Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

hey guys, wanting some advice from the experts on the k9s. our city has been offered a donation of one 2.5 year old schutzun trained (spelling?) doberman pinscher. he has a good bloodline and the owner has paperwork from czech i think where the dog was purchased for around 4 grand. i've seen him work obedience and attack and was fairly impressed. he says the dog can track as well. my question is, what is ya'll experinece with pinschers as k9s? i've not personally seen one used, but the dog is being offered as a donation. we've also got a company that is going to donate 5 grand if we take the dog to help with outfitting a vehicle and get some more training on the dog. any and all opinions are welcome! :)

Almost anything free is good. Wouldn't hurt to go take a look at it. See what it can do.

It's spelled Schutzhund. :)

The Doberman breed is good for intimidating and for having zero fear. I have seen several of them as work dogs, but they have some limitations that keep them out of the picks as a normal working canine. Their back legs are extremely weak, and they tend to get hip displaysia if they have to do too much jumping and hupping up to search. Their bite is an intitial vicious chomp, but they sometimes won't hold and latch. If you send a dog to bite, you want them to stay on the person until you call them out, not bite and return to handler. Other than that, they can be very good partners with a psychological weapon over suspects seeing a pissed off dobie!

Dobermans are just plain cool. I am looking to get one for myself in the next year sometime. I love them things!

I was actually mauled by one in 1979 walking home from school on Ft. Bragg. I had petted this dog a hundred times before, and I wasn't afraid of it at all. For some reason, it snapped that day, and tore me to pieces. I was only 7 at the time, and I just went into shock, and blacked out most of it.
I was in Womack Army hospitable for several days with bites to my neck, head, arms and back. The MP's took the dog away, and I don't know if they put it down or not, gonna have to see if my folks know or not. Ironically, I was terrified of dogs for years to come, and even a little toy poodle could have me pissing down my own leg. Slowly, I began to get over my fear of dogs, and taada, here I am now working one! :) Life is funny.

I was actually mauled by one in 1979 walking home from school on Ft. Bragg. I had petted this dog a hundred times before, and I wasn't afraid of it at all. For some reason, it snapped that day, and tore me to pieces. I was only 7 at the time, and I just went into shock, and blacked out most of it.
I was in Womack Army hospitable for several days with bites to my neck, head, arms and back. The MP's took the dog away, and I don't know if they put it down or not, gonna have to see if my folks know or not. Ironically, I was terrified of dogs for years to come, and even a little toy poodle could have me pissing down my own leg. Slowly, I began to get over my fear of dogs, and taada, here I am now working one! :) Life is funny.

sorry to hear that. see, the owner of the dog made a comment about the dogs....oh...tempermant so to speak. he said he calls the dog switch sometimes because sometimes he's ok, sometimes he's on edge. i was told by some others that dobies are like this, but this is one of the main holdbacks i have with this dog. thanks for all the help so far guys!

I dont know exactly how much this will help you but I have a Doberman and he is probably the smartest dog I have ever seen, makes an awesome pet, and listens very well. I'm not to sure how he would be at "work" though.

A dog handler friend of mine was one of 4 officers who for want of a better term "trialed" Dobe's.

They found them to as good as GSD's for the most part, but it was hard to keep them interested in work and because of that they appeared to be lazy.

They also said the did bite well, but a big suspect could easily "shake" one off if they were willing to put up with the holes in their limbs.

I got bitten by one when I was 13 still got the scars from his canines in my wrist today.

I too think that there is not much cooler than a warlock Dobbie! As K9Maly stated though, the breed, in general, is lacking in areas that some other breeds don't seem to be. That is why you do not see a bunch of them currently working in Law Enforcement! I would definitely check the dog out though; it may posses the drives and temperament to be a great PSD!