Quick Links: Table of Contents
- Affenpinscher Breed Overview
- History of the Affenpinscher Breed. Where Affenpinschers came from
- What the Affenpinscher Looks Like
- How Much is the Affenpinscher Puppy?
- Best Affenpinscher Breeders
- Adopting or Rescuing the Affenpinscher
- Affenpinscher Litter Size
- How Fast Affenpinschers Can Run
- Good Names for Affenpinschers
- How Intelligent are Affenpinschers?
- How Popular are Affenpinschers with New Dog Owners?
- Health Problems in Affenpinschers and How to Prevent Them
- Dog Breeds That Are Similar to Affenpinschers
- Other Things to Know About Affenpinschers
Affenpinscher Breed Overview
The Affenpinscher is a tiny-sized dog.
The adult Affenpinscher stands 9 to 11 inches tall at the shoulder.
The Affenpinscher belongs to the Companion Dogs group.
Dogs in the Companion Dogs group, like the Affenpinscher, were bred to be companions for humans. Their main goal in life is to be with people, and they will be very sad if left to themselves for long hours day after day.
The fact that Affenpinschers belong to the Companion Dogs group is one of the reasons why Affenpinschers have the personality and temperament that they have.
The temperament of the Affenpinscher is generally described as:
- Active
- Adventurous
- Curious
- Fun-loving
- Playful
- Stubborn
History of the Affenpinscher Breed. Where Affenpinschers came from
The Affenpinscher has been around for quite a while, having originated over in Germany.
The earliest depicted artwork of the Affenpinscher, or its ancestors, dated back to the 15th and 16th centuries.
In the early days, Affenpinschers used to be a bit bigger but then were bred to maintain a smaller stature to be able to be lap dog-sized.
Although the Affenpinscher is small, it has a temperament that gives it the courage to take on animals many times its size.
It is advised to provide Affenpinschers with potty training and crate training early because the smaller breeds have issues with learning how.
Affenpinschers are great for families without smaller children as they have no tolerance for roughhousing and being prodded.
While Affenpinschers are still excitable dogs, they prefer the company of adults and older adults as opposed to children or teenagers.
The Affenpinscher is great at alerting its owners about trespassers or intruders and is very loud if threatened.
An Affenpinscher won’t back down from a fight so it`s best to steer them clear of very large animals if they haven’t been socialized to get along with them.
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What the Affenpinscher Looks Like
The Affenpinscher is a sturdy, tiny dog with a personality that vastly outshines its diminutive size.
Affenpinschers have a distinctly rough textured short coat with longer hairs called furnishings that are of a lighter color than the short coat.
Although an Affenpinscher’s fur is considered wiry and coarse, the coats are generally hypoallergenic.
However, there is still some slight shedding, and they should be groomed weekly.
Affenpinschers can come in black, blank and tan, gray, red, and silver with variations of hue to each color.
There may be spotted appearances on some Affenpinschers that include multiple of these colors.
This dog is referred to as an “ape” or “monkey” dog due to its appearance, where the hair around the head and neck is longer than the rest of the body.
This means the Affenpinscher is left with a fluffed out, adorable, apple-headed, monkey-like face typical of this breed.
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How Much is the Affenpinscher Puppy?
The average price of a Affenpinscher puppy is $3240. The price of a Affenpinscher puppy ranges from $1600 to $2750.
A lot of factors determine the price of the Affenpinscher. These factors include what health records the Affenpinscher puppy has, the lineage of the Affenpinscher puppy, the US state the breeder is located in, etc.
To estimate how much you can expect to pay for a puppy Affenpinscher based on the many factors that determine the price of the Affenpinscher puppy, check out our calculator that lets you estimate how much you should expect to pay for the Affenpinscher puppy based on what you want in the puppy.
When looking to buy a puppy, look at buying a puppy only from well-established breeders that breed puppies primarily for the love of the Affenpinscher breed, and secondarily for profit. Do not buy a puppy from a puppy mill. Puppy mills mass-produce puppies in bad living conditions for maximum profit.
