The Rottweiler is a German breed that was originally developed as a livestock controller. During the two World Wars this breed was taken from the fields and trained to be guard dogs for the military. Today this breed is still used as a guard dog, however, they are also used as a family dog. Very few countries still use this dog for police or military service but their abilities with such dog sports as Schutzhund is legendary.
The Rottweiler is a large working dog that stands between 23 and 27 inches tall and weighs between 90 and 110 pounds. They have a short to medium length coat that is coarse and flat. Their coats are primarily black with tan markings. This is a very protective and loyal dog, however, they really aren’t the type of dog to have if you have small children. They function better with school aged kids. If you have a Rottweiler and small children you should always supervise their interactions.
Rottweilers can be paired with other pets, however, they will need proper supervision and socialization as Rottweilers are territorial and may show dog and food aggression. Much of these aggression issues may be avoided if the dog is raised with proper obedience training.
The Rottweiler is a very smart breed and can take very well to obedience training. They can be stubborn, though, so it is recommended to use patience when training.
One of the most intimidating dog breeds are the Rottweilers They are solidly built, muscled, and powerful looking. Rottweilers do not usually show an affable disposition especially with strangers. It is no surprise that they are one of the most misunderstood breeds, next to Pit bulls
Actually, Rottweilers are obedient, loyal, and highly trainable dogs. They may look very menacing because they were bred to have great strength and intimidation. The intimidation was meant to help them be more effective as livestock controllers.
Originally, they were used as herders in Germany. They have amazing herding instincts much like the Border Collies. Rottweilers use their fierce looks to pilot livestock. People also saw many uses for their stocky and sturdy build. They also make good draught dogs because they are able to carry heavy loads.
Over time, Rottweilers have filled so many roles. They have been used in the first and second world wars as messenger, draught, and guard dogs. Later, they became valuable police dogs because of their ferocious fighting and guarding instinct. When they were used as house dogs, it was mainly for their ability to protect and keep the family safe.
It is quite obvious that the Rottweilers’ were bred principally for their daunting characteristics; making it a notorious animal of aggression and hostility. But ultimately, many Rottweiler owners have started to realize their true value as companions and they see that they are dependable, loyal, and eager to serve and please.
If you want to own a Rottweiler as a household pet, it is important to train them to be calm and composed creatures. Early and extensive socialization is important for their development to become trusting dogs. You should introduce them to all kinds of people and animals early on and they should be exposed to children, other canines, and cats. You should make the experience pleasant for them so Rottweilers will learn to trust others.
Educate the people around you on how to handle your Rottweiler. Don’t let people spank or shout at the dog. When Rottweilers are already big and brawny, tell your friends and acquaintances not to be fearful of their size. Rottweilers can smell fear and may act disapprovingly to this negative energy.
Rottweilers also need firm and consistent leadership. You need to make sure they consider you the leader of their pack. This means that you must have authority over all of their activities such as, eating, running, drinking, urination, bowel movements, and social activities. The Rottweiler will be dependent on you, which is a good thing because the Rottweiler will feel that he is well taken care of if you do things correctly.
Natural leadership will create a gratifying bond between you and your Rottweiler. In return, he will protect you and the ones you love. He will do anything in its power to serve you, literally to the death.
Rottweilers are fairly inactive inside the house. They are not hyperactive like Labs or Spaniels. Houses with small yards are good enough for them. Rottweilers can adapt well with apartment living as long as you give him occasional walks, play, or exercise.
138 Responses to “How to Train a Rottweiler”
hi
i have a rottweiler who is 11months of age . the only problem with him is after he shits he gets very energitc and starts jumping on me and starts pulling his chain with his mouth.
i dont know what to do in this situation .
kindly suggest me something to handle him
Nikita, your voice has to be electric. Command him to sit and stay. But he seems happy to feel better. Its time to play at that point.
This is one of the bigger myths in the dog training world. Using a sharper tone may grab your dog’s attention at first but any effectiveness will quickly wear off once the dog realizes that all you’ve got is tone. Any balanced training program should include proper correction and praise. Your tone of voice is meaningless, I never use a harsh tone or loud tone.
gotta disagree with you mate. the tone of voice does make a difference. you just should know which tone to use at which situation. if your dog is being good you should use shuttle tone and if he does bad stuffs or tries to do so use a bit harsh tone. dogs are very smart. they will know they have done something wrong if you use harsh tone and won’t do it. the owner, however, should keep in mind not to use harsh tone too often, well never if possible. the owner should try to tell the dog not to do certain things nicely
If you rely on tone of voice as a training technique you’re going to run into a bunch of trouble. And telling the dog not to do certain things nicely doesn’t work, either, unless you’ve got a dog who understands English.
Training is not about tone, it’s about action.
I have a 2 yr old rott, and I used tone to train her, along with punishments and praise. She will respond appropriately to whatever tone I am using. If she’s doing something good, I’ll use softer, more baby like tones with her and she’ll get happy as can be, wagging her tail. If she is doing something wrong, I use a harsher, deeper voice and she’ll respond by laying down and baring her belly at me to let me know she understands and see’s me as her leader. But, also along with the tones I do things such as not allowing her to step through a door before I do, I eat and drink before she does, everyday just as a pack leader would do. So, yes it is about tone, but not tone alone. She listens and understands my tones and meaning well enough that she is learning hand signals. I can point to the ground and she’ll lay down, I can raise my hand and point to the ground and she’ll sit, I snap and she’ll stay by my heels, and if she does good I’ll praise her with soft tones and pets, if she doesn’t I’ll use the harsher tone and she’ll correct the behavior quickly. A good example, she and I can be rough housing, pushing her and what have you, she’ll be trying to hold my arm down, if I said I’ve had enough, and say it in a softer tone she thinks we’re still playing, if I say enough in a deeper tone then she will stop immediately and lay down on the couch and take a nap. Now, I’m not saying every dog is the same, but every dog I have ever had I’ve trained this way and I’ve always had well mannered, well behaved dogs.
hi nitika. In that situation. Give him a calcium bone. He will play with it a lot. N when he get relaxed. Take that bone away.
I totally agree with you. Give him a bone and try to deviate him from what he doing.
Here is something if he bites the leash hit him or her and say no
then the name it works on my rottweile.i am just a kid.bye and
hope it works.
the best solution, according to me, is to treat him like your own child, like how would you treat your child if he does something good or how would you treat your child if he does something bad. raising a dog is not so different from raising a child you know.
That’s entirely dependent, though, on how people treat their children. Unfortunately we see, today, that people are doing lousy jobs of raising both their dogs and their kids.
i have a 9 week old rottie she also does the samething let him play and he will get tired and stop
after his stomach is clear this breed feels light and wants to play. exercise is a mandatory part in its life. give full chance to let its energy out once this signal comes.
You should command your rot to sit and pamper him him when he gets excited. If he does not follow your command then grab his attention, look into his eyes and command with pressing his back and making him sit. This needs to be repeated as long as he learns. Harsh voice or bones will not help on a long run.
What we know
Rottweilers are German dogs
You can use the rottweiler as:police dogs,family dogs,sport dogs
Rottweilers are protecting the family,and if you want that your rottweiler do these tricks,what you only have to do is train your rottweiler…
tell your rottweiler what they have to do play with him etc:
I have to disagree because looking in to a dog’s eyes intimidate them and could lead o someone getting hurt
He,s need some training you have to talk to him
rottweilers are intelligent dogs,but these dogs need training
My Male Rottie did this with me. Now he is 18 months and its a phase, eventually they grow out of things. He would charge at me and jump up but i told him off until he knew he was hurting me. Now he is calm and just runs his heart out without bumping into me. No matter what we do with our dogs i do feel that they go through stages and at this point of its life these are the things it does. Its amazing how you will see changes. He is just so excited and forgets his own strenght as he is still a puppy. Be strong and firm so he knows its no fun for you. Maybe you should have a toy with you so after he poo’s when you see him charging at you through his toy so he can fetch. This hopefully will take his attention away from you.
