Litter E
Bahnhof Dobermann’s E-Litter:
Colman’s Calderon vom Bahnhof
&
Bianca von Rosenhof
This litter was the litter that was going to be perfect. Combining the years of Eschenof-Nymphenburg linebreeding and the Wilminghof-Bahnhof-Rosenhof inbreeding with the outcross to Bismark vom Donautal. The sire (Colman’s Calderon v. Bahnhof, AKA “Deanno”) of the E-Litter was out of Avasara vom Bahnhof and Bismark von Donautal.
The dam of this litter was Bianca von Rosenhof who was out of Avatar bred back to his own daughter, Asia von Rosenhof. Asia’s maternal grandsire was Donner von Adlercrest. Donner von Adlercrest was also Bismark’s sire. Donner von Adlercrest was on both sides of the pedigree (one time each side). Asia’s maternal grand-dam, Kira v. Eichenhof, was out of Zorro v. Eschenhof (Avatar’s grandsire on both sides). Thus, there was very heavy linebreeding of Eschenhof-Nymphenburg on both sides of the E-litter pedigree.
Originally, the litter consisted of four males and Elle. Unfortunately, after the tails were docked and dew claws were removed, the litter came down with a terrible bacterial infection. The only veterinarian with emergency service in the area had little experience with puppies (and, ironically, were the same veterinarians who allowed SEVEN males in the B-litter expire prior to treating the remaining three surviving females in Bahnhof’s B-litter for Chris King, long before I returned to this area to live).
By the time, I could convince these inexperienced veterinarians that there was actually a problem with the puppies, all the males had perished and Elle had a 108 degree fever. She had to stay at the veterinarians’ with an IV antibiotic in her tiny femoral artery for 3 days. She was only a few weeks old. Miraculously, she survived and became the best dog I ever trained in SchH. Everyone who met her was amazed with her ability to do all three phases excellently.
I had very much wanted a male from this litter, to name “El Nino,” after his sire “Deanno” who we affectionately called “El Dino” (rhyming with El Nino). Jim Alloway would tease me that I thought the world revolved around “El Dino,” and thus, El Nino would be the perfect name for my next dog. Unfortunately, not a single male survived. Therefore, I kept Elle.
Normally, I do not like to handle females in SchH, and so, I used her to experiment with entirely positive training methods. I wanted to experiment, but also I had a terrible rotator cuff injury to my left shoulder which made using a leash almost impossible. Because of these two issues, I trained her obedience with no collar and no leash. I did not care if this method didn’t work, because I never planned to do anything with her as far as competition. It ended up she had the most beautiful obedience of any dog I ever trained.
Her tracking and obedience were absolutely perfect. She was Border collie like in her obedience and tracking. In fact, she even knew several tricks including singing with a music box I had that played the song “Who Let the Dogs Out.” She would do the four barks with the music box each time they came round. Also, she learned to pick up a paint brush, dip it in paint, and dab it on a canvas.
She was very stable. My roommate’s adult son came to live with us for a while. One day I came home from work and asked him, “Where is the dog?” He replied, “What dog.” I was panicked. I live in a rural area and not all my neighbors appreciated that I have Dobermans and they all have rifles. Hysterical about the situation, I went to my neighbors who loved Elle to see if they would help me canvas the area to find her. When I arrived at their door, they apologized for not seeing me come home so that they could let me know that Elle was with them, in their living room, with their seven-year-old son, eating oatmeal cookies. They told me that she came to their door and scratched on it and they let her in. They knew exactly what likely happened and thought she would be “safer with them.” Thus, they kept her for me until I came home. She was this stable and this intelligent, to know she was safer with the neighbors who loved her that she was with this visiting person who didn’t care about her. .She was an amazing dog.
Despite her trainability in obedience, to the shock of SchH people, her bite work was also excellent. When she was about 18 months old, I started Hunde Platz, a company that did seminars with world class dog trainers of working dogs. My shoulder was back in shape enough that I could use a leash, and I wanted Elle to see an array of excellent protection helpers. The first helper she ever met was Ivan Balabanov. Then Dean Calderon, Alex Rothacker, and Kenny Ballanger. Once she had some experience, we started driving the four hours one way to Jim Alloway’s club in Columbus Ohio on a monthly basis.
When she was approximately 4 years old, I took her to a Bernhard Flinks Seminar and she was the hit of the seminar. Bernhard told me he had only seen two other Dobermans as good as her and both were in the US. He told me that a “woman in Illinois and a woman in Massachusetts” had these excellent Dobermans.
I asked, “Anne Rammelsberg with Boris in Illinois and Shelley Shea with Atlas in Massachusetts?”
He replied, “Yes, how did you know?”
I told him that Boris’s litter sister is Elle’s dam and Atlas is Boris and BIanca’s uncle, all of them out of my late Avatar.” He told me, “You have gold here. ”
Unfortunately, in October of that year, I found a lump on Elle’s left mandible. She had mandibular osteosarcoma. I took her to Ohio State in an attempt to save her, but I had to euthanize her in March of the following year. She was five years old. Below is an email from one of her treating veterinarians who is also a geneticist at Ohio State University.
