I don’t intend this to be the usual requiem to a dog, but then there was nothing usual about Hawk. How do you write about something like this? Losing hi at just nine seemed like the end of my world, the end of a way of life. He was beautiful, never old, never lame, never full of lumps. He was my best friend.

Who was he? Where did he come from?

My involvement with Hawk’s ancestors began a long time ago, 1963 to be exact. Two years prior to this I had acquired my first Doberman (a red male) from a small breeder in Kansas named Rev Avery Eastridge. Kansas seems an unlikely place to purchase a Doberman, but I was living in Nebraska at the time and this was the closest one to be found. Shortly after this I moved to California and discovered the dog shows. Like most novices, I thought my fist dog to be a superior specimen. In 1963 I called Rev Eastridge to purchase another of his Dobermans and found he had moved and sold or placed all of his dogs. I was referred to Francis Willmeth (who would later breed from the same foundation stock under the kennel name of “Centre”). Francis lived near Rev. Eastridge and had some of his dogs. Among them was a black bitch named Avru’s Sabrina Philippa. He didn’t want to sell her but would let me choose a sire for her litter if I would buy the resulting puppies from him. Francis lived hundreds of miles from the nearest airport, therefore he specified a sire within driving distance.

In those days there were no magazines such as the DQ in which to see multitudes of sires and their pedigrees. Except for your immediate area one had to rely on what little there was in theDoberman Pinscher News and Views, a small magazine with almost no ads in it, or the August issue of Dog News which featured Dobermans. Even though initially I thought I had an ideal Doberman in my first male, my untrained eye was attracted to one dog in particular in the few pictures I had access to. This dog was the red Ch. Jo’s Brandy Alexander. He appeared short-bodied and strong in appearance. He had a good chest and a bold fearless look about him. After noting he lived near St. Louis I asked Francis if he could drive Sabrina over there and breed to Brandy. He made arrangements to do so and eleven puppies were whelped in May of 1964. Among these eleven were Hawk’s sire, Marienburg’s Sundancer, who I kept until his death at twelve and a half, and his da’s grandmother, Marienburg’s Topaz, who I kept until she was about three.

Francis sent ten puppies to California and retained a black bitch for himself who would become Ch Centre Candy of Brandy. Having only had Dobermans for three years it is miraculous I managed to keep the two I did. I think back to that litter and the mistakes that must have been made. Two others were shown, a black male with a major who didn’t finish and a beautiful red bitch who could have finished but had a horrible scar on her show side from a German Shepherd. Sundancer was the smallest male in the litter but the most powerfully built. His chest was wide and deep and he was well-muscled all over. His rear quarters were powerful and well angulated. He had unbelievable rear drive. I can remember moving him up and down for whoever came over as an example of a good mover. His head was very long but well filled with adequate underjaw. His frontal bones on his head were too pronounced and his front quarters were too wide set. This became more apparent the older he got. He was less than 27 inches but looked every inch a male. I showed him only a few times and do recall him takes a couple of reserves. His sister Topaz was elegant, average size, had a lovely head, and could have been more muscular in the rear. She was always alert at home but wouldn’t animate at the right time in the ring. After a few shows we gave up on her.

About that time, another Doberman male caught my eye in the magazine. This was the red Ch. Derek of Marks- Try. His pedigree was nothing short of fantastic with Dictator appearing four times within the first three generations. I decided I would breed Topaz to Derek. In October 1965 Topaz had an all red litter. This was an ill-fated litter for me. The best male, Marienburg’s Michael was hit by a car and later had to be put to sleep. All the res had ears which wouldn’t stand properly, therefore none were shown, although they were of the highest quality. Two of the bitches were later bred and one of the males sired a litter. This male was Marienburg’s Malinx, the sire of Hawk’s dam. Malinx was a medium sized male with good bone and a very deep chest. He had a huge cowlick on his neck. He could have been better in the rear quarters as far as strength and muscling, much like his dam.