This is good Vasoulla. Something else, that is in the same vein as some other comments. What we do with our puppy is she has her second meal at about 5pm. She has a bowl movement at about 7 ish (she’s only 4 mo-but not our first), right after that we take her and do her training at the park. She walks for about a quarter mile to the park, at the park she plays to get “her” energy out so she can focus better on the instruction and teaching my husband and I give her. We just have to make sure we don’t let her get too exhausted from “other” play before she works. Then she has a little more play after work, rest and by that time she is ready to go. We walk about 3/4 of a mile home and she is gets a bone when she gets home, gnaws on that until she falls asleep. She has a pretty laid back personality and isn’t really hyper, so we channel and use that “empty” light energy to our and her advantage. If we deviate from this (we’ve had to because of 110 degree temps) after she evacuates, she has a field day attacking our 10year old Aussie. He helps manager her too….a good big brother.
My rottweiler is 10 months old. He is very friendly dog with people he know. He was 30 days old when i brought him into home. From early days I started socializing training to him by allowing him to meet other people, play with them. At that time I was constructing home and almost every other day, my rotty was use to meet different people. At current age, he shows alot of love and tries to get alot of love from the known people. I have felt his eager to give or get love is very powerful and he becomes difficult to control. He want to stay with people till the moment they are in house. He makes whining sound. I don’t tie up my dog and I mostly keep him open inside house too. He lives with family, all day inside house, open. He shows alot of patience for food but for “love” and for “loo”, he shows power. I want to know what will be the right steps to train my rotty to understand the way to behave in gentle way with known people. People shows there understanding/misunderstanding about the “Rottweiler” behavior. Is my rotty actions are common/uncommon which I should be worried off(considering his power/strength will increase as he grew up). He bark alot to my mom, as a request(or dominate) to take him out for walk. My mom gets worried when dog makes such a strong bark noise. Is this categorized as an aggression shown dog ?
I am a first time pet owner who decided to go for rottweiler due to his intelligence, loyalty and protectiveness. Some guidleines if you have to share about dog training, then please do so.
My first reply to nearly any question is; what is the dog’s obedience like? Obedience is the key for maintaining your dog and having the level of control you are looking for.
So I have two rottweilers. Yes they are known for wanting to “take”their affection. But once again, pack leader mentality. I strongly encourage you to get him/her to sit, laid down, or fully calm prior to being shown any sort of affection. It is also in your best interest to tell others to not acknowledge the dog when its fighting for attentionupon their arrival, WHILE you’re correcting his behavior. If that’s a known trigger for unwanted behavior, then you should consistently mandate that there is no touch/talk/eye contact between your visitors to your dog till he’s fully calm. I have years of a lot of experience with high energy and aggressive dogs and consistency, patience, and knowledge of breed is very helpful.
Hi M Paris
You say that you have had a lot of experience with high energy and aggressive dogs , i was wondering if you could please give me some advice? I have a 5year old rottie cross but he is more of a rottie then any breed im not even sure what he is crossed with as i got him from a dingy dogs home when he was 10months , he was food agressive and beaten very skinny was a very dumb dog very lazy and scared of almost everything new that he ever seen , i knew he was going to be hard work when i had him . I had to work so my ex boyfriend looked after him during the day i got him a routine sorted for meals n ect so that incase he was left for a whole day he would cope on his own i trainned him with basic comands sit stay taught him to open doors got him from being aggressive with his food bowls taught him to speak (bark) and little woof is a growl and loose he does all these fantastiv now but only indoors i can not take him on my own for a walk any more as he will not let any adult approach me due to some idiot jumping out on us on a walk in the dark with a hood up , but i also found out from my neighbours that my ex partner hurt my dog while i was at work on a few occasions which i was so upset about because i do not agree with any type on animal cruelty on any level reason why i got a dog from dogs home he is my beautiful boy n i think thee world of him he is such a clever boy now he doesnt even bite hard any more but he does think he is the boss i have tried many different ways but im not getting anywere he also doesnt like strangers i have to intruduce them gradually and make them give him treats n let them play with him n he finally accepts them but with me he is like a cuddly bear im so stuck with what to do with him as he is a fantastic dog and he has protected me when a man tried to push his way past me to get into my property he come to my side and sat there and when the man tried to push past me he was like something i have never seen he leaped for him but only as a warning but it was enough because then man was gone like a shot . any advice would be greatful thanks
My husband and I have a 2 year old male rottweiler how a few days ago bite my face requiring a total of 12 stiches in two seperate wounds.
The story behind our rotti is this. Last year we lost our 12 year old rotti and were desperately missing having a dog in the house. I love rotti’s so we decided to get another one in September 2011. We decided not to get a puppy as we both work and didn’t want to go through the whole puppy stage. Instead we wanted a 18 - 24 month old dog who had already been trained and could slip right in to our home and routine.
We found our boy on the internet - a 17 month old pure breed entire male. We met him and fell in love. We were advised that he was fully trained however did witness that he was allowed on furniture and even pushed the owners off the sofa so he had it to himself, he was allowed on beds and seemed to have full run of the house and appeared to be the “boss”. He lived with a lady and her 3 young girls, plus her elderly mother. He had never been around a man before - my husband was the first man he ever met.
Once we got him home we discovered he had no training what so ever, couldn’t or wouldn’t walk on a lead without attempting to dislocate or complete severe your arm from your shoulder! He was food agressive and knew no commands not even his name.
We began training him as we had our last rotti and were seeing some improvements.
About 2 months after we initially got him, i had been petting him in the lounge when he became very still and stiff next to me. I could tell something wasnt right and stupidly went to pat him on his chest to reassure him. He bit my hand and caused a rather serious injury - ER, stiches, bandages etc.
We didn’t tell him off at the time or correct him in any way. I dont know whether that was the right thing to do or not but that’s what happened.
It was at this stage that we got professional help and soon had him top of the class. We used passive training and it was extremely effective. He walks beautifully next to us on a lead now and even off the lead, he has plenty of commands and even does tricks. He is no longer food aggressive… however with bones may sometimes growl. We also found that he began guarding his toys so we had to remove these.
He had been doing so well for what seemed like a long time - just over a year, that we probably slacked off a bit on the daily training regime.
Recently we noticed he was starting to be a bit naughty, not listening, demanding attention (barking at us right infront of us if we were sitting on the sofa and not paying him attention), if we ignored him he would then go and “ruff up” him bed - treat like a rag doll that he was trying to kill.
Slowly he started showing aggression towards me when i would give him rawhide treasts and he was busy eating them - if i entered the room he would lunge forward onto the rawhide, growl and glare at me. He would have his ears pinned back and would be extremely tense for at least 5-10 minutes after if I remained in the room even though no where near him.
I was after an episode just like the above, however he had finished eating his treat and was lying next to the sofa on his back sleeping. My husband had recently just given him a pat and a cuddle and i was heading off to bed so decided I would lean down and kiss him on the side of his snout to say goodnight. I felt his jawls move and wasn’t sure if he was about to lick my cheeck or not, so I lent down again and this time he bit my face. I didn’t expect this at all, however now realise that he was probably warning me to stay away. My injuries were fairly serious - he wasn’t mucking around. This was no warning nip. He sunk his top canines into my right cheeck and his bottom canines into the left side of my face - his mouth was fully opened and he snapped it shut with teeth inserted and caused huge tearing wounds.
This I can get over as fortunately I was kept from seeing my injuries until they were stiched up and much much tidier. But my husband who witnessed the extent of my injuries can’t get over it.
