my
little bundle of joy felt I was staying in the shower too long and
decided my comforter needed a hole in the middle...............
As is always the case with Dobes, there is a funny story along with the
"bad dog" story....
When I opened the shower door she was not there as usual, I walked into
the bedroom, she was not on the bed as usual and there was the hole in
the comforter...
I found her lying on the family room sofa, head down, eyes up as if to
say "it was not me"............
Joey
The Underwear Wonder Dog
People tried to warn us, "Doberman's love things that
smell like their owners". Of course they do. All dogs
like things that smell like like their owners, don't
they? Little did we know when sweet, tiny Madde came
home with us that our laundry would never be safe
again...
First off, I acknowledge that I'm not the worlds most
fantastic housekeeper. This doesn't mean that we're
terribly messy. Like most people we occasionally have
clothes that don't find their way straight to the
hamper. Not a big deal right? That's what we thought
too. As is turns out, Madde's favorite thing in the
whole world is socks. The dirtier and smellier they
are, the more she loves them. It started when she was
small. She would get ahold of one and, after a victory
lap or two, start trying to see how many holes she could
put in it. Annoying for sure but not dangerous. At
least we live in Arizona and wear a lot of flip flops.
As she got older, her habit switched from chewing to
swallowing. The first time this happened it nearly
scared me to death. I can't begin to tell you how
frightening it is to wake up at 3am with your 4 month
old puppy shaking uncontrolably and giving you a look
that says "Somethings wrong, please make my belly stop
hurting!". My thought was automatically, "Oh no, she
ate a sock and it's stuck". I panicked of course and
called her breeder and another friend who manages a
veternary office. She was still drinking water and
keeping it down so they advised me to give her some time
to see if it passes.
Lucky for both of us after 5 hours of sitting and
waiting, the whole time imagining the emergency surgery
I was sure she was going to need, out came the sock! I
have never been so happy to see a dog go to the
bathroom. It was amazing that after it passed she was
completely back to normal. I had no idea at the time
that this was going to become a regular occurrence in
our life with Madde.
After this first scare we started to be more cautious.
Clothes didn't get left on the floor. If they didn't
make it to the basket they were set up on a counter or a
dresser. For any other dog this probably would have
been fine. With Madde, not so much. The next scare
came on Halloween night after attending a friends
party. I had dressed up as a witch, complete with red
fishnet stockings. Tired from a late evening, I
undressed and set the costume up on our dresser. We
finished locking up the house and returned to find Madde
in the bedroom looking at us innocently with an odd
little puff of red between her lips. My husband gasped
as we both realized what we were witnessing. She had
gotten a hold of my stockings and proceeded to gobble
them up just like the famous spaghetti noodle scene out
of Lady and the Tramp. He ran at her and before she
could slurp down that last little bit of stocking he
grabbed it and started pulling. It was like watching a
clown show at the circus. He pulled and pulled and
pulled until finally the end of the fishnet came out
with a hack. As funny of a sight as it was to see, we
both knew how lucky we were to have caught her in the
act. There was no way she would have been able to pass
something that size. We were so grateful for our good
timing that evening.
As she's grown, Madde's tastes have expanded to anything
underwear related. Now a days we have switched to a
covered hamper which stays behind a closed closet door.
She has stolen from every imaginable place, laundry
baskets, counters, sinks, closets, bags, backpacks. She
has even stolen from the covered clothes hamper. Not by
flipping open the lid like you might think, but by
sniffing out the desired item then nibbling and pulling
it out through the holes. I think she's singlehandedly
keeping Hanes in business at this point. We do our best
to keep things out of reach but when you have a Dobie
you come to the conclusion that most of the time they
can outsmart you... Especially if it's something they
want badly enough!
Just a few weeks ago we were lucky enough to welcome a
new four legged member into our family, a Red Doberman.
At a little more than a year and a half old, she is a
beautiful red female Doberman. However, her looks are
only one of the things that make her special. She is
one of the most affectionate, mellow,
sweet natured Dobies
that you’ll ever meet. Everyone that gets to know her
is immediately jealous that we share our home with such
a great girl.
