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The Bobtailed Dobermann Pinscher.
(From the Philipp Grunig book "The dobermann Pinscher".)
Published originally 1934
Bobtail
It would be of great interest to determine in how many litters of present
day breeding natural born bob tail Dobermanns may be found.
A high estimate would be one to every three hundred pups.
This deformity seems to originate in an accidental construction of the mothers womb.
In considering ways and means of improving the modern breed the
bob tail need not engage our attention any longer.
Let us look backward, however, and see how this type of tail figured in our history.
Otto Goeller, of Apolda, was preeminently the chief architect and moral sponsor of the breed.
At the beginning of the century he wrote the first edition og his pamphlet,
"The Dobermann Pinscher in Word and Picture" and justly asserts:
"More even in the German Sheperd Dog the bob tail, commonly called "bear tail",
occurs in the Dobermann. Dogs with natural bob tails are prefereed to those with docked tails.
By mating bob tail dogs to bob tail bitches we are hopeful of breeding the bob tail constant in Apolda.
This actually seems to prove successful. In the past few days I have seen three litters in
which practically every puppy had a bob tail." Well so much for Goeller.
A few years later he felt compelled to revise that judgment and in the third
edition of his pamphlet,1908-09,he wrote as follows:
As far as the bob tail is concerned nearly all of my breeding dogs
and most of my bitches have one. (I deny this categorically as I personally knew
most of Goeller`s dogs.-The Author). It`s heredity can only be traced naturally to the sheperd Dog.
The evidence is clear. I personally preferred to mate a bob tail dog to one born without it;
and these then produced both kinds. Without being related these two types bring us a type
of blood which belongs in the Dobermann and, in addition to its widely heralded
characteristics gives us a high grade animal in every other respect.
To the story of "The Bob Tail" I can only add "Once upon a time".
During the years that we were bringing the Doberman into being the Bob tail- I refer
exclusively to the natural born kind- was a great factor. Since our breeding
efforts have concerned themselves more with the production of deep tan markings
bob tail have been lost. They are seldom thrown by parents possessed of the desired tan markings. Etc, etc.
Present form of the Doberman
So here we have Goeller`s written views of 1901-02 as opposed to those of 1908-09.
How could such a change of opinion occur within a peroid of six short years?
In the past quarter of a century,the Dobermann ha changed in appearance, as much as few breeds have.
So much has it changed from its prototype that a specimen of today might be regarded as
of an entirely different breed if it could be placed in living comparsion with a dog of about 1900.
This could happen not only to the casual lay judge but also to one thoroughly
versed in the standards of today. During the years in which Goeller`s changed
his conceptions foreign blood was infused into the Dobermann to such an extent
that the breed`s basic appearance was totally changed. In many places Manchester terrier
blood was bred into it and the English greyhound contributed another share.
The Dobermann`s appearance up to then constant and static, was obliged to yield to
their influence and changed completely. Goeller was quite right in his observation
that were the rich tan markings appeared the bob tail vanished. That was the one
feature or trait over which the heredity of the new blood dominated. Where Goeller
seeks to trace this influence to a hunting dog he is in grievous error, the author
of this change(and improvement)was the Manchester terrier. Dobermanns of "the old type"
may still be found in the isolated mountain regions and, when mated, still produce a
bob tail or two in their litters. The Dobermann of 1900 was almost of foreign and
outside blood to those of today. For good and sufficient reason we refrain from writing
his genesis and history and only hint that in his veins flowed the blood of the
Rottweiler,Sheperd,Pinscher and Beauceron until the first half of the first
decade of the present century when the cross breedings above reffered to
were correctevely resorted to. (By the term "Sheperd" we do not in any sense
refer to the German Sheperd Dog of today, A breed hardly as old as the Dobermann.
We do mean the localized strains of bob tailed sheperd dogs to be found
in various parts of Germany).The blue colour of the Dobermann was more firmly
fixed by cross breeding to the German mastiff and the hunting dogs indigenous
to Weimar. But why did the Dobermann of the old type breed bob tails?
The above metioned ancestors of this old type- the Rottweiler, Sheperd Dogs, Pinschers etc.
-are counted among the oldest breeds known to man. The descent of the Rottweiler can
be traced to the Roman and Greek peoples. The place of their beginning in Germany has
been definitely traced to the Roman settlement of Centerra(Centland- today Rottweil).
Superstition conditioned many of man`s customs and cultural consepts and has even
influenced his conduct toward his dog. Plinius(the younger) records that the ancient
Romans caused a part of the dogs tail to be cut off at the age of forty days as
a means of immunizing against rabies. The custom was initiated throughout the entire
Roman world and wherever Rome`s legions gained a permanent foothold- wheter Asia,
Africa, Gaul or ancient Germany-their customs and superstitions were immediately
introduced and inflicted upon their subject races. As these took the Roman breeds
of dogs to their hearts it was inevitable that they should also adobt the Roman
methods of breeding, rearing and cutting of tails. The Rottweiler and his ancestors
have been subjected to this superstition for more than two thousand years.
In many parts of the Romantic world, notably in France and Italy,
cutting the tails as a supposed protection against rabies is still practiced by the peasantry.
Heredity of externally acquired traits is scientifically speaking, non existent.
As of the Dobermann we ask of these breeds, how did the bob tails originate in their litters?
An externally acquired trait may be defined as "a trait spontaneously created by an
organism as in internal reaction to an external environmental influence".
It is hardly conceivable that of the bitches, which welphed the litters over
a breeding period of ten years ninety per cent should have been afflicted
with strictures of the womb. Yet, if we were to bar that of herdity,
that would be the only reasoned explanation science could offer to account
for the overwhelming number of bob tails. Ear-cropping, for the purpose of
creating an erect ear cannot be adduced as an analogy either,
for this alteration is of comparatively recent origin, not meore than a century.
The doctrine of "acommodation" does not apply for no historically recorded
adverse environment required such an organic change. The bob tail occured
in varying lengths which never exceeded one-third of the tail`s natural length
and quite often did not include a single caudal vertebra.
This heredity did not come into assertative being in a short space of time;it
required thousands of years. During the same period vast changes and
improvements in the form and structure of many domestic animals were
brought by the intervention of men by means of selective breeding.
It was clear that the majority of "old types Dobermanns" inherited their bob tail.
This heredity couls obtain only as long as the ancient blood of the Rottweiler,
Sheperd Dog and Pinscher flowed preponderance was overcome by new cross breeding
the cause,of which the bobtail was the effect and the young were thereafter
born with normal tails. With man,as with animals, the heredity of the
individual trait will dominate and not the entire breed.
The "old type Dobermann" was distinguished by strawcoulored markings and light eyes.
The coat consisted of not any too short hair and heavy woolly undercoat.
This features verified his decent from the ancestors herein before enumerated,
but the picture changed forthwith when Manchester Terrier and Greyhound blood were
cross bred into the mixture. The light markings disappeared,the eye became darker
and coat smooth,short and free from undercoat. The art of the breeder had
found a suitable medium of expression and all dogs of the older type were eliminated.
Well planed selection increased the size of the dogs, improved their apperance
and enhanced their nobility and stateliness(adel). Everything considered the
Dobermann has reached the peak of his aesthetic development and all blood
(aside from minor reversions) detrimental to this beauty has been thoroughly
eliminated by careful selection. The coarse body,invariably associated
with the bob tail,is well nigh gone and with it the bob tail.
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