You may also consider adopting instead of buying a puppy. Adoption costs are very low compared to the price of a puppy.
Best Affenpinscher Breeders
We have researched reputable Affenpinscher breeders that you can buy a puppy.
Go to this page for our complete list of reputable Affenpinscher breeders in various states in the United States.
On this page, you will see how much these breeders sell their puppies for, and how many puppies they have available.
A few of these breeders are listed below.
Janice Decker
Puppy Price: Check with breeder
Kelly Broderick
Puppy Price: Check with breeder
Edan Hill Affenpinschers
Puppy Price: Check with breeder
Tamari Affenpincher and Oakhurst Rhodesian Ridgebacks
Puppy Price: Check with breeder
DeBate Affens
Puppy Price: Check with breeder
Adopting or Rescuing the Affenpinscher
You may consider adopting a dog instead of buying a puppy. Many dogs, Affenpinschers included, are currently available for adoption in your local dog shelters.
These helpless but adorable dogs are waiting in dog shelters hoping that someday someone will rescue them. Dog adoption costs are lesser than the cost of a new puppy. Dog adoption costs are usually around $300 or even less.
In addition to your local dog shelter, another good place to find dogs that are available for adoption is petfinder.com.
Below is an adorable Male Affenpinscher named Donut that is currently available for adoption on Petfinder.com. You can find other lovely Affenpinschers like Donut on pefinder.com.
Starchy is the name of another Affenpinscher (Male) on petfinder.com that is looking for a new forever home.
You can find more Affenpinschers that are available for adoption on petfinder.
Affenpinscher Litter Size
Researchers from the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science did a study where they counted the numbers of puppies in 11 different Affenpinscher birth litters.
From this study, the researchers found that the average number of puppies that Affenpinschers can have is 4 puppies. Also, the Affenpinscher can have as few as 1 puppies per litter and as many as 10 puppies per litter.
The number of puppies that the Affenpinscher will have depends on factors such as the age of the Affenpinscher, the method of pregnancy, etc.
Click here to see our calculator for predicting how many puppies your Affenpinscher will have and how the litter size of the Affenpinscher compares to the litter size of other dog breeds.
How Fast Affenpinschers Can Run
How fast a dog breed can run is a good measure of how athletic the dog breed is.
The American Kennel Club (AKC) regularly conducts dog running competitions. The AKC records the running speed of competing dogs in these competitions. These competitions are open to all dog breeds.
Based on our analysis of the speeds of 6 different Affenpinschers, the average speed of the Affenpinscher is 16.0 mph (25.8 kmph).
The fastest speed on AKC record that the Affenpinscher ran in a race is 19.66 mph (31.6 kmph) and the minimum speed on record in a race for a Affenpinscher is 13.09 mph (21.1 kmph).
Click here to see how the speed of the Affenpinscher compares to the speed of other dogs and other mammals such as cats, horses, humans, etc.
Good Names for Affenpinschers
Here are some really good names that are typical for the Affenpinscher ranked by popularity:
- Tad
- Levi
- Scruffy
- Rover
- Eddie
- Tom
- Romeo
- Paxton
- Major
- Kaiba
How Intelligent are Affenpinschers?
| Affenpinscher | |
|---|---|
| Intelligence Rank | 37 out of 130 dog breeds |
| Trainability | Tend To Learn New Commands After 15 To 25 Repetitions |
According to Prof. Stanley Coren, a Canadian psychology professor/dog trainer, the total intelligence that a dog demonstrates is the addition of three types of intelligence. These intelligence types are:
- Instinctive Intelligence: This is the natural intelligence that comes from instinct. For example, dog breeds that have been historically bred to be guard dogs will have a high `guarding` intelligence compared to dogs that were not bred for guarding.
- Adaptive Intelligence (learning and problem-solving ability): This indicates what a dog can learn to do for himself or herself. Adaptive intelligence is specific to each dog, and not breed specific. You can improve your dog`s adaptive intelligence by investing time to train your dog.
