Quote:
Originally Posted by Scorpios  Today I made a mistake with my 20 weeks old male rotti and I feel terrible. I can't get over it, I bring his face full of fear in my mind all the time.
What happened is as follows (pls forgive me if my english is not so good)
Every morning I wake up around 6.30, I feed him and we go out for a walk, a bit of training play etc, until around 8.00 when I have to go to work.
My rottweiler has the bad habid which I know is my mistake of trying to eat everything when we go out and I mean everything. I managed to get him stopped of eating no good things but there is somthing I can not. I think it is rabbit ????. He is always finding it and It's difficult for me to always understand what he is trying to find. I do not want to tell him NO every 20 seconds. So what happened today is that we were walking and then I let him free for a while. Like always I was correcting him when he was trying to eat something wrong etc. However all of a sudden I realised he was eating something I said to him NO he stopped and I have seen it was rabbit's ????. I was mad on him and I just lifted him up and threw him away, then i just went on top of him and I was holding his face down for I don;t know maybe a minute. He was clearly in pain and was looking at me in fear. Then I let him go and he runned away then I called him to come he was really scared for a little while. After a few minutes he came to me and i hold him for a few minutes telling him i was sorry and trying to make him realise how much I love him. Now I am at work and I bring his face into my mind and I feel so bad with myself, do you think that he will be traumatised?? I was really mean with him that moment, I do not know why and I feel terrible. I have never punished him that hard. In fact I rarely punish him physically and I never hit him.
o please let me know with your experise if this would trumatise our relationship but more significantly Scorpios as a dog. Thanks |
Please read the Sticky in Puppy Development titled:
Critical Periods of Canine Development.
Your pup is nearing the
Flight Period, so off leash wandering at this age is a veritable no-no.
In order for you to communicate your wishes clearly and reinforce what you want, you really must be attached to your pup.
A leash IS your FRIEND.
Secondly, take tasty treats with you on your walks and teach this young fellow a "Leave it" command. It's best to catch him as his attention just starts to wander to interesting smells/stimuli.
A quick light pop on the leash, with a happy "leave it" (in your language of choice!) should suffice, reel him into you in an inviting manner (coming to YOU should always be GOOD), and as he complies, reward him. Rinse and repeat.
See how that works.
Do not beat yourself up, simply learn how to handle this in a less conflicting manner.