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Originally Posted by eva247 Hi everyone,
I have had my rottie male puppy for 3 weeks now - he (Kane) is now 10 weeks old.
He has been an absolute pleasure to have however, I was hoping you experienced guys could give me some knowledgeable and interesting advice to make sure that I am doing the right thing from the start!
Kane is not allowed upstairs or on the sofa, I feed him in his crate (to make sure he sees it as a positive place to be), he pees on his newspaper area either in the crate or at the far end of the kitchen (apart from the occasional pee or no.2 on the carpet!), I work but as I am in field sales I always ensure that I come home every 3 hours or so to play, give him a run around in the garden or feed him as necessary, he sits when I tell him to, he comes to me when I call his name and so far, Kane seems to be quite a submissive character however, I do have a few things I would like some advice on.
(a) I have been socialising him as he is not fully vaccinated by trips in the car to the supermarket, school, train station, etc and stand outside with him in my arms so he can see different people, sounds, etc. Kane seems fine around other animals but humans is a different issue - when I have him in my arms so many people come to me wanting to stroke him (as he is a right little cutie!) but he always growls and attempts to bite them unless I hold their hand first! basically, I am finding that anyone who approaches him that he doesn't know, I have to hold their hand and stroke it and then Kane will sniff them and lick their hand otherwise he will growl and bite them (the same with my 8 year old daughters friends - she has to do the same). Is this Kane being protective towards me and my little girl? and am I doing the right thing by responding in this manner?
(b) As I said above he is fine around other animals apart from ones who bark at him - I picked my daughter up from the childminder a couple of days ago and brought him with me, my childminder has a yorkie who is about 6/7 years old and when I came in she was barking aggressively. Kane was in my arms and normally he is fine but he started trying to push his way out of my arms and was growling badly at the other dog. It was like he was telling her you watch it if I get down and get a hold of you!! Is this normal reactive behaviour?
(c) Mouthing (as in biting) - Kane has a tendency to go the extra mile on this one!!! He does stop when he knows that I have totally had enough and me and my daughter ignore him but he trys to go as far as he can on this one :p As any other puppy he gets overexcited whilst playing and tries to bite my hand, tops/backs of our foot and more lately my breast :D . Although this is quite funny in reading it, it is becoming a real pain! I have a trainer and he advised a plastic bottle with coins to shake when he bites. This does work in deterring him from doing the action but I put something else in his mouth and he comes back for more - sometimes the shaking of the bottle, shouting 'no', yelping, etc.. seems to hype him up and he gets worse until I totally lose it (not control) but just walk off in such a hump that he comes to me, sits in front of me and puts his head down on the ground and looks up at me like to say 'I'm sorry mummy' so I give him a stroke and then he goes on his tangent again!
Even when playing, I will have one side of his toy in my hand whilst the other is in his mouth and he slyly starts biting it towards my hand until he can go for my hand completely. I know that this is all normal puppy behaviour and I have been told by others to shake him by the neck (like his mum would do) or push him to the side but I do not believe that man-handling an animal is the right way as then, am I not showing that to get the outcome you want that it is ok to be aggressive?
Anyway, I won't go on anymore than I have and I look forward to any advice to the above or any general suggestions!
Thanks, Eva, Kianna (my 8 year old daughter) and Kane (10 week old rottie male) |
Welcome, Eva...
Sounds like you have a fairly normal rottie pup on your hands, and from the sounds of your post, you have a couple of issues to deal with.
Barking at strangers. This is a fear response at this age. The pup is essentially using his bark to scare the offender away, in hopes of saving his own hide.
When a pup or young dog (he could very well be on the tail end of a fear period) behaves in a fearful manner (i.e. barking, hackles up, backing away from the offending object/person), it's very handy to keep some tasty treats in your pocket.
Talk to the offending object (doesn't matter if it's a chair out of place, a child on a bike, or whatever) in a happy voice, and approach the offender with confidence... When the pup starts to recover from it's scared behavior, praise praise praise.. Tell the pup how brave he is...
Touch the offending object (shake hands, stroke the chair), and keep up your happy demeanor... essentially, what you're doing is showing the pup there is nothing to fear here. PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE as you see the pup relax and explore what previously scared him.
Never force the pup or push the pup... he needs to figure it out "on his own" (along with your guidance).
Exercises like the one above increase the pup's confidence levels.
Biting/Mouthing.
There are a LOT of threads on the forums here pertaining to this issue.
Please do a search on the subject, you should have a good day's reading there. LOL.
For one.... At this age, you can use a favorite toy to guide the pup's attention from your leg to the toy... then praise when the pup has his mouth on an appropriate chew toy.
At 10weeks, your pup is capable of being house trained. I'd personally throw away the newspapers (you don't want to cement the idea that it's OK to go in the house), especially since you're home every three hours or so - he should be able to hold it all night by this age as well. Give your pup a chance to do things right. Be consistant. By feeding the pup 3 meals per day at the same time, you can pretty much set your clock on his bowel movement/urination schedule. ;)
Sounds like you're doing good with your boy.... hope these pointers help you some. Keep SOCIALIZING SOCIALIZING SOCIALIZING. Do it at your pup's speed, and guide him through stress... just as you would a small child... A dog needs to know that "what does not kill you, only makes you stronger." !!
Good luck!