I applaud you for starting this conversation and I respect that you have spoken so openly.
I got my first Doberman in 1996, so I don't know if I really qualify for your information sampling pool. Still, this is a vital topic to me and I'd like to speak on it a bit.
The idea of changes in the breed that have possibly occurred over the years and decades is something I heard here on DCF. If I recall,
@Tropicalbri's , and you,
@Ravenbird , and possibly someone else, mentioned the topic.
As some of you know, I have decided to take a break from Dobermans for now, and have procured a very different breed of a guarding nature. Not the sole aspect, but a major one is my questioning the breed modern day – both in terms of temperament and of health.
Note: The next paragraph has turned into mostly a boasting session on my first Dobe.
So yeah, my first Dobe was honestly whet I call my once in a lifetime dog. Like someone who commented above, I bought him from the classifieds. So not the way to do it, but I was not educated and informed on dogs, only having lived with our family dogs growing up. Well, someone was looking out for me because that Dobe was awesome. He was a Red, 28 1/2" tall and 95 lbs. rock solid. His build was rather stocky and his head blocky. He was so trainable. I wish I could find these pieces of paper, but I think he knew over 200 words and could perform over 100 commands. I put a CDX on him, and could've gone on to the UD level, but he detested the obedience ring and was so stressed out by it that it stressed me out greatly and was not worth continuing. Then, we got into some neat trick training. The following are not what I include in the category "tricks" but he would pick up anything I'd tell him to and he'd place it in my hands. He would carry bags of groceries into my apartment up steep stairs. He would carry a cooler of drinks, or a toolbox, or a gallon of milk home from the store. He saved my life two separate times, and got me into my locked truck two different times. I'd take him to work and leave him on the seat of the truck and he'd never touch this dog biscuit that was sitting right in front of him. I could go on. He did whine a fair amount, and he did the obsessive licking; but as with all three of my Dobes, I did not allow blanket sucking to even become a thing. I didn't socialize him when he was young, and his default was to bite (nip) if I didn't take charge of meetings with strangers. He has a problem with children and nipped three different ones. Anyway, I don't expect many of you to read this long paragraph. He was my one constant through some tough times and on into better times. He accompanied me on at least to long trips half way across the country, riding in the tight lightweight racing bucket seat of my muscle car, or on the hot floorboard on a blanket, or in my 76 Blazer with the top off driving from MN to AZ to pick up my motorcycle. I felt pretty well protected as we slept in the open back of that truck at rest stops. Oh, that motorcycle? He would go on to ride on the back of it in a crate that I attached back there..
So that first Dobe, from a nothing special hobby breeder heritage was pretty amazing, but did have a decent amount of whining and characteristic Doberlicking, and perhaps due to my not socializing him, would get aggressive with strangers unless I gave the okay command.
My next two Dobes were from working breeders.
One of them had a major problem with unpredictably going after guests in the home, and oh yeah, my wife. You may assume it was bad training, but I don't think so. I finally contacted the breeder and that's when I first found out his littermate (only two in the litter) had to be put down a few years prior for "violent seizures" or "rages". He was a great Dobe, but quite whiny and high strung. Very very trainable – a bit robot-like in that regard. Turns out I hadn't done my research well enough and it turns out his sire (who at the time of the breeding, was an 11 time Schutzhund III) was pretty inbred. This, according to my subsequent breeder. Oh, he would freak out about being in a confined space. We learned this on a camping trip when he began to get rigid inside the tent with us. I'm so glad nobody got bitten. I had to go sleep in the car with him, and leave my wife to sleep alone. The vet had to examine him outdoors, not in an exam room.
Then, you've got Oji, also from working lines. Similar to the previous one, but worse in every regard besides the unpredictable aggression. Separation anxiety, and extreme explosive barking. I could not simply leash him to a tree or piece of playground equipment and walk a few feet away so as to push my daughter on a swing or something without him bursting into wild, ferocious barking. It was long hard training to quell his reactivity to dogs that could occur from 1/2 a block away. Very whiny and prone to pacing. He was very bad about nail trimming. The American Bulldog / Pit Bull female cross we fostered exhibited way more stoicism and toughness with the nail trimming. Oji's g.i. system was always a problem – battled loose stools his whole life. Also lifelong was the semi-frequent peeing on this front legs and paws, perhaps due to the incorrect angulation of the pelvis. He peed and pooped his crate early in life for months and months. After about the age of 3 or so, he developed thunder storm anxiety and eventually started peeing in the house if there was lightning and he could not reach us, or if we were sleeping. Oji was narrowly built throughout, and had a head that was on the smaller end of the spectrum, hence his bodyweight of 70 lbs. at a full 28" height.
A note on the head size: I don't want to buy into the old legend that Dobes eventually go crazy because their brains don't stop growing; but just a rather obscure theory – could his diminutive head size have not provided enough room for his brain? May sound crazy, I know.
Both those working-line Dobes, however, knew how to full-mouth bite as a birthright – Dax better than Oji, who needed a bit of coaxing to learn to get good grips. My first Doberman, I believe typical of the breed as a whole, had had full-mouth biting bred out of him. I do believe, however, that those working Dobes had what it took to do battle with a combative human attacker, and would not back down. I did not have this belief of my first Dobe.
So these working Dobes are bred pretty much with one goal: Maximum performance on the field. That, and if it's a caring breeder, health. I believe this causes other aspects of the dog to suffer – both conformationally and in terms of temperament.
@Ravenbird , you have an exception in my view in that Asha is put together very nicely and is gorgeous.
It comes down to that elusive concept of "The Total Doberman". Show me a breeder who achieves that.