Because of her gentle nature, she has gotten along
famously with our other 3 dogs. She and our Madde are
especially fond of each other. What they say about
opposites attracting evidently carries over to dog as
well. Don’t get me wrong, Madde is our princess and we
couldn’t love her more. On the other hand, she is
definitely the boss and what she says, goes. She’s not
always polite about it either. Despite this, the new
Red girl and Madde play together like they were raised
together. Their favorite toy is a terribly beat up old
4 legged squeaky toy who has lost 2 of its legs with the
other two not far behind. They tug to a chorus of
vicious sounding growls but it’s all just a game. If
one happens to let go, the other is right there shoving
the toy in their face like “C’mon we were just getting
started!”
We
noticed right away that she seemed to prefer soft,
cuddly toys. This is something we no longer have many
of at our house because of the other two Dobies. They
think the reason we give them stuffed toys is to make
stuffy murder scenes all over the house and back yard.
In contrast, she is not a shredder at all. She would
much rather take a soft floppy toy and bounce around
like a bucking bronco, shaking the toy up as she goes.
Then we noticed that’s not the only reason she likes
soft, cuddly things. The first time I saw her do this I
laughed so hard I nearly cried. It was bedtime and our
3
Dobes
were settling into the king size mattress that they
graciously let my husband and I share with them. We
were trying to get comfortable but the bed kept giggling
in one spot. Looking over, we see her with the corner
of our comforter fluffed into a little mound in between
her two front paws. At first I thought she was trying
to shred the blanket just as the other two dogs would
have been doing in the same situation. But no, there
she was with the mound of comforter in her mouth sucking
away on it while she kneaded the outside portion with
her front paws! This went on almost every night as her
way to fall asleep.
It
didn’t stop there though. One evening I was relaxing on
our Lazyboy with a light fleece blanket over my legs.
Oftentimes one of the girls will climb onto the
recliner to cuddle and she was acting like this was what
she wanted to do. She got her front half on my lap but
instead of hopping up the rest of the way she started
pawing at my legs. I tried to coax her up to get
comfortable with no luck. She just kept pawing at my
legs like she wanted me to move so I started to scoot
over. When I did this she leaned over, grabbed my
blanket in her mouth and started dragging it off of me.
Once she had gotten it down she gave me a look like,
“Thanks! That’s all I wanted” and went on to do her
bucking bronco routine shaking the blanket all over as
she went. After it was sufficiently shook up to her
liking, she plopped down in the middle of the living
room and pulled a tuft up in the middle with her mouth.
Sure enough she went to town, sucking away and kneading
like a nursing puppy. We have now gifted this blanket
to our Red girl and named it her “Binky”. Some people
have children who carry a blanket and suck their
thumbs. Evidently we’ve got the canine equivalent
living at our house!
Denise
The other morning Coco the
Doberman was trying to get me to wake up and pet her. I thought it too
early to be awake so I tried to ignore her. She started licking my face
so I covered it with a blanket. She then started with a real soft "woof"
when I ignored this she grabbed the corner of my blanket with her mouth
and yanked it off and pulled it away. Dobermans always seem to get what
they want.
Tyson
Like all Dobies, Java liked to sneak up for naps
on the sofa. As she got older, she became bolder and would do so in full
view of anyone in the room, despite being frequently chased off. She
particularly liked a very cushy recliner that she had discovered while
living with Sam, the father-in-law of her newlywed owner. One day, to
Java's great surprise and dismay, she found that her recliner was
occupied by Sam, who was watching TV with his wife, and despite many
nudgings and pleading looks, Sam refused to move to let her sit there
instead. "No, Java, this is my chair... you sleep on the floor", Sam
told her firmly. Java sat, reluctantly, and then got distracted as she
heard something outside. She quickly ran to the window, barking and
growling furiously at someone who had come to the front door. Java
usually barked when people came to the door, but this time it was pretty
clear from her tone that she was really upset with whoever it was. Sam
got up to see what was going on, but when he got to the window he found
there was no one at the door, or anywhere in view of the house at all
for that matter. He turned back to find Java up on his recliner, curled
up with her eyes closed, clearly not worried about anyone at the door or
otherwise. "Did she really do what I think she just did??" Java 1, Sam
0.
Earik
OK, I am owned by three Dobies and like others, am constantly amazed at
their intelligence, wit, and ability to make me laugh. I was wrapping
gift packages one evening under the supervision of Chaco, my fawn boy.
