I know I haven’t posted a training blog in so long. I just sort of hit a writing roadblock.
But now, I have a surprise!
Last night we adopted a 7 1/2 week old Doberman puppy. She is a sweet little female and blue in color. We have named her “Luna Blue Moon” but will be calling her Luna for short.
Freya and Copper are being good siblings and are thrilled with their new sister. The cats, not so much. But they’ll come around.
So, I will be starting up my training blog again. I’ll cover a new topic every week as well as chronicle Luna’s journey to become a well behaved member of society and an ambassador for the breed.
Sorry, no pictures yet. Luna’s only been home for about 12 hours so far!
Its good to change gears every now an then writing everyday is hard work.I am a one man team with very little writing skills but I have a passion about what I am doing and it keeps me going. Sort of like this comment I am on break and need to write a Hub my favorite past time but I have no clue yet.
Thanks for stopping by!
Dog Breed Centre…
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Dog Training Help…
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Cool!! I want to see pictures!!
Later today or tomorrow! She’s got a bit of a skin thing on her head though. It’ll be all cleared up in a couple days.
I so love dobies. Abby, my dog, is a black and tan dobie and Tina, my first dobie was also a black and tan. Is your dobie docked? Does she have papers? Plan on showing or just a really good pet. When I lives up in AK I swore that I would never get another one as the winters are hard on them, but now that I live in WI? I might have to re-think that. Winters are shorter. Maybe not milder.
Luna isn’t papered, but that won’t keep us from doing things like getting our CGC and rally-o and agility and maybe tracking or flyball! There are still a lot of things we can do without papers.
Luna is docked but we won’t be cropping her ears. I prefer them natural after having met a couple European Dobies in Anchorage years ago. We’re also planning on getting her a coat for winter here. It’s not bad, but she’ll need it if we do any hiking.
Awww she sounds like a real cutie!!!
Can’t wait to meet her!
We can’t wait to meet you! We’re all so excited!
Ooh, pictures please. I have an (almost) three-year-old Doberman!! I love her to bits and pieces. I don’t know if these links will work in this form, but will try anyway.
Here she is last winter, getting ready for a snowball fight: http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l153/kesmith80/Audrey/audreysnow.jpg (such a ham).
Posing with her little big bro: http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l153/kesmith80/Audrey/DSC_0079.jpg
Hanging out: http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l153/kesmith80/Audrey/cowgirl.jpg
How did you come to get a Dobe? Have you had one before/experience with the breed? Audrey Hepburn is my first Dobe so I took a conservative path, as I’d heard the breed is considered “challenging” and for experienced dog homes only (which I am … but hadn’t had a Dobe before), so I went with a pretty well-known breeder, temperament guarantee, the whole 9 yards. Part of that means the whole litter had their ears cropped before they were allowed release to new homes. I was on the fence about cropping, love the look but think it’s a bit pointless, and boy was it a PITA to go through all that work … it took months of tampons and breathe right strips to get hers finished, Aud has a particularly long and elegant cut to match her long face 😉 and it takes longer to get the long/thin cuts standing correctly.
Oops I’m rambling, but man I love my dog and have become such a breed enthusiast.
Hi Kathryn! Well, let me see if I can answer your questions! I’ve always loved Dobes, ever since I was little. I have had a little experience with them but have never owned one before. However, she is not my first dog nor is she my first working dog. (As I assume you don’t know, I am a former dog trainer. Former as in, I have not worked professionally in the almost 3 years since I’ve moved to the lower 48. In addition, I’ve fostered many dogs of many different breeds and temperaments for a rescue in Alaska).
My husband also greatly admires the breed and has some experience. He has direct experience with a guardian breed and grew up around the type as his closest cousin raised dogs for Seattle PD back in the day.
We came to find Luna rather by accident. Since we are moving out to acreage, we had discussed adding a guardian type dog to our pack. Freya is getting older and she is beginning to show her age. We wanted to find a dog that is a good fit for us that could also relieve Freya of “duties” in a few years. So we began looking. We were looking for a mix or a litter of “oops” puppies and we came across Luna and her sisters.
Luna is not registered. Her breeder wasn’t interested in doing that this round. She has show dogs, has had other registered litters and was more interested in finding this litter acceptable homes rather than price and registration. I can accept that. I’ve known other breeders to do the same.
After meeting Luna, her sister that hadn’t found a home yet, her older, full sister and bother her parents, her breeder was quizzed pretty good by me. (I do know all the right questions to ask). We were offered some information on ear cropping and a recommended vet to do so, however we like her ears natural. I’ve also seen ear cropping go bad too. And we don’t care for the look.
