I have quite the little guardian.

[DoggGuy]

The other day while me and my dogs were out walking in the park Daz started to lag a little usually he paces himself to be right beside my dobe but he kept looking back and soon i noticed he was growling and pulling in the opposite direction so i stopped and turned to see what he was looking at and i didnt see anything and Brianna my dobe was calm as usual(besides scanning for squirrels). Then Daz did something that he rarely does he started barking and pulling away to some trees. Preety soon i decided that i might as well take him over there to investigate the disturbace. It turned out that my friend was trying to sneak up on me and scare me but Daz had spotted him running between the trees and wouldnt let him out of his sights. Now that i think is quality guard dog instinct after all he only 4 mo. old.

What can I do to keep him confident like this? I really like to see him act so big and bad.

[German Vanegas]

Originally posted by DoggGuy:
... Now that i think is quality guard dog instinct after all he only 4 mo. old.

What can I do to keep him confident like this? I really like to see him act so big and bad.

What you mean by "acting so big and bad"?... At four months of age you believe that is a desired behavior?!...

[Orville Story]

You know that his suspicion is high. In this circumstance totaly correct, just make sure that he is reading the situation correctly. Take him to the pet stores and other public places to socialize him. Once you know that he is very clear in the head about what is or is not a threat, you can build his confidence higher. I would repeat something like this and make sure my friend ran off when my dog acted strong. Then praise your dog.

Building high confidence in a dog is a big responsibility. I have friends that have been in dog sport for some time that have to deal with dogs that are too confident in their power for that person. You can build a dog confidence has high as you want, but you must be willing to have control of a very powerful mature Rottie. Because they do grow up, and mature. A Rottie that has been convinced that he is all powerfull usualy keeps that mind set. I have friends that are not willing to go to war with theirs dogs and the dogs know it.

There is the path if you want to go down it, but be realistic on how much time your willing to put into training. Be realistic in your abilities if down the road if your dogs decides that he wants to be the boss.
If you are not willing to train hard and correct your dog when he does not want a correction then don't go down that path.

[German Vanegas]

Dogguy,
MY opinion on this issue is that, a 4 months old puppy should be friendly and outgoing, with a MODERATE level of suspicion rather than HIGH, simply because encouraging a puppy to be suspicious of "strangers", will only teach him to respond with a sharp attitude to “strange people" and even to noises. Making a dog distrusful of humans is the wrong way to rear a dog.

While I agree that a dog has to have certain degree of guard drive (sharpness), this is to be developed slowly without rushing the puppy into it. You don't want to instigate a puppy to become a "flash-fire" dog with "strangers", simply because it will not make him a better protection dog at all! Actually, it COULD make him a dangerous dog, due to precisely those sharp reactions.

A dog has to have good nerves to be a reliable protection dog, as well as a watchdog. However, the dog's nerves should not be solid (apathetic/"nerves of steel" = slow to react), or too weak (fearful-shy/"spooky" = quick to react), but in a "mid-term" level (steady/"wait & see" attitude = discriminates to react).

Extensive socialization at this early stage (4 months old) is much more important than testing your dog as to how "bad" he can be... because to be honest with you, I'm troubled with your statement about you liking your puppy to be acting "so big and bad", as in that is a desirable behavior... Trust me: at that age IT IS NOT http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/wink.gif

Spooking a puppy, to allegedly build-up confidence, is not MY way of training.

[This message has been edited by German Vanegas (edited September 26, 2000).]

[rottweiler_fancier]

How do you stop-control an dog from getting worse in suspecious behaviors. My Shepherd bitch is simalier to DoggGuy's pup. If she see's anyone posing a threat, she intervenes. If anyone pretends to raise their hand to hit someone else, she'll jump right in. Occassionally mouthing the hand thats been raised, jumping, barking, or giving a toy. Sometimes she also will herd the "victim" away with her body between the "victim" and "attacker." It really isn't that bad but now, for example, we had a relative over and he leaned over to see what I was doing on the computer and she quickly put her front paws on the stool between us so she could seperate us. She seems to be able to know the difference between an adult hurting a child vs a child hurting an adult. She'll only protect the smaller person, sometimes even if their the one pretending to hit. I'd like to channel her protectiveness into the right direction but I'm not sure what I could do that wouldn't discourage her from any protective behavior in the future. Any suggestions?

------------------
- Dana -
"All Rottweilers were created equal"

[German Vanegas]

Dana,
How old is your shepherd female dog?... And what kind of training and background she has, please.

[Jay]

Originally posted by German Vanegas:
Dogguy,
MY opinion on this issue is that, a 4 months old puppy should be friendly and outgoing, with a MODERATE level of suspicion rather than HIGH, simply because encouraging a puppy to be suspicious of "strangers", will only teach him to respond with a sharp attitude to “strange noises and people". Making a dog distrusful of humans is the wrong way to rear a dog.

While I agree that a dog has to have certain degree of guard drive (sharpness), this is to be developed slowly without rushing the puppy into it. You don't want to instigate a puppy to become a "flash-fire" dog with "strangers", simply because it will not make him a better protection dog at all! Actually, it COULD make him a dangerous dog, due to precisely those sharp reactions.

A dog has to have good nerves to be a reliable protection dog, as well as a watchdog. However, the dog's nerves should not be solid (apathetic/"nerves of steel" = slow to react), or too weak (fearful-shy/"spooky" = quick to react), but in a "mid-term" level (steady/"wait & see" attitude = discriminates to react).

