About
In 1997-1998, I compiled one of the first internet dog health surveys. I was curious about what Dobermans were dying of, at what age, and whether there were any differences between the sexes. That survey ended up getting an incredible response and 835 dogs were submitted. While my original notes for that survey are no longer available, a copy of the article published in the old Doberman Quarterly.
Note that this page is a series of jpg scans of that document, and not html text. For that reason it may be slow to load on some connections.
Assessing the Health of the Doberman
Anyone who has been in the Doberman breed for very long knows that we face some significant health issues.
The goal of this site is to become a source and respository for Doberman Health Surveys, in order to help breeders, owners, and researchers better understand our challenges. All collected data will be open and free to access for any and all interested parties. All numbers are aggregate. No pedigree information is collected, and no dog will be able to be traced. For instance, you will not be able to say that the 100th dog to take the survey was a male dog who died of cardio at 6. We will only know that X number of male dogs died of cardio, and the overall average age at death for those male dogs.
Limitations
As an anecdotal, self-selected set of data, the validity of the survey data collected depends on your honesty, and on numbers. The more dogs that are entered into the system, the more accurate the data is.
Current Surveys
Age, Sex, and Cause of Death in the Doberman 2010-2020
Results
Published Study:
Comprehensive analysis of geographic and breed-purpose influences on genetic diversity and inherited disease risk in the Doberman dog breed. Claire M Waide, Robin Nuttall and Sophie Liu, June 2023.