training advice
If you are about to welcome a rescue Dobermann into your home, please read the following advice carefully, even if you have had 10 Dobermanns before. Every dog is different.
The moment you take your dog, it is no longer a rescue. It doesn’t matter what happened before you owned the dog, how you welcome your new family member into the home, the boundaries you set and the training you provide is of paramount importance.
These first interactions will form the basis of your relationship and may ultimately decide the future of your dog. Relationships begin in the home and if your dog isn’t shown how to respect and trust you, you are more likely to have problems outside the home.
If you are unsure how to do this, please seek the advice of a dog trainer before bringing the dog home.
You will receive as much detail as we can provide about the dogs’ current behaviour, however, in a new environment with new people your dog may behave differently.
Dobermanns are large, powerful, athletic, and Intelligent. If you do not train them, they will train you and that never ends well.
If you are unsure of what to look for in a trainer please ask, we are well connected in the dog training world.
If you want to find your own trainer, then please consider the points below:
- Do they specialise in something that demonstrates a deeper understanding of Dog behaviour such as livestock aversion training, aggression rehabilitation or some kind of dog sport?
- Do they have a catalogue of experience and learning? Please remember, unfortunately qualifications including degrees in behaviour are not necessarily indications of a good trainer and a lack of qualifications or certification does not mean they are a bad trainer!
- Are they open to discussion? Will they allow you to meet them before booking in for training?
- Are they prepared to meet with you and your new dog in your home within the first 3 days of its arrival? You should plan for this ahead of getting your rescue dog.
- Are they affiliated with a professional organisation?
- Are they open to using a range of training options to help you get the behaviours needed to maintain a safe and secure environment for all.
When you get your dog home:
Have a plan, don’t just open your door, and allow your new family member unlimited access to the whole house.
Stick to the plan. If you are not using our recommendations that are specific to your dog, then we expect you have a trainer that has come up with a better plan which is more specific to your needs.
If you identify a problem behaviour, ignoring it will not fix it!
The first few days, weeks and months with a new dog may be difficult, but if you put the effort in early you will be repaid over and over!
One of our Charitable Aims is to promote the breed and its welfare. Most of the dogs that come to us have behavioural problems and dealing with this can be very stressful, the dog may well display good behaviour with an experienced handler, but when rehomed, the behaviours may well change. If you are dealing with behavioural problems with the objective of keeping the dog in the home, you may need to augment play and reward-based training with the use of a range of equipment. As previously mentioned, we have extensive contacts with trainers who we can put you in touch with to help you and your dog.
The result of good balanced training can ensure that your dog is able to have more freedom and live a healthier life. Experience has shown us that dogs with extreme behaviours can severely affect the lives of the people they live with, often there is no time to spend months slowly changing a challenging behaviour.
In some circumstances, without the use of appropriate equipment, these dogs would end up back in kennels where it is extremely difficult to address problem behaviours, in addition health and mental wellbeing often deteriorate fast in a kennel environment.
Remember:
We are here to help you!
We will always recommend training before rehoming, and we will always try to keep the dog in the home rather than bring it into kennels.
None of the dogs we have are in rescue because they are perfect pets! Expect to put some work in before you start to reap the rewards that sharing your life with a dog can bring!