Extensive socialization at this early stage (4 months old) is much more important, that testing your dog as to how "bad" he can be... because to be honest with you, I'm troubled with your statement about you liking your puppy to be acting "so big and bad", as in that is a desirable behavior... Trust me: at that age IT IS NOT http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/wink.gif

Spooking a puppy, to allegedly build-up confidence, is not MY way of training.

[This message has been edited by German Vanegas (edited September 25, 2000).]

German very nice!!! http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif

[rottweiler_fancier]

Originally posted by German Vanegas:
Dana,
How old is your shepherd female dog?... And what kind of training and background she has, please.

She'll turn 3 in December. She's a rescue without much backround. The shelter only told us a family found her, kept her through her cute stages, then she got "too big" for their small children and they took her to the shelter at 4 1/2 months old. We don't know how true any of that is, if she was abused, if she was a BYB puppy or bred by one of the many Shepherd kennels around our area. A couple months later, two German Shepherd siblings that had identical coloring and simalier markings to her, were the same age, and were turned into the same shelter were advertised in the paper's rescue column. Both had been abandoned as well but like Libby, had been found then later turned in. We tried to get down as fast as possible to compare the looks and size but both had been adopted by the time we got there. Libby started basic Obedience at 6 months old, then took 1 other Obedience Course under a different instructor, one Advanced Beginners Obedience Course and she'll repeat Advanced Beginners to refresh her memory and get her to work around other dogs. She's also worked lightly on Agility Equipment, with dumbells, learned a few cute tricks for fun, and on a few advanced Obedience Excercises.



------------------
- Dana -
"All Rottweilers were created equal"

[German Vanegas]

Dana,
From what you stated in both of your replies, I don't think your female shepherd dog has an overly aggressive behavior, or is a fear-biter. Neither one. It seems like she is a fine pet companion. So keep up the good work, refreshing her obedience training, and keep her always in check as to who the leader of the pack is: YOU http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/wink.gif

[rottweiler_fancier]

German Vanegas -

Thanks for the reply. It saved me the $50 an hour fee and hundred mile drive down to the nearest Shutzhund Trainer/Animal Behaviorist. She is a sweety but she has her moments where she just does bizarre things. Like waking up out of dead sleep and starts barking and running around the house, growling at only certain dogs, a few dominate behaviors and moderate food aggression and protectiveness (of people and toys). Her history is sort of up in the air so theres no way to predict why she does these things and we haven't been able to get her to stop but as long as these things don't get progressively worse, I hope I have nothing to worry about as far as her getting aggressive.



------------------
- Dana -
"All Rottweilers were created equal"

[amano the indian flautist]

I think doggy guy was not intending to make a super aggressive dog,but I love these threads when german's around .....always always an education big hugs

[German Vanegas]

Originally posted by amano the indian flautist:
I think doggy guy was not intending to make a super aggressive dog,but I love these threads when german's around .....always always an education big hugs

You don't have to make a dog super-aggressive. Uncontrollably aggressive is bad enough... Thanks anyway! http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/wink.gif

[nick teifke]

What I think German is trying to say in his posts, in which he is 100% right, is you need to develop your pups foundation. And at 4 months, that includes lots of socialization and experiences (good ones!). If your dog is going to be a SchH dog or a PP dog, that also includes tug games that are strictly in prey. Develop the prey, socialize and if your dog is anything, it will come in later. Defense is stress and thats not good imprinting for a pup, no matter what you plan to do with it.
I find that the more people I talk to who own/owned PP dogs, the more I realize that 99.99% of the people in this world should not own one. They are a HUGE responsibility and many people are just not capable of having something like that. Enjoy your dogs for what they are. Chances are someone you would need protection from is going to be intimidated just by the site of your Rottie. If you want to build confidence, play ball and tell your dog what a good boy he is. He will grow up to have all the confidence he needs. Good luck!

------------------
nick teifke
rottsrus@dotnet.com

icq# - 28884141

[This message has been edited by Cosmo (edited September 28, 2000).]

[German Vanegas]

Originally posted by nick teifke:
...
I find that the more people I talk to who own/owned PP dogs, the more I realize that 99.99% of the people in this world should not own one. They are a HUGE responsibility and many people are just not capable of having something like that. Enjoy your dogs for what they are. Chances are someone you would need protection from is going to be intimidated just by the site of your Rottie...

I tell you Nick, I get just about (+/-) 300 hundred inquiries every year from people wanting me to train their dogs to "guard"... and I only train just about a dozen dogs or so per year... as you can see, the vast majority of people are "weed out" http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/wink.gif

[nick teifke]

Yeah, I get to work Liz Bauer's PP dog every Sunday http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif She's 10 and slow enough to teach decoy mechanics without me messing anything up haha She is one amazing dog but even at 10 she will fire up and it takes someone very alert, responsible and educated to handle that. You have to be able to read human body language and dog body language and all that good stuff, or you can end up in serious trouble.
It takes an awesome dog and a very responsible, educated human. Having a watch dog is one thing but a protection dog must be able to distinguish between right and wrong and thats extremely stressful for a dog. Having your friend pop out of bushes at your dog is not a good way to teach a dog that IMO. There are far better ways to build confidence.

Nick
rottsrus@dotnet.com
von der Anderung