Camping with Dobermans

[Control_Freak]

Hello all, were new to rving,supposed to pick up our TT on Saturday. We started talking about getting a camper early last year when my oldest dog started slowing down and we didn’t want to leave her home with a sitter. Long story short, she wasn’t slowing down but extremely sick with autoimmune meningitis, she declined quickly and even though we did everything we could for her but she couldn’t fight the disease and passed away 4th of July weekend. We were absolutely devastated by her passing and out camping on the back burner.

Fast forward to now, we decided to move forward and make the leap into camping. We have an 8 yr old male And an 18 month old female Doberman. This is a breed that most people don’t know their true nature and are usually afraid of and I’m concerned that they will be prejudged based on their breed. My male, Sully is a big muscular boy weighing is at 90 lbs and is extremely intimidating to look at, but I can tell you that there hasn’t been one person who hasn’t absolutely fell in love with him once they give him a chance. My pup, Rizzo is young and still trying to figure out what is appropriate behavior. We work with her a lot and she’s almost there. I’m really big on my dogs being well behaved members of the dog community, mostly because I believe that it’s my responsibility as a dog owner to ensure they act right and don’t disturb or scare other people and because I love to train my dogs. Sully is a champion show dog and has his CGC, Rizzo is training to compete in AKC obedience and will evaluated for her CGC soon.

So my questions are...are we going to have any issues based solely on their breed? What steps can we take to make sure they are safe? Obviously don’t leave them outside unattended or off leash. How big of a problem is people/children/pets walking through others campsites?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated and I’m going to try to put some photos up of them but not sure if they’ll show up.


BC226C7D-7993-48B8-8447-4723DF8A31DF by Corinna Morris, on Flickr

343C4666-4197-474A-8BE4-203FC6EAC5C1 by Corinna Morris, on Flickr

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Scottiemom wrote:


And lastly, the one comment I love from pet owners whose dogs are NEVER leashed in a campground. . . "It's okay, he's friendly." I say, "Well mine might not be." In truth he was, but again. . . if a dog charges up to mine. . . all bets are off.

I suspect most dogs who see a strange dog running towards them (or more importantly, towards "their people"!) go on the defensive? Even my social-butterfly dogs get edgy when the grandkids need to be protected.

I had a loose Border Collie come happily bounding towards us where a trail intersected - no owner in sight. My Cattle Dog went into full attack stance - I yelled "Call your dog!" and a voice answered "He's friendly". I yelled back "Mine is NOT!!" Fortunately, it was a well-trained BC who immediately returned to its owner, who then gave US the stink eye for having a dangerous animal.... a Cattle Dog would face off a charging grizzly if it was coming towards "their people"....

[CFerguson]

I feel your pain. And yes, there are parks that name Dobes as unacceptable. Be sure to read their websites before considering them.

Personally I love dogs, especially large breeds. And I dislike aggressive dogs regardless of size. fwiw, I have been bitten 3 times in my life and it was by ankle biter breeds- all had idiot owners which was actually the real problem. But I digress.

I have always had Akitas and every single one of them loved people. All could have qualified as Therapy Dogs if I had had the time to certify. What we did when we were RVing with them is to tell the campgrounds that they were mixed breed and probably had some huskie or Siberian in them. Most people don't know Akitas well enough to call our bluff and it worked for us every time. I am afraid that this wont work for you tho, as your boy looks like he should and everyone will know he's a Dobe.

Oh, one thing you might consider if you have the time is to certify your boy as a Therapy Dog. A dog that can go to hospitals and nursing homes may convince a dog-o-phobe of the truth.

[Scottiemom]

I'm sorry that deal didn't work for you but better to find out before you left and were able to cancel the deal. Keep looking. I'm sure you will find something that will work.

Best wishes.

Dale

[Lantley]

I'm not happy that your deal fell through. But I am glad that you knew enough to walk away. So many end up with a bad deal because they don't do a thorough PDI and are not prepared/willing to walk away if necessary.
You did the right thing.

[toedtoes]

Good you had all that happen while at the dealership, so you weren't stuck with a problem.

Don't give up completely. Keep looking. The right RV will come along.

