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A question for Service Dog trainers or those who own/train Working Dobermans?

I found the attached link which I found interesting. It shows a Doberman performing Guide dog work and lists many other service dog type roles Dobermans are trained for. http://dpca.org/vers/vers_service.htm My question is two fold: Are there people here who train, or own, or have in some way been exposed to service dog training? (I know of one poster, Z, who I hope will post here but all others are welcome) And secondly, to those that own Working Dobermans or train for sevice, what has been your experience with Working Dobermans? And (I guess thirdly) to those that are just companion dog owners of working Dobermans, have you any experience in working service dog training ? I'm interested to hear all views, stories, anecdotal or otherwise and sharing websites or links to training facilities that specialize in training service dogs that include working Dobermans would be great. Also curious to hear from any (if they exist here on YA) that train cadaver dogs. Have they used Dobermans? I know Dobermans have been very sucessful. Heres another intersting link: http://www.freeuniquearticles.com/family/pets/cadaver-dog-training-program/ And for people in Ontario, here's an interesting blog on a trainers view of SAR training in Canada. I may not agree with every point, but overall, its fascinating and in my view, very valid. Well worth the read. http://www.workingdogs.com/sar_grima.htm Quote from the above link: Some really good insights in this article ! Pick one dog of average size, with an all weather coat. Train it to do multi tasks EXCEPT when it comes to Live or Dead. Distinguish between these only. Never train a dog to find live victims and cadaver. Your dog is an animal and animals make mistakes. At a major disaster, searchers will dedicate a lot of time, effort and equipment to finding the live trapped victim but the dead are not going anywhere. This is no time to make a mistake on an indication. Have a dog trained to track, open search, urban search and article recovery. Have another dog trained for land and water Cadaver. @Labman: Thanks. Yes, I may have to repost in a few days and be more breed inclusive - I suspect the number of Working Dobermans on YA is too limited to generate a response. Thanks for your feedback , interesting.

Public Comments

1. I have actually seen a working Doberman guide dog. Its partner was part of over 150 of us brought in for training in promoting the guide dog school. I never got a chance to talk to the lady. The school trains 70-80 % Labs and mostly Shepherds and Goldens. I have seen a number of other breeds they have trained. I know acceptability with the general public is a large factor. I am sure you are well aware of the general public attitudes to the Dobes. I have wondered if the dog's partner had as much trouble keeping people from petting it as many people do. I don't know of any service dog school that currently breeds Dobes to train. I never remember seeing another one working, Most service dogs are bred for the purpose and live with volunteers until after a year old. That is where I fit in. Many of the schools accept donated dogs and will even raid the pounds when desperate for dogs. Dogs bred for the purpose and carefully socialized have a much higher success rate than ones from outside the program. Add Gee, I checked back hoping to see some more answers. I hope you do get more information than I was able to give.
2. I have an owner trained service dog who is a rottie/aussie mix. His trainer has doberman service dogs that she owner trains. Neither are guide dogs, though. Mine is a medical alert/response/mobility dog and hers is a psychiatric service dog. Last I heard, though, Canada doesn't allow owner training and does require certification, unlike the US. You need to double check your laws if you are looking into owner training a SD.
3. Don't train or use a service dog, but just wanted to add to Labmans' post. Pilot Dogs is the only guild dog association I know of that works fairly extensively with Dobermans. They work with several of the breeds that are capable of guide work but are not commonly seen (Poodles, Vizlas and Boxers) in addition to the common breeds (Labs, Goldens and GSD) I don't know anyone personally that has a Doberman service dog but several on one of my Doberman lists have Doberman Service dogs. One has a guide dog (if I recall correctly she is also a Doberman breeder and donates dogs to Pilot Dogs and her guild dog is of her own breeding but trained by Pilot Dogs) another has a medical alert service dog.