People always think that both of the girls are puppies. Keira is particularly good at fooling people into thinking that Doberman puppies are the best behaved, most relaxed puppies in the world. She's so much smaller than what people expect a Doberman to be, and she's fine boned for the breed and very obviously feminine, so I think that contributes as well. And Dance, well, I'm pretty sure people will think she's a puppy for most of her life. Again, she's smaller than people imagine retrievers should be and there is just something fun loving and puppy-like about her I guess. People always thought her dam was a puppy too (and probably still do).
With Ripley, people are sometimes surprised that he's 3 1/2, but his age isn't guessed at very often and usually people don't think he's a puppy. The people that are surprised by his age are those who then proceed to tell me that he's too small and how disappointing it is he's already hit his prime age to fill out so he probably won't get any bigger. Poor me. They don't believe me when I tell them that he's within standard and correct for a male of his breed. But, when it comes to Dobermans (and working breeds in general probably) people have an annoying "mine is bigger than yours" attitude, so it's not surprising. They can feel bad for me and my 3 year old 'little' Doberman all they want. I think he's pretty handsome and a nice size myself.
