Fergal

Thankyou!!

Thankyou for your support though. If you have any friends who are members, perhaps you could send it to them?

I've never met a dog person who doesn't have a suggestion for the ANKC... well, here's your chance to be heard, about the increasingly important subject of maintaining genetic diversity within our rare breeds. Recently, ANKC changed their regulations to prevent us from importing purebred dogs fully registered with the FCI if they don't meet ANKC's new arbitrary criteria on the number of names missing in their pedigree (for example, like an FCI registered, European-bred Azawakh who's dam was born in Africa and thus, does not have his maternal grandparents' registration numbers handy). We believe any purebred dog of a recognised breed who has been assessed by FCI judges to be a correct, pure example of that breed and thus received full FCI registration should be allowed to be imported into Australia and receive full ANKC registration. As Australia is an FCI-affiliated country, this is the way it should be. Not only that, our rare breeds' gene pools are already restricted enough without ANKC choosing to make them smaller. Hence, we wish ANKC to change the regulations BACK to the way they were before. Having viewed a typewritten draft of this petition, ANKC are prepared to consider it, but require us to collect signatories using an independently verified online platform. So, please, take a moment, and go to this link, and fill our your details (name, email, address, state membership number etc.) to lend your support. https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petition-ankc-to-accept-fci-pedigrees-regardless-of-blanks.html

I bought my first male Dobermann from a well-known, reputable breeder in 2010. In love with the breed, I added a second male in 2012. I am a qualified and very experienced canine behaviourist and obedience instructor, so I did "all the right things" as far as extensive socialisation. 100% "by the book", you could say. They attended weekly puppy school right through to advanced obedience classes, performed obedience demos with other dogs, worked alongside me instructing classes, competed in obedience, socialised with friends' dogs regularly... the works. Each was desexed at around 6-7 months. They had no "bad experiences" with other dogs. Despite all this, both Dobes became highly dog aggressive. The first at 7 months, the second at 2 years. Any dog they had met before those dates: fine. Any dog after that: they wanted dead. Now, as a behaviourist, I was able to train both to suppress this desire when working - they could still accompany me on an oval of 40 dogs, do off-leash stays, compete, etc. But the urge to attack remained just beneath the surface. My question is - are all Dobermanns like this? I've read articles (can't remember where now) from American breeders which freely say most Dobes become dog aggressive upon reaching maturity ... but Aussie breeders say no such thing. People have told me about dog-friendly Dobes, but I haven't met them personally. I'd love to own more Dobes throughout my life... but dread the thought of this problem re-occuring and envy those folk with dog-friendly dogs who can just let them play without a care in the world. Any feedback on others' firsthand experiences with Dobes would be terrific.