The Doberman is uniquely bred to be a companion to man.  The breed's loyalty and devotion are two of the qualities that make Dobermans such excellent search and rescue working partners.  These temperament qualities, coupled with strong working drivesw, make the Doberman a tenacious, hard-driving partner when needed to look for missing persons, whether alive or dead.

The purpose of the UDC Puppy Program is to showcase the outstanding qualities of the Doberman as working dogs by placing well-bred Doberman puppies in the hands of dedicated, qualified search and rescue handlers.  Preference, initially, will be to SAR Doberman handlers, but will later be expanded to include SAR handlers who have worked with other breeds.  This program is the brainchild of Ray Carlisle, who first approached the UDC SAR group with the proposal.  We quickly formed a committee to flesh out the idea.  The members of the committee are Shirley Hammond, Rayanne Chamberlain, and Irene Korotev.

In order for the program to work, it was necessary to safeguard the rights of the breeders as well as the rights/needs of the handlers.  We tried to anticipate the problematic areas and address them in setting up the program.  A few of the possible problems addressed are:

• To insure that only qualified handlers will be receiving the donated puppies, all applicants will be screened.
• One or two SAR evaluators will assist both breeder and handler on the evaluation of the prospective puppies for SAR aptitude according to the discipline for which it is slated. 
• Should anything occur which would prevent the puppy from reaching its goal, the breeder has the right of first refusal should the handler wish to give up the pup.  This is in accordance with the UDC and the DPCA Code of Ethics.
• Once it is clear that the pup will be able to become operational, it will be neutered or spayed.  Why is this necessary?  SAR dogs are on call 24/7, and must bbe ready to respond within a moments notice.  Females would be off call-out twice a year, 3 weeks at a time.  Many SAR teams have few members and cannot afford to be without all its operational members when an emergency arises.

Most SAR dogs work off lead, and range quite a distance from the handler.  Intact male dogs must be able to work without distraction from roaming dogs which show up to challenge them, females in heat, territorial wildlife, etc and often have to work in close quarters with other male dogs in high stress situations.