In 1968 Malinx sired his only litter out of a black bitch named Marienburg’s Chay. Chay was smooth with a long clean head and neck. She was very elegant and attractive. Chay’s dam, Lisa von Trollmar, was a Ch. Brown’s Dion daughter I had purchased from someone in Wisconsin solely for the pedigree. Lisa was bred to another red male I had named Ch Marienburg’s Maximilian, thus producing Chay. Max was very concentrated on Ch Patton’s Ponder of Torn with a strong infusion of Dictator.

Chay was sold as a puppy to some people in the Los Angeles area. When she was about three years old they come back to breed her. Malinx seemed a likely choice to offset her refinement. Chay had a litter of nine in which eight were reds. At about eight weeks of age I went to see them. They were not in good conditioner well taken care of. I wanted to get all the puppies away from them and ended up buying the whole bunch except the black bitch puppy which they wouldn’t sell. After getting the puppies into condition I sold them. One bitch in particular was super nice. I sold her to a showmen, and they took her to a few matches and point shows as a puppy. The next thing I knew they had bred her to Ch Matador Prieto. This bitch was Marienburg’s Desert Flame, Hawk’s dam.

Peggy Adamson had told me a good policy in breeding was to breed a rough animal to a smooth animal. What this means is if you analyze each dog, most would fall into one category or the other. Sundancer was surely a rough. He was muscular and hard even without exercise. He was angular and masculine. Flame was smooth all over, lacking in musical tone, more upright and not as angular. If ever two dogs were meant to be bred together it was these two. Not to mention, it was a line-breeding through Sundancer and Topaz. I am only sorry I did Sundancer such an injustice by not breeding him until he was an old dog, and then only a few times. He sired four champions and there were others who would have finished. I was later to realize he had the kind of exaggerations, particularly in angulation, which I believe make for a good sire.

A computer analysis of Hawk’s pedigree revealed that he had a high genetic relationship (38 percent) to Dictator.

As luck would have it, these people lost interest inter Dobermans and I found out Flame was for sale. I bought her back for the price they had paid me as a puppy. Not knowing quite what to do with Flame, I offered her to Joe Ciaccio and his wife. After consideration they decided they couldn’t have another dog. Flame was just meant to stay with me, and was to become my beloved and most favorite bitch. Prior to this I had only really liked red males. She was the start of my affinity for red bitches. Flame was one of those Dobermans who always looked beautiful whether sitting or standing around. Even those who knew nothing about dogs were impressed with her regales. She was a tall bitch, I’m sure she exceeded 27 inches. She was smooth all over with a beautiful arched neck which was smaller where it joined the head. She had the loveliest head and expression I believe I have had on a bitch. Her chest was deep and pea=shaped with tight fitting elbows. She wasn’t without fault, however. Her rear quarters lacked enough muscle (a trait which had carried down from Malinx and Topaz). She also had a slight arch to her back. She was so beautiful those things were scarcely noticeable. Flame was shown only ten times and didn’t win any points, so we quit on her. I had a tendency to be overprotective in her case. This may be the reason she was never sent anywhere to be bred to a top sire. I knew what I had and feared rejection by someone else. I bred her twice to Sundancer; there were five in each litter. I would never have done the breeding except something told me to do it. To breed two unknown non Champions together and expect to sell the puppies to show homes is a little hard to do sometimes.

His Show Career

Hawk was from the second breeding of Flame to Sundancer. In the first litter, three finished: Apache Warbonnet, Cheyenne Autumn and Hurry Sundown. I was crazy about Hurry Sundown. He was my ideal in a male Doberman except he moved away peculiarly in the rear and had two missing lower incisors. I hoped to get another like him in the second litter, minus those faults. Hawk was close to Hurry Sundown in appearance and didn’t have those faults. I liked his litter brother Devil Dancer a lot also. I remember wavering between the two as puppies. In fact, as luck would have it, I sold Hawk for a few days and the people brought him back and traded for Devil Dancer.

