The Problem
Is the modern Doberman Pinscher teetering on the brink of extinction? The once incredibly healthy, powerful, and superior working breed is now crippled by an extraordinarily high prevalence of life-threatening diseases, at earlier and earlier ages, including: cancer, Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM), Wobbler Disease, and hepatitis (inflammation of the liver). Those problems are a predictable result of the breed's severe depression of overall genetic diversity. Previous attempts to "breed away" these diseases have been resoundingly unsuccessful due to this lack of diversity and the fact that, until recently, breeders had no tools with which they could work to breed litters with fewer shared genetic mutations and lower levels of inbreeding (coefficient of inbreeding) compared to the parent dogs.
Over time, the Doberman gene pool has continued to dwindle through the rampant use of popular sires, the cumulative effects of unchecked inbreeding (including linebreeding), and dramatic bottlenecks due to the World Wars and political upheaval. Modern Dobermans -- whether in America, Europe or Asia -- are remarkably genetically similar to one another. Their close genetic relationships further concentrate the genetic mutations behind life-threatening genetic disease -- disease that is very serious and often cannot be effectively treated or cured.
Veterinarians have long wrung their hands when they see Dobermans affected by genetic disease because there is often no effective treatment or cure to offer. Doberman owners have long suffered alongside their beloved dogs, watching their companions die premature or sudden deaths. Doberman breeders have long struggled to contain the genetic diseases that wreak havoc on their breed at earlier and earlier ages. Despite these efforts, Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann's original superior working dog faces a very uncertain future.
Is the modern Doberman Pinscher teetering on the brink of extinction? The once incredibly healthy, powerful, and superior working breed is now crippled by an extraordinarily high prevalence of life-threatening diseases, at earlier and earlier ages, including: cancer, Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM), Wobbler Disease, and hepatitis (inflammation of the liver). Those problems are a predictable result of the breed's severe depression of overall genetic diversity. Previous attempts to "breed away" these diseases have been resoundingly unsuccessful due to this lack of diversity and the fact that, until recently, breeders had no tools with which they could work to breed litters with fewer shared genetic mutations and lower levels of inbreeding (coefficient of inbreeding) compared to the parent dogs.
Over time, the Doberman gene pool has continued to dwindle through the rampant use of popular sires, the cumulative effects of unchecked inbreeding (including linebreeding), and dramatic bottlenecks due to the World Wars and political upheaval. Modern Dobermans -- whether in America, Europe or Asia -- are remarkably genetically similar to one another. Their close genetic relationships further concentrate the genetic mutations behind life-threatening genetic disease -- disease that is very serious and often cannot be effectively treated or cured.
Veterinarians have long wrung their hands when they see Dobermans affected by genetic disease because there is often no effective treatment or cure to offer. Doberman owners have long suffered alongside their beloved dogs, watching their companions die premature or sudden deaths. Doberman breeders have long struggled to contain the genetic diseases that wreak havoc on their breed at earlier and earlier ages. Despite these efforts, Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann's original superior working dog faces a very uncertain future.