My husband is likely to become a breed enthusiast. He is usually immune to puppy cuteness, except once in a blue moon. Hence Luna’s name. Luna Blue Moon.
haha … Sounds like an enthusiast in the making, all right! It’s funny, Dobe people are some of the most “loyal” I’ve met (up there with the terrier people or the GSD people or … OK, maybe all or most breeds engender that sort of enthusiasm).
Oh, I think we’re just dog lovers in general. I tend to love most of the working and herding breeds. My husband leans towards the working breeds.
Is Luna’s breeder local? It’s a pretty small/tight community in the PNW. The breeder I got Aud from runs the NW Dobe rescue. She is pretty hardcore. Her puppies do not leave her unregistered (she makes you write the check to the AKC before you can take the puppy!!) and do not leave her uncropped. I believe they are micro-chipped too … Actually, I had to wait for several months before I could get a puppy, even … pre-sold litters, etc. And the vet who crops for her is flown in to do the whole litter, it’s some vet who does nothing but crop ears (side note–is that a weird thing for a vet to “only” do or what). So yeah, there is very little choice with this woman. But man, she has a great heart and still calls me to check in now and again — and this is 3 years later — she had 8 puppies just from that litter alone, yet she still monitors! Audrey’s registered name is Mydobes Brown-Eyed Girl (the litter theme was Angels and Eyes … so the dog’s name had to relate to one or the other).
Luna’s breeder is local, although I think her family has fallen on hard times. I can forgive not wanting to deal with the hassle of registering the litter if say, finances have gotten tight due to the economy as I suspect is the case. (Not polite to ask, though her breeder alluded to such). However, as we do not plan to breed her, it’s not so important. We will be getting her limited registration with the Purebred Alternative Listing/Indefinite Listing Privileged so we can compete in some AKC sanctioned events if we so choose.
I’m thinking about taking a rescue at some point in the future, but my point with Aud was that I wanted a blank slate (a good blank slate!) since it was my first Doberman. I figured a Doberman, period, would be challenging enough without trying to fix one that some lousy person had messed up!! But she has been such a joy, I might try something slightly more challenging next time.
Rescues can be your greatest joy and your greatest challenge. We really, really thought about a retired Greyhound or a shelter dog. But, CP fell in love… I do feel a bit of guilt for not going with a rescue as that has always been my thing. Even Copper is a rescue.
I read somewhere recently that the cropped ears allow the dog to pinpoint sound that is far off better (something about the physics of it) and that is one of the reasons people continue to crop Dobes, particularly the Dobes that do search and rescue type work. Have you ever heard that? I’ve seen the ears that have gone bad, too, but in my experience it is usually human laziness or a bad initial crop/cleaning. I didn’t think it was that hard, just annoying, but I *did* think–man, is this time consuming, I’m surprised so many people will put the time into doing this.
I haven’t heard that. I do hate that Copper seems to get ear infections every couple months. But is that just because of his ear structure or because he’s just my little lemon? I prefer the look of uncropped ears and cropping is now banned in much of the EU.
Oh, the other thing I was going to mention — as I’m sure you know, cardiomyopathy is a big problem for the breed. I started doing an echocardiogram of Audrey’s heart last year, as a yearly thing, to create a baseline for her healthy heart and to monitor any change that could be an early sign of cardiomyopathy. I guess the drugs are very effective if the disease is caught before the dog shows symptoms, when the heart first starts to change … so if you need a good doggie cardiologist, there’s quite a good one in Portland I can recommend 🙂
Thanks for the heads up on that. We’ve talked about it and are deciding who we want to use long term. CP is good friends with one of the best vets here in Oregon. However, Richard is here in Salem. Not sure we’re going to want to always travel down here. But maybe for special things. Though, Richard might be retiring this year… We’d love a good recommendation though.
Enjoy your puppy!! What fun. I’m sure you’ll adore her.
I’m sure we will too!
Hey there girlie!!!
Congrats on the new addition to your family! Luna is a lovely name, and like most of your commentors, I also love Dobies, and had one as a child. 🙂
To get back to that one question….good guesses on my location! I actually live NE of that area…right by Mud Mtn. Dam…..
Hi Mellie! Hmm… You’re going to make me think, aren’t you?
Congrats on the puppy! Funny ’cause just last night I was drooling over a doberman puppy I passed on the sidewalk! He was about four months and so leggy and lean! I love a BIG dobbie…. what do you expect your Luna to get too? Love the name, btw! Love Baja Luna too! lol
Thanks Chelsi! If the Dobie was red and a male, I might have seen pics of him on another blog!
We expect Luna to get to about 80-85lbs. She’s so teeny right now that she fits into a cat carrier! Dobie’s get to be between 65-100 lbs. There is no breed standard when it comes to weight. However, both her parents are on the upper end of the range I listed. And Luna has giant puppy feet she’s constantly tripping over. Glad we didn’t name her Grace!