Pastimes
Ivar is a perfect mix of the Doberman Pinscher and the German Shephard. He has the Shephard saddle markings, a black line down his face, a tan line down his nose and is built like the Doberman Pinscher with long legs and big chest. His coat colour is classic Doberman Pinscher and the length is medium. His ears like to stand up when he is paying attention, but look like Dobby the Elf when he is relaxed.
Ivar has a very good temperament with family, people he knows, dogs he knows and animals he grew up with. He is fantastic with children and loves to play; however, he is quite anxious. He does bark at people walking by, birds, small outdoor animals and dogs he is unfamiliar with. He has not attacked anyone and has not bitten since I trained him out of his puppy mouthing stage. Because he is anxious walks are long and sometimes frustrating. He has a harness for tugging prevention and leash training has been a long process. In every other field, he is very intelligent and he picks up on commands extremely easily. I am able to let him off leash in quiet fields or parks and his attention is always on me. His recall is impeccable and I have no troubles getting him back on the leash.
He does have troubles with food that isn't his regular dog food. He gets the runs quite easily and I have to test out treats and other foods before I can give it to him often. He does like to eat snap peas, oranges, apples and some other vegetables.
Other than his anxieties, he is very lovely and enjoys cuddling and being around his family. He plays hide and seek with his human siblings, find-the-treat cup games, tag, fetch, tug-of-war and, especially, finding toy games.
If you are looking to get a Doberman Shephard, be sure you are able to exercise them and train them daily, have plenty of thinking toys, have some games that use their finding and rescuing skills and are able to socialize them with everything you can think of as soon as you add them to your family. This will help them stay happy and keep their guarding instincts controlled. They will be way less anxious if anxious at all.
This breed is an amazing family dog if you have the time and patience.
4 years, 5 months ago