Hawk’s puppy career wasn’t especially exciting. It consisted of going to the National as a 9-12 puppy where the Futurity judge felt he was too big. This was the only time I believe he was ever considered too big. I think he won one puppy class on the way home and then didn’t go to any other shows. After he reached a certain age, he could no longer be in close proximity to theater males we had in the house, so Hawk had to go to the kennel. He was unhappy no matter what you did. He would eat enough just to stay alive. We don’t want to force feed a dog who was not being shown but wanted him to learn to eat. All throughout his show career he was a sporadic eater. We resorted to all sorts of games and gimmicks at times. The only thing that really worked was to feed him with as many bitches as possible (especially those voracious eaters). Hawk was very possessive or jealous and would eat it to keep it from them. He became quite a good eater after his retirement.

Every day he would go out with a bitch in a big yard to run around. He would run back and forth running off any weight he had. He injured one of his pasterns during this time and a growth developed which had to be removed. He wouldn’t leave the bandage alone no matter what we applied to it. I remember putting one layer of tape and one layer of small green chilis after the other, but he managed to take it off. A big scar ensued. I was at my wit’s end over him. When he was just over 18 months old, around early August 1974, some friends from the Northwest came to see the dogs. They brought an acquaintance of theirs with them who was possibly interested in acquiring another Doberman to go with his very nice champion bitch. We looked at all the dogs saving Hawk for last. When he was stacked no one could believe this gorgeous bag of bones. His structure was there for all to see. Everybody wanted him. I wasn’t ready to part with him, but knew that he would never amount to anything this way. After several days consideration, we decided to let him go in co-ownership. No money was exchanged as I had no intention of selling Hawk outright to anyone, but I was just doing what I thought best for him. Without this early attention and care given him by his new co-owner perhaps his life would have been totally different. A lot of water has gone over the dam in the meantime and much of what happened is long forgotten and only mentioned here because it is a part of Hawk’s life.

Hawk first went to live in Albuquerque and then moved to Alaska with his co-owner. Within two months of leaving the kennel he was in good enough shape to win two majors in a week’s time in Alaska. As the shows had ended there for a year, Hawk was sent down to Pat Tripp in Canada to be shown. He finished his Canadian championship undefeated. He spent the winter in the north between Alaska and Canada. In February he was sent back to us in Southern California to show and finish. We took him to two shows in Arizona where he won another major en route to the Texas circuit. He would un the circuit by taking Best of Breed at the Dallas Specialty from the Open Dog class and finishing. In all, he was shown less than 15 times to finish. I took a chance on him finishing and had entered him in Specials the following weekend at three large California shows: Tulare, Fresno and Bakersfield. The first show he not only won the breed but won the Group as well. He went on to win the breed all three days and get a Group Fourth too. All this left our heads spinning. It had been eight years since Sultana had been top Doberman. Mentally, Hawk wasn’t ready for all this either. He was a sensitive male and took everything to heart. It seemed like when he showed well he wouldn’t win, and when he didn’t show well he would win. Most often he won in spite of himself. He would come back to the judge and pin his ears back. When Moe baited him, he would crouch slightly in the rear. After a few ringsiders saw this, the word was quickly spread that Hawk had a bad rear. He was wellangulated and his hocks could have been shorter. If he was tense, which he usually was in the ring, he would stand cocky when not stacked. As an older dog, with the tensions of the show ring long forgotten, this was seldom perceptible. Hawk was a super fine mover most of the time. This fact is evidenced by most of his get who also moved well, particularly side gaiting.

Three weeks after Hawk finished, he won his first all breed Best in Show.

By the last couple of months of the same year (1975), he had come close to being Number One Doberman. The National in San Diego had come and gone. B-Brian had gone Best of Breed, and Hawk had won the Top Twenty competition. His only competitor for number one Dobe at year’s end was Electra’s High Voltage, and it was a race to the finish. I believe the last show of the year was the deciding factor, and Hawk had won it. High Voltage was also a Best in Show winner and died an untimely tragic death soon after this.

