Rottweiler Chat for Rottweiler discussion

Thanks Lauren, I appreciate your interest..... Mike is a rescue. Male, 2 - 2.5 yrs old, neutured, and had sat at the kennel for almost 3 weeks when my sister saw him and decided to take him home. Mike has been with my sister since last Saturday. Before taking him home, she had gone to the kennel 3 times to get to know him.

The previous owners said Mike didn't listen and they got to the point where they couldn't control him anymore. (An apartment dog). My sister, who has mega yard space, said that Mike is an awesome dog and she thinks, so far, listens very well. He knows sit, stay, down, come, goes to his crate readily and has not shown any aggressive behavior over his food or toys. If they ask him to bring a toy, Mike will and will let go when told. Anticipating he's getting it back though. He has not tried to dig or trample the landscape and says he really must be used to pavement, cause while he's in the back yard he stays on the stone paths and won't walk on the lawn!

Too cute..... Uppity little bugger!

So far the only corrections that he's warranted have been over normal things..... eating from the cat dish, (it's in the garage now), sniffing in the trash, taking items that he can't chew on, (grandpa's slipper and a childs toy), and his first real no no... peeing on the cats climbing pole... Ooops! (That is now upstairs). That got Mike a firm OUT and a down stay on his bed on the floor.

My sister instructs Mike just like a child and since she really has no idea of how well he really knows anything, she's starting from the beginning. Corrections are verbal, with an open hand gesture, (like a stop sign) and if there is no immediate response, she leads him by the collar and manually makes him sit, stay and so on.

But what really bothers her, is Mike ducks the minute she advances his head area to get his collar. His eyes squint and the head goes down. She does not cave to it, she still does the command with a firm voice and manual guidance with the collar but at the same time she doesn't want to be too authoritive. Does that make sense? Everything in the correction is firm.....not hard.

Should she earn his trust a while longer before stricter corrections are enforced? Right now, it's strict repetition and constant reassurances for good behavior. Vicki has the patience of a saint and would work one correction 50 times before she would ever harm Mike. But she'd like to make Mike's transition to her calm for him but still let him know who's the boss.

And another question.... Mike does know basic commands. He has only broke a stay a few times but once repeated he will stay. What type of class should she consider for Mike? Basic, intermediate, advanced, etc? Should she be the only one who attends the class? She has an 8 yr old son, not wimpy, who would like to go too? Is this a good idea? What about her boyfriend and my dad? They both would love to take part in anything that betters Mike and lets Mike know he's in a really good home.

Thanks everyone for all the repsonses, I really appreciate it!

And sorry so long and for asking so much....

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