[Cdn1050]

It’s easy to see leaning as a form of affection because for those of us with easy going Rotts, some don’t want to see their dog as being manipulative and dominant with such an outgoing friendly temperament. It is actually dominance to a dog. I’ve been getting conflicting advice on leaning, and have only allowed a couple seconds of it and only when I said so for a quick scratch behind my dog’s ears or a quick pet. The first obedience school that I enrolled my dog into taught the stand command by having your dog lean on your left side for a couple seconds. I didn’t like that idea and felt that was not the way I wanted to teach my dog the stand command. I enrolled my puppy into this particular school because the school was highly recommended by other dog owners. After completing the 10 week course, I didn’t bother going back. I have had a dog trainer watch as my dog leaned on me at the end of class, and watch her body language and advise that it was not dominance. It doesn’t look like dominance, but it is. After hours of Googling on the subject and asking COE breeders of large breed dogs (non-Rottie ones) about this subject, I have come to the conclusion that “yes” it is dominance. Even if it doesn’t appear to be and I’m glad that I didn’t allow for long periods of this behaviour from the get go. That is why I think this forum is great for all Rottie owners, but sometimes in posts you will come across conflicting information or information that is not clear and you need to post and ask for clarification. Hopefully the experienced ones will answer and keep in mind that this person may have received conflicting information whether it be from the RDN posts or elsewhere, and will answer with an explanation as to why. Newbies really need to read what’s in the information given and not the sound of the tone of the posts. This is a good thread and I’m glad that it was brought up.