Anyone experiencing head tremors in Dobermanns and who have not been able to find out anything about it, please rest easy.
Unfortunatly this condition seems to be on the increase and breeders are less than forthcoming in making it know, apparently Bulldogs are prone to it.
Below is a copy of an email to from Dr WB Thomas to me permission to reproduce is granted, I hope this give some relief to those who have found themselves with a dog with this condition.

A syndrome called “idiopathic head tremor”, for lack
of a better name, has been recognized in dogs.
Dobermans are most commonly affected, with English
bulldogs being also common. Other breeds can also be
affected.

Signs consist of an intermittent tremor of the head. This
can be an up-and-down movement or a side-to-side
movement. The tremor starts and stops spontaneously.
The dogs are alert and responsive during the tremor
and are able to walk normally. In some cases,
distracting the dog, for example with food, can stop the
tremor.

Diagnostic testing, including CT/MRI, spinal fluid
analysis, and EEG are typically normal. Affected dogs
do not develop other neurologic signs. There is no
treatment but the episodes sometimes eventually stop.

This has been discussed among neurologists and
nobody really agrees on the nature of these episodes.
They may be focal seizures, but they rarely respond to
anti-seizure drugs. Another theory is that this is a
movement disorder. A behavior disorder, such as
stereotypy has also been postulated. I have seen
related Dobermans affected, suggesting there may be a
genetic component.

WB Thomas DVM,MS
Dipl.ACVIM(Neurology)
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN
http://www.vet.utk.edu/

As this is an idiopathic problem I don't see how the breeders can help. If it is a contition of unknown origin that the specilists can't fathem how can the layman. Indviduals seeing it on an intermitent time scale would not realise that it was a known, if idiopathic contition. They do now and perhaps if someone in this country is reserching it then it will be reported to them and may be the cause will eventualy be found. Is anyone reserching it? If so please let us know. Jackie H

It is a well known "condition" amongst the internet Dobermann community probably because we can now share information.

Some people think that cleaning the ears solves the problems - others that adding either the B complex vitamins or Vitamin C helps.

No one knows what the cause is and apparently you can normally stop the dog (seems to be dogs that are most often reported from what I can see) shaking by offering food.

I imagine it will be difficult to research because of the intermittance with with it occurs - I know of one dog that did it when he was over-tired when he was an adolescent and one bitch that did it a few times during and after her first season.
Don't know whether I want to see it myself or not.

Christine

i realise this is a very old topic, but my dog (20 month old female staffie) has been experiencing these head tremors since yesterday, where her head is moving up and down continuously and quite vigorously, well enough to wake me up in the middle of the night.  shes had two 'episodes' where she has gone in and out of it every few seconds lasting approx 2 hours.  I can stop her from tremoring if i call her name so she is fully aware of her surroundings.  Shes been to the vets who says she suspects a neurological problem as one of her eyes is dilating slower than the other, and suggested perhaps the onset of epilepsy is a possibility.  if things dont improve they will refer me to a neurologist for tests.  However now im sceptical because ive found a couple of sites on it that say all tests come out normal if it is head tremors, but my vet didnt mention head tremors, so dont know what to think.  i dont want to put my dog under any uneccesary stress if this is the case.  but dont know what else to do to stop these tremors.

she had one this morning, altho very mild compared to yesterday lasting only a couple of minutes.

any suggestions anyone? im beside myself with worry :(

I really hate to say this, and I'm not medically trained enough to judge, but I think your vet could be right on the epilepsy thing.

There is a condition called 'petit mal'. Read up about it on the web. There are 2 features of epilepsy, one petit mal and one grand mal. The grand mal is where they have a full on fit. the petit mal can present itself in various ways which can be hard to detect. Strange behaviour is the key. It can be 'twitching', gazing at nothing and weird behaviour such as ear twitching, jaw chomping or pacing with weird actions. I saw a video clip on the web the other day of a dog having a petit mal seizure. It was quite bizarre, there were slight head tremors whilst looking disorientated.

Often, when they are having the seizures they can be brough out of it by calling or distracting.

In older dogs there can be many causes, but in any dog aged 1 - 3 years then epilepsy is often the cause. (I've been through this with my vet as my dog is showing symptoms of petit mal)

The only way to rule it out is to put them through an MRI scan. Costly at about £1500 and involves a general anaesthetic. Are you insured? The insurance can cover it.  The good news is, that even if it is epoilepsy it is treatable.

thanks everyone for your replies.

so far, the head tremors have completely stopped.  2 days with no tremors.. touch wood.
the neurologist suggested it was too early to come in for tests and said to see how it goes as it could be a number of things.  Im takin in a poo sample next week to be tested for lungworm altho the vet said this is rare to be the case.  Anyway, just seeing how it goes, i wonder if it could be the onset of epilepsy then if ur sayin they have head tremors.

her eyes were totally normal when she had her attacks and i found giving her honey stopped them.  perhaps it was the act of taking her mind away from it rather than actually giving her honey, cos the act of getting her in the car to the vets stopped her tremoring also.

Apologies for my last statement. I did not see the previous chain about Dobermans being subject to the head temor condition. It is only once I replied that it brought up the results of previous chain of correspondance.

I have not heard of anyone noticing whether their dogs (Dobermanns) eyes dilate differently so I would be inclined to follow your vet's advice.