CONGRATULATIONS! You have just taken possession of a bouncing, baby Rottweiler. If it was a tough decision between the Labrador Retriever and the Rottweiler, drop the puppy immediately (at least from a low height) and beat a hasty retreat to the door, whilst mumbling apologies back over your shoulder at me, and run right back to wherever you saw that Lab puppy and buy it. I will understand. But you don't yet understand what I'm trying to say, do you? The Rottweiler isn't even remotely similar to the Lab in any way other than the base color (in this case black). You are about to take on a new dimension in dog ownership, a Twilight Zone, so to speak - a new dimension of (dog) mind, things and ideas, a battle of wills and wiles - like no other dog you've ever raised before. So, if a Retriever-type dog was a serious consideration, a Rottweiler may not be the dog for you. This oration will be aimed primarily at those of you who have decided upon the Herculean task of raising a well-behaved MALE ROTTWEILER. Those of you with bitch puppies have it a little easier, but the basics are still the same, so stay with me. A MALE ROTTWEILER can be an awesome creature - which is the reason some of you have bought him. So that he will not become a MENACE TO SOCIETY, you must take heed. You should, by now, begin to wrinkle your brow with concern that either you must be crazy for buying this dog or indeed I am crazy and get some sort of perverse kick out of scaring you to death. Believe me, dear puppy owner, I have far, far better things to do than try to make literal sense about dog training on a computer. So this is from my heart to you so that you might have any extraordinary pet someday that will live fondly forever in your heart. The Rottweiler is a people-dog and generally does not like to spend too much time alone. (I am dealing with generalities here, and there will be exceptions to these, but as a whole the breed can be dealt with and your understanding achieved through these basic philosophies of training). The new puppy in his new environment will follow you everywhere - the kitchen, the laundry, the bathroom (which starts to get a little tight at about a year) and some I have known to even get in the tub with you. Figure out right away where you DO NOT WANT THE DOG TO BE and be CONSISTENT about it. CONSISTENCY and FIRMNESS are the key to training. A word hear about beds. BE FOREWARNED! ROTTWEILERS LOVE BEDS. I know they're cute now, but, do you really want a 100+ pound creature that has been frolicking through the sludge of the neighbors lower forty sleeping with you at night? Before answering, find a local gym that is equipped for bodybuilders, ask the man to set up a 110 lb. barbell and ask him to instruct you in the mechanics of "The Dead-Lift" and give it the college try. If you were comfortable with that, then you should be able to remove a sleeping (comatose) Rottweiler from your (his) bed at will. An alternative is to install one of those rigs I've seen in garages to pull engine blocks - painted a contrasting color with the bedroom decor (which I would guess should be hi-tech for this) the effect would be quite dramatic and of course utilitarian. Once they are allowed on the bed or any other furniture on a regular basis, that's it - they're on it for life. So think first and decide. Good habits are easy to live with. Somewhere along the line, usually within a month after his arrival, you and baby Kong are going to have a difference of opinion. IT IS IMPERATIVE that you understand that you are not to try to be one of the new progressive American mother/fathers that tries to quietly explain to an infant or small child why he should not do what he's attempting to do because it is socially unacceptable (take all look around you in the supermarkets today at all the little "darlings" that a permissive society and a generation of "Flower Children" have produced). The majority of them are ill-behaved monsters. If you raise a MALE ROTTWEILER that way, you're going to end up with something like Lon Chaney, Jr. at midnight. YOU DON'T NEED IT - YOU WILL NOT LIKE IT. So listen up - when baby boy turns into a werewolf over his (or your) new leather shoe, what are you going to do about it? Those of you, of whimpier castes, can shake him by the scruff of the neck like the training book says and say "no, no" in which case you will probably get a brief flickering glimpse of what is a Rottweiler smile, a deeper growl and a continuance of the destruction of your Bally footwear. He will also have assessed, in that brief, inconclusive