We are in debate as to what we should do about our boy. We both love him dearly and are extremely distressed that this has happened. I know that we slacked off on training a bit ove the last couple of months and maybe this is the reason - he has lost respect for me??
When walking him lately he lunges at people (and it seems aggressively) but he is particularly worse with my husband around or when my husband walks him. He shows more aggressiion to me when my husband is present, but when it is just the dog and I, he is either affectionate to me or stays away from me completely.
Am I the problem? Do I need to reistablish my leadership?
My husband doesn’t trust him anymore and does not feel comfortable walking him or having visitors over. Some people say put him down as he’s bitten a me, twice now and shows aggressive behaviour in other areas; some say re-home him; and other say to euthanise him.
Please help, we don’t know what to do.
In a nutshell, the problem with ‘passive training’ techniques is that it does nothing for the relationship between you and the dog. Yes, you can get the dog to listen for a treat but this leads to a poor relationship. How obedient is your dog with distractions?
Thanks for your response. He is ok with distractions so long as we spot them first and start using the clicker and treats. Otherwise, once he has spotted something or there is a lot going on, it is quite hard to get his attention back on us.
What would you recommend for building the relationship with our boy, strengthening the bond and establishing leadership?
I look forward to any suggestions you have.
Many thanks
Amanda
That is the problem with clickers and treats. They don’t do anything to work on the relationship between you and the dog. In fact, they put you in a serving role and not a leadership role.
Shameless plug here, I recommend either our aggression dvds or foundation obedience dvds to really work on a relationship that needs fixing- https://www.dogbehavioronline.com/dog-training-tools/dog-training-courses/
Dear Amanda , it’s sounds to me that your dog has gain alpha of the pack, when your eating he should sit in room distance from you if he Stared you down or begs for food do not allow him to send him away you. And if he has food and you should walk in the room redirect his attention to a ball or favorite toy and take the bone then make him wait then u return it when hes calm waiting, since he has bitten you more then once you must regain. Your higher alpha status because toleration to the bite shows him that you are submissive towards him ( pulling back retreating all human natrual instincts once bitten) you make think I’m crazy I have put rottwielers on their back and growled in their face to have them submitted . Sit on the floor while he eats and feed him morscals out of your hand this will teach him you aren’t t his his food and he will get it back with out fighting for it and you are in control Oregon he ha a food.
Hi Get him neutered.It should reduce his level of agression.Worked for my rottie.
In my opinion you should put this dog to sleep. A Rottweiler that has attacked you twice is no joke. It is strange that you call him “your boy” while he in fact more or less is the boss. You are actually saying that you and your husband had warning signals that this dog had not found its place at the bottom of the pyramid. My advice: buy a new puppy, start all over again and above all: join a course to learn leadership behaviour from the beginning. Life is to short to have agressive dogs!
I agree 110% with Arve’s post.
Now that I think about it… he’s really not that obedient at all - well not for me anyway. He does listen to my husband but not me.
What do you suggest for obedience training? What are some techniques I can use?
Also take humour of your home Seattle him in a unfamiliar territory and work with his skills he will either be food fervently driven or prasie driven each dog ha a their own drive find out suits him best. Make him walk sit and wait over and I we this I. Teaches him to respect commands and it teaches patients. never let him walk infringe of you or ahead of you he should be at your side this again is giving you hire rank, once you gain your alpha postion he will be submissive towards you espically because he was rasied byfemales
Sorry about all the crazy words my phone has decided to add it appears that oam illeterrate lol . Amanda ibelieve that your dog can learn alit with persistiants and with the right know how. He will also give signs that he’s intimAdating u watch out for theae. At play never allow him to put his paws on your back or climb up if your on the floor once again this is domanice play of canine, when you speak to him don’t give up because then he’s won, redirect his neg behavior get a water bottle if u have toand put watwr in it if heacts inapproiate spray him in the ear or between the eyes thof is willcatch him off gaurd and brake his train of thought works great on chewing. I hope some of these ideas help you I’ve raised rotties for 18 yrs on a farm with horses goats nd chickens and rabbits and I ve breed a few great litters just don’t give up its not his fault he was the boss of the house and no one told him different he needa structuer guidelines , your husband has it now u have to regain it an! Maintain it…. best ofluck
my rottweiler is 7 month old ..he’s problem is that whenerver i go outside for a walk ..he is very agressive towars people specially small children and bicycle which are moving plz give me solution or some tricks for that
There are no ‘tricks’ for fixing dog aggression. I’d recommend you check out our aggression program- https://www.dogbehavioronline.com/curing-dog-aggression-p/
i have a rottweiler ,who is 18 months old,i am facing various problems ,regarding him,he shits in his kennel regularly,secondly it is common for him to eat stones an grass ,plz give me a solution.
What kind of food do you have him on? What did you do to crate train him? How long is he left in the crate? How much training have you done? How much exercise does he get?
I have a rottweiler who is roughly 24months. I recently adopted him 2 months ago. I am 8 1/2 months pregnant. His name is Tank. Tank is a very good dog. He is potty trained and eager to please. When I received him he snapped at me one time initially. Since then our bond has grown a lot. Tank regularly shows aggression towards strangers. Although he had snapped at me I did not fear him. He has an energy about him that I trust. Ok so the issue is that although he is a good dog, eager to please, and quick to learn, his social manners are slacking. He has learned that in order to receive. The affection he is asking for of me tht he must first sit. I am the only person he applies this rule to. Once i pet him he begins to become excited and force his body against me.
I admit that i have been neglecting him with attention and neglecting the effort i put into his behavior for the last few weeks. I am getting tired so close to the end of my pregnancy. Tank due to lack of attention amd exercise has begun taring up my plants and according the animal.control has been spotted outside of my yard.
My question to you is, will there be a chance for turn around in his behavior in a few weeks when i am back tp normal and dedicated to his 9bedience training? I have a cocker spaniel Tank adores. He is about 7 is completely obedience trained and crate trained. I know i have the know how tp train a dog and be the dominant one. Im just worried having never owned a rottweiler of the permanent effect of my neglect. I also have a crate for tank. At first I would crate him a few hours of the day while i slept and then he would play outside. I kind of started to feel like he spent a lot of time alone. In his crate while i slept and then outside to do dog things. Do you think that since he behavior has changed that he was happier spending a few hours inside although crated vs outside all day? Or is his behavior purely from having unexerted energy? Im kind of hoping your thoughts will make me open my eyes and be a voice in the back pf my head every day to get up and do what i know i need yo do
The short answer is, yes, you can get your dog back in good shape. In fact, at my company we’re constantly working with dogs who have been displaying bad behavior for years and they are all capable of being turned around. Now, that doesn’t mean it will be easy, but it can be done.
Could the problems be due to lack of exercise and training? More than likely.
All dogs, Rottweilers and others, need:
- Mental stimulation (training, games)
- Supervision, focus, and attention
- Physical stimulation (exercise, walks, fetch, etc.)
- Structure
If you can get back to providing these things once you have your baby it stands to reason you can return the dog to the proper form
Can a 4 year old rottweiler still be trained for aggression behavior
What do you mean? For solving aggression issues or for training her to be a guard or protection dog?
hi. i have a four year old rotweiler. namely roxy.
well trained and extremely healthy and good looking. very good good with wife a nd kids. even family members.
the only concern i have is that barks aggressively at strangers, but here in lies the problem. when the strangers approach her she becomes extremely friendly. people like furniture removals or garbage removals. i dont know what to think of it. i would hate to think my house is free for all.
what do i do .
The truth is that nearly all dogs, unless otherwise trained, will allow people to enter the house. They may bark but, unless they’ve been trained to do more, very few dogs will actually protect a house.
Hi all ; I’m 15 years old and I think that i’m going to buy a rottweiler .
