>>508734204 (OP)Dobermanns are amazing and wonderful dogs.
They were first bred in the late 1800s to be guard dogs: the first breed ever to be bred specifically as guard dogs. As a result, they stick to their human like glue and want to know you are safe all the time. Dobermann owners nickname them "velcro dogs" for this behavior. They stick to you like velcro.
During World War II, in the Pacific Theater, the US Marine Corps used Dobermanns. The Dobermanns were so fiercely loyal to their handlers that, when a Dobie's handler fell in battle, the dog would not even let the handler's friends near the Marine's dead body. The dog guarded the body just as much as if the handler were alive.
To remedy this situation of retrieving the fallen bodies of Dobermann handlers, the US Marine Corps had to start training their war dogs to have two handlers, so that when one fell, the other handler, who was very close to the dog, would be permitted by the Dobermann to retrieve the fallen handler's body.
After World War II, the US military intended to euthanize all their war dogs, seeing them as unfit for civilian life after witnessing the violence of battle. But most of these war dogs were people's pets that had been donated for the war effort. Most of these people wanted their dogs back. As a result, some military veterinarians convinced the military brass to allow for retraining and rehabilitation efforts, so the dogs could be retrained for life back home again.
The book "War Dogs" by one of those veterinarians in charge of the effort to train Dobermanns for war covers all this in depth. It is a good read.
Dobermanns remained a top ten family dog in the United States until about the 1980s. What happened is that, during the 70s, some people who didn't know how to train dogs began adopting Dobermanns due to their reputation for toughness, and so some Dobermann attacks on people got a lot of media exposure. The media, being what it is, ran with the "vicious Dobermann" story for many