# Should I be worried?



## Drew Peirce (Nov 16, 2006)

My male pup is 5 months old this month and his ears are still flopping around like a mutt, this is a grandson of Arras Pegge on the bottom side and a son of a very unique PH1 malinois X on top.
Both parents and from what I can see every other dog in every generation of the tree have some of the most rigid ears you can get.
Here's the weird part, they were up at about 6 wks, then back down till about 4 1/2 months, then one up and one down for a couple weeks, and finally about 2 weeks ago both came up, just as I was about to breath a sigh of relief the one came back down, then a few days later the other, they've been flopped down ever since.
All the other pups in the litter have nice rigid upright ears and have had them since about 3 months or so.

This guy was the biggest male and looks to be slower developing due to size, he could be a 90 pounder, pics of him can be found in the photo gallery on my thread "father and son on christmas eve".
As for potential he is far and away the best I've ever seen, and to be honest I would be really bummed to have a world class dog with floppy ears.

I know sometimes the GSD pups ears dont come up till 6 months or later, especially the big ones, but these dogs usually have erect ears very early on, so how worried should I be at this point?


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## Amber Scott Dyer (Oct 30, 2006)

Shepherd breeders post the ears when they don't stand up on schedule, maybe you should try this?


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## Tim Martens (Mar 27, 2006)

or if you can't get them to stand up and he works as well as you say, i know some people that would take a nice dog that doesn't look that nice...


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

Yes, anyone who takes looks into consideration with a Mal needs to have their head examined. They look like stinkin coyotes. Who wants a dog that cannot be taken to the countryside?

Sooooooooooooooooooo, since you are concerned about not only looks, but size as well I am afraid that as Leige Lord of the Mal, I relinquish your rights to own them, and banish you to the useless world of Dobermanns.

That should take care of that. 90 pounder, floppy ears............WTF would you care if he works well?? Oh the shame you should be feeling.

Stop what you are doing, give all your Mals to appropriate NON LOOKS CARING DOG PEOPLE, and go get a Dobe. 

So pretty, So useless :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

Jeff Oehlsen said:


> They look like stinkin coyotes.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

That was the exact picture I was thinking of. Buko in caricature.


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

Jeff Oehlsen said:


> Yes, anyone who takes looks into consideration with a Mal needs to have their head examined. They look like stinkin coyotes. Who wants a dog that cannot be taken to the countryside?
> 
> Sooooooooooooooooooo, since you are concerned about not only looks, but size as well I am afraid that as Leige Lord of the Mal, I relinquish your rights to own them, and banish you to the useless world of Dobermanns.
> 
> ...


Were gonna miss you!  ... Go take a prozac.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Stinkin coyotes..........with a head like a big ugly possum!  

This is a working dog forum. Cut the ears off and get the dog a job.

JEEZE Jeff! Yer rubbin off on me!  :roll:


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## Amber Scott Dyer (Oct 30, 2006)

drew... was this the cute little dutchie mix? I say it's hopeless - better ship him down here to Augusta and let him play with the flop eared dobermanns.... we're waiting...  

lol... seriously, here are some links about taping GSD ears, I'd imagine its the same thing. If it doesn't work, well, you can still send him to me... :lol: 

http://www.leerburg.com/tapingears.htm
http://www.lycos.ca/lifestyle/pets/german_shepherd_ear_taping.html
http://www.total-german-shepherd.com/GermanShepherdeartaping.html


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## Drew Peirce (Nov 16, 2006)

Thanks for the reality check, one less thing to worry about, aahhhh


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

Quote:Were gonna miss you! ... Go take a prozac.

That is what your dogs seem like.........on prozac. Don't think I will miss them though. :twisted: :twisted:


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

So I guess you have owned dobermans before Jeff? And your right ...they really are pretty dogs


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

BTW....when taping ears....there are alot of ways to do it, and I think I did them all with my first useless doberman. So if you need any help...feel free to PM me. 

If you think the ears might not need to be "taped" but need a little extra support, Breathe Right Strips, like people use for snoring, are a good alternative. If you put a little Skin-Bond (found at a pharmacy) on the back of the strip before you put it on, it will stay alot longer. 

Good Luck! Taping ears can be a nightmare. I have two useless dobes who will attest to that!


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

Here is a good picture for you of Dobes and Mals


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

With tails and ears, they look a lot like black and tan coonhounds.


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## Elly Elsenaar (Mar 27, 2006)

> With tails and ears, they look a lot like black and tan coonhounds.



Sorry Jeff, you don't see that if they come as a bullit on the distance!!


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

Jeff Oehlsen said:


> With tails and ears, they look a lot like black and tan coonhounds.