Hawk began 1976 with a Specialty Best of Breed the 3rd of January. He was to win 24 independent Specialties before he was done. The 6th of January Moe was off to Florida for the circuit. Hawk was sick then he got off the plane and things went from bad to worse. The east coast had been waiting to see this dog who had come from nowhere to Number One in a few months. Hawk looked terrible, showed worse than ever, an the whole trip was a disaster. With the Garden just a couple of weeks off and Hawk getting sick from the flight, a quick decision was made to drive him to New York from San Diego. Moe and Harvey Criswell drove straight through to New York. They took along one of our bitches to keep Hawk in as good spirits as possible. Something must have worked because he won the breed and somewhat vindicated his Florida trip. When one of the all-breed magazines found out what we had done they wrote in a column, “Whoever heard of a Hawk that didn’t fly.” Hawk was only flown again twice more in his life, but not to any dog show.

At this point, a great deal of friction had developed us and Hawk’s coowner. Tales were carried back and forth by not so well-meaning persons. I had wanted to buy him out as I didn’t want to part with Hawk and wanted control over his stud career. We were told thatHawk was going to be stolen from our yard or from an exercise pen or the car or wherever he might be. Life became a living hell at that point, as we were constantly on guard.

There were three shows in Oregon over the 4th of July weekend in 1976. Moe had gone by himself. I will never forget him calling me on the 4th and telling me, “Hawk has been stolen!” While Moe was showing a bitch, solon went to the motorhome and took Hawk from his crate which was the closest one to the door. Moe went to get him for Specials and found the empty crate. The police were called and a private detective was hired. Every means of transporting a dog out of state was checked. I even think the roads were blocked by the police. Nothing turned up. A couple weeks went by before we heard anything and then it wasn’t directly. The whole thing was very cloak and dagger. We were told Hawk had been operated on. My imagination went wild, and I suspected every kind of thing from tumors to castration. I was sure Hawk was being sold out of the country. Finally, after a month, a deal was worked out through a go-between, for Moe to fly to Albuquerque with $15,000 in cash, and he would receive Hawk and his signed registration. I was terrified he had been altered in some way out of spite. I have never been so happy as when he arrived at the San Diego airport, skinny and full of callouses. Only Hawk knew where he spent that month’s time. He had been operated on – they had cut off part of his tail.

In all, Hawk was absent from the shows for two months. This can be the difference between Number One and nothing, but he came back strong after that. In October of 1976 we went to the National in Atlanta. Hawk won three Groups and two back-to-back Best in Shows on the way. Then he went Best of Breed at the National and won two Groups the same weekend. He continued to be Number One Doberman, but it was getting close to two years since he came out as a Special. Exhibitors began getting tired of seeing the same old dog in the winner’s circle, and the judges get tired of awarding the same dog the blue and gold. I believe in this and Sultana, Hawk and Mary Hartman were all shown but two years, and all were on top when they retired.

We had been hearing about a black Hawk daughter from New Hampshire who looked like she might be a good one. A deal was made to co-own and show her, thus Hawk was retired to make way for Mary Hartman, and the rest is history. Hawk came out of retirement to compete twice. Both times were for the National Specialty. The first time he was entered in Stud Dog only. He won this from a huge field of dogs in Detroit. The following year 1978, he was shown in Stud Dog and Best of Breed competition at the Oakland National, winning both. The last time he went in the ring was in Seattle in 1981 for exhibition only at the Top 20 competition. As usual, I was more nervous than if it had been any other dog in for Best in Show. He was more beautiful than ever as evidenced by the crowd’s applause and the compliments I received. Who would have known that he was full of cancer and would be dead in three months?

