German Pinscher

Over fifty years, we had Five Dobermans, all fantastic dogs, with proper training and lots of love. This time, I chose a German Pinscher because I am too old to have ninety pounds slamming against my knees. I fell in love with GPs at a UKC Show around 1990 - decades before internet. There was no information whatsoever available on this wonderful breed. Copper came from Arizona with amazing breeding and excellent health. I love her intelligence and especially her SPIRIT, and her desire to please! My major concern in her training was how to control the GP high prey-drive. It was really easy. I smothered her with Love and POSITIVE discipline. Because she loves me SO much, and because she gets lots of praise, she'll do anything for me. Including calling her off chasing coyotes, which are afraid of her - she's quite ferocious with them, because she was taught coyotes are NOT dogs - they are BAD! So she wants to protect me from them. Even though she barks as strangers approach HER house, her one fault is she is worthless as a guard dog - everyone is her Best Friend! Sometimes she does "sleep-overs" with the kids next door - she loves them too. Copper has been super-socialized at the Dog Park. Copper has had three showers with me, and is an exceptionally CLEAN dog, with very little shedding. Some sources state GPs are yappy dogs. This is totally untrue with Copper - she only barks on command and when she is supposed to. I never trained a Service Dog before, but somehow, she knows when she has her SD Vest on, it's time for serious work and paying attention. She is excellent with basic obedience, and can be controlled with hand signals, even off leash. She sits quietly while waiting, remains under the table in restaurants, and rides the Metro, elevators & escalators with me. DO NOT get a GP if you've never had a dog before - they require experienced Owners, who know how to discipline dogs POSITIVELY! ====>NEVER yell at a GP - ignore the bad things which happen. When a GP does something correctly, praise them like they just won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. That's the kind of discipline they require. Simultaneously, you must make a GP understand YOU are the Alpha Male in your Pack, so they don't try to get away with bad behavior. Then they will respect you for it and love you even more. And in the GP info above, they NEVER get to be 77#! Wikipedia describes them more accurately - The German Pinscher is a medium-sized dog, weighing between 25–45 pounds and typically 17–20 inches at the shoulders.

Smart and mischievous

The dog I walked had loads of energy and couldn't sit still. He was friendly and not aggressive.

The personality of my common walking companion and best pup pal, Lyam, eluded me for a long time. The german pinscher personality is quite strange if you're used to straightforward, goofy dog-dogs. Pinschers are focused, steadfast, and can be rather intense at first and Lyam does meet this bill. After spending more time with Lyam he started to do things that would melt my heart; it seems it just takes some time for their affectionate nature to be recognized and for them to really let it show. Lyam has a fenced in backyard in which he can run, a rare luxury. When we're not going on a long stroll together, we romp together in the backyard and when we romp, we romp hard. He's a goofy boy who particularly enjoys being chased. To initiate his game, I need only to jump once in his direction and he shoots around the back yard like some sort of maniac on fire! That sleek body of his sure packs some intense power! During our walks together this energy does translate. It took an very long and hard regiment of training to get him to refrain from pulling for the duration of the walk. He still would prefer to troll with a sprinter, but now he's happy to go on as long a stroll as his companion is willing to take him on. After a hard romp or a long stroll he gets very affectionate and lazy. He loves laying as close to his people as possible if not directly on top of them. If we're just taking a brief break in our playtime he will come over and lean his whole body weight on me. Though he has largely grown out of it (partially I attribute this to the amount of exercise he is now getting), he used to have a problem with getting into trouble during his parents' time away: getting into the trash, ripping up pillows, etc. This is a testament to the amount of energy that the old boy is wound up with. It seems that in every aspect of the German pinscher, there is a certain amount of intensity whether it is play, love, sleep, or trouble. Overall, he's a handful, but after spending a good amount of time with him, the true nature of his personality has absolutely won me over. He is unlike many other dogs that I spend time with and this is a welcome change. It's nice to be challenged to speak a new dog language every once in a while.

His smart that he can find a way to break the cage and disappear for 15 min then show up in front my door like nothing happened and that is Everyday 😂 I changed the net of cage many times but getting more smarter everyday. Can’t stop him

we adopted him 7 days ago. We are hopelessly in love with him. He is a precious baby. He did bark in his crate the first few nights. I thought he would hurt himself but, he has been great the last couple days. I am not worried as much about him. I am so happy we brought him home with us. Our Labrador Retriever died in December of 2017. We were lost without her. Rainier walked up to my sister and boom, he was a member of our family. I look forward to sharing my life with our Rainier.