17 SEPTEMBER 2005, Page 19

Gift of a taxman

From Ian Blair Sir: Theodore Dalrymple is right to think that the Dobermann dog was the creation of a 19th-century German tax collector (Second opinion, 3 September).

Louis Dobermann, from Apolda in Thuringia, also ran the local lost dogs’ home. This canine asylum gave him an opportunity to use breeds from various countries. He took the Manchester Terrier from England, the Beauceron from France and the Rottweiler to build around the rather nondescript German Pinscher. In a remarkably short space of time this venture in European cooperation produced the Dobermann breed. When properly handled, there is no finer or more versatile dog. It is seldom that one has cause to be grateful to a tax collector.

Ian Blair Nympsfield, Gloucestershire