I just want to ask you that if this dog betray his owner when he grow up and doesn’t listen to anyone but his owner and maybe It’s dangerous for the family? .. as some people say !!
I’d really recommend you don’t start out with a Rottweiler. They are a very powerful breed that should not be owned by first time handlers.
what do you mean ; If you mean that I can’t Preserve his life then don’t worry I had a puppy remained for three months but i sell him because he isn’t strong enough to fight with another dogs !!
And all the qualities that I want is in the rottweiler
BTW I’m not afraid from dogs absolutely I need a strong dog but if the rottweiler dangerous with his owner then tell me
So.. what you say ?! =//
Hurry Up if you please , THE END OF THE WORLD will come in a few hours Hahahahaha :$
Okay, my new advice to you is to not own any dog period. If your last dog wasn’t strong enough to fight with other dogs you need to get out of the dog owning business entirely.
actually I’m against dog owning business but in my town it’s shame that you have weak dog ; Okay let me be honest with you I don’t really like to send my dog to fight and of course I won’t ; but i prefer the strong dogs.
let me tell you something ,My father promise me to bring dog to me if I do well in my school.. and i did ! But now when i was looking for dog the rottweiler becomes my dream.
All I need from you now to help me how to train this dog to be friendly dog
Sorry for the inconvenience :/
Hi. We have a 2 1/2 year old Rottweiler that we adopted in June. He was originally an outside dog, that we then trained to be an inside dog. He has his bed in the lounge and knows where his place is. He was very well trained when we got him and has been an absolute pleasure. When we adopted him, I was only a couple of months preganant. I am now almost ready to give birth and for the last couple of weeks he has been pretty adiment that he will sleep next to me in our bedroom on the floor. My husband has many nights got up and taken him back to his bed, but when we wake up again, he is next to me on the floor., which he knows is a big no no. Now I understand that he must sense something is going on but my question is do I leave him to sleep next to me and hope that once baby is born he will go back to sleeping in his own bed or do I try put a stop to it now? Any opinions on this would be great, I really dont know what to do.
Hi, we have a 2 1/2 year old Rottweiler that we adopted in June. When we adopted him in June I was a few months pregnant and am now 8 1/2 months pregnant. He was relatively well trained and has been an absolute pleasure. The one part of training that we are struggling with it to get him to stay. The last few weeks he has been pretty adiment that he wants to sleep next to me on floor in the bedroom when his bed is in the lounge, he knows where his bed is and knows that our bedroom is a no go zone. My husband has got up many nights and taken him back to his bed but when we wake up again, he is next to me on the floor. Now I understand that he senses something is happening, my question is, do I leave him to sleep next me on the floor and hope that once baby arrives he will go back to sleeping on his bed or do I try and deal with it now?
The issue is that training at night is difficult. In any sort of training you have to catch the bad, or good, behavior as it is happening in order to get rid of it or encourage it. You can’t do that, though, when you’re sleeping. So what happens is that the dog gets himself all the way into the room when the correction should have happened as he was leaving his bed. By the time you catch him next to you it’s too late.
Is there any way to put him on a tie out in the living room, put up a baby gate, close the door, etc. to block his entry into your room?
Hi Ty, Thank you for your reply. I totally agree with you & yes there is a door that we can close that would stop him from coming into the room.
My only concern is that he has been trained as an inside dog, and even though we do let him out before we got to bed to do his doggy stuff, if he needs to go in the middle of the night, which sometimes happens especially if the day has been really warm , he would come and wake us up so we can let him out. Then once he is done he would go straight back to his bed. I am worried if he cant get to us to wake us up that he might land up doing it in the house out of sheer desperation.
I know this probably sounds silly but do you think it is possible that he might be feeling insecure (with him being adopted and his last owner leaving and him sensing the changes etc) and if so how would we break that insecurity to get him out of this habbit he is getting into? We are still giving him the same amount of attention as before, if not more and only because we want him to feel as part of the family with changes coming up.
The only thing you can do now is experiment and then course correct if necessary. I would do it with the door shut and see if he has a way of telling you he needs to go out or see if he’ll just hold it. If not, then it’s on to a new plan.
Just jumping in with my 2 cents here as a Rotty owner presently, and in the past..
Cherisse, Rotty’s are extremely intuitive, and protective of their “pack”..Your boy senses that you are pregnant, and about to have a baby…and is sleeping on your side of the bed in a protective attitude..to keep you from harm.
I know this may sound a little new agey, but I just read your post to my wife, and she said exactly the same thing I did. Our Rotty’s in the past and now have always almost glued themselves to us if we were sick, or feeling “off” ..its like they sense this.
One of our previous dogs Thorne……was used as a therapy dog in nursing homes…we took him to give folks a doggy fix they had been missing,due to living in a facility. Thorne inevitably went , and spent time with the person who needed him most…..one memorable event was this 75 year old lady that had become almost a recluse in her assisted living facility…..she heard the dog was there and came out of her apartment for the first time in over a month….Thorne almost glued himself to her for the entire duration of our visit….After that………she came out of her funk and lived a great life,visiting friends, and becoming social once again
I personally (as long as its not a horrible inconvenience, just allow your boy to sleep at your bedside and do his protective duty….This is what he was designed to do……….protect.
Steve
Thanks for your advise. We will give it a bash and see how it goes.
got 6 month old rottie few wks ago. love him to bits but he’s not trained in anything. is he too old to start from scratch
Not at all. Time to get to work.
Hi all,
Really interesting stories here. I have 2 Rottie boys, 9 and 21 months. I highly recommend the use of baby gates in the house to help set boundaries. The first pup slept in the bedroom but now sleeps in the dining room behind the gate. The 2nd pup never slept in the bedroom. The dogs are only indoors at night to ensure they dont bark to keep the neighbours happy.
I bought a 6 months male rottweiler.i need help to train him and what kind of food should i provide to him?
This is the food we feed and recommend- http://www.TysDogFood.com
My rottie is 6 months old.Me just bought him around a week ago.he show agression towards food and eat grass and brick pieces.i want to train him and wanna make him a guard dog.so i need help.
Thanks for answering my previous question Ty brown.
You can’t train him to be a guard dog. If he was even capable in the first place you’d need to work with a trainer for that.
hello, need help, i have a rottie she is 2 and half years old, she is lovely the only problem s when she gets hyper starts chewing on my hands, and feet, i say noooo!!!! she kinds of get it, but starts to do it slowly, or start make noises or bark a little to me and jump around me, what should i do? i want that to stop, is she trying to play or what is the problem, do i have to be more sever? whenever she wants to play and i dont have a toy around or pet her, she starts to chew my hand , i just do not get it, please help, thank you!!!!
One thing I always tell my clients is that telling isn’t training. Telling your dog ‘no’, ‘sit’, ‘come’ or whatever has zero meaning to your dog until you give it meaning. Meaning comes in a variety of ways from praise to treats to corrections, etc. but simply telling your dog something will never help you arrive at your destination.
sorry is 2 1/2 months old not years, so what do you think i shoud do about it?
The advice is the same regardless of the age. You need to find a corrective measure that is humane and makes sense. We use leash corrections, spray bottles, etc. followed by praise and encouragement of proper behavior.
sory she is 2 and half months old not years, so what o you think i should do about it, she follows m everywhere take it outside to go potty but she doesnt want until she gets make to the house, should i use treats?
I’m a bit worried. I’ve been a dog owner all my life and am ‘decent’ at training and establishing dominance. Only thing is, I’ve always had nicer dogs (Beagles, Many Labs and a very sweet Newfoundland). We still have a male, 7year old Newfoundland and just recently bought a St Weiler (ST Bernard/Rottweiler) puppy. I initially thought he was leaning more on the ST Bernard side, but he is not. He has most characteristics of a Rottweiler. This realization has kept me up at night because I don’t know what to expect. Is he going to be aggressive with my neighbors no matter how I train him?? We have a lot of families with small children and other dogs that walk past my home all day long. Is he going to be aggressive no matter what? I don’t know what to do. I really have never had a mean-spirited dog. Right now he is very sweet. Will this characteristic change as he ages? I hope I haven’t read too many horror stories. I cannot have a dog that bites! Will training help or will I always have to be right by my dogs side to have control over him? Are there such thing as Rottweilers who are not aggressive? Thank you.
Of course there are such things as Rottweilers that aren’t aggressive. No matter the breed your bets are better with proper socialization and proper training from a young age. To say that you have a mean spirited dog just seems odd to me when you’ve already said he’s sweet?
Hi,
Rotties are like any dog and need socialization and training. Granted, you need to be stricter with them because the are extremely intelligent and may on occasion try to usurp your authority. I had a Rottweiler from the age of 9 till I was 19 years old. She was a rescue from a local shelter. She was the BEST and kindest dog I have ever owned. Remember, a lot of the people posting on-line are the ones who have had a difficult experience. You are going to hear more horror stories than positive stories about most things you read online. Every Rottie I have encountered has been a complete sweetheart. I personally don’t understand the “mean-spirited” comment. I have come across agressive dogs before, but in all honesty, none of them were Rottweilers. It’s important to remember that they need someone who is assertive and in control. They are your child and as their parent, you need to be the one in charge. They can be stubborn at times, but it’s because they are smart, not mean-spirited. They will give back what you put into the relationship. They will not go after your neighbors. Make sure you have your baby get to know your neighbors but this is good for any dog. It promotes their socialization.
thanks ty, i will work on it
We just recently adopted a 9 month old female Rott (Branka) about a week ago. She is such a sweety to me, my boyfriend, and my 5 years old son. We also have a 5 year old male Heeler Shepherd mix dog and they seem to get a long great. My 7 year old daughter just recently came home from her father’s from the Holidays and Branka growls at her whenever she gets near. We has scolded her for doing so and she stops for the majority of the day, giving her lots of kisses and loves, then begins growling at her again later in the day as if she never gave the loves. I have read up on different tactics where she can take a leader position by do a dominance down, but I worry she will be too afraid to complete it. We do allow the dogs on the couch and bed at night, is that really a bad thing regarding disciple since we dont mind?
Trying to do a ‘leadership down’ or an ‘alpha roll’ is a bad idea- https://www.dogbehavioronline.com/train-a-dog-not-to-bite/
The best way to achieve leadership is through obedience. Unfortunately, a 7 year old child isn’t capable of doing much obedience with a dog. The key is getting your dog to be so obedient and respectful to you that she is also respectful to your ‘stuff’, ie your child.
Will I always have to be around in order for her to be kind to my daughter? For instance, when she gets home from school, sometimes she is a few minutes ahead of me and goes into the house through the back door. I have informed her not to do so for now, but will she ever really be able to without fear of Branka attacking?
That’s a tough one to answer. I can tell you that I own a Rottweiler and he doesn’t like our kids. He’s never bitten or done anything like that, but he’s uncomfortable with them. For us the solution was high levels of obedience to establish the right relationship, good supervision, teaching him an outlet (when he felt nervous by a child that he had to get up and move), etc. On top of that we’ve trained our kids in how to interact with him. We’re at a point where it’s been years since I’ve been the least bit nervous but we also make sure to be responsible. We don’t worry about where are kids and the dog are as we’ve found the happy medium for everyone.
Not strictly true my 2 year old and four year old are capable and enjoy using the clicker to reward our rotties for obeying them.
Sometimes they give the command and I click, while they give the treat after, my eldest can do all of it and he is only 4. If you just use food and no clicker any child capable of saying sit or giving a clear hand signal is capable of doing basic obedience providing the dog knows the command in the first place. I think it would help your rottie to learn to follow a few basic commands given by your daughter and to learn that good things (like food rewards) come from your daughter and she is “fun” to have around. But teach your daughter to give her treats with open palms so she doesn’t get nibbled or drop them on the floor if needs be. Having her playing tuggy may help if you provide back up to ensure that you daughter wins the toy (ie you hold on too) and not always your rottie (your rottie is told to drop the toy to end the game). By putting your daughter in charge of toys and food you are giving her higher pack status without doing dangerous things like alpha rolls.
Don’t ever punish your dog for growling at your child, growling is her way of saying she is unhappy and warning your daughter to stay away. If you punish her for giving this warning she will just learn to stop warning then if your daughter is doing something the rottie is unhappy about later instead of warning her with a growl she may go straight to warning her off with a bite!
We manage our older rescue rottie with food possession issues around our youngsters by shutting her away when she is eating and rewarding her for staying calm when we go near her food. When we got her she would bite if you went near her food as her previous owners had punished growling, luckily she had a soft mouth and she didn’t draw blood, it has taken her years to get to the stage we can add or remove things from her bowl with no issue by rewarding her for allowing us near her bowl with no fuss by adding yummy extras to her bowl while she eats.
If she growls now the children know to leave her alone, in this case (and I do find bitches prone to being a bit snappy and tetchy) you have to train the children too not just the dog as Ty said. If she is growling there is a reason, you have to find out why she is reacting this way and either avoid the situation that triggers it or train her to be happy in that situation.
Yes, a child is capable of giving a treat for sitting. That level of obedience, though, does nothing to earn leadership or a proper relationship.
When I say that the best way to establish the right relationship is through obedience I’m referring to a level of obedience where the dog is obedient despite distractions. Treat training from children just doesn’t accomplish that.
My 21 son recently lost his girlfriend of 4 years and as a way of trying to cope with his grief, and to try and move forward and to give life a purpose again he got himself a Rottweiller male puppy who is now 5 months old. My son and his puppy “Dodge” came back to live with me. I am as involved with the Dodge as he is I feed him, play with him and take him for walks when he can’t. He is getting better behaved within the home now, my son has put in a lot of time and effort with his training and I have also had some input. After a lot of patience I can now actually hang my washing without having to chase him around for the clothes. My son went to his 1st puppy class on Wednesday and they were so pleased to see a Rottweiler there, and he was more obedient than a lot of the other puppies so it is paying off, but we do not want to become complacent. My one problem is that he jumps and it’s usually at my back, after having a sciatica a couple of years ago, I don’t want to do any more damage. I’ve noticed this when I’ve stopped playing with him and walked away, or when I’ve let him back in from the garden. I do make him sit before I let him in but he sometimes jumps when I turn my back to walk away. Oh by the way he will sometimes mouth me on the leg if I give him a command and is occasionally nipping a our heels. Do you have any suggestions?
I’d recommend ‘setting him up’. Keep a leash on him and put yourself in a position where he’s likely to jump. As he does, correct him with the leash. With some repetition he’ll get the hang of it.
Rotties are herding dogs so heel nipping is common as with collies, as an alternative to using the leash to correct use treats to reward him when he is sitting calmly and not mouthing. Saying UH UH in a stern voice and turning away uses body language to show him what he is doing isn’t appropriate but obviously he is jumping up when you turn away, don’t reward this behaviour by making eye contact or talking to him, just keep turning your back on him until he stops jumping and sits down calmly then reward him with fuss but stop as soon as he mouths or jumps. He is trying to get your attention when you finish in the garden, he wants to keep “playing”, turning back to him and telling him off is giving him attention and even negative attention is rewarding in this case. He has to learn that jumping gets no response from you but sitting and walking in calmly gets lots of praise and food rewards. Get your son to hold him on the leash while you train but you give the commands and the rewards so when he tries to jump he won’t get to you as you don’t want to damage your back.
