Ive just offered to foster & rehome a Rottweiler that wasnt living in an ideal situation His owner died , and the family cant keep him , much as they are lovely people they never wanted a dog in the first place and never had much to do with him Currently he is living outside in a large mesh fronted shed outside the pub his owner used to run , he gets one free run in the large pub garden every day , and good food but little to no socialisation he's around a year old & has had no training whatsoever , pulls like a freight train on the lead & from what I have been told he's not even house trained , so thats going to be fun , lol , i'll know more later when I speak to the family when they drop the dog off He's a big softy with people and apparently gets on great with one other dog he knows Ive contacted a Rottweiler rescue and they are phoning me back later to talk about him Do any of you Rotty owners have any tips for me , ive never dealt with this breed before , but as I said to the rescue lady on the phone I couldnt leave the dog where he was
Bless him, and well done for taking him in. If you're aiming to rehome him straight from your house then perhaps you could approach some local rescues or the nearest Rottweiler rescues to provide backup, e.g. vetting new homes, as he doesn't sound like a beginners dog and they may be able to help find him a home with Rottie experience. We brought home a Rottie x GSD without having any experience of Rottweilers, and although we'd had lots of GSDs, her traits aren't that GSD-like! I wouldn't really say there are many traits of hers that we found ourselves unable to deal with though. She loves to lean on you, which is a Rottie trait, and she's a bit of a whiner, but the first is a compliment and the second is easily treated by ignoring her/asking her to be quiet. She did suffer from seperation anxiety initially, which is apparently quite common in the breed, but it's obviously not something restricted to Rotties alone. You may want to invest in a headcollar to walk him on as Kiki is quite small for a Rott x, but has soo much strength in her. I found the "300 peck" method (google for explanations) good for teaching her to walk on a loose lead, they're an intelligent breed and I found she responded more to this as a training activity than she did to me simply stopping/changing directions. Introducing clicker training might help speed up the training, as he sounds very lacking, Kiki's very food orientated so it makes training tricks very easy if I have a yummy bribe One thing to be aware of is that Rotties are prone to joint problems, e.g. arthritis. If you're not sure that this boy has had much in the way of exercise, I would recommend slowly building him up, like you would a puppy, so as to not put a strain on his joints. Good luck, and remember to get some photos when he arrives if you can
Can't help with the breed i'm afraid had rottixlab pups as fosters but they were only tiny,i did end up with a husky pup that turned out to be at least 1 if not older ,she had been kept in a garden no socialization and not enough food so had food issues,the toilet training can be difficult but they do get there with patience and a lot of kitchen roll/cleaner ! Go out into the garden with the dog every time and praise/give a titbit when it goes in the right place i use phrase "be clean" in a high voice to try and get the dog to associate the words with going to the loo theory being they will go on demand eventually,The first problem that nearly caused me to give her back was her play biteing she had never been taught it wasn't acceptable and having a 6ft dog in your face chewing you was scary for a medium sized dog owner However i knew she wasn't being aggresive so had to tough up to her and with the use of a shaker bottle she stopped,the lack of contact with other dogs made her act in a strange away at first snarling/growling when she met them,but soon knew it was her way of saying she wasn't sure about them she got better over time and now has a husky boyfriend I hope this foster goes well for you and with the amount of people that use this site am sure if breed specific info is needed it will be given,Good for you for giving this dog a second chance!!!!;-)
Well he's here ... and he's a sweetie His names Tyson and he's 14 months old He met my three and he got on great with Toff and Teddy , Gypsy has done nothing but bark and growl at him though which is worrying , even though he hasnt made any aggressive move to her He is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo strong ... tbh im scared ive bit off more than I can chew with this lad , im def worried about walking him , but i'll persevere , do a bit of lead work in the garden I reckon before I take him anywhere
He's gorgeous, really handsome, and his tail is wagging so much it's a blur. Good luck with him, he will be well worth the effort. Have you considered a halti for when you take him out on the lead?
I can walk my two together and they weigh about 75kg combined! Headcollars are your friend when you have big strong dogs! I'm only 5'3 and weigh less than my two together, and with Casper sometimes being reactive and Kiki having a high prey drive, their Dogmatic headcollars are essential to stop us all ending up in the middle of the road or something.
He is gorge wish i had the room here to take him on, I would take him on in a flash! I use a gencon with my rottiX he hadnt been lead walked until I got him and was just to strong to walk on anything else. That and a combination of standing still until he was in heel position worked for me (with command obviously!). All this and now he is a fab agility dog who follows left and right commands at high speed - so rewarding. Good luck. Krlyr - all the GSDs I have known have been leaners so I think that trait comes from both sides!
Hi there,I love rotts,hes a beaut! I have had rotties but I took in a RottweilerXBullmastiff who also had had no lead training and was taught to bark at every other dog she saw!! Unluckily for the previous owners if they ever let her off the lead to do anything to the dog she would bounce over full speed then stop and try to play ha. I used a halti on her which she hated at first and was rubbing her face on everything and rolling around trying to get it off...once she had calmed down and was ready to go out she soon realised that if she pulled the halti got tighter and restricted her so that her head would be pulled towards me and she couldnt go any further in front..(but i will say with enough wriggling around they will come off)within no time she was walking 100 times better then with a million walks and saying 'wait' and a lot of circling when she wanted to go in another direction i finally put her on just a lead and collar.wooo success,lot of effort but so worth it!! Harnesses total waste of time in my opinion!! But the best thing I have used is on my American Bulldog, when he was about 6 months he began being very dominant towards other dogs and lunging at them and I used (some people are not going to agree) a pinch collar,which seemed to really help a lot... bearing in mind Halti's,pinch collars,choke chains they are all training tools and not just a quick fix,I also opted for the pinch collar as i am pregnant atm and although he is only young he is a very strong boy,did some research on pinch collars before buying one also and it seemed to show less injuries for the dogs in a post mortem compared to a choke chain which i found interesting.. Cain just wears a leather collar now and i take the pinch collar with me just incase i feel he is particularly tense that day,but he is getting a lot better. Good luck with your boy !!!