Chaco is undoubtedly the most people-pleasing dog I have ever known, of
any breed, and he was doing his darndest to help me with those packages.
"No, Chaco. Leave the paper alone."
"Chaco, leave the ribbons, please!"
You get the idea. A one-sided conversation to say the least. If it fell
on the floor, Chaco rushed to grab it before I did. We were doing fine
with my working and Chaco supervising until I opened a package of
festive plastic gold-painted raffia (like straw, only the modern
version, used in place of ribbon.) I should have seen it coming...Chaco
was absolutely fascinated by the golden, crinkly stuff. I elbowed him
back from the table a couple of times as he tried to climb into my lap
and sample the mysterious goodie. Finally, though, I was done and I
unsuspectingly stuffed the remainder of the raffia and the rest of the
trash into the wastebasket.
Chaco is well-trained to leave trash alone. So of course, you can see
where this is going....
I was sitting in my chair reading a few moments later when my happy boy
came to see me. I looked up from my book to see my big lovable clown
looking proudly at me...with his cheeks puffed out just like a hamster!
It didn't take rocket science to figure out what was in there...and so
the pursuit began. I frantically tried to get to the raffia before the
inevitable happened, but when I finally had him cornered and checked his
mouth...well...it was too late. I was instantly sick...was this going to
be the end of my beautiful baby boy?
No answer at the vet's. I'm a nurse, and I kept watching him for any
sign that he is poisoned or going to be sick, but no. He acts as if
nothing is wrong. His appetite is undiminished, and he is playing with
the other dogs. And while clouds may have silver linings...I can
honestly say that my dog-yard cleanup was "golden" for days afterwards!
I have found that our,
almost one-year-old, Rowdy love ice cubes. I will give him one for a
treat quite often. The other day I asked my grandson to fill his water
dish and when he brought it out he had put ice cubes in it. Knowing
Rowdy doesn't like to put his nose in the water and only drinks from the
edge of the bowl because of it, I started digging cubes out for him.
The next thing I knew he was sticking his entire snout in the water and
bobbing for them. He was good too and brought one up every time. It
was hysterical to watch!
Janice
So today my
youngest dobe decided to turn on my outdoor water facet! He decided to
paw at it the direction that turns it on. Finally he grabs the end of
the hose and starts shacking it, is he trying to tell me its time for a
bath or is it all fun and games, during his process he ended up getting
himself wet along with Francy!!! I couldn't help but watch this whole
process take place through my back door window. It was amazing to watch
how brilliant my dog truly is!! It also goes to show you how
smart Doberman's are, they are one smart turkey!!
Abi
My daughter Mandy and our last Dobie Lexie had a
Love/Hate relationship. Lexie was the most funniest Dobie I ever had,
she would smile & laught at us all the time, and she knew when to do it
!!!
One day
Mandy was trying to catch a few ZZ"s and of course Lexie wanted to Play,
and as you all know, Dobies never take NO for a answer right away, after
several more tries Lexie backed up to Mandy FACE LEVEL and "CUT THE
CHEESE" than turned around and flashed her the biggest smile and walked
away !!!!!! We all know they DO THINK and this proves they also have a
good sense of HUMOR !!!!! Denise
First a Dearly story—and by the way that was her officially
registered AKC name, proving that nothing fancy is required—she was just
Dearly because I loved her dearly. Though must say that I wavered a bit
on that. One night after getting home from work I let her out and was
in the process of feeding my other dobie, her mom, when I suddenly heard
frantic barking so rushed out and called her—and she came bounding
towards me WITH A SKUNK IN HER MOUTH!!! I screamed like a girl, causing
her to drop the skunk and continue her run towards me—and oh did she
smell—not sure what to do I tied her to a post on the patio so that I
check out the skunk since I didn’t want it charging us but it was quite
dead—meanwhile poor Dearly was frantically trying to rub the smell off
of her against the post which didn’t work at all. I had two problems at
that point—a dead skunk in the yard and a very, very smelly dog—who by
the way was totally an indoor dog so leaving her outside all night
wasn’t a good option—but neither was bringing her inside. By then it
was after 11 but decided de-smelling her was the first priority so off I
went to the nearest grocery to buy tomato juice, the only remedy I had
heard of in the days before the internet was available for other ideas.
