Well we have ONE Doberman here he is....his name is Zeus But if we had 2 ...we'd say we have 2 super powerful loyal security dogs... LOL.... seriously we'd say we had 2 Dobermans
I haven't heard anyone call them Pinschers in years , AL... my daughter has Boarding kennels, and the dobbies she owns as well as those she has as guests are only ever called Dobermans'...
One of my uncles had one and the first time he visited my mom and dad the pinscher would not let me in the house. My uncle called him his pinscher.
Our doberman is very standoffish with strangers, but he's a trained security guard so he acts only on command ..however we used to have a German shepherd when I was young, and he was a wonderful dog to us as a family .. he would let any stranger in the house, but the rub was, he wouldn't let them out again.!! We had no idea what his problem was because we got him as a rescue, but he would go berserk to stop people leaving, we always had to lock him in another room before anyone could stand up from a sitting position, otherwise he would have them pinned to the wall
My first Doberman was a Gladiator Doberman, and he had been professionally trained as a guard dog, and was sent to a lumber mill in Idaho that was on strike, to prevent vandalism. After the mill re-opened, the owners were going to have Bruno put down, because they didn’t think that he could become a family-type dog; but one of the mill workers was able to take him. He told me that Bruno did the same thing as your dog did, @Holly Saunders ; he would let people come in the house, but not let them go back out again. He said some friend had come to see them while they were gone, and Bruno happily let the fellow in the house, but then kept him trapped there until the house-owners returned. Eventually, he moved Bruno outside onto a chain, and when I found him, he was freezing and starving out in the cold Idaho early spring weather, and I asked him if he would give me the dog, which he did. I had Bruno for many years after that, and he was a great dog. He was affectionate and loved anyone that I let in the house, but when he was on guard duty, he was the typical Doberman that you see in the movies. He scared the Jehovah’s Witnesses so badly that they took me off of their list of places to visit !
Maybe the shepherd still had memories of the pound and didn't like to see people leaving him there. We had huskies. One essentially was my dog(I think she thought I was the alpha male). The other was always at my wife's side thru good or bad. My dog had a peculiar habit. When my mother-in-law came to visit, the dog would lay at her feet and snarl at her when she moved.
LOL, about it being your mother-in-law... but Similar to our ''King''...it was like for some reason he didn't want anyone to leave him. he didn't bite but he would bark loudly and actually jump up and pin them against the wall... no amount of telling people, who have a barking Alsation pinning them to the wall, that he won't hurt them will have anyone believing you...but it was true, he never harmed anyone apart from give them a damn near heart attack.. ...but it was a scary thing for people, so we would just put him in another room when folks were ready to leave
Great ending to that story @Yvonne Smith , I'm so pleased you rescued the dobbie.... Our dobbie is highly trained, as a security dog... but he's a family pet too, and now he's 12 years old he's just an old softie... but I saw him go on the defence once.. and it scared the beejeezus outta me, he had the head of the other large dog completely in his mouth!!