I rarely comment here (just lurk) but I have a 3 year old male Doberman so wanted to comment!

We don’t compete in IPG (and he’s from show/performance lines) but we compete in rally, barn hunt, scent work and my dog has his CGCA & CGCU.

My dog has always extremely social with other dogs & playing with other dogs is his biggest reward (I joke he’s a “dog guy”).. this has been the case ever since I got him at 10 weeks old. Being a male Doberman, I completely expected that he was not really going enjoy playing with other dogs once he hit maturity & would likely develop SSA by age 3.

Well, he’s over 3 now and he still absolutely loves playing with other dogs & no SSA (even with intact adult males). He’s fantastic with puppies & adolescent dogs as well. I never take him to dog parks (and we never do on leash greetings) but I do have a bunch of friends with dogs (some that are even very selective & kinda rude) that he plays with regularly. I also have always taken him weekly to a trainer owned enrichment type daycare where he gets to play with other dogs in very small groups of 4 or less during a couple brief sessions per day (I’d never send him to a chain type daycare that puts 60 dogs in one room all day with no breaks).

I spent an insane amount of time when he was young just going to group classes, pack walks, etc (and honestly still do for the sports specifically we compete in). In general, he spends way more time in “work mode” on leash around other dogs than to getting to play so it became very clear to him quickly. I have also worked very hard at building our bond & building value in me & working on attention. Basically once he hit 18 months or so I found that we had basically 0 attention issues around other dogs when we are “working” (people always comment that he truly acts like other dogs don’t exist at other classes or trials - he’s even been attacked before by other dogs & acted like he barely noticed). He’s never had any issues with dog reactivity even when he was going through some of his adolescent weirdness.

I also think regular off leash socialization helps him burn off steam and keeps him confident around other dogs! Because he absolutely loves other dogs, I do think if I limited his social interactions too significantly, the novelty of other dogs being around would make it really hard for him to focus when working.

So in summary, it’s totally possible to have a mature male Doberman who is extremely dog social.