As I loaded the checkout with six of the biggest cans they had the young
clerk asked me where the vodka was, assuming, I guess, that I was really
having a party. I explained that my dog had been sprayed by a skunk so
the juice was for her—at which point he got an odd look, sniffed, and
said, “Oh, yes I can tell”—then hurriedly rang up my juice so that I
could leave. I rushed home and poured the tomato juice all over her,
trying to rub it in and hoping that the tomato juice-skunk method was
all that I had heard. It was not. After using all six cans I was left
with a big dog smelling like a skunk and tomato juice—and by the way
this is not a good combination. I decided to put her in the garage for
the night—she would be safe and sort of inside until I could figure some
other plan. Meanwhile I still had a dead skunk in my yard which I was
certain either she or my other dobie would explore if given the chance
to do so. By now well after midnight so there was no one to call for
help—or support—but I had what seemed a great solution. Right at the
end of my street construction had just started on a new
subdivision—which initially meant lots of trucks adding and removing
dirt to make a nice smooth area for future yards and construction. The
trucks had been working for several days so I decided to take the skunk,
throw it in the field, and let the workers bury it when they started
work the next day. Off I went with this dead skunk on my
shovel—arriving at the job site I walked twenty feet or so in then flung
it as far as I could and ran home. Unfortunately, apparently this part
of the project was finished and no one returned to the job for over a
week, during which time a brand new—and really bad—smell permeated our
neighborhood. In moments of cowardice I just joined with the rest of my
neighbors in speculating what could possibly be causing that awful
smell—but it slowly dissipated to my relief. The next morning I had to
rush to work, planning to stop on the way home to find skunk odor
removing products. As I walked past the office area the secretary
looked a bit startled and a few minutes later came to my office door.
She asked me if I was okay--and of course I assured her I was. She
stood there a few seconds longer then said, “Uh, Dr. Betsy you sort of
smell bad—are you sure you aren’t sick?” I explained my skunk
problem—she immediately called her mom and told her we needed something
to help right away because apparently I really did smell like a skunk
too. Fortunately I found a product to work for my dog and for me—which
I kept on hand for many years. As a foot note, after one additional
encounter my dog-skunk days passed—until last summer, nearly 15 years
later. Ironically this particular morning I had talked with someone
about wildlife in the desert and told her my skunk story, which
surprised her because most people don’t even know skunks are here in
Arizona deserts. That night, my then 2 year old boy from Family Dobes
barked frantically to go outside around 11 or so and given his
insistence I thought he might have a potty need. He immediately started
barking and barking—and when I opened the door to call him in the odor
was unmistakable. Now neither before that night nor since then has this
boy shown much prey drive—but he was frantic in his attempts to catch
this skunk. I finally caught him instead and dragged him inside—much to
my husband’s sensitive nose distress. Of course I no longer had a ready
supply of skunk remedy so looked up my options online—the most common
one recommended combining baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and dish soap
then spreading it over your dog. Aside from the fact that I didn’t have
baking soda on hand, I was put discouraged from using this remedy by the
consistent warning to be careful because the mixture had been known to
explode. Not wanting to blow my dog up I ended up spraying him with a
dry shampoo sample I had gotten at some show, sprayed it on him and
pretty much left him in one room until morning. I now am back to
keeping a ready supply of skunk odor removers at home. And Arizona
skunks do not look at all like Pepe le Pew.
and here is my ultimate story of dobie--or any dog for that
matter--embarrassment
I do agility with my dobies and Sedona was my first agility dog--a
joyfully hyper dobie that ran every course with total exuberance. I
live in Phoenix, where in February 2006 a new agility venue called DOCNA
was founded by Jim Mills, who planned it as a more relaxed and fun venue
that would incorporate the best of all the agility organizations.
Jim had worked hard for several years to get the organization running
and the first official trial was held at a local park in conjunction
with a charity event. Many of us in Phoenix had worked hard promoting
the new organization and everyone was excited. When I found out Sedona
was to be the very first dog to run in the first trial, I was really
excited--I had dreams not just of her being the very first dog to run in
the very first official trial but also the first dog to get a qualifying
score and since we were the only 24" dog running we would surely be the
first dog to earn a first place ribbon. And the course was made to order
for my girl because not only did she get to do the beloved frame once
but twice. For those of you who aren't familiar with agility the frame
is made of two sides roughly 3 x 9 feet that are hinged together--the
center is usually 5'6" from the ground and the dog runs up one side and
down the other, with the requirement that they hit with at least one toe
the somewhere in the bottom three feet of the board going down. Sedona
absolutely loved the frame--it is the highest obstacle on the course and
offers a panoramic for dogs who want that or for those like my girl is a
place for launching with great speed towards whatever is next. We all
walked the course and then finally it was time. Jim Mills himself was
the judge for this inaugural event--and everyone was excited as we got
ready to start a brand new organization. And then the "GO" sounded and
off we went--over the frame, over jumps and across the walk, then
through a tunnel and back to the frame. Sedona was ahead of me, as
always--but as I ran to catch up I saw her stop on top of the frame--two
feet on the down side, two on the up side. "How cool," I thought,
assuming our work on contacts was showing. "She's waiting for me." So
I sped to the end of the frame--but she didn't come down. That was
definitely odd but I called her again--still didn't move--then something
caught my eye on the backside of the frame--something was rolling down
the frame as she stood there.There is no delicate way to say it--but she
was pooping right there on top of the frame, straddling the top.
Suddenly there was complete silence--and I looked over to see Jim
standing there with his mouth open--not a happy look. Then it seemed
everyone started moving at once, including Sedona who finally came off
the frame then stopped and continued to poop. People ran out to clean
up the frame while I continued to stand there waiting for her to
finish. Meanwhile I saw the leash runner taking my leash to the end of
the course. I yelled and frantically waved her towards me, assuming she
would bring me the leash so I could escape if my girl ever finished.
Instead the leash runner happily waved back and continued taking my
leash to the end of the course. I waved again--she waved back again
before finally realizing my predicament and bringing me the leash. By
then I had also realized that I had no baggies in my pocket to pick up
the additional poop at my feet but could not bring myself to ask for
one--so found a tiny piece of kleenex and wrapped all up as best I could
then quickly left the course. I'm pretty sure I went straight to my
tent, got my other dog, and the three of us escaped to my car until I
could sneak back to pack up. Later I was able to laugh at the whole
situation but right that moment I considered moving to another city and
changing all our names. I know other dogs poop on the course--but don't
know many who do so in the very first official run in the first official
trial of a new organization--from the top of the a-frame. Although I do
think it showed a great deal of agility skill to do what she did.
My girl Sedona
was by far the most difficult to train dobie I have seen but not because
she was so strong-willed or wanting to dominate me. She was just so
overflowing with this energy and exuberance that she didn't even process
those early obedience commands like sit or down--and telling her to stay
as you walked away was far beyond her capability for many years. It
wasn't that she didn't like doing obedience--in fact she delighted in
many of the tasks--just did them in her own way with no idea that wasnt
what I wanted. And of all the things her favorite had to be doing a
recall--you know, where you leave your dog and then call them to you.
She was always thrilled when I would call her to come to me and run as
fast as she could to get to me--but she didn't understand she was
supposed to stop when she arrived so I spent a good bit of the first 2-3
years of her life bracing myself for this 65 lb bundle of joy to hit me
at full dobie speed.Each time
whoever was the trainer of the day would say, "Hey, you shouldn't let
her hit you like that--she is supposed to stop," as if this was
something that wasn't perfectly clear anyway as I picked myself up off
the ground. I would explain that I understood this but did not know how
to stop her so without fail the trainer would offer to show me what to
do.After the first few times I knew what was going to happen and should
have warned the person--but each time they acted as if I clearly was a
dolt who didn't know how to deal with the most basic problem so I would
agree to the demonstration. Sure enough, Sedona would immediately
respond to their "come," running full speed at them. Each time the
trainer would raise a knee just as she arrived and seemed ready to
launch herself--but being a very bright girl she quickly figured this
out--so instead would side-step the knee and jump with her full weight
and speed on the person's back. At that point, they would quickly whirl
around and say, "what the heck" at which point Sedona would launch
herself at their chest--with no knee to interfere--sometimes the unlucky
person would turn again trying to figure out what had just happened
(assuming they were still on their feet) so she would once again jump on
their back. For her it quickly became a wonderful game where she got to
leap with joy not once but at least twice. The somewhat humbled person
usually would say, "Uh, she is kind of tough isn't she?" then quickly
walk away and never offer to help me again. After awhile I started using
this as a way of keeping in check the egos of any trainer who seemed
overly impressed with their skills--mostly only those who seemed not to
respect me or my girl. Over time Sedona even expanded the behavior to
include jumping on the back of anyone who she thought might want to play
the game, usually quite shocking to the poor person walking along
unaware. Eventually I worked with a wonderful woman who saw her
potential in agility and understood that Sedona wasn't being bad--just
wild--and finally timed things just right and caught her in the chest
one time with her knee. After that one successful knee to the chest
Sedona no longer jumped on people with such abandon--other than me of
course.
