Dog Community

What does "pinscher" actually mean?

Posted : 5/22/2011 1:14:56 PM

I was discussing min pins and dobermans last night with some friends and family (our discussions always somehow end up on dogs!) and half of the people in the room said that "pinscher" translates to "terrier" while the other half swore it meant "biter". What is the term really referring to?

I myself always thought it meant biter. It seems to me that dobermans are not at all terrier-like, so I don't see why they should be called doberman terriers.

Wikepedia says it means biter, but other websites say otherwise. Any dobe-owners out there have the facts on this term?

miranadobe

Posted : 5/22/2011 2:02:39 PM

It simply means terrier. Dobermans are believed to be descended in part from an old German pinscher and Black and Tan terrier. I read a description once that Louis Doberman had wanted a "giant terrier" with the intelligence and strength of Thueringian shepherd dogs. Nobody knows for sure what dogs went into Dobes.

stardancnminpin

Posted : 5/22/2011 2:14:13 PM

from http://www.minpin.org/history.html :

"Part of the confusion in origin comes from the word "pinscher", which is a descriptive term like "settler" or "terrier" that denotes the dog's method of working, not his heritage. "Pinscher" refers to a dog's habit of jumping on, and fiercely biting its quarry. A definition in Henne's "Dictionary of the German Language" indicates that Pinscher is "borrowed from the English word pincher, meaning one who pinches, nips or tweaks." A member of the Toy Group in the U.S. and Canada, the Min Pin is included in guard dog Group 2 in FCI classification along with breeds such as the Boxer, Doberman, Mastiff, Rottweiler, and Great Dane (working trial not required).

For the sake of those who still argue that the Miniature Pinscher was bred down from the Doberman Pinscher, it was not until the year 1890 that Louis Dobermann, for whom the Doberman Pinscher is named, bred his first real Doberman.

Mr. Dobermann was a German tax collector and dogcatcher. A skilled breeder, he set out to create a medium sized working dog that would accompany and protect him during the day on his travels. He stated a wish to breed "a giant terrier that would look much like the five-pound Reh Pinscher but that would be fifteen times heavier and larger." Most educated guesses suggest that crosses of the larger type German Short Haired Pinscher (no. 3 in Mr. Wolphofer's book) native German Shepherds, the Rottweiler, and perhaps the Greyhound and Black and Tan Terrier were used to perfect the Doberman by 1899. As we have seen, Miniature Pinscher were being produced in profusion long before this date."