. . . has been reached. It is high time to reign in the breeding practices of some breeders in certain aspects of Dobermann breeding. Generally these new measures should not cause surprise.
As is well known the Dobermann Verein e.V. is a specialist breed club for the purebred Dobermann. The International Dobermann Club is a voluntary association of national Dobermann Clubs who are agreed upon the implementation of uniform Breed Regulations and Breed Controls.
Within our ranks we therefore regard the breeding of the Dobermann primarily as a hobby and the breeding of purebred dogs means, above all, taking responsibility. The guidelines for this high level of responsibility are established by Clubs and Associations and the basis for that is founded in the experience and the aims of our members and especially our breeders. These breeders submit to the prescribed Breed Regulations and they take on a high measure of responsibility in order to achieve their goals not only when acquiring breeding stock and selecting breeding partners, but also in the training and education of their dogs.
A totally different situation emerges, however, when for some people the breeding of dogs becomes either a partial or even a primary means of earning a living. Then breeding becomes a business and the dog degenerates into a product. The normal ambition to succeed is then accompanied by financial considerations and more and more dogs in less and less time need to be produced in order to supply an imagined demand, to cover expenses and beyond that to generate an income. In the efforts to achieve these goals, all sense of responsibility is lost, all means are justified and the creativity of some breeders is focused on finding new methods which enable them to circumvent some if not all of the Breed Regulations and the Breed Controls of the Dobermann Verein e.V. and even blatant deceit and the falsification of documents are not shied away from. It is the puppy buyers and later dog owners who suffer the damage together with the serious and responsible Breeders, not to mention the ongoing consequences to the Breed.
At this point I would like to record that the officials of the Dobermann Verein e.V. and those of the IDC take very serious indeed all reports and indications of possible misdemeanors and we will follow up all such cases. Naturally these activities take up a lot of time because all accusations have to be substantiated and proved. At the same time I can assure you that all proven Breed offences and manipulations will lead to high level sanctions and to a consequent banning of the guilty from all Breed, Test and Show activities and possibly entail the expulsion from the IDC of the involved member countries. In the forthcoming weeks and months we will invest all our time, energy and financial resources into the pursuance of this issue.
On a positive note, I commend the initiative of several internet portals which afford dog owners the opportunity to disclose details of their dogs, for example, of those affected by DCM. However, already after a short time we notice that the majority of these cases involve dogs bred without Breed Controls. Dogs bred by registered DV breeders are also controlled in this case but such control can only be implemented retrospectively. The recent introduction, at short notice, of DNA profiling is another important step in confirming in clear terms
The end of Tolerance has been reached.
We are requesting all friends of the Dobermann who have recourse not only to the internet portals but also directly to the DV to report anomalies provided that concrete and substantiated evidence can be supplied about the origins of the dogs concerned. Only in this way can we prevent degradation and harm at grass-roots level and promote, in the future, a healthy and controlled breeding of our Dobermann in order to support and protect the serious breeders.
In this spirit, let us jointly direct our efforts towards a controlled breed selection for our Dobermann breeding.
Yours sincerely,
Hans Wiblishauser
President
