I have an 11 month male dobe, and every time and I mean every time I take him for a walk he gets attacked yesterday he was attacked by a retriever, the lady was mortified! she said her dog has never attacked before, this  is what a lot of the dog owners that this has happened with say. whats going on? my dobe is very timid  and will avoid confrontation at any cost, but this dogs just make a bee line for him, he has been attacked by a poodle, jack russel  another dobe and now this retriever, I am getting worried now every time I walk him.
can anybody shed some light on this situation 

Do these attacks happen while he's on the lead or off?

these attacks happen while he is off the lead

You have to make a bigger effort to walk where there aren't other dogs around.  It takes determination and a bigger effort than just going down the local park but you get what you put in.  If your dog experiences aggression like this, I wouldn't be surprised if he became aggressive himself.  Just because he shows no signs of it now doesn't mean it won't develop - he's only 11 mnths.

I walk him in many different places and I don,t really see where he is walked has got to do with it, as  it is very rare that whereever I take him I don,t encounter another dog.
As yet he shows no sign of aggression thank goddness, but that is my worry, that one day he is just going to turn

I find it incredible that you can't take him to a place where he can be off lead without other dogs around.  I live in a city and have a large breed and I manage, through a deal of juggling, to run mine twice a day where there are no other dogs. 

I've had this problem with my dogs too. usually it's to do with breed. I have huskies. They're natural stance is to stand high (on their toes), they have pricked ears and they're tail is normally held up (letting out more dominant air than usual).

Even though they can't help this, other dogs see it as a natural threat.

This would be the same with your dobe. His stance is stood up straight (on toes) and I'm guessing it's most probably docked, but this lets out alot of dominant air. Plus he's very young so other dogs would see this as even more of a threat as they can also see a "jack-the-lad" developing!

I agree with what you have said he is a jack the lad! he is  full of himself untill he is approached and then he lies down  and thats it thats when it happenens

Is he castrated?

I have had a few similar experiences with my GR, doesn't happen all the time but every now and again a male will go for him and the owners have said it's never happened, he is still intact with all his manly bits i wondered if they found him a threat. He is quite confident but at the same time if it's a bigger dog or theres more than one dog he does lie down until they come over to him.

I had a similar problem when my springer was entire. Dogs just squared up to him for no reason, he gave no signals that he was a threat. We actually had dogs run quite a distance to come up and growl at him, yet completely ignore my other dogs. Nobody really believed me and all claimed that he must be doing something to provoke them until one day i went into the hall at training and a dog that usually goes to a differet class went beserk at the other end when we walked through the door. No eye contact was even made. THe trainer told me this dog had never done this before. I have to say that this seems to have stopped since he was castrated. (As he was a rescue dog he was going to be done anyway.) I am told that the attacks would have stopped as he got older though, so its hard to say whether it had that effect or not.

no not yet,  we spoke to the vet last week about this so I think we will do it soon

Male dogs will often fel that adolescent males need putting in their place, pr4obably because during puberty they are producing very high levels of testosterone that the other dogs are reacting to, I beleive that the levels in an adolscent are five times that of an intact adult male.

will things get better or should we get him castrated? we did speak to the vet about this and he did mention an injection that he could give him if we don,t want to get him castrated yet

I am in a similar prediment as you sarahj not sure wether or not to get him castrated, i will be interested to know what you decide to do. I always think if it's not broken don't fix it. My dog is ok as he is it doesn't cause any major problems so maybe i have answered my own question. Never had a male dog before. Although every body thinks he is female, just in touch with his feminine said i say.

Abby has the same problem, our dog trainer said it had something to do with the breed, it happens wheather she is on or off lead so now she gets most of her excercise cycling and the only dogs she is allowed to play with are the ones we know really well. It may not be the best solution but I am sick of my dog getting bitten and other owners laughing because their small dog is hanging off mine wouldnt be quite so funny if Abby did the same back. Our problem is a lot of dogs near us a owned by idiots(and that being kind) who think because their dog is small it doesnt need to have manners.
Good Luck I hope you get your problem sorted.
Mary
(sorry to rant had a very bad day)

Is your dog a doberman as abbysmum?

yes he is a beautiful natured black and tan doby, whom I adore, and it makes me sad that I can,t walk him with out this happening, i never considered castration untill this started to happen. it just seems so unfair

is he docked?

yes

maybe they are having trouble reading his body laguage.
poor baby.try to find some friendly dogs,at club etc for him to play with.

yes I never thought of that, ( the docking issue that is) and he does have one good friend a spanial cross, that I walk with occasionly,and in fact this little dog has protected mine a few times when other dogs have got aggresive towards him