There are some dogs you appreciate because they are beautiful, some because they are talented, and some because they are simply wonderful dogs to live with. Ernesto somehow manages to be all three. I have worked with and raised a lot of Dobermans over the years, and he is genuinely one of those dogs who sticks with you. He has the presence and confidence that makes people stop and look at him, an incredible amount of professional training behind him, and underneath all of that is this goofy, affectionate dog who just wants to be wherever his people are.
What I love most about Ernesto is that his training hasn’t taken away his personality. He isn’t a robotic dog who spends his entire life waiting for the next command. He loves to work and absolutely lights up when you engage with him, but when training is finished, he knows how to just be a dog. He’ll play, make you laugh, follow you around the house to see what you’re doing, and then at the end of the night he is perfectly happy climbing into bed and curling up next to you. For as impressive and serious as he can look standing beside you, he is an enormous cuddle bug with the people he loves.
He also genuinely loves children, which is one of my favorite things about him. There is a sweetness to Ernesto around kids that you can’t manufacture through obedience. Training can teach a dog manners and impulse control, but it can’t create that natural affection for people. Ernesto wants to be part of the family. He wants to be involved in what everyone is doing, and he forms very deep relationships with his people. He’s the kind of dog who becomes someone’s shadow and, before long, you forget what it was like not having him following you from room to room.
His Training
Ernesto has had extensive professional development with an emphasis on creating a dog who is reliable in everyday life rather than one who only looks impressive during a training session. There is a huge difference between a dog knowing commands and a dog understanding how to live within the human world, and that second piece has always been incredibly important to us.
His obedience includes sit, down, place, extended stays with both duration and distance, reliable recall, focused heeling, automatic sits at the halt, distance commands, impulse control, doorway and threshold manners, crate manners, vehicle loading and unloading, and off-leash obedience. He understands how to remain engaged with his handler while distractions are happening around him and has been taught that obedience doesn’t disappear simply because the environment becomes more interesting.
His heel is beautiful and purposeful. When asked to work, he understands how to come into position, maintain engagement, change pace and direction with his handler, and remain composed around environmental distractions. His recall has been developed as a real-life skill rather than something that only works in a controlled training field. That matters to me because Ernesto is exactly the type of dog someone should be able to enjoy. He should be hiking with you, exploring acreage, going on adventures and living a full life, while still having the communication and control expected from a professionally trained dog.
We have spent just as much time teaching Ernesto what to do when we aren’t asking anything from him. He knows how to settle. He understands that he doesn’t need to investigate every person, dog, noise or movement around him. He can exist in an environment without constantly needing entertainment or direction from his handler. That ability to switch between working and simply relaxing is one of the things that makes a truly finished dog so enjoyable to own.
Real-World Development
Ernesto’s environmental work has been extensive because confidence isn’t something I ever want to assume in a dog. He has been exposed to unfamiliar places, different buildings, vehicle travel, changing surfaces, confined spaces, open areas, busy environments, people moving around him, children, other dogs, unusual sounds, everyday household activity and the constant little changes that happen when a dog is actually taken places instead of spending his life between a kennel and training field.
He has worked around distractions without being allowed to believe everything in his environment belongs to him. He has practiced waiting at doors instead of rushing through them, getting in and out of vehicles appropriately, holding positions while activity happens around him, walking through unfamiliar environments with his handler, settling when people are moving nearby and maintaining neutrality when another dog is present.
All of those things sound small individually, but together they are what create the dog people imagine when they say they want a “trained dog.” The impressive obedience is only one piece of it. The real luxury is having a dog you actually enjoy taking with you.
Ernesto travels well, understands household structure, is crate trained and knows how to settle inside. He isn’t a dog who needs to spend every waking second being worked to keep him manageable. Give him appropriate exercise, structure and engagement, and he has a wonderful off switch.
For an active person, I honestly think he would be an absolute dream. He is athletic enough to be an incredible hiking, jogging and adventure partner, but he doesn’t need his life to revolve around constant stimulation. He would be equally happy spending a day exploring with you and then coming home, climbing into bed and deciding that your pillow is now partially his.
Naturally Protective Presence
Ernesto is what I consider a Level One Deterrent Dog. He is not being represented as a bite-trained or sport-protection dog, and I think that distinction is important.
His deterrence comes naturally from what he is: a confident, substantial European Doberman with excellent obedience, environmental stability, awareness of his surroundings and a very strong relationship with his handler. Walking beside someone in a beautiful focused heel, Ernesto commands attention without needing to do anything inappropriate to create that impression.
For many families, that is exactly what they actually want. They want the comfort of having a serious-looking Doberman beside them and the confidence of knowing their dog is alert and aware, without taking on the additional management and responsibility associated with a dog trained to physically engage a person.
Ernesto gives you that presence while still being the dog who comes home and cuddles with your children. That balance is incredibly difficult to put a price on.
The Ernesto We Know at Home
The funny part is that anyone who only sees pictures of him would probably assume he is serious all the time. He’s not.
Ernesto is a goofball. He has this wonderful ability to look incredibly dignified one minute and do something completely ridiculous the next. He loves attention and affection, wants to know what everyone is doing and believes that being physically close to his people is one of life’s basic necessities.
He’s absolutely a sleep-in-your-bed dog. He’s a curl-up-next-to-you-on-a-rainy-day dog. He’s a “why are you going into another room without me?” dog. If you’re looking for something aloof that spends most of its time doing its own thing, Ernesto probably isn’t your dog. He wants a relationship.