Karuna (Rune to his friends) is a wonderful
dobie, not a mean bone in his body and thinks he is a lap dog (at 100
lbs). He lives with two minature schnauzers, Simon is not quite as
sweet natured as his big brother. Rune will be happily chewing on his
giant nylabone, hear a noise, jump up to check it out, - he is after
all, guardian of this small family and takes his responsibilities very
seriously! Simon will quickly run over and lie down with Rune's
nylabone under his front legs. There are three nylabones available but
of course Simon wants to torment not chew!! Rune returns to resume his
chewing and Simon growls at him, if Rune comes too close, Simon will
jump up and try to bite the loose skin around Rune's neck. I could see
the wheels turning in Rune's eyes but it took him a few days to figure
out how to get his bone back without being bitten. I happened to look
over at the growling and fussing and there was Rune slowly BACKING up
over Simon and sitting on him!!! He did this several times till Simon
had backed away from the bone and Rune's butt!!! Then Rune calmly picked
up his bone and carried it away to a new spot to chew. I swear he was
grinning as he did so!!! Dobermans are sooo smart and give you a
lifetime of love and laughs!!!
Lois
Had a moment and wanted to share yet another story of the sad and
angering perceptions people have about dobermans. One sweet heart of a
dobe in particular. Ms. Ruza. I know I shared with you about the
encounter with the jogger throwing rocks at her. By the way with
quickly working the proper training instructions you gave me she moved
on with out holding grudges with other joggers. But this new story reall
take the cake and almost ended up in a physical altercation between me
and one big idiot. While quietly minding our business Ruza my other dog
and I were fetching sticks in the reservoir at the end of my street . On
the oppostite end of the reservoir a man and his dog were doing the same
( about a 10 minute saunter away) a couple guys were fishing some where
in between us. All dogs off leash for both parties. Ruza said a brief
hello to the men fishing and we we off to the water stick game. She was
completely focused on the game and me, as was I . The man with the
other dog decided to leave his game and come over to us. He came up
behind us and some what suddenly and quietly with his dog. Not
particularly threatening but just stood there and said nothing. Ruza
came out of the water dropped her stick and jogged up the shoreline to
greet the other dog. The dog was a small Australian Shepard female not
particularly threatening. Ruza greeted her and gave a quick bark like
hey my watering spot where did you come from? Ruza is walked off leash
with other dogs and has very good manners when meeting other dogs. Truly
or would never have her off leash. None the less her bark sparked me to
give a firm Hey to call her back wich she was about to do when the owner
of the dog kicked her hard and in the ribs. She was stunned. I yelled
for him to stop and started my way up to her and she turned to see me
and he kicked her again with all his force . As i ran to grab her collar
he kicked her for a third time and a horrible yelling match ensued and
I threatened to call the police picked up phone and he walked away
swearing about my viscous doberman. I was devastated furious and called
my son who ran down the street wanted to kill the guy but he was
gone... blah blah. But for two days I have truly reflected on how
misunderstood these dogs are. Ruza did not appear like she was going to
attack him despite being attacked. I believe she was truly stunned . I
have decided the only way to protect my doberman is to have 3 more . No
man or woman will attack my dogs when faced with a pack they will just
stay away. I understand people have fear but its truly a life lesson
when you watch people react from fear and actually manifest the thing
they were frightened about. I trust people less and less and dogs more
and more. Ruza rocks , with each encounter her temperament and behavior
is put the test . A testimony to the breeding you have done . Feel free
to post this on the blog
Angry, sad and ready for more dobes
Your friends in MA