[Control_Freak]

I didn't mean for this post to become a battle of the breeds, there is always going to be issues with people that do not like certain breeds or are afraid of them, the best I can do is make sure my dogs are well behaved and trained in hopes to change peoples' minds.

As far as camping, it looks like it is a no go for us, or at least put on the back burner for now. It is kind of a long story but I'll try to make it short.

We get to the dealership, do our walk through, and get hooked up. We go to finance, sign all of our paperwork and head over to parts to get a few items, which included a furion backup camera. We wanted the camera installed before we left and there were some other issues that we noticed during our walkthrough...missing light cover, no battery in the smoke detector, missing gasket, no power cord and a few other minor things. So we wait for them to get all of that done. 2 hours later they come over and tell us that they are having a problem getting the camera to connect to the display, they think its a problem with the camera and they're going to switch it out. Another hour goes by and they tell have tried 5 cameras but they cannot get it to work. The camera works and connects to the display when it is connected to an independent power source but as soon as they wire it to the camper it disconnects. They say that they think that the camera system on the truck is interfering with the signal, my husband asks if they've check to make sure there is power as the connections on the camper, yes. OK, it doesn't make sense that the hard wired cameras on the truck interfere with the bluetooth signal, but maybe the bluetooth on the truck is interfering, so now my husband gets involved (he was an auto tech for years that specialized in electrical). Turns off the blue tooth, same issue, connects the camera to independent power source at the back of the camper, plugs the display into the truck and it works, so that means it's not the truck system interfering, asks you checked the power coming out of the camper right? yes we did. Let me see a voltmeter, Less than 11 volts coming out of it, well there's your problem, there's a drop in voltage and it's not enough to power the camera, 11 volts should be fine, well obviously it's not. So now why is there a drop in voltage, is it a ground wire issue, an inverter, or something else. Voltage coming off the truck is fine, voltage inside the camper is fine. We find a ground wire that is busted up, they replace the resistor, still nothing. At this point we're ready to walk, ask for a manager, sales manager comes over and is very nice but says I don't know anything about this stuff, has the service manager been over? No, service manager comes over and bring the master tech with her....I guess 4+ hours, diagnosing your own issue and asking for a manager is the threshold to get the most experienced tech involved.

He says it's our truck, there's a problem with the 2019 chevy's and they got an email about it. Basically the email says that LED lights don't pull enough power and that the truck has an issue recognizing there is a trailer hooked up and you can experience LED flash, may also effect power for camera set up. Okay, we experience this with our boat trailer when the truck is off, about every 30 seconds the trailer lights flash but the camper does not have LED lights. The email specifically says if you have a 2019 chevy and a trailer with LED lights....we go back and forth with them. He hooks up a jump box to the camper, tests the voltage at the back, still a 3V drop. Husband says alright there's the answer, it's not the truck it's the camper, unhook it we're done.

I went and started the process of cancelling the deal, returning our down payment and all of the stuff we purchased. In the meantime, sales tried to salvage the deal by offering us 1500$ off to which we said no thank you, and the master tech hooked it up to his truck and there was more voltage at the camera hook up. So I don't know, it doesn't make a lot of sense that it didn't work with our truck or with the jump box but it worked with his truck. At the end of the day, after 5 hours of dealing with this and being given the run around we didn't feel good with moving forward and went through with cancelling the purchase. We're extremely disappointed, wasted 3 days dealing with this (2 hour drive each way), have to cancel our storage and the campsite we booked and change our plans for summer.

[Scottiemom]

My four Scotties were all wonderful dogs. And they all liked other dogs. But if one would sniff Neal's a$$ beyond what he thought was reasonable, he would let them know. LOL

Another time my Bailey nailed a pom when he jumped off his owner's lap and charged up to my two on leashes walking along the road. Sorry, but the rules say your dog must be leashed. Don't fault my dog for defending himself.

And lastly, the one comment I love from pet owners whose dogs are NEVER leashed in a campground. . . "It's okay, he's friendly." I say, "Well mine might not be." In truth he was, but again. . . if a dog charges up to mine. . . all bets are off.

