Description

Miniature Pinscher is a small but sturdy dog with a compact build and is alert, fearless and spirited with an inquisitive expression. The head of the Pinscher is in proportion with its body and the skull appears to be flat, and tapers towards the muzzle. The muzzle is quite strong and in proportion with the head and hence is quite well balanced structurally. The ears are set high on head, which can be folded and thus lends the dog a softer appearance while standing erect. These may sometimes be docked or cropped or even kept natural. The eyes are slightly oval, and dark in color with a clear and bright appearance. Its nose is generally black while its teeth meet in a scissors bite. Its neck is well proportioned to the body; while the back slightly slopes towards the rear, but is otherwise flat. Its tail is docked, which is set high and stands erect. Though, the American Kennel Club calls for the tail to be cropped, it is illegal in many countries in Europe. Its leg is quite strong and muscular with small feet that is cat-like in shape and the dewclaws are usually removed. The coat of the miniature is short and sleek, and the colors of the coat include black with rust marks, chocolate along with tan red, stag red. The gait of the Miniature Pinscher is quite high stepping and thus, they run in a very easy and free manner with hind legs and the fore legs moving in parallel to each other. The heights of the dogs are around 10-12 inches (25-30 cm.) while that of the bitches are around 10-11 inches (25-28 cm.) and the weight of the dogs are around 8-10 pounds (4-5 kg.) while that of the bitches are around 8-9 pounds (about 4 kg.).

Coat

The Miniature Pinscher’s coat is smooth, short and hard. It is quite silky and shiny with uniform length of hair all over the body. Many colors of coat are found in a Miniature Pinscher. It can be rich, dark red in color or can have red coat with black hairs blending all over the coat it can also be black in color, with red markings on cheek, lips, lower jaw, throat, above eyes and chest, inner regions of the hind legs, lower half of the fore- legs, vent regions along with black stripes on the toes.

History

The Miniature Pinscher is a German breed that originated many centuries ago from terrier breeds, including the German Pinscher, and was originally bred for hunting rats and vermins in stables and also as keeping guard. Though it is identical in features with the Doberman Pinscher, it is unrelated with it. The Doberman pinscher was bred in 1890 by Louis Doberman, in order to look like the Miniature Pinscher. Due to this reason, we conclude that the two breeds share common ancestors, including the German Pinscher and hence look like a mini Doberman, which is said to be very agile, competitive and a good watchdog. The breed was first registered with the American Kennel Club in 1925 and its official name was changed to Miniature Pinscher from Pinscher (Toy) in 1972. According to the 2004 American Kennel Club’s rankings, the Miniature Pinscher ranked 21 out of the 154 dog breeds.

Temperament

The Miniature Pinscher is gentle and fun loving dog which is alert and courageous too. It is extremely loyal, spirited and lively for its size. It is generally good with children and pets, provided it gets proper leadership from the owner. If handled roughly by the toddlers, it can even bite them. If spoilt, it becomes difficult to live with and thus, it is best suited to those owners who are experienced in training and owning dogs. Miniature Pinschers tend to love toys, and thus remain quite happy indoors with something to amuse it. It loves to cuddle and hide beneath the blankets in the bed. Its habit to bark and raise alarm makes it an excellent watchdog, but it should be trained to bark as a method of alarm due to its excessive barking habits. It can be stubborn, and so needs early training by someone who is confident and assertive and trains in a positive manner. Its behavior depends entirely upon how it is treated and trained. It is intelligent, learns quickly and is quite observant and inquisitive. It tends to get suspicious to strangers and thus it is quite necessary to socialize it with other dogs and people to ensure a stable personality. Along with its high energy level, it loves to play and exercise a lot and so is not suited to families who are not very active. It is best suited to families with gentle children, because it does not like to be handled roughly. But, utmost care of the dog has to be taken by the owner, because it is very curious and gets prone to things. It chews on almost everything and likes climbing and so, it has to be kept in a safe environment.

Health Problems

Overall, the Miniature Pinscher is a quite healthy breed with hardly any health issues. However, it is important on the owner’s part to make sure that it is not over fed because it is not good at regulating the food intake itself and so, can become vulnerable to obesity. Due to obesity it may have complications like heart and joint problems and its life expectancy will get shortened. It should also be protected from the cold. The life expectancy of the Miniature Pinscher is about 13-15 years.

Grooming

The Miniature Pinscher does not require much grooming and thus, is a very easy breed to groom. The ears of the dog should be checked regularly and must be kept clean in order to prevent it from any type of infection. Though it is an average shedder, it is quite easy to keep their short hair looking nice. It must be combed and brushed with firm bristle brush along with shampoo if required, a couple of times in a week. A damp cloth can be used to wipe off its excess hair which helps to keep its coat sleek and shiny. Though docked ears are not essential, but docked tails are required. It is fed with dry food for its optimum health and dental care and it is believed to do better with two small meals a day instead of one large meal.

Exercise

The Miniature Pinscher needs exercise, and as such a daily walk with the owner or a small yard to run in or providing several sessions to play proves to be quite helpful. Due to its vulnerability to obesity, it should be given regular exercise and utmost care should be taken to handle it in very hot or cold climates and thus, outdoor exercise’s duration should be kept short in extreme weathers. It is also advisable on the owners part have fences all around the yard in which the dog runs so as to prevent its efforts of escaping and exploring.

Training

The Miniature Pinscher requires consistent, firm and early training; and once trained, it becomes an excellent companion dog to have. Once it starts respecting the owners, it becomes an extremely loyal pet to have which can be pleased easily. However, during the course of training, it should be taken care that the owner does not laugh and send mixed signals when he misbehaves and moreover it should be corrected with firmness and seriousness, but keeping in mind that it should not be very harsh as it might lead to a scary and skittish behavior of the pet. Once it starts respecting the training process, it will start enjoying it, given its eagerness to learn. It requires socialization from an early stage to prevent it from getting aggressive, because it tends to become wary of strangers. Puppy classes are advisable for its socialization, because there it learns to share toys and buckets with other dogs. Until constantly housetrained, they should not be allowed to roam around freely in the house unsupervised. It is thus advisable to keep it in the crate even after complete training to ensure its safety from anything dangerous for it. Paper training is quite helpful for them as it prevents the need for taking them outdoors for training during very hot or very cold weathers, and hence many owners prefer to paper train it.  Due to its excessive barking habits, the early training procedures should also include to teach it the appropriate times and places to bark. The Miniature Pinscher is a great escape artist, and as such it is very important to train it in fenced areas and also in ensuring that the fences are secured and that the dog is not left alone for a long period of time outdoors.