Raging Rotti

[maddison]

My rottweiler Deegan is nearly 6 months old, he has the nicest personality and has never been aggressive towards me, my partner or his parents (who help look after him) Today, i gave him a toy squeaky ball to play with. I went outside and threw it for him to chase, which he did. Instead of bringing it back to me he layed down with it. I walked over to him while talking to him and as a got about 2 feet away he jumped up on all fours and gave this scary loud growling noise which i have never heard before. I stopped and said "argh" as in like "no" and he just stood there and looked at me, i tried to walk closer then and he barked and snarled at me. I have left him outside with his ball to write this. Is this protecting the ball?? I did not run over to him or threaten him i simply walked up to him. He has never does this before, any ideas??

thank you

[FilosFolks]

If you want to take something away from your dog you should be able to do it. Period. The fact you left him with his ball outside after that has taught him that that's EXACTLY what he needs to do to get his way. He'll do it again and it will get worse. Please take control of your dog and his training now and get yourself educated. Read, read, read. And please tell me you're in classes? Do you practice NILIF?

[QuietDaze]

I hope you stuck around long enough to get some advice cause your dog obviously scared the bejesus out of you. If you come back before getting the ball get something tasty, trade it for the ball and put it up until you learn how to get what YOU want from your dog. If you don't know how to do that, then unfortunately you'll have to wait until he is no longer interested in it before you swipe it. Does it sound like he's guarding the ball? If he jumped up, stood over it and growled at you - absolutely. Your ball has become his ball and no you can't have it back. I've found that when a dog is guarding something, you're mere presence around his item is the threat so you wouldn't have to run up to him or threaten him in any way. I'm a firm believer that my dog doesn't actually own anything in my house. Nothing at all - therefore if I want it, I will take it. The only time I do not apply this rule is with his food because I don't see the purpose in taking food from a dog. All of 'his' things are mine.

NILIF is the best and most effective way to make your dog work for YOUR things. And classes asap. It can get better it will just take a bit of work.

[zorro13]

Ok, your pup caught you off guard with a new behavior. Different types of toys can bring out different behaviors as well. So next time you go out with him and the ball, put a long lead on him, have some really really high value treats like steak or chicken or anything that makes your dog want to eat that vs. keeping the ball. Throw the ball, send your dog off on lead, retrieve your dog and the ball on lead. If your dog comes immediately, treat him when he gets there, of course do the trade of treat and ball (teach drop it), praise. If he's hesitant on recall, show the treat to lure him back, if he's still hesitant (not knowing how good his recall is), start closing the gap between you (I recommend a 20 or 30 ft lead), stopping at different distances, showing the treat and calling. While this is the opposite of recall training, when we increase the distance, (to which you should be training recall at the same time with your pup)--the point here you are trying to get thru to the dog on lead is to get him to come to you with that high value ball vs you walking up and the pup taking a stance with the growling etc, thus bluffing you. This is also a technique to increase your confidence in training your pup. Just remember you need to train recall in your dog as well.

Don't feel so defeated that you had to leave him be and think things over because you were caught off guard, I'm sure many members here at one time or another have met some obstacle along the way with a rottie at some time in their lives.

[maddison]

Originally Posted by FilosFolks

Please take control of your dog and his training now and get yourself educated. Read, read, read. And please tell me you're in classes? Do you practice NILIF?

I have been reading alot about rottweiler behaviour, and the only reason i left him outside was because i did not want to threaten him by getting any closer. He has never displayed this behaviour before, and i wanted some advice before i handled it the wrong way. When he jumped up and growled at me i told him "no" but he kept snarling at me so the last thing i wanted to do was get closer in case he went for me. After writing my first post, i went outside and called him over to me, which he did. I then went back to the ball and grabbed it and he was fine.


In regards to classes, we have a puppy trainer that comes every week. so far we have onyl had 3 sessions but i will be sure to bring this up at our nest session.

Thank you for all your advice on this matter, I may not be as well educated as most of you are on this site but i am continuing to learn more and more about how to control Deegan, and your replies are much appreciated.

Maddison

[Dimitri]

have you tried to play the leave it take it game? where the puppy has to give up the toy on command and you either give it back to him or you allow him to take it

[FilosFolks]

There is a lot of advise on "leave it". You have to convince your puppy that giving and sharing is rewarding. Make him WANT to give you things. Bring you things. Lots and lots of praise and "good boys" for every trade you make with him. Do not ask for something if you have nothing to give. This will build trust as well as your goal of "leaving" or "giving". If you do this repeatedly, daily with many different objects throughout his puppyhood you'll have a much easier time as he matures.

Do you crate him?
How is he about his food?

[Barrie]

Originally Posted by maddison

In regards to classes, we have a puppy trainer that comes every week. so far we have onyl had 3 sessions but i will be sure to bring this up at our nest session.

Thank you for all your advice on this matter, I may not be as well educated as most of you are on this site but i am continuing to learn more and more about how to control Deegan, and your replies are much appreciated.

Maddison

You might want to consider actual classes in addition to the trainer coming to your home. Socialization is a VERY crucial element of conventional puppy classes, as it allows them the opportunity to learn how to behave with other dogs (distractions) around.

My brother in law's dog was trained by a trainer at home and supposedly knew all commands, but he didn't discover that it was deathly afraid/anxious of other dogs; the dog is 2 years old now and doesn't obey commands if there is another dog in the room.

Just my 2 cents of course...

[FilosFolks]

Originally Posted by Barrie

You might want to consider actual classes in addition to the trainer coming to your home. Socialization is a VERY crucial element of conventional puppy classes, as it allows them the opportunity to learn how to behave with other dogs (distractions) around.

My brother in law's dog was trained by a trainer at home and supposedly knew all commands, but he didn't discover that it was deathly afraid/anxious of other dogs; the dog is 2 years old now and doesn't obey commands if there is another dog in the room.

Just my 2 cents of course...

Absolutely, at 6mo you could've taken a couple of classes by now. Is there a way you can go to a trainer and take classes with others?

[LeaPet]

Another thought to consider is that puppies are somewhat like small children in that when you give them a new toy, such as the squeaky ball, they will want to play with it a bit before they want to "share" with you. Trading the toy for a tasty treat worked great for us but we did also work in many trades that only involved lots of pets/praise because sometimes the cookie pocket runs out.