When he starts mouthing give him a toy and praise him for chewing on that instead again stop all attention say UH UH once and turn away if he goes for your hands/leg again. Shut him out the room when he miss behaves for a minute or so if no one is around to hold him on leash for you while you train but only for a short time. Using a baby gate is better as you can keep an eye on him and as soon as he calms down or chews the toy instead you can go right back and reward him for being good it also means if he jumps up he can’t knock you over and you can turn your back and walk away without him following and nipping. It only took a couple of weeks for my puppy to learn that mouthing humans is not acceptable. Which is pretty good for a small puppy that is very mouth orientated at this age.
Caz
Rotties aren’t herders, they’re drovers.
This concept of ignoring bad behavior is a very dangerous and incorrect principle to be teaching. While it is possible that the dog learns to take the item you want (chew on a toy vs a shoe, stop jumping vs. jumping) you missed a critical teaching moment to tell the dog that chewing the shoe or jumping was absolutely inappropriate.
Unfortunately the purely positive movement in dog training has been more damaging than the previously accepted ‘crank and yank’ style training of 50 years ago. Finding balance seems to be cursed in favor of ignoring basic concepts of how dogs learn.
is it ok ty to tap him on the nose when she does something wrong?, i mean i know when i do that she nows it is wrong because she start to bark and make noises to me when i do, or should i chance startegy, i do not hit her and i wont ever do it, but a tap in his nose would hurt, right?
A little tap on the nose can be okay. I prefer a leash correction as it’s less personal.
HI,me and my gf have a 5 month onld rottweiler,we got him when he was 30 days old,and started pretty much educating him straight away,he recognizes,.and obeys commands such as sit,paw,both left and right,lay,stay,and recently I have tought him not to eat his treats(which I place on his paws)until I say so,he is fairly obedient,has the usual dominance/rebellion issues such as wanting to invade our sofa,and when corrected he will start growling,bark and bite his own limbs.We(me and my gf)have found that when taken out he gets wild,eats all kinds of garbage and rarely listens,until he gets put back on a leash,my question or better my questions are:is the snapping,barking etc an issue we should be concerned abt in the future?and How do we get him to obey outside the house as well,I appreciate your help
You can’t expect him to come back to you off leash with all those fun distractions around until he has learn’t to come back to you in the house, garden, training class with other dogs around and then outside on a long line ( I.e. a horse leader rope so he has some freedom but ultimately can’t get away and can be reeled back in if not coming back willingly) finally when he is rock solid with his recall in these situations he is safe to let off loose outside.
Start training the recall properly where it is easy for him to get it right such as in your lounge, make it great for him to come back to you, lots of praise, treats, rewards when he comes to you no matter how long it takes. Keep him on a lead outside until you know you have excellent recall and that should help prevent him getting to the rubbish too.
Even if he takes ages to come back when you have eventually worked up to outside never punish him when he gets to you or put him on lead and go straight home or all he learns it that coming to you means the end of fun and/or being shouted at so it makes it more appealing to stay well away from you.
Same with eating rubbish, you have to train “leave it” and “drop” in the house first using low value items such as a toy or dry bread and rewarding with high value items like sausage or cheese for ignoring the low value stuff before you need it outside. Make it real easy for him to succeed with leave by keeping him on lead so he can’t reach the low value item and as soon as he looks away from it say “leave it” and give him the high value reward or just lots of fuss. Drop - get him to drop an old toy in exchange for a piece if food or his favourite toy do he learns giving up something gets him something better. Initially you may have to muzzle him or make him carry a toy on walks to prevent him eating rubbish or you’ll undo all the training with the first good reward he gets from the rubbish (like crisps left in the packet he grabs) this will also save you a hefty vets bill because its no laughing matter when he swallows something dangerous and needs an op to remove it! Make sure his leave and drop is rock solid before letting him loose on walks again so you can yell leave it before he eats the rubbish or get him to drop before he swallows it. Initially you will need to carry reward food on walks with you but eventually just praise will be enough as he will have learn’t to obey the command automatically just because you say it!
i like to own a female rottweiler(first time owner). the mother dog is a champion dog and breeder say that u can own it and maintain with out difficulty… dog is now 11 week old. so what is your suggestion..
What is my suggestion for what?
hello ty
i have this problem with my dog; i take nikki for a walk often, one day a dog came into her and try to bite her, he couldn´t i stoped him, my dog was on a leash, now she just wont go for a walk in a leash my rottie is 5 months old now, seems like she just don´t like the leash is it because her age or what is it? if we go for a walk unleashed she will go just a side of me very obedient, but as she grows up i know i should´t go safe and on a leash, she will be a strong dog that could hurt, what can i do so she can go on a leash?
Start just by having the leash next to her use a soft cloth one as chains ones are heavy, noisy and a bit scary for some youngsters and praising her and giving her small treats (bits of cheese/sausage work well) when she looks at it calmly and is relaxed, then work up slowly until she remains calm and happy to have you attach it to her collar. This may take a few days or weeks depending on how fearful she is of the leash. Then use the same principle to walking with the leash attached, wait until she takes a step forward with the leash attached but hanging loosely (don’t drag her, rotties are very stubborn and will just plant their heels in and pull back) then lots of treats and praise. Be patient and try using food as a lure, ie hold a piece of chicken or cheese down by your side where she normally walks and lure her forward to walk, hopefully she is so fixed on the food she is ignoring the leash. Reward her for taking a few steps, then next time wait a bit longer to reward her until eventually she is walking beautifully with the leash attached and you no longer have to use the food. Don’t try to do this all in one day or even one week. Some rotties catch in quick and get over issues fast but some may need a lot of patience. The key is to get her to learn that the leash means good things happen and she forgets the one bad thing that happened. Using a clicker could help speed it up.
I actually think clicker training is excellent for rotties as they are smart and food motivated, you prime the clicker a few times by clicking and treating so they learn the noise means food then the clicker is just used to mark the right behaviour and helps the dog to make that link between your command and what gets the reward faster than other training methods. So very quickly you can make them understand that “sit” means put your burn on the floor and look at me and that means yummy treats, or lots of verbal praise. Once they have learn’t what you mean by the word sit then you can phase out treats, my 8 year old (ex rescue) rottie rarely gets rewarded for obeying me but every now and again I throw in some food or lots of praise to keep her motivated when she does what i ask, now I am training my 15 week old rescue rottie puppy with the clicker she will come flying from the other room when she hears it and I end up with two dogs sat eagerly in front of me waiting for a command so I have to put her out the room when working with my puppy.
Starting with using a hand signal and luring them into positions with food and gentle pressure i.e. bring food back and up from their nose to encourage them to sit but not too high or they jump up, keep one hand giving the signal and use the other one to lure, I keep the clicker in the signal hand then click as soon as their bum hits the floor and give the treat from the lure hand. Hand signals are easier for them to pick up first then add the voice command later once they are consistantly following the hand commands as dogs respond better to body language rather than words after all they communicate with each other using body language.
I worry some of Ty’s responses are just plugging his site and his dog food and are quite aggressive, using these techniques on the wrong dog will end up making things worse and the dog will retaliate, scaling up their response into more and more aggressive acts to get their point acrossuntil someone gets hurt. All of you above should find yourself a good training class pref one that uses positive methods like a clicker and seek help from apdt or coape trainers and behaviourists to solve your problems ( except the lady who was bitten twice, that dog is not safe and needs to be pts).
I have two small children and rotties are really good with them but we took on our older rottie before children and trained her ready for when they arrived, now with small children we would only take on a young rescue rottie as older rescue dogs need more work before I would trust them around children and are not something to be taken on lightly when you are pregnant or have small children unless you have the knowledge and ability to train them properly.
Of course I plug my site on here….it’s my site. Why wouldn’t I be plugging it?