I report these to the campground owner. He is very adamant owners follow the rule and he will talk with them. If they don't abide by the rules, he tells them to leave.

Dale

[llegacy]

We have been camping 30+ years and always with a Doberman. Yes you will probably not be camping at any private CG, but over the years we have camped at State and COE and not had any problems. If in doubt call and check. The only problems I have are the people who for some reason believe that once they have set up at their site their dogs don't have to be leashed. My Doberman and I have been attacked by unleashed dogs over the years. So please everyone just obey the rules.

Enjoy camping with your Dobermans !!

[toedtoes]

Lantley wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

BCSnob wrote:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/30836/jack-russell-tops-cops-list-of-dogs-most-likely-to-bite-humans/

The dangerous breed list changes with breed popularity.

Yep. As soon as people start getting dogs because of a tv show, movie, celebrity, etc., that breed starts having "aggression" issues. But it can't simply be because people get dogs that they don't understand, are unwilling or incapable of training, and/or breed indiscriminately. No, it must be that the breed "is bad".

What's ironic is that a few of the breeds on the list are used in law enforcement and the military, Because they are intelligent and have predictable behaviors.
These same breeds are focused and can perform life saving/threatening task under pressure. But yet they are not worthy of entering a CG.
A lot of the breed list is based on hype and not actual data.

All the dogs on the breed list experienced a "macho dog status" with idiots who think a mean dog made them tough guys. This is a good article about how that happened to the pitbull. article

And here is a short story about the dogs that rescued from Michael Vick. They have proven that these breeds aren't bad. best friends story

[Lantley]

BB_TX wrote:
After all is said and done, it still comes down to a simple fact. The large powerful breeds are capable of inflicting significant physical damage IF they do bite. And no RV park owner has the time or expertise to determine the personality of every dog that may enter their park. Yes, you are probably more likely to be bitten by a high strung little yapper than a large dog. But where the yapper may break the skin and cause some bleeding, that large dog can tear flesh and muscle. I am not opposed to large breeds by any means. My Golden weighs 88 lbs. But the large dogs do require special considerations by their owners and by those who own or operate facilities in which they may enter.

The restricted list applies only to certain breeds it is not based on the size of the dog.
Is a 75# trained Doberman any more dangerous than a 100# Lab?
Are all Doberman's bad and all Labs good?.....What's the logic?

[Lantley]

toedtoes wrote:

BCSnob wrote:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/30836/jack-russell-tops-cops-list-of-dogs-most-likely-to-bite-humans/

The dangerous breed list changes with breed popularity.

Yep. As soon as people start getting dogs because of a tv show, movie, celebrity, etc., that breed starts having "aggression" issues. But it can't simply be because people get dogs that they don't understand, are unwilling or incapable of training, and/or breed indiscriminately. No, it must be that the breed "is bad".

What's ironic is that a few of the breeds on the list are used in law enforcement and the military, Because they are intelligent and have predictable behaviors.
These same breeds are focused and can perform life saving/threatening task under pressure. But yet they are not worthy of entering a CG.
A lot of the breed list is based on hype and not actual data.

[toedtoes]

BCSnob wrote:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/30836/jack-russell-tops-cops-list-of-dogs-most-likely-to-bite-humans/

The dangerous breed list changes with breed popularity.

Yep. As soon as people start getting dogs because of a tv show, movie, celebrity, etc., that breed starts having "aggression" issues. But it can't simply be because people get dogs that they don't understand, are unwilling or incapable of training, and/or breed indiscriminately. No, it must be that the breed "is bad".

[BCSnob]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/30836/jack-russell-tops-cops-list-of-dogs-most-likely-to-bite-humans/

The dangerous breed list changes with breed popularity.

[BB_TX]

BCSnob wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
Yes, you are probably more likely to be bitten by a high strung little yapper than a large dog. But where the yapper may break the skin and cause some bleeding,....

So do you consider JRTs little yappers? I think you’d find this small breed (do to the genetics of this breed) can do more damage than you’ve described.
........
.

Of course a JRT can inflict a significant bite. But how many JRTs or similar have caused major trauma or death compared to the so called “dangerous” breeds?