Rott Puppy Attacked (?) By Adult Rott...Questions

[SigTau66]

My 14wk old male rott puppy (Kalil) was attacked on New Years eve by a 150lb male adult rott. I say attacked for lack of a better description, but I had some questions on possibly why it occurred and his possible reactions to it.

My first question deals with the possible reasons for the attack. I don't think the adult was out to hurt him, but was mainly letting him know it was his territory. We walked into the house and the adult rott was outside. He could see my puppy inside the house through a sliding glass door. When they were introduced, the adult took one sniff and then grabbed the puppy by the back of his neck. We eventually got them separated and the puppy was not hurt too bad (just missing a few patches of fur, less than the size of a dime...us humans were injured worse). My question is this: was the adult basically showing his dominance over his territory and I "introduced" the dogs wrong?

Secondly, could my puppy now be afraid of Rottweilers? I've read about cases where dogs only show aggression towards a certain breed/type of dog because of past experiences. I took my puppy over to another friend's house, 2 days later, who has a smaller adult rott (and very well mannered to boot) and my puppy was deathly scared of the rott for quite a while. Finally, after a while my puppy started showing his playfulness again but it still looks like he was hesitant. Will this subside with time or could he always be a little bit hesitant around rottweilers and/or big dogs?

Thanks,
Shane

[Judi W]

Sounds like an unsocialized dog and you should always make sure that any dogs yours interacts with has some brains and decent dog behavior. I'm sure the pup will be just fine. Next time you visit them, leave the little guy at home.

[SonnyRott]

Your 14 week old puppy just had an imprint....a very negative one.

This is the time to make sure that everything in your pup's world is positive and secure. That window of opportunity will close very shortly.

Socializing your dog is important but make sure the dogs you socialize with are gentle and more your pups size. A 150 lb Rott would surely scare the cr**p out of a 6 month old pup if attacked.

I would keep the introductions coming but with smaller, friendly, age appropriate puppies.

[RottieGirl86]

When I introduced Athena as a puppy to an adult male rott Rockie, he never grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, but his nub/tail waged a mile a minute. He knew it was a baby.

He put up with a lot of puppy play, never once got out of control with her - they were introduced when she was 11 weeks old. It was so cute to see them. But, then again, he never had issues with any dogs - makle or female. He lived with an adult lab mix too - same age as him.

I don't think it was a male puppy /male dog thing either, more of what Judy said: unsocialized dog. Dogs know who's a puppy and who's an adult.

Make sure your pup has a lot of good greet & meets with other dogs. If I remember correctly, 14 weeks is part of the second fear cycle.

If that had happened to my puppy, I'd be soooo pi$$ed! They need to get that adult dog under control. His response was way out of line (IMHO).

[Judi W]

I agree Rottiegirl. My experience is that the males are much more tolerant than the bitches who might decide the little bugger needs a spanking. The worse they should ever be expected to do is a bit more vigorous sniffing which once done, they're happy.

[SigTau66]

He will get a lot of meet and greets. As I said, he met an adult rott a couple of days after who was behaved and I'm going to take him to my trainer's other classes tonight and tomorrow to meet some new dogs. Hopefully he'll be fine so he can graduate from his first puppy class on Wednesday.

Thanks!

[Carol Burke]

I would be very concerned about the temperament of an adult male that would attack a puppy. This is not normal behavior.

[poohbearsmom]

Originally Posted by Carol Burke

I would be very concerned about the temperament of an adult male that would attack a puppy. This is not normal behavior.

Me too. In addition, I'd make darn sure that ALL future dog introductions are done in a safe and positive way. Several times in the next two weeks. Build up his confidence quickly.

[Berit]

Shane, if you get a "feeling" that any adult dog isn't going to be good with your puppy, or is showing signs of hesitancy or fear [erect fur on back or neck] then IMMEDIATELY remove your puppy from the situation. Don't allow a trainer to bully you either into allowing fellow class dogs or puppies to meet yours if the other dog is out of control or shows lack of proper doggy etiquette. I concur that any adult male dog who'd attack a puppy is an abnormal dog with unsocialized temperament. Keep that dog away from yours from now on. Too often, we allow our own good manners to prevent us from reacting properly to an abusive situation, even with our dogs.

Beth

[BostonRott]

Rule #1 when meeting other dogs: ASK the owner if the dog is friendly with other dogs, and if the dog has ever met puppies and has a problem with puppies. If the dog has never met puppies, do NOT assume that all is well. I have seen more than one dog who simply does not like puppies.

[SigTau66]

Thanks for all the replies.

Just to clear up some possible confusion. The adult rott lives with 2 other dogs, including a chihuahua. As far as I know it's never showed any signs of aggression towards another dog except for 1 pit bull who initiated the aggression.

As for the meet, it was quick. The dog was brought into the room (without me knowing it was going to happen), the adult took one sniff and then grabbed my puppy. That all happened in about 5 seconds. So I did not have an oppurtunity to see if the adult was going to react this way.

I make sure I control all "meet & greets" with other dogs, but this one got out of my control.

So far, my puppy has done well with meeting other dogs after this incident. He's a bit hesitant about meeting a dog bigger than him, but he gets over it. It only took him about 2 minutes to get over that hesitation meeting 2 GSH last night.

Thanks!

[hmeadq]

Poor puppy!

Make sure he learns that other dogs are his friends as soon as you can.

We had a bad experience our very first training class. We walked in and they told us we could go outside to take a potty break before class. So out we walked with our 4 month old puppy who we'd had for just a couple days (before that, bad life!) He walked out sniffing the ground and wagging his tail. There was a 2 year old dalamation outside already, Doc wanted to go up and see him, and before we knew what had happened the dalmation growled, lunged, and grabbed Doc. From showing no signs of aggression to monster. Doc pulled out of his collar and got away, which is good because my fiance' who is 280 and 6'-4" was about kick the dalmation away from Doc.

But after that the classes were hard the first few times, he was scared of every other dog and jumped when they sniffed his butt. He is much better now but it took about a month for him to foget and he was not in his imprinting period.

(The dalmation stayed in the class but was seperated by a gate from the other dogs and they gave him a gentel leader, his owners were very suprised at his behavior. He was a new rescue and had not been around many other dogs.)