Y'all might recall that last year about this time our 10YO male German Shorthaired Pointer (GSP) named Ten died. We didn't replace him, as my wife was in nursing school.
Well, Friday I took off work and the whole family (minus Misty, the female GSP) to drive to almost-stinking Baton Rouge to pick up Max, an 8 week old Doberman.
The images are pretty awful, as he is almost always moving or it is late and he is sleeping. I will have to recruit my wife to tackle and hold him still for a time long enough to enable the autofocus to work.
We got him from a breeder/dog trainer that specializes in shutzhund, protection dogs, etc. His Dobermans are usually euro or euro/American mix dogs. Outward appearance is somewhat thicker than the usual AKC Doberman and temperament is considered much more important than appearance.
They had several males available and we went with the cheapest, which to the breeder meant the one least likely to do well in AKC shows or shutzhund competition. We had a somewhat different set of criteria, foremost being the dog's comfort level around the kids (4YO boy & 3YO girl). The two best according to our criteria were the cheapest (who went on to become Max) and the pick of the litter who was 2x Max's price.
Well, I doubt I'll have the time to become competitive at shutzhund, but he has shown already that he is quite willing to be trained and wants to please us. It took all of five minutes to get him to respond to "sit."
The kids already love the stuffing out of him and are pretty good with him, once I laid down the law that there is to be no picking up of Max by them and nobody plays "knight" with Max (knight=plastic pretend sword fight). Max eats up their attention and is very keen to play "chase" through the back yard. They play outside until all three are tuckered and then go inside to lay down on the couch on watch
Flipper on hulu.com.
We'll get his tail docked and his dewclaws removed when we get him neutered, in the 7-12month time frame. I see no need to do them right now and expose him to anesthesia between now & when he is larger and can tolerate anesthesia (or at least variations in its application) better.
The breeder is not a PETA-freak who is against altering critters, but wants to leave all that to the owners before the 12-week mark (after which he has tail, ears, and dewclaws done because you can't successfully do the clipped ears after 12 weeks). He is all in favor of docking the tail and nipping the dewclaws, as he has seen them get tore up with great frequency. He is of the opinion that clipping the ears is useful only for intimidation purposes and counsels against it if overt visual intimidation is not a desired attribute.
Misty, our 6YO female GSP is not nearly as welcoming to him has Ten was to her as a pup. She growls and puts Max in his place when he starts to annoy her by, say, stalking her and ambushing her by jumping on her head.
I am glad we have another dog in the house, even if a puppy is just as bad as an infant in the "sometimes hard to get to sleep" and "gotta get up and deal with bodily functions twice at night" department. In Max's case, to take him in the back yard to poop & pee.