Oh come on Jeff, you can do better than that. :evil:


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## Amber Scott Dyer (Oct 30, 2006)

come on guys... don't get so upset... 

nothing will ever change some people's minds - even your dog kicking their dog's butt in a trial! (but it sure makes you feel better) Make that your goal


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## Woody Taylor (Mar 28, 2006)

Amber Scott said:


> come on guys... don't get so upset...


Good point. Man, would that ever be embarassing...locking a thread on a GSD pup's ears because there was a Dobie vs. Mal argument going on a few posts into it? Hah, nah, that would be silly!


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

Woody Taylor said:


> Amber Scott said:
> 
> 
> > come on guys... don't get so upset...
> ...


I was only joking. No need to lock the thread.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

I grew up with Coonhounds, and if you think they are slow.......lets just say that I knew a lot of them that are just as fast as a Dobe.

Yes I did own a few Dobermanns, and yes, I do know a lot about them. The dogs I remember, are gone, replaced by this sight hound looking thing thats....thats......well just an abomination. You can show your pictures and all that, but I know that the dogs you are showing are not even shadows of the dogs I remember.

I still work Thomas's dogs on occasion, although it has been a while, I remember what they were very clearly, and they were favorites of mine. 

To me the breed is extinct. What you have is something else. I miss them.


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## Drew Peirce (Nov 16, 2006)

I grew up in malvern pennsylvania, there's a kennel there called kimbertal, I cant see how anyone that runs in doberman circles wouldnt know about it but if not, here's the link.

www.kimbertal.com

I first visited the place in the late 70's as a kid, and went back as a teenager when my love for working dogs was just hitting full stride, to me they defined what a doberman was.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

I got butt "f"ed by that kennel with my first Rott. Sorry for the french, but I really got screwed bad by them. I was 14.


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

Kimbertal is a nothing more than a large scale puppy mill. They produce sooooooooooooooooo many litters every year. They dont health test their dogs at all, and could care less what kind of homes their dogs go to. They may have been different back then, but now...they are pretty bad.


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## Drew Peirce (Nov 16, 2006)

This thread prompted me to think about them for the first time in about 24 years, so I googled it and ended up spending the better part of an hour on their site, really stirred some long dormant memories.
I fully expected the place to be LONG gone, I can remember some absolutely jaw dropping dobes from there back then.

That said, your exact words in the top post are dead on what I tell anyone who asks me about dobes, maybe we should both take a trip up there for kicks, hell just seeing the wolves would be worth it to me.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I just went to their site.   Those aren't dobes. The're Great Danes with their tails docked!


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## Amanda Layne (Aug 9, 2006)

Bob Scott said:


> I just went to their site.   Those aren't dobes. The're Great Danes with their tails docked!


Yep. They are also known for breeding VERY oversized dobes.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Amanda Layne said:


> Bob Scott said:
> 
> 
> > I just went to their site.   Those aren't dobes. The're Great Danes with their tails docked!
> ...


Must be some of them there mystical Warlock dobes. :wink:


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## Amber Scott Dyer (Oct 30, 2006)

The Kimbertal folks are SCARY people. They breed indiscriminately, give open registration to everyone that buys one of their puppies, do absolutely no health testing, and care nothing about work or conformation. Scariest of all, they've been working on acquiring dobes from reputable working lines from less-than reputable sources and using them to stud in their kennels - trying to advertise that they breed 'working quality' dobes. There are breeders that have been horrified to see that their name is now being associated with Kimbertal. Unfortunately, there are lots of uneducated people that see their ads in Dog Fancy or google searches and think that the high prices they charge somehow makes them legitimate breeders. For some reason, Americans seem to think that something is automatically of higher quality just because you pay more for it.  For what you pay for a Kimbertal puppy, you can get a health tested Dobe pup from schutzhund titled parents and a reputable kennel.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of the AKC conformation Dobe look either, but the FCI standard dobermanns aren't that extreme. A dobermann shouldn't look like a sighthound, but at the same time, they're a MEDIUM breed, always have been, and these 95 lb. dogs are just too big. 

And I don't personally care whether their ears and tails are done, I have one cropped and docked, and one all-natural, and I like them both. 

I don't understand how the way they look affects the way they work... maybe I'm misunderstanding? I've heard a lot about Thomas's dogs, they're supposed to be very nice.. and his boy Jago isn't cropped or docked... hasn't kept him from getting respect from the working dog community so far. I know that the dobermann breed has suffered a lot, but isn't that all the more reason to support the breeders who are still actively trying to promote the breed's working abilities? If that small community of working dobe fanciers wasn't trying so hard, against all odds, to restore the legitimacy and reputation of our breed, then there'd be no hope for us to ever bring back the mythical "dobes of the past" that everyone always remembers so fondly.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

Seriously, you don't have the dogs to even think about getting started.

I mean "you" generally, not you personally.

I really don't care what they look like. :lol:


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