Hawk as a Sire

Hawk was almost two years old before he was bred for the first time. His co-owner bred him twice in Alaska. A bitch from the first litter, Ch Mi Lady of Amache CD became Hawk’s sixth champion. The first time I bred him it seemed as if he would never breed, but finally he did and Ch Harjo Tarahawk and Harjo Warhawk v. Marienburg resulted from this breeding. The second time I bred him was to Ch Gra-Lemor Princessnesian. This litter of two males produced Hawk’s first Champion, Hanadobe’s Ryanesian. The next litter out of a Ch Damasyn the Troycen daughter from Colorado producted a litter in which several should have finished but they weren’t shown. The next litter of two produced Hawk’s 2i6th champion, Tichenor’s Apollo Marienburg. At this point, it was becoming obvious that he could sire quality offspring. Each litter seemed to have good ones with some having outstanding ones. Early in his stud career I an remember Steve Barrett saying to me, “People aren’t going to breed to Hawk because his parents aren’t champions.” I realized how pedigree conscious (or I should rephrase that to read, champion conscious) some people are, and I knew this to be true, but after awhile this didn’t seem to make much difference. In the end, it made no difference.

Another feeling I had was that Ch Marienburg’s Only One should be bred to Hawk. The resulting litter of eight, one of Hawk’s earliest, was the best looking litter of puppies I have ever seen. Mary Hartman was my third pick bitch. First pick, Ch Marienburg’s Bewitched, died just after finishing and second pick, Marienburg Startrek was sold to Brazil and died a year later of complications from swallowing a rock. This litter had Ch Marienburg’s Midnight Special, CDX ROM; Ch Marienburg’s Chica, CD; and Am/Can/Arg Ch Marienburg’s Cannon as well. Style-wise I always did favor Bewitched. Hawk was bred to Only One twice more, giving us Ch Marienburg’s Warwind, Ch Marienburg’s Maltese Falcon, Can Ch Marienburg Towering Inferno and Ch Marienburg’s Bit O’Montwood.

After a while I could tell which type of bitch he clicked with and most certainly which bloodlines. One bitch in particular produced many champions with Hawk. That is Ch Alisaton Bewitched. She is a Demetrius daughter out of Kinderwicke. This was a real nick as ten are champions, (and there were more from the two breedings). Another bitch which clicked was Ch Moraga Hill’s Desert Wind. Her background is basically KayHill. Six have finished from two breedings including the Best in Show winner Ch Sherluck’s LB Jake – and there were more.

He produced well with Ch Gra-Lemor Princessnesian. The only problem being there were almost no puppies, six in two litters. Lone Eagle was the only ale in the second litter. Another beautiful bitch who was a dynamite combination with Hawk was Ch Mikater Brisen of Marks-Tey. The Best in Show winner, Ch Briric’s Abagail of Mikater is from this breeding. Three champions came from Ch Stoffregen’s Shatz v. Siemhof and Ch Marienburg’s Only Too produced the Group and Specialty winning Ch Marienburg’s Discoteque. All the above named bitches, with the exception of Desert Wind, were closely related to Demetrius.

I took a chance and bred Hawk to his full sister, Warbonnet, and came up with Ch Marienburg’s Rising Sun and Marienburg’s Angel Fire.

Late in Hawk’s life he was bred to four champion bitches who failed to conceive. All four would have had something special, but it wasn’t meant to be. These were: Ch Marienburg Wickiup v. Bali-Mor, Ch Tiffany’s Annie Hall, Ch Marienburg’s Clara Bow and Lyric’s Chardonnay. In all, he was bred to 44 different champion bitches, but eleven of those didn’t conceive. He was bred to a number of non-champion bitches as well and several champions were produced here also. A bitch named Cynthius in Aquarius (mostly Kay Hill) is the dam of 2 American champions including a Best in Show winner and one Brazilian Best in Show winner. Another nonchampion bitch good with Hawk was the Australian import, Enriqueta Prima Dulce. She was sired by a famous Australian sire, Ch Elmaro All Fire, whose pedigree is intense Top Skipper through American imports. I was happy to be able to breed Hawk to a daughter of All Fire, as I remember Peggy Adamson telling me what a great sire he was after her return from judging in Australia. Moe judged in New Zealand and said the same thing. Prima Dulce had a small litter but two are American champions including the Best in Show winner, Ch Cyklon In April Cloud. Three different bitches were shipped from Brazil to be bred. One of them, Ayfa Landell de Moura, was shipped twice. Her first litter had contained several Best in Show winners. Shipping this far and from another country like that is not only expensive, the paperwork involved is completely confusing and time consuming. Poor Ayfa was six weeks in whelp before I could get her back the first time. I had to buy a larger crate as she was carrying 13 puppies!