In any case, the purely positive method of dog training is easily the most harmful thing that has ever happened to dog training and is contributing more to dogs being put down for behavioral issues than any other single factor.
This whole site is essentially dedicated to debunking the myths behind purely positive training and I make no apologies for that. My ultimate goal is to help dogs and owners and very little good is ever done with purely positive styles.
I do like the debate, however, and welcome it on the site. Thank you for contributing.
Hi, i find these forums interesting to read, however “3li El-Saadi” disturbs me (WTF) anyways, im 25 and me and my partner got our gorgeous rottie Harley as an 8 week old puppy he is nearly 6mnths old now and is turning out to be what i would consider an absolute beauty. He is my first dog and although i have to agree that a rottie isnt the best choice of dog to own if you havnt had a dog before, for me and my partner its working out just fine. As a young child I always wanted a rottie and am now so pleased i took the plunge. Before we got him i done extensive research on their breed and all that on how to train him (he is good as gold) after taking him out a handful of times he would instantly sit when i stopped to cross the road, we can trust him off the lead and is very good on the lead, he is friendly with anything he comes across and just wants to play, although he knows not to jump, if he gets really excited he will but then with our command reminding him you can see the look on his face says “oh yeh shit sorry dad” It wasnt very long before he would do lay down and paws knowing his left from right and he will wait until i say “go on then” untill he tucks into his lunch! We had a cat before him and they play and sleep together, he knows not to come in the kitchen or the bedroom, we let him on the sofa coz we like to cuddle him, we never got him a crate and he only chews his toys, he shows no aggression atall ever apart from the ocassional bark when hears something at the front door which i dont mind coz hes doing whats right plus knowing that if he got to whatever it was on the other side he would proceed to lick it to death. He even sometimes brings us the post when it comes through the door. His friends he meets include 3 different staffordshire bull terriers, 2 alsations and a variety of other dogs. For anyone reading this, if theres something you want your dog to do, stop or change then i will try to advise you. Im no expert, but what im doing must be spot on. Cheers people and good luck… p.s never give up on your dog, defo dont put them down, predominantly its the owners fault if they are doing something wrong.
Hey everybody! I got a Rottweiler puppy on Friday he had just turned 7 weeks the day I got him. When I brought him home he was very shy and scared, he slept in my room that day ( not in a crate just the floor) I spent every hour of Saturday and Sunday with him, trying to establish the house breaking. Since then he has had few accidents (all due to me not watching him) and he has lost a lot of his shyness and is playful with me and my family (mostly me). The problem I have is that I’m forced to leave him crated for 6 hours due to school but I make sure he does his business outside before I leave. When I get home and let him out ( I feed him and take him to do his business) after he eats he is extremely hyper and he wants to bite everything including me, I give him a firm no, seems to work for a couple seconds but doesn’t completely solve the problem which is what I want to do, I’m not gonna lie it does get a little frustrating and I yell once or twice. I know I’m not Gonna fix this in a day, but I am willing to put in all the work necessary. Any tips will be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!!!
Typically we’ll start out with something simple like a spray bottle correction or a quick leash correction. Get him nice and worn out from plenty of toys when you get home. Best of luck
hiii
I have 15 month old rottweiler pls suggest sum exerciser for him .How much time he needs for walk and play in a day
Hi there. I need some advice please. We have had our Rottie boy for a year today (he was a rescue dog so we think he is about 18months old) never had any issues with him over the past year. Recently he has been vomitting and has varying odd bowel movements. We haven’t changed his diet or given him any new toys to chew. He sometimes won’t eat his food and has episodes of drooling and then is often sick. We don’t feed him anything other than his dry food and sometimes a few dog biscuits all of which have been the same for the past year. Do you have any suggestions before a dreaded vet visit and bill? Thank you
No. No suggestions. You need to get this dog to a vet.
This I totally agree with
Best thing is to serve him other food along with the dry food that you serve. If he still not having then check his temperature and if his nose are dry then he needs to meet a doc..
i have a rottweiler name Vegas,6months old!sweet but have so many problems,first…anytime i walk with her with the two other cavalier she copy their style jumping up trying to get loose from me as if she want to kill a dog but soon she get close get scarry like a chihuahua,but friendly to dogs and human.second…she gave a lot of hard time at home,never sit non sleep allways moving trying to playing with everything with her teeth and allso giving the black cat hard time that many a time me and my lady get problem because of her,treating to put my vegas out of which i say to hey that she have three cat a two dogs those allso goes out!please tell me what to do to stop my vegas from irritating behavement?…
my advace to u is to meet a special rottweiler trainer to talk about ur dog
thanks menn,i love ur advice not those bout naked keyboard warriors
Hi all, any suggestions on how to get my 2 & 1/2 yr old rottie TEX to shit in one place instead of all over the backyard . Thanx
It depends; if the dog is alone in the backyard all day you can’t really do it. If the dog is an inside dog and is only allowed out back for bathroom opportunities you can do it.
All you have to do is keep taking him to the spot and telling him to go. Don’t let him leave the area until he goes. When he goes, praise him. As he starts understanding the concept you can start backing off on taking him all the way. With enough repetition you can eventually just open the back door and tell him to go and he’ll go to his spot.
I have a question with my rottie. First off I have 2 dogs. One is my 1yr old rottie, Luna, and the second is a 1yr old mix, mocha. I’ve had them both since they were puppies. My problem is I have to take them outside seperatly. When I take Luna outside alone, she stays in the yard and runs around, no problems. Mocha on the other hand, will run away if I don’t keep her on a leash or if she gets away . Now if mocha runs off while Luna is out, Luna will run with her and doesnt come to me.. I have no idea what to do here. Any suggestions? This is really the only time she doesn’t listen to me.
Whenever I run across this problem the first thing I do is ask a question: What have you done to train your dog to come off leash?
I guess not much because she always runs from me. How would I start to train her to come off the leash and how would I train my Rottweiler from listening to me rather than following after the other one?
my rottweiler is a grown up dog…..if i beat him…he will bite me back…….he is dominating over me …how can i stop this….and howw can get him under my control…????
i wanna buy a rott but i hv heard tht it is so ferocious and can not be controlled but i hv no saftey near my home so i want to knw weather a rott could protect my home or not
I am buying an rott female of 1 year.what are the precautions i should take after buying it
I have a 11 month old make rottie. He is the most loyal and protective dog I have ever had. I’ve had him since he was 4 weeks old. He i great with all animals. He can meet a new car or new dog and is great with them. I socialized him with people from the time he was 6 weeks. But he is over-protective. He only allows 6 people to touch him without him getting defensive and that scares me for other people. If someone he doesn’t recognize…usually men…comes up to me in a quick manner he gets between me and that person growling and barking. I have tried getting him used to new people. An it works…but anyone who he does not recognize or comes up to me…he gets very defensive. I’ve had rotties before and never had 1 so protective over me. Anything I can do to keep him calm? I just don’t want him biting someone and me having I get rid of him. He is my baby and such a great dog in general.
I just got an 8 week old female rottie. When I pick her up or move her to distract her from a negative behavior she snarls and shows her teeth to me. What can I do to curve this behavior? So far I’ve just been pinning her on her back to show dominance, but it doesn’t seem to be working…. What exactly is leash correction and would it work in this scenario? REALLY want to stop this behavior while she is young!!!!
Pinning a dog on their back tends to not work and can often backfire. A leash correction or a spray bottle correction are things you could experiment with. A leash correction is simply a quick tug and release of the leash.
I have been a pet lovern dog owner and a animal activist from my early days…now m a working professional and wanna add a rottie to my apartment with 1 living rooms and 3 bedroom, the only issue is that if i leave it alone for say a 3-4 hrs of gap will it do well…i know it wont…but i simply love rottweilers.
