It has also been made illegal in many other European countries, as well as Australia. The American Kennel Club standard for Doberman Pinschers includes a tail docked near the 2nd vertebra. Docking is a common practice in the United States, Russia, and Japan (as well as a number of other countries with Dobermann populations), where it remains legal. The history of the Dobermann breed is sometimes disputed by experts; however, it's generally thought that Dobermanns were first bred in the 1880s by Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann in Apolda, Thuringia, Germany, a tax collector who ran the Apolda dog pound. With access to dogs of many breeds, he got the idea to create a breed that would be ideal for protecting him.