That’s one of the reasons I’m so particular about where he goes. I don’t want him to simply belong to somebody. I want him to be someone’s dog. I want the person who gets him to take him places, laugh at his ridiculous personality, continue working his obedience, let him experience the world, cuddle him at night and genuinely make him part of their life.
Other Animals
I will always be transparent about the dogs I place, especially at this level. Ernesto is not appropriate for a home with cats, small dogs or other small animals. He has prey drive, and that isn’t something I am interested in minimizing for the sake of making a sale.
With larger dogs, compatibility depends on the individual dog and proper introductions. He may also be very happy as an only dog, especially considering how much he loves having a close relationship with his people. His future home needs to understand Dobermans or be comfortable following the structure and management that comes with owning a powerful, athletic working breed.
Health
Ernesto has had significant health screening completed. His hips have been evaluated, and he has completed both Holter monitoring and an echocardiogram. He is clear by parentage for DCM1, DCM2 and VWD, and his Embark genetic panel has been submitted with final confirmation pending.
He is neutered and will be placed with his Export Pedigree. We can also assist his new owner with the appropriate AKC transfer process.
60-Day Customization Period
One of the things I think makes Ernesto’s placement especially unique is that his training doesn’t simply stop the day someone chooses him.
His new owner will receive a 60-day customization period, giving our trainer time to take the foundation Ernesto already has and begin shaping it around the life he is actually going to live.
Every household is different, and I don’t believe a finished dog should be trained according to a generic checklist and then handed over with the expectation that the owner figures everything else out. During those 60 days, we can work directly with his future owner to understand their household, daily schedule, family dynamic, lifestyle, property, travel habits and the situations where they expect Ernesto to accompany them.
If you want him to accompany you to the office, we can emphasize office manners and extended settling. If your family spends weekends hiking and traveling, we can put additional emphasis on recalls, off-leash reliability, vehicle routines and environmental exposure. If you entertain frequently, we can work specifically on guest etiquette, door manners and holding place while people enter the home. If you have children, we can continue developing the routines and boundaries that will make Ernesto easy to integrate into family life.
We can also establish the exact commands, routines and expectations you want to use at home so that when Ernesto arrives, you aren’t trying to reshape somebody else’s system. The goal is for the final portion of his training to be built around your life.
For an additional fee, Ernesto may also be evaluated during this period to determine whether he is an appropriate candidate to pursue HALO certification. Certification is not guaranteed and would depend on his evaluation and successful completion of any required standards, but for an owner interested in taking his development further, that option can be discussed as part of his customization plan.
White-Glove Delivery & In-Home Transition
For owners who want the highest level of transition support, we also offer white-glove delivery.
Rather than simply arranging transportation and handing you a leash, one of our trainers can personally bring Ernesto to your home and work with you in the environment where you and Ernesto will actually live together.
That gives us the opportunity to help establish his new routine from the beginning. We can walk your property with you, show you how we handle his obedience, work through his commands and equipment, establish doors and thresholds, practice his place command in your home, go through feeding and crate routines, work around family members, and help determine where structure will be most important during those first days.
More importantly, we teach you how to handle Ernesto.
A beautifully trained dog is only as successful as the communication between the dog and his new owner. Our goal isn’t for Ernesto to perform perfectly for our trainer and then leave you wondering how to recreate it. We want you to understand what he knows, how he learns, what motivates him, how to communicate with him and how to maintain everything that has been built.
That transition is especially important with a dog at Ernesto’s level. We aren’t simply delivering a dog; we’re transferring a relationship and a training system from our hands into yours.
Why Ernesto Is $30,000
Ernesto’s placement is $30,000, and I understand that puts him into a very different category than someone simply shopping for an adult Doberman.
But Ernesto isn’t priced as an adult Doberman.
The value in a dog like this is everything you don’t have to wonder about anymore. You aren’t buying an eight-week-old puppy and hoping he develops the temperament you envisioned. You aren’t wondering what he’ll look like as an adult or whether he’ll be confident in new environments. You aren’t beginning potty training, crate training, socialization, adolescence, leash manners and obedience from scratch. You aren’t spending the next year or two building reliability and waiting to discover who the puppy ultimately becomes.
Ernesto is already standing in front of you.
You can see his temperament. You can see his structure. You can see his personality. You can watch him work. You can take him into an environment and see how he responds. You know whether he is affectionate, whether he likes children, whether he can settle, whether he travels well and whether he wants to work with his handler.
Behind that finished dog are countless hours of raising, handling, socialization, environmental exposure, professional obedience, proofing, traveling, living with him and learning who he is. Then, instead of simply sending him home, we’re giving his future owner another 60 days to make that training personal.
And who Ernesto has become is exactly the kind of Doberman I hope to produce and develop.
He is beautiful enough to turn heads, trained enough to take almost anywhere, athletic enough to keep up with you, confident enough to make you feel secure, affectionate enough to be a genuine family dog and goofy enough that you will probably spend half your time laughing at him.
At the end of the day, though, none of his commands or accomplishments are the reason I love this dog.
It’s because Ernesto is just a really good dog.
He’s the dog you take hiking Saturday morning, bring along for the rest of your day, trust to listen when the world around him gets busy, watch play with your children when you get home, and then find stretched across your bed that night waiting for you.
There are a lot of trained dogs in the world.
There aren’t a lot of Ernestos.
Ernesto | $30,000
Available through Executive Order Doberman
Creating a Legacy of Excellence, One Puppy at a Time.