It’s wonderful that you are getting thoughts from this article as well as from our discussion made at this time.
Hi, I have a 6 week old rottweiler.
Is this too young to take home? A few friends have told be that after 8 weeks, it is all right…
Also it usually bites my feet and hands and starts to bite grass or plants?
Thanks.
Also every time he poo’s, he gets very energetic?
I wouldn’t take the dog home until at least 8 weeks of age.
I have a 9 wk old Rottweiler, he is doing very well with our other animals 1 cat and 1 dog (Jack Russell). I have had good outcome in some simple training like sit, and lay with treats as rewards, my problem is he is wanting to snap, bite, and lunge at us. I do realize he is a puppy but how do I make him stop this? I have a 12 yr old son and several nieces and nephews I am just so scared he will hurt someone. My husband works long hrs so basically it is me left to train him, I have never had a Rottie before as to my husband had two in the past at his parents house. They were good, loving, well behaved dogs. I would appreciate any and all advice you could give me, thanks so much.
Hi Ty,
Me and my boyfriend just picked up our lovely 7month old Rottie Lola yesterday, her previous family treated her very well and she knows how to sit but that’s about it! She seems to be very receptive to training though, we are starting easy with things like ‘wait’ and ‘stay’ etc before eating and the such like. She is also very good with children and other dogs, I took her for a walk in the park this morning and kept her on the lead, being a new environment etc, but she was very good when other dogs and people approached her. A couple of things I really want to crack down on are
1) For her not to pull so much on the lead and to walk beside me if possible?
2) At the moment, even after just a day, she seems to have become quite attached to me and follows me everywhere around the house and whines a bit if I leave the room, even if my boyfriend is still in the room, I really dont want her to be so dependant on me, or to pay more attention to me than my boyfriend as we are raising and training her together. Is there any way to prevent her being so clingy or will she grow out of it?
Would really appreciate some tips, you seem to know what you’re talking about!
Thanks very much.
Hello Ty,
I have a 2 year old rottweiler mix and shes developed a little agression towards other dogs. Which is really odd because as a puppy, and just last year, she was very submissive and playfull with any dog she would meet. But now I find that she reacts towards certain dogs on our walks, and now I never know how she will react.
Got any tips?. I try to remain as calm-assertive as possible and keep on my walk but I dont think its working too well.
Hi, I have a 3 year old male rottweiler. He is not the most obedient one, still a very sweet dog, that is good with strangers and kids, although we do not have any in the family and he meets them rarely. His name is alfa
recently he has become rather protective with his food as well as his toys. He does not even play with them. He just keeps them with him and growls when we approach him. Should i leave him be until he gets tired, hungry or finds something else to play with?
Thank you
You’ve already identified your problem. He’s not terribly obedient. A dog who isn’t obedient is likely to be a dog who doesn’t understand leadership. A dog who doesn’t understand leadership is much more prone to having resource guarding issues like him.
I’d recommend getting to work on obedience training right away.
hey there….I have a 1 year old Rotti…and shes a pretty good dog…just started on ALL training tho….and running into some problems…shes VERY energetic…and runs and jumps up on me and the kids (well anyone) when we try to work with her….she acts very excited to see us…..but as she is getting pretty big now the kids are afraid to play with her as much because of all the jumping up on them she does….im trying to get the basic commands with her down but its pretty difficult with her not focusing much on what im commanding but just on getting attention…..also walking her is impossible now…she pulls SO hard that she leaves burn marks on my hands…..my teenage daughter can no longer walk her as she is not strong enough to hold her……like I said shes a very friendly dog…just too friendly…lol please help as we would like to be able to bring her inside too…..
Hi all my rotweiler puppy is now7month old sit when Itell him to do so bht don’t always come when I call him to friendly with strangers how do I train him I know I spend less time with him due to work some times I just give him food that’s that need help potty training anything obedience pls
I can’t understand your question.
Hi, my husband and I have a 9 month old rotti (Molly) who is very sweet and is generally good with her commands (sit, stay, down etc) particularly when we have treats. The problem is that she keeps running out of the gate when we try to drive our cars down the driveway. We had taught her to sit and stay near the clothes line since she was about 3-4 months old and was doing it perfectly. But since we went on a holiday without her (we only went for 1 week and had my mum stay here and look after her) about 6 weeks ago she has been taking off out the front and across the road whenever we open to gate to get the cars out. We have tried tying her up but she doesn’t seem to learn. Do you have any suggestions on what we should be doing? Thanks
The problem is the style of training. Treats are an okay way to teach a concept, but you won’t get real life obedience through treats.
I’m confused, though. If she’s tied up how can she still be getting out?
We stopped tying her up because we wanted her to get used to staying on her own again without the lead, which isn’t working. We were taking her to obedience training but stopped because after 8 weeks we didn’t really learn anything new and it was all food reward based anyway. Which I don’t personally agree with. I have never had to give my previous dog treats for them to do what I say. Molly seems to be that way inclined though and I’m not sure how to change that now. And the running out of the gate is a big concern because she runs across the road.
Have you tried any e-collar training?
No, I haven’t.
Hi,
I have a 2 year old male rotti that I have been working with since I have bought him as a pup. I have had him through obedience classes he listens fairly well, as I said tho I am still working with him every day we never stop learning. The problem I am having is the past few months he has been getting more aggressive toward my oldest to children ages 8 & 12. We also have 2 younger children that cananything with him and he is cool with. Just today my oldest son was just loving over him and he started growling at him then when Isscolded my dog for the behaviors he started with me. Which I ordered him to lay down and didn’t leave his side till he did so. I have a large family and we all love him do you have any suggestions on why he would be starting this. He was raised for 8 weeks old with all the family this has just started to accure. Would like to fix before it gets out of hand
Hi,
I have a 2 year old male rotti that I have been working with since I have bought him as a pup. I have had him through obedience classes he listens fairly well, as I said tho I am still working with him every day we never stop learning. The problem I am having is the past few months he has been getting more aggressive toward my oldest to children ages 8 & 12. We also have 2 younger children that cananything with him and he is cool with. Just today my oldest son was just loving over him and he started growling at him then when Isscolded my dog for the behaviors he started with me. Which I ordered him to lay down and didn’t leave his side till he did so. I have a large family and we all love him do you have any suggestions on why he would be starting this. He was raised for 8 weeks old with all the family this has just started to accure. Would like to fix before it gets out of hand
Have you checked his health out at the vet?
We recently had an attempted break in at our home so my husband and I have decided to get a dog to help guard our home from any further break in attempts.
My husband has always wanted a rottweiler but I’ve always been anti-dog (or any other pet) but now, obviously, my mind has changed. My sister has an older rott/lab mix dog, whom she got from the local pound and she is GREAT around my niece and nephews as well as our 3 and 1 yr old babies..
We recently visited a 3 yr old full blood rott that’s up for adoption and my husband loved him. The dog seemed to take to him, walking/jogging him up and down the block but he’s so big (100 lbs).
The dog, Clyde, has been with it’s owner (a single woman) since it was a puppy and she says she has him around her nieces and nephews without any incidents or trouble.
My question is, should we adopt a 3yr old rott ? Is that too late for obedience training? Is he safe to have around our babies?
Any and all help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
What I have wondered about, but so far have not found any answers on, is why would a male Rottweiler growl at his owner or their family members - except for one-, and I will get to that in a minute ? Why the growling for no reason. No one is irritating him, or being mean to him or training him wrong. He is good in other ways, but likes to growl to express himself for any issue, even when he wants a treat or to go for a walk. Also there is only one person in the family who he sees only about once a week that he does not growl with, and he just wants to play like a puppy when he sees him. Strange ? What do you think ?
There is some sort of imbalance in that relationship.