Colter loved the sand! The waves were a different story... We made an excellent trip down to Jacksonville, Florida for a Stud for our European Doberman Colter! We usually do chilled overnight for out of state owners, or they travel to us, but have always left open the option for us to travel to the bitch owner for a live tie, or fresh TCI (fresh TCI being signifigantly better odds than chilled insemination). Monday Athena was ready! We packed everyone up, and headed down. Weather was good and traffic was light, especially after passing Macon. The collection and trans cervical insemination went very well! Colter had a semen analysis done and his numbers were very good! 1.4 billion sperm count, 95%+ motility, and >4% abnormalities. Especially for a European Doberman Stud Colter's age, these numbers are very impressive. Even more impressive is that he was collected for another TCI the next day (Tuesday), and his semen count was still above 1 billion. Colter and the kids loved the beach. Colter (our European Doberman) and Forrest (our human being) loved destroying the sand castles i was attempting to build. Eventually the fun had to end and we made our way back to Atlanta. We made a few pit stops on the way back, our favorite one being a little bit before the Georgia Florida border. Photos below are from that stop. If you're interested in a proven European Doberman Stud with flexible breeding options, please visit our stud page and feel free to contact us!
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One of the activities we miss the most as a family when Nichole is pregnant is hiking together! Now that Penelope has been born, we saddled up and went for a long overdue hike! Trying to get Colter standing for a good photo We didn't hike too far, but Cochran Mill's best known photography site (the end of the waterfall seen in the above photo of Colter (our prized European Doberman Stud)), is fairly close to the trailhead. Colter is such a good boy on leash. Of all the European Dobermans I've handled over the years, he's the most attentive and careful on leash. He's developing into such a powerful, but sweet boy. He's everything we were looking for in an import, and we really lucked out. Especially considering that he was most likely one of the last direct imports since March 2020 when airlines started their animal shipping embargo.
European Dobermans Grooming Needs and schedule/How Often should you groom your european doberman?1/24/2021 We often get asked: “how often do you bathe your Dobermans?”, “should I worry about causing dry skin by giving baths too often?”, and many other really great questions! So, we’re talking the time to answer the big ones, as well as lay out our grooming schedule for all of our European Dobermans. It’s not a one size fits all program, but we’ll lay out the fundamentals and the time frame you want to make sure to do at least each task on your European Doberman. Bathing your Doberman There is an ages long debate about animals and how much their behavior is determined by their genetics, and how much is determined by their environment. On one side there are hardliners that insist that no breed is inherently more aggressive or dangerous than other breeds, and that the only determining factor is the environment that they are raised in. On the other side are those who believe that each dogs behavior is determined by some parts their genetics, and some parts by how they were raised (I have not ever seen someone advocate that a dog’s behavior is determined only by their genetics). In talking with dog professionals and reading online discussions and opinions, there is a marked disconnect between those thinking that a dogs behavior is determined only by how they were raised. I have had almost hundreds of conversations that go almost exactly as follows (usually the person i’m talking to states how breed X is misunderstood), “Why do you think that X breed has such a high rate of biting people, including their owners?” “Stereotypes and the way they were raised. X breed are actually very sweet and gentle, it [only] depends on how they were raised.” “So you don’t think some breeds are naturally more aggressive than others?” “No.” “Do you think that some breeds are more athletic than others? Or more intelligent than others?” “Well… yes.” This is one of many socialization things we do before puppies go home. Loud, startling noises are an easy thing to socialize for when you start early. I was about 50 yards away shooting an AR, while the puppies were eating. At this age they have such a high food drive, that a loud noise will distract them for a moment, but with the reward of food being constantly in front of them and accessible, its a guaranteed positive experience. Continuing this at a safe distance as they age, while doing 1 shot closer by (1 shot at a closer distance is not likely to cause hearing damage. a second shot increases this chance), will make sure you end up with a dog who isn't gun shy, and is considerable better around loud machinery etc.
Trail running with our European Doberman Lily again! This happened back in the beginning of June, but I haven't had a chance to do a blog post about it until now. We went to Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Parking was only $5 so that was really nice! One of the hard parts about picking new trails is having trouble navigating when parts fo the path are overgrown. We were supposed to end at the Chattahoochee river and then head back out on the same trail. I think we missed a turn somewhere early on, because eventually we stopped seeing trail markers and the trail became totally overgrown were I was confident we had missed the turn. We still had a great time, and the weather was excellent Lily got to meet a very nice park ranger! He said that they had been slammed, and on the weekends were having to turn people away at about 2pm because the park was getting too full. He said even the weekdays were usually really busy, but it was just him and I in the big picnic/boat ramp parking lot, and he said he wasn't sure why it wasn't busier. Fine by Lily and I though! We love having the trail to ourselves!
