most part. There are still some morons with them though.
There are plenty off dobermans in my community. In fact, a client where I work just brought home a new puppy after the death of their old dobe. And I see them all the time at the dog park. They were the fad of the 70′s…and in case you haven’t noticed the 70′s are over. ALL fads pass, some more quickly than others. These days the people choosing to keep dobermans are more likely to do it because they’ve researched the breed and have decided that it is the dog for them and their lifestyle rather than because it is the “cool” “tough” breed. Pit bulls are the new fad among morons who should never own any kind of dog, let alone a large powerful breed such as a pitbull or dobe. This too shall pass, in time. One of the other strong breeds such as the dogue de bordeaux or presa canario will become the dog du jour in the next ten years or so.
I don’t see them a lot, but I do see them and they are just as beautiful and graceful as ever.
as I breed dobes yes I’ve seen them recently. Dobermans were one of the most popular breeds in the 70′s, Magnum PI added to that, but with demand came very poor breeding, a lot of health problems and temperament issues. dobe breeders have become very protective of their dogs, to reduce this problems and reduce the number of poor dobes that end up in rescues (the number is huge, especially dogs from byb). You also need to realize the number of recognized breeds has increased and now of course the popularity of “doodles” has decreased the demand for dobes. But there are still a lot of people wanting dobes, I regularly get calls, but as I only breed one litter a year, I have to turn most people away.
1. The rep in the 70′s and 80′s about the Doberman Pinscher as a snarling beast of a guard dog that will snap your leg off has always been overdone–especially for the American versions of this breed. Seriously, I bet all of us who are over 30 can recall at least 5 moves where the Dobermans were the guard dogs in the store at night or the junkyard or wherever someone was breaking into.
All the Doberman owners I know talk about how their dogs love to go jogging or running, and then spend the rest of the day lounging, maybe coming up now and then to say “I love you pops!” and then lay down again, watch everything but otherwise be a very mellow dog. Dobermans haven’t changed, it’s just that we don’t have quite as many movies portraying them as snarling attack dogs blindly going after anything that moves.
2. I see plenty of Doberman Pinschers around.
3. Anyone who buys a dog because it’s popular or the “in” dog is a fool and likely to be a bad dog owner. I feel for the poor AmStaffs who get purchased because someone wants a “tough dog” or wants to look cool or is looking for protection. 10-20 years ago, JRTs were popular and that led to a lot of puppymill production (which hurt the quality of the breed–a lot of bad stock got perpetuated and that has also contributed to the rep that JRTs are hyperactive and stubborn dogs–a good JRT isn’t hyperactive and is smart.)
4. If you look at the lists of “most popular dogs” in America, while the top dog on the list has varied from decade to decade (beagle, lab, cocker spaniel, poodle), the top dogs tend to remain near the top. In terms of numbers bred and sold, the Doberman Pinscher or the pit bull breeds have never been the top dog. And frankly, that’s a good thing. Because when a dog breed does become fadish, like I said, you rev up the puppy mill action and a lot of bad versions of this breed get produced.
<<<< Here is one & I also have another. You are exactly right. Back in the 70's the Dobies was the dog the thugs wanted by their side & many were made vicious. I am so glad they are not in that category any more because as the Pits are today, the Dobermans got the bad rap. All dogs, Dobermans & Pits are what people train them to be. I have the Dobies & my daughter has the Pits.
You do see more Pits around now a days than the Dobermans, but they are out there.
We used to have a Doberman called Crystal. Beautiful dog, both in looks & temprement.
Let’s face it, a Pit Bull would never win a beauty contest would it? Ugly looking animal.
They’ve become a status symbol, all though what they say about the status of the owner I dread to think.
Dogs become fashion accessories. I remember in the 60s, if you could walk down the Kings Road with an Afghan & an Afghan coat on your back you were “IT”. How pretentious we must have looked.
I have 3!!!
Actually, I’m really glad they are no longer the “it dog” for macho men.
The popularity in the 70′s was very damaging to the breed and their reputation. They really are wonderful dogs in the right homes. It has taken a lot of work by REAL doberman people to get the attention off of them to try and repair the damage done by their popularity.
There are still plenty out there though. Thousands in rescue and many in puppymills and bred by backyard breeders. Dobies also started to have a lot of health problems, in part because of their popularity. So that has contributed to their decline in the last 30 years.
Again, I’m not sad they aren’t more popular, popularity and publicity is the downfall of any breed. Labs, Dalmatians, German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Pitt Bulls are some of the breeds who’s popularity has been a bad thing, of course, there are many others… Now it’s the “designer dogs” and “teacups” who are taking the hit. True breed people are devastated by the popularity of expensive mutts. It’s awful and more and more are ending up in kill shelters, not to mention health problems and poor conditions in puppymills. It’s very sad what happens when a breed becomes popular.
They are all over – the breed rescue is filled with them and they are often euthanized in local shelters. I have four in my house right now and there is no ‘shortage’ of them — there is, as there was in the seventies, a limited amount of properly bred, good quality ones but that will always be. The height of popularity was in the late sixties and through the seventies into the eighties but they are still very much around and nothing has ‘happened’ to them except they are not as popular as they once were, thank goodness!
add: The breed’s popularity during that time did not ‘damage the breed’ – those that know and care about the breed will always know and care and breed properly and there will always be those fools that breed ignorantly just to sell a popular breed. The poorly bred ones didn’t ‘damage’ the properly bred ones and good breeders didn’t and don’t include them in their breeding programs. The reputation of the breed was poor from its introduction into this county many years before their increased popularity.
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