Breed Foundation & Development
The doberman breed was developed by a man named Karl Dobermann who live in Germany in the late 1800s. He was a tax collector and also ran the local dog pound. Dobermann used the dogs available to him to develop a new breed that would protect him while he worked. The new breed was supposed to be visually striking, agile, and intelligent with strong nerves.
The doberman excelled as a police and war dog, and it was heavily used in this capacity in both World Wars. After World War II especially the doberman's popularity in America surged. As the need for and practicality of the personal protection dog waned, the doberman transitioned more into the role of active family pet. Today those who still work generally do so in venues such as protection sports or search and rescue instead of military or police work. Many dobermans also excel at various dog sports such as obedience, agility, barn hunt, coursing ability, and more. |
Genetic Bottlenecks
A genetic bottleneck is when a population is severely reduced, which accordingly reduces the effective gene pool and available genetic diversity for the population to continue forward with. There have been several genetic bottlenecks in the doberman's short history.
The first couple genetic bottlenecks were the large losses from both World Wars, both from the large number of working dogs killed in action and the dogs left at home who couldn't survive in wartime famine. Then in the 1970s the first intentional breeding of albinos began and the "Z-factor" registration to try to deter it was implemented; unfortunately this didn't prevent unethical breeders from continuing to produce albinos, but instead increasingly partitioned the doberman population.
In 2001 a genetic test for von Willebrand Disease was discovered and many breeders started discarding puppies with any copies of the affected gene from their programs, despite the low penetrance of clinical symptoms even in homozygous/double positive dogs. And recently a couple genetic markers for DCM were reported by academic researchers. The results were unable to be independently verified and correlative data suggest no causative link, yet already breeding decisions are being made based on these markers.
Arguably the most detrimental bottleneck is the one inadvertently created by the popular sire effect, where the genetics of one influential sire are vastly overrepresented when they're overused at stud. Breeders see "Top Producer" as an accolade instead of a hallmark of contributing to a narrowing gene pool. The origins of the popular sire effect date back to a handful of dogs imported to the United States in the 1930s-40s — every doberman born in the United States today can trace their pedigree back to just these five dogs (or eight, depending on the source). Breeding escalated in the post-war decades and of course the popular sire effect has continued with each decade's most prominent stud: Marienburg's Sun Hawk in the 70's, Brunswig's Cryponite in the 80's, Cambria's Cactus Cash in the 90's, Foxfire's All Star in the 2000's, and Tiburon Arsenal of the 2010's. Concerningly, today's most prolific popular sires are usually either linebred on previous generations' popular sires or have multiple other popular sires in their pedigrees. This only compounds the popular sire effect.
The cumulative effect of these many bottlenecks is a breed whose current genetic diversity is one of the worst measured among all purebred dogs.
The first couple genetic bottlenecks were the large losses from both World Wars, both from the large number of working dogs killed in action and the dogs left at home who couldn't survive in wartime famine. Then in the 1970s the first intentional breeding of albinos began and the "Z-factor" registration to try to deter it was implemented; unfortunately this didn't prevent unethical breeders from continuing to produce albinos, but instead increasingly partitioned the doberman population.
In 2001 a genetic test for von Willebrand Disease was discovered and many breeders started discarding puppies with any copies of the affected gene from their programs, despite the low penetrance of clinical symptoms even in homozygous/double positive dogs. And recently a couple genetic markers for DCM were reported by academic researchers. The results were unable to be independently verified and correlative data suggest no causative link, yet already breeding decisions are being made based on these markers.
Arguably the most detrimental bottleneck is the one inadvertently created by the popular sire effect, where the genetics of one influential sire are vastly overrepresented when they're overused at stud. Breeders see "Top Producer" as an accolade instead of a hallmark of contributing to a narrowing gene pool. The origins of the popular sire effect date back to a handful of dogs imported to the United States in the 1930s-40s — every doberman born in the United States today can trace their pedigree back to just these five dogs (or eight, depending on the source). Breeding escalated in the post-war decades and of course the popular sire effect has continued with each decade's most prominent stud: Marienburg's Sun Hawk in the 70's, Brunswig's Cryponite in the 80's, Cambria's Cactus Cash in the 90's, Foxfire's All Star in the 2000's, and Tiburon Arsenal of the 2010's. Concerningly, today's most prolific popular sires are usually either linebred on previous generations' popular sires or have multiple other popular sires in their pedigrees. This only compounds the popular sire effect.
The cumulative effect of these many bottlenecks is a breed whose current genetic diversity is one of the worst measured among all purebred dogs.

average diversity of the doberman measured by MyDogDNA
Health Concerns
The biggest doberman health concerns are the "3 C's", cancer, cardio, and CVI:
- dobermans have a high incidence of cancer, particularly osteosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma.
- cardio refers to dilated cardiomyopathy, a fatal disease where dogs either die abruptly of sudden arrhythmia or slowly of congestive heart failure. There is historical evidence that DCM has been present in the breed from its foundation, and its occurrence breed-wide is presently at 60% and on an alarming rise.
- CVI stands for cervical vertebral instability, or "Wobblers." It is a progressive neurological disease that can lead to total paralysis.
In addition to those major concerns, the following chronic but not usually fatal conditions are also quite common:
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More rarely but still present in the breed are the issues of:
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