Lily did not enjoy getting into the river. Novella is our family's big swimmer, but being pregnant at the time she's not headed out on any runs until after pups are gone. With all the turmoil going on in the world, it has been so nice to be able to head out to nature and relieve some stress. The park has a bunch of trails, so we may head back out and just see where the trail takes us and not having a set path. See you on the trails!
We wanted to be creative and put together a little magazine! It has some exclusive photos, stories, and information that we haven't shared elsewhere. Hope you enjoy it!
I took Lily trail running to try out our new GoPro! I expected to see a lot more people out due to the pandemic and Cochran Mill being a popular park. We didn't see anyone on the trail - I suspect since we took the difficult route. Sometimes we think it would be nice to live north of the perimeter just to be closer to the awesome trails up by Blue Ridge. It's harder to get a deep woods trail south of the city. Here's to hoping we can do a lot more runs soon!
In other news, we're so grateful that Ana had 6 beautiful puppies and they're all healthy and happy. She's being such a great mom to them. Very attentive, loving, and patient. ColtWe welcomed a new addition to the Von Hohenhalla family today! Little Colt is a European import from Serbia (the Betelges kennel)! He comes from spectacular lines and was exactly what we were looking to add to our family, but the process reminds us of why we haven’t imported in years... Going through customs is a hassle, the trip can be hard on the pup, and if we didn’t know the breeder in Serbia personally, I’m not sure we would be able to trust a stranger with so much money and such a complicated process. Lily absolutely adores Colt, she’s acting like his momma. If he ever whines or gets in a tough spot (Colt hasn’t conquered the deck stairs quite yet!), Lily is right there to make sure he’s okay! We’ll see as he gets more comfortable if he’s ready to have a teen mom or not. Even though the trip from Serbia was long, after a nail dremel and bath he perked right up! He’s really confident, and you can tell he’s going to fit in with the gang very very well. Our breeding plans are that he is the stud we use for Lily, Bee, and potentially Ana and Novella when he’s older. Rudolf is still a cherished part of our family and not going anywhere, but since the girls are all his daughters, he’s a stud to outside females only. LilyWe call Lily and Beatrice “the twins” since they look almost indistinguishable from each other, and they are ALWAYS by each others side. They run and jump together, they chew on the same toys together, they nap together, they’re the definition of best friends. It’s been such a blessing having Lily back to our family. Novella and Ana like playing with Bee, but she was really missing a puppy playmate. NovellaLily and Bee playing has made Novella play like a puppy again (Ana still acts like an old maid), and she’s really enjoyed chasing after them and getting involved. Novella doesn’t throw herself around like a rag doll like the twins do. I don’t think we’ve talked about Novella and her blue ball before, but we want to illustrate how much she loves it (we recently had to buy a second one because she didn't want to share!). If you throw her blue ball, she will grab onto it and run around with it as proud as can be. We’ll play fetch with everyone else and she’ll just run around happy as can be with her ball in her mouth! Other News!We’re still planning on Anastasia and Novella litters being born this June/July. Rudolf has studded out to some local females from other breeders and has made some beautiful puppies. We’ve gotten more than enough rain here the past month so whoever needs to know that to pause the rain for awhile, now you know.
We took our European Doberman Bee to Home Depot to help us pick out a few things, and to make a few new friends! We had taken Bee to Lowes a few weeks earlier to pick up some fence posts for the on going fence building project. She did really well then, but getting her into Home Depot we could see that she needed more noises and different surroundings that we didn't get at Lowes, since we just stayed in the garden section. She was curious at some of the noises and her confidence helped her investigate everything to her satisfaction. After visiting appliances we went down the paint aisle which is where we needed to pick up a few things. Here Bee met a retired man who used to have European Dobermans, and that his European Doberman was very protective of his wife (who was pushing the buggy). He pet Bee and let her lick his face which both he and Bee really enjoyed. We said our goodbyes and moved down the aisle a little more where we met another gentlemen who also said hello to us and Bee. He was very kind and told us about his German Shepherd he had in his car and the training him and his friend did with dogs. We gave him a treat to give Bee, and he was very happy to give it to her, as she was very happy to receive it. He told us how he liked the European Doberman Puppies much better than the American Dobermans. We talked about working aptitude and temperament as Bee munched away. We then went to check out and met a few more men at the checkout who pet Bee while we checked out. Going out in a very public, noisy place is beneficial for many reasons for a puppy. It's excellent socialization as you'll meet mainly men, and a lot of them with beards. Unsocialized puppies have issues especially with men and beards (hats as well). Meeting as many people like this as young as possible set your pup up for success (as well as all the handling we do with them as puppies). It's also a great opportunity to work on walking on leash with lots of distractions around. It's easy to control, train and correct them on leash now while they're puppies, it's much harder when they're full grown Dobermans. Click here to watch the video of Bee in Home Depot or watch below! |