- Working/Obedience Intelligence: This type of intelligence is breed-specific. Certain dog breeds tend to have higher working/obedience intelligence than some other breeds. This intelligence is the closest to what we might call school-learning ability and it is based upon what the dog can learn to do when instructed by humans. This type of intelligence can be measured for each dog breed and compared to that of other dog breeds.
Professor Stanley Coren measured and ranked the working intelligence of about 130 different dog breeds.
Prof. Coren found that the Affenpinscher has an obedience intelligence rank of 37 out of 130 dog breeds. Thus, Prof. Coren put Affenpinschers in the `Above Average Working Dogs` category.
This means that Affenpinschers tend to learn new commands after 15 to 25 repetitions.
However, we should mention that a dog should not be judged based on its intelligence alone. There are other important factors you need to consider when deciding on which dog breed to get. These other factors include sociability, adorability, and compatibility of the dog breed with your lifestyle.
See the intelligence ranking of some other dog breeds below:
| Breed | Intelligence Rank |
|---|---|
| Border Collie | 1 |
| Golden Retriever | 4 |
| Australian Cattle Dog | 10 |
| Belgian Tervuren | 14 |
| German Shorthaired Pointer | 17 |
| Belgian Malinois | 22 |
| Chesapeake Bay Retriever | 27 |
| American Staffordshire Terrier | 34 |
| Kuvasz | 42 |
| Alaskan Malamute | 50 |
| Chinese Shar-Pei | 51 |
| Rhodesian Ridgeback | 52 |
| Chinese Crested | 61 |
| Saint Bernard | 65 |
| Bull Terrier | 66 |
| Bullmastiff | 69 |
| Pekingese | 73 |
| Borzoi | 75 |
| Chow Chow | 76 |
| Basenji | 78 |
How Popular are Affenpinschers with New Dog Owners?
Every year, the American Kennel Club (AKC) publishes information on how popular a dog breed is in that particular year. The AKC gets the popularity information of a breed from how many dogs of that breed the owners register with the AKC every year. The AKC collects this data for about 200 dog breeds.
The graph below shows the popularity trend of the Affenpinscher.
The popularity of the Affenpinscher averaged over the years is Number 148 out of about 200 dog breeds.
Do not get a dog breed just because it is a popular dog breed. And do not reject a dog breed just because it is an unpopular breed.
Health Problems in Affenpinschers and How to Prevent Them
Every dog breed has its own set of health problems that it tends to develop. There is nothing like a perfect dog breed.
The Affenpinscher is prone to certain genetic health conditions. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) is an organization that keeps track of genetic health problems in dog breeds.
From the extensive records that the OFA keeps, the OFA knows what health problems each dog breed is naturally prone to develop.
Hence, the OFA recommends which health screening breeders should perform on a dog breed to make sure that the breeders won`t breed `defective` dog parents that can pass down defective genes to their puppy offspring.
If you want a Affenpinscher puppy that will grow up to be healthy, make sure that your Affenpinscher breeder screens your puppy or your puppy`s parents for the health problems that the OFA recommends for your puppy`s breed. This will increase the chances that your puppy is free from genetic defects.
The following are the health tests that Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) recommends that breeders should screen Affenpinschers for:
You can find out more about OFA`s recommended tests for Affenpinschers here.
Dog Breeds That Are Similar to Affenpinschers
If you have not made up your mind on which dog breed to get, you may also want to consider some other dogs similar to the Affenpinscher.
We crunched the numbers and found that the following dog breeds that have similar behavior and temperament as the Affenpinscher:
- Dandie Dinmont Terrier (75 percent match with Affenpinscher). Learn more about the Dandie Dinmont Terrier here.
- Peek A Poo (75 percent match with Affenpinscher). Learn more about the Peek A Poo here.
Other Things to Know About Affenpinschers
Here are some of the very important characteristics of the Affenpinscher that you need to know about the Affenpinscher breed: