Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991 TAG: 9103080351
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HEIDI NOLTE BROWN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: IVY LENGTH: Medium
The perfect guard dog, according to Harry J. Fair, an Ivy farmer and businessman who has raised a number of the Rottweiler-Doberman pups on his 20-acre farm nestled in a hollow of Buck Mountain.
"These are seven steps beyond a shepherd as far as guard dogs," he said. "They're more aggressive. They're stronger and they have more courage. Even when you spank one of these dogs, he forgives you immediately."
The Rottweiler adds brawn to the breed, the Doberman brings the brains. They were developed within 90 miles of each other in Bavaria around the turn of the century. It was only logical to put them together.
"They were both developed as work dogs and guard dogs," Fair said. "They pulled milk carts and they herded cows."
The Doberman already has a good deal of Rottweiler in its background, he said. It's a mixture of about a dozen different breeds, including the greyhound, the Manchester terrier, the pinscher, the pointer and the Great Dane.
"The Rottweiler is the most aggressive," Fair said. "The Doberman is easier to train. They are the most intelligent."
But the Doberman also can be very aggressive, he said. Fair pointed to his dog, Sally, a massive 7-year-old Doberman and the mother of some of his mixed breed pups.
"Sally could knock you over just walking by you," he said.
The dog weighed 160 pounds and had legs the size of small tree trunks. Dobermans don't usually get that big. Sally, he said, comes from a champion blood line in Chicago.
Fair and his wife, Lucy, moved to Ivy about five years ago from Tyler, Texas. That's where the couple became interested in the Rottweiler-Doberman cross.
"That is the desired breed in Texas for guard dogs," Fair said. "The people learned about this cross, and that's what they wanted to keep in their houses and in their yards."
The dogs are not for everybody, the Fairs said. Most of their dogs went to clients in Richmond and Williamsburg.
"We tried to screen who was going to get the dogs," Lucy Fair said. "They had to be animal people and able to handle an aggressive dog. And I turned five or six people down."
She said she didn't want the dogs to end up in an animal shelter because the owners didn't know how to handle them.
Rod Burke of Richmond bought a male Rottweiler-Doberman pup from the Fairs about 4 years ago.
"We saw an ad in the paper for a Rottweiler and Doberman mix," Burke said. "I wanted a Rottweiler, but they were just too expensive." At that time, Rottweiler pups cost about $700, he said. Burke paid $150 for his pup.
"I've heard them referred to as `rotten doby's,' but I don't think that was [Fair's] term," Burke said.
Fair said he doesn't have a name for the cross.
Whatever it's called, Burke credited the ferocious looks of the dog with saving his home from a rash of burglaries in his neighborhood last fall.
Although they mature slowly, not until age 3, they are well-suited for police work, said dog trainer Robert Faraoni.
Fair said some of the negative publicity about the Rottweiler breed is justified.
"They must be disciplined. Otherwise, they can be vicious," he said.
by CNB