Hawk’s last litter whelped February 7th, and was a repeat of one which has produced two American champions as well as an Indonesian Best in Show winner. The dam, Rubicon’s little Ginger is a Hawk granddaughter; the only granddaughter to grandmother breeding successfully done. This last litter is just six months old at this writing.

Somewhere around 1978 Hawk developed a prostate problem. It was controlled with antibiotics at that time. A year or so later in early 1980 the same thing happened only it was much worse. The antibiotics seemed to help at first, but suddenly he became very sick. I remember taking his temperature and the red went all the way to the top. It was late at night, and all that was available was the emergency animal clinic. I sat there all night while they brought his temperature down. His prostate was enormous and in danger of abscessing. They assured e that this would mean a quick death. I had to take a decision to castrate him and save his life or take a chance on it not abscessing and keep trying different antibiotics. What a decision! As soon as my vet opened that morning I took Hawk in to be castrated. I went home and waited for the phone call. Late that afternoon I learned he wasn’t castrated and with luck could still sire live offspring. I couldn’t believe it. They had actually removed part of his prostate. The only hitch was that they had done this only a couple of times and neither dog was bred afterwards. About six weeks later Hawk was bred and the bitch had 13 puppies. Sadly enough, most of them died from parvo.

He sired 24 live litters after his operation until his death. In November 1981 Moe and I went to Arizona to some shows. Our old bitch, Ch Marienburg Apache Firebird was in season and kept in the office to keep her from Hawk while we were away. He opened the door and went in and bred her. Firebird was in no shape to have a litter as she had just had a radical mastectomy. She was immediately taken to the vet who refused to give her a mismate shot in our absence. Three days before Hawk died, she had four puppies. I felt this was meant to be, sort of like his going away present.

Hawk’s Last Days

We were preparing to leave for the Florida circuit. Just about this time, Hawk started going off his food. He didn’t look or act sick. I took him in and they did a number of tests. All results came back pointing to pancreatitis. This seemed like it could be, as a month earlier a bitch had come for breeding who became sick as soon as she arrived, and that was what she had. The vet said possibly he caught it from her even though transmission of it was not known for sure. There is no real treatment except no food for awhile, and then a very bland diet. We left as planned. I had an uneasy feeling about Hawk but passed it off as getting too worried over every little thing. He seemed to be going fine and then after a time they tried to get him to eat, and he would eat nothing except dog biscuits. He got thinner and weaker and was kept going on IVs. Finally, not knowing what else to do, my vet opened his abdomen up. Hawk was so full of cancer there was nothing that could be done. Even in his weakened condition he lived through the anesthetic. I had to make the decision to put him to sleep, but there was no other recourse. It was just so hard to say. It was the middle of winter with the worst cold spell in history. There were no dog cemeteries or places to cremate dogs, and no one to bury him. I will never forget my vet offering to bury him. After thawing the rocky ground with a huge fire for a few hours, Hawk was buried in the back on a high place overlooking the river. Each day I look out at his gravesite and feel the same empty feeling and great sense of loss. He was a gentleman, and long-suffering. There is no frozen semen. I had intended to go to College Station, Texas to have this done but kept procrastinating. Somehow I don’t feel bad about it, as I wouldn’t want Hawk to have that advantage over other great sires who have gone before him.