Ha ha ha. What a title. What I mean is...my Doberboy seems to be over the puppy brat stage. He's 180 degrees improved on getting into my stuff and other excessive exuberance. He listens and seems to understand plain English. I swear sometimes I can't figure out how he knows what I mean.

He's turning into a very, very obedient young lad...comes almost reliably. There are a few distractions where I can't trust him, but mostly when I call him when he's off leash, he slams on the brakes like a quarter horse doing a sliding stop, turns sharply and comes bounding to me. It's wonderful.

He heels quite well but still has his moments of pulling moods when loose leash walking. It just depends on distractions and his energy level. He's a little persistant on that one. So I revert back to the stopping and standing still until he gives me slack. We've worked up to a pretty long down/stay when I'm hiding....not long enough, but pretty good. So, we continue to work on obedience skills and ongoing socialization. He loves learning and working and knows all kinds of "household" commands. He even knows when I tell him, "go find Jose" or "go find Bonnie." He perks up his head and ears and runs off to where they are and then I see them both coming back. It's really cute.

I can take him with me anywhere and he behaves himself, lets people pat him even though he's not that enthralled with strangers. (Dobermans are just not that interested in strangers) But he is very polite and stands quietly and kind of lays his ears back which says he's comfortable and enjoying the attention.

So, I just wanted to expound on how nicely my Lyric boy is turning out. He'll be 11 months on the 6th.

So, for you who have Doberman pups or any pups that you're having trouble with, just know they do grow up and get civilized eventually with lots of training and attention.

Thanks for indulging me.

Carrie

Hey, that's so awesome! Congrats and a big well done to both of you. I'm proud to say I know this feeling, too. Except my girl is over two years old and has just begun to show signs of calmness. See, she is a Siberian husky and so has a lot of energy to use up. I never really trusted her and almost hated it when guests would arrive at our house because Kieron would get so worked up she would be panting as if she ran the Iditarod, yet the house is plenty cool and she had been perfectly calm before guests arrived. Also in public, she too would pull on her leash, not an inch of slack in it. Those were hard days.

Now, Kieron has calmed down so much since she had a litter of puppies almost nine months ago. Motherhood calmed her nerves. She is much more affectionate towards me and is much calmer. Today a friend of mine came over to my house. He braced himself for Kieorn to come dashing at him, ready to steady himself as she tried to knock him over. Instead, she happily padded to him, tail wagging, and sat down in front of him and held out her paw in greeting. Nick just couldn't believe it. Kieron also does better on her leash. I've been Halti training her but I don't use it every once in a while to test her to see if I still need to use it or not. The last time I took Kieron out with her regular collar, no halti, was wonderous. She didn't pull at all. It was so wonderful.

I want to back up your quote about pups maturing and growing up with training and attention. I'm a witness and I encourage all puppy owners to keep on going! It'll be worth it!

-Tara

Hi,  you give me hope.  My Dobe is 19 weeks (today), he is a lovely boy and understands quite alot of what I tell him.  He really enjoys when we are out and also enjoys his training time we have.  I am just having a few problems with him trying to assert his authority, and so far I am trying different things to get this sorted.  I have posted a board about him.  I know they end up to wonderful, faithful, loving members of your family. 

We did have a dobe before but we didn't get him until he was 14 weeks old and he hadn't been treated very well, so I always say he was grateful when he came to us.  We hardly encountered anything with him.  My little one now is quite a handful and we have to try and keep on top of him all the time.  Majority of the time he is lovely.

I love  having him around, our other dobe died 17 years ago and we missed him dreadfully. 

Hi Carrie , it is a good feeling when all your hard work comes together, Zak is 2yrs and 3 months now and i can completly trust him in any situation. Ebony on the other hand is proving a bit more challenging, at 13 months she can be a typical teenage tearaway in the respect that she will listen to me when and where she wants.

I dont particulaly know why some days she listens and some she completly blanks me as i never had that with Zak, hopefully she will grow out of it but i cant see the light at the end of the tunnel yet.

Ella.x.     

Tara, I can relate to what you're saying about when guests come over. My Chihuahuas are so weird. They think there is going to be a party. They bring my guests toys and jump on their laps and start licking them. (ugggg) They would much rather sit on my guest's laps than mine. They are furiously friendly, not the stereotype ankle biters...no way, too good natured for anyone's good. I haven't worked with them much on this as I don't have that many visitors.... so sometimes I have to put them in their crate after a while because they become too in everyone's face. So, that's embarrassing.

Lyric is friendly to my guests, but calmer and comes like you describe with your dog, sits in front of them, puts a paw up on their lap, stretches his nose up to their face. He loves putting his face in your face and giving doberkisses....not too much licking, just dry kisses. hee hee. Or he'll rest his chin up on the person's chest. Once he knows someone is a friend, the aloofness goes away and he's terribly affectionate with most guests.

Then theres Bonnie, the Lab. She pants like you were saying and wags her tail hard, wiggle, wiggle the butt. But she'll go lie down shortly.

So, no wonder I don't have many guests. LOL. They have to be real animal lovers.

I bet that having babies definitely calmed her down. It does with horses (mares) sometimes. I had Arabian mares and some of them, as lovely as they are can be flighty. Having a baby makes a difference. It's probably quite the same with people when you think about it. We're forced to "grow up." At least a little bit. LOL

Dg, what kinds of things is your Dobe doing that are exerting his authority. Is he just pushy like all Dobes or is he doing something more? I think 19 weeks is a hard age. I remember that 4 and 5 month period. They do have an incredible amount of energy.

I'm sorry to hear how sad it makes you about losing your Dobe 17 years ago. Yes, we do tend to continue to miss the old dogs don't we. I still miss my German Shepherd in particular.

Ella, I have heard that they can go through another "stage" between 10 and 12 or 13 months. Lyric could still revert to a bratty stage for sure. He's teetering on the edge really. Oh well. I think continuing lots of obedience training and other things, good, firm discipline and lots of affection will pay off. They do need to be told which end is up. I speak quite strictly to Lyric at times without being heavy handed or frightening to him....just very firm. They are extremely sensative so there's a happy medium. But they can be stubborn and persistant. That's what makes them good guard dogs....don't tend to be dissuaded easily from their job. So, I find that I need to pick my battles as they say. And mainly posititve stuff in training. But sometimes I need to get his attention...like you say they can blank us out like teenagers. I use the word, "HEY!!" a lot. LOL. And he looks up like, "huh? duh?" LOL. But I always follow with praise when he displays the contrast from bratty to behaved...right away. LOL.

Carrie