skirmish, that you are indeed a wimp and he can do whatever he wants to do. This won't make a difference immediately, but his opinion of you in general will be the ground-work for his behavior throughout his life. This last statement should always be remembered by you. Dogs, in America, have always been considered as "Lassie's". The family pet, sitting on the front porch awaiting the arrival of the school bus, everyone's friend and loved by all. The Germans created the Rottweiler temperament. In Germany, you do not pet a man's dog. Dogs are allowed in shops and restaurants and lie under the diner's table but strangers DO NOT PET THE DOG. They are not expected to. They are not bred to allow strangers to take familiarities with them and, yet, this is America and we have to modify their behavior so their natural aggressiveness towards strangers is controllable. You must know your Rottweiler well enough to be in CONTROL at all times. To be in control, he must RESPECT you, to respect you, he must have DISCIPLINE, and with that you must be consistent. Loving you is secondary to respecting you. They are synonymous in the Rottweiler brain. Without respect, they will give you nothing. Instilling respect (I'm beginning to sound like Rodney Dangerfield) is accomplished using the "PACK THEORY". A dog pack has a social order, a pecking order. Only the Alpha Dog is the ultimate decision maker and leader of the pack. In descending order, the others fight it out and settle into their places. Because of the dominant nature of this Rottweiler you've taken on, he will challenge you for dominance within the pack, which is your family and now his family and his pack. It is natural. In the wild, dogs do not fight to the death, they fight until one of them surrenders and submits to the winner. Starting from puppyhood, you must always be the winner - the only exception is those who are training for Schutzhund work and that is a completely different story. Making you Alpha Dog is simple but will require consistency (remember that word?). To start with, DO NOT EVER tolerate your puppy growling at you over an issue - tug-of-war and playtime is okay - but not when you go to remove something from his mouth or to reprimand him for some wrong-doing. GROWLING IS NOT ALLOWED if it is aimed at you. My dogs are not allowed to growl at me, pain being the only exception if the dog hurts or is ill. Now, from here on out, you have to make like an Academy Award Winning Actor. You put on your best Billy Martin ex-2-time Yankee-manager-screaming-at-the-umpire-(dumb) voice, grab the puppy by the muzzle, get into his face and scream ARE YOU GROWLING AT ME??? YOU BETTER NOT BE GROWLING AT ME! YOU'D HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO GROWL AT ME! I EAT DOGS LIKE YOU FOR BREAKFAST! PHOOEY! If there is a look of stark terror in his eyes, mission accomplished. For you ladies who have to do this, try for Liz Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?. That should set the tone of voice. You have to be some sort of fishwife around these beasts - Snow White could only have owned a man-eating Rottweiler - it would have adored her but decimated the Dwarf population rather badly. Backtrack here for a moment, once you've instilled that look of terror in baby Kong's eyes, hold his eyes for the count of four (and his muzzle), release his muzzle, tousle his little head and in your best Doris Day impression say "Good Puppy!", give him a hug, and drop the issue. If you get a minor growl over something, BOP him, SMACK him, whatever your choice of terminology, reprimand the dog physically and immediately so you don't have the need of things like cattle prods or baseball bats when he is 130 lbs. and wants to get his way. All levity aside, this is very important. I have had to work with many adult dogs of whom their owners are afraid of because the owner has not raised the dog properly and the dog thinks it is in charge. All of this because owners didn't listen to the tried-and-true Pandemonium training methods for raising good citizens. Your male dog will attempt to challenge again at around 6-8 months, again at a year, and the biggy comes around 18 months - this being about the time baby Kong thinks he's been Bar Mitzvah'd. Make sure you win. Back to your $110 Bally footwear. I use the terms "phooey" a great deal - "phooey" means no, get it out of your mouth, it doesn't belong there. Bring your acting skills into play and make it sound disgusting, "ffooooeeeeee", and use it for your shoes, ELECTRIC CORDS, teeth on furniture (rungs on kitchen chