What is Age of 'sexual maturity' and also questions/howling/sexual

[Raretreasures95]

Needless to say, I am new here.

Please do not hold that against me and hopefully someone will be kind enough to give me some advice?

I have a male rottweiler that will be 2 years old the end of April. He has been attending training and also training at home with myself and hubby and children since we purchased him at 8 weeks old. Needless to say (and I will get slammed here), he has always been well behaved and responds very well to our commands even when he doesn't like too. Because of this, we have slacked lately with the training even though we still work daily on his commands and keeping him in the routine of exercise/walking/training. I know I need to get him back into training, but I'm not quite sure if training will help this situation? Please advise!!!

Okay, here it goes....and sorry for the long post!
Like I said, he is alllmost 2 years old but has always been a little goofball. However, my mother-in-law owns a female yorkie that is his best friend. 2 weeks ago, mother in law and little yorkie came to the house and all was fine except Baron (our rottie) seemed very excited to see them (they had been in Europe for 3 months so I chalked it up to that). He acted very weird the entire day, whining, crying, pacing...even after they left. Mother-in-law called a few days later and let us know that her little yorkie had went into heat. Of course, nothing happened with them but I suppose the scent of a female dog is so strong that we can't even comprehend it?

That's the background.....but here is the problem.

Ever since then, Baron has been acting really weird. He tries to 'paw' at us, he stands in front of us trying to 'paw' at us (like to get our attention....but I know it's much MORE than that), he cries at us, he whines at us, he will sit in front of us panting like crazy and licking his 'lips' and just looking like he's in pain. He wants to smell us all over, and he's started licking.....EVERYONE, all the time.....lovingly! lol. Never before has he ever tried to hump, in 2 years.....but that seems like what he is trying to figure out how to do. He responds well when I tell him NO harshly, but he doesn't like it at all.....he will walk a few feet away, turn and look that sad rottie look at me and whine....then he'll try to get himself closer to us ever so slowly. If he does it again, I tell him no and tie him up out of sight and he starts whining, etc. The odd thing is that he's not like giving us 'bad' whines....these are more curious, inquisitive, not really painful but pathetic sounding whines.....It's difficult to describe.

When I take him out to the backyard for running and play time....all he wants to do is sniff up in the air and then he starts whining really really loud and runs to the side of the fence crying. He wants no part in playing or running....just wants to walk around crying with his 'you know what' sticking out. Same thing with walks, but at this stage I'm beginning to get a little afraid of taking him out for public walks until I figure this out.

Around this same time, he started waking us up at approximately 5:30-6:00 every morning howling out the window.....LOUD howls. We have 2 floors, and he is not allowed upstairs. At first, I thought he was howling for us...his pack, and I immediately came downstairs with a firm no and even tied him up then...only for more howls. It took a few nights to finally catch him looking out the window and howling, so I don't think he is howling for us.


Is this all associated??????? The howling, the pathetic whines and cries, the trying to figure out how to hump us....even though he's never succeeded in mounting anyone, it seems that's he's trying to figure it all out, like how to do it and if we'll let him......he's finally getting it through his thick head that it will not be tolerated by any member of this family. Today finally, he seems better with that aspect of it and even had his normal Rottie crazies outside for the first time in 2 weeks.

My questions, is it possible that this is all still triggered from being around the yorkie the day before she came into heat? Is it possible when we are outside that he is smelling another female dog around us somewhere that is in heat? Could he smell another dog in the area in heat even in our house? WILL THIS PASS????? Does the howling have anything to do with all of this???

I'm at my wits end because even though it's really really annoying, I kinda feel sorry for him, he looks so stressed and pathetic and even sad while he's whining. He still obeys, but he's really not having a good time of it lately.

And before you ask, he's not fixed yet, simply because he's in the house all the time except when supervised with us outside and on leash....if this doesn't pass he will be 'fixed' soon!

Is this typical behavior at this age, will he get over this, is this caused by a hormonal thing or some dog in heat somewhere close?

I know I have a lot of questions, Please be kind and tell me if this is normal!!!

[Brun05]

I see by your information you are in the Bay area of CA. Not sure what your neighborhood is like, but it certainly sounds like your boy is smelling a dog in heat somewhere in the area. Even neutered this can happen. It is hormonal. No humans usually cannot smell a dog in heat, but a male can smell a dog in heat for several miles, even further if the wind is right.

Yes the humping, licking lips, howling, whining, et al are associated with him getting caught up in the heat cycle of a dog. It will pass, just takes time for the dog to come out of heat and the scents to clear up. I highly doubt that anything beyond a few days was associated with the Yorkie.

Yes Neuter him, esp if you are not competing in dog sports. I have seen the exact same things happen with a neutered German Sheppard, when the female went in heat. I did feel sorry for him, he knew what it was, he knew what he wanted to do, but he lacked the "equipment" to do anything about it. And yes his unmentionable did pop out even tho he was neutered.

Hope this helps a little bit, just know that it should pass. However, there is always that chance that another dog will go in heat.

I also would not be surprised if you took him for a good walk that he would probably point you in the exact direction where the heat scent is coming from.

[Raretreasures95]

Hi Brun,

Thanks so much for your reply. We are in the Bay area, so of course it's crowded here and many dogs and neighbors in the neighborhood!!

I am assuming that this is what it is, I just didn't want to be naive about it because I have read and been told so much about the rotts going into the terrible twos (which he almost is) and starting to be defiant/challenge roles around this age. What kinda tips it off is how when I take him outside in the backyard he always sniffs high in the air while quite awhile, whines and whines...and immediately runs to the left side of the fence....never the right side, but always the same side. He's pointing me to the left of our house, for sure and when outside of our yard urinating on everything he can find to do. So, if this is a heat cycle thing, I would say the female does has to be the the left side of us!!

He does seem to be better today, for the first time in weeks he's starting to act 'normal'.....or as normal as a goofy big cuddly rottie can act! Except we just got back in from the backyard and he is still kinda whining to the side and sniffing high in the air...still wouldn't play and I had to command him to go pee.

I'm still not 100% sure if I am handling the 'attempting' to mount/hump...sizing us up in the correct way if someone can give me some advice if I'm doing that properly! The thing that confuses me just a tad with that is that he only attempts to show any interest in me/hubby/and our 10 year old daughter. Maybe because we are more his size?? We also have a 3 year old and a 2 year old and he's perfect with them and doesn't seem interested in trying to bother them with it....and still just as loving and cuddly and tolerant with them as ever. That's another issue I was wondering if it could be just a slight tad of dominance testing involved as well.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I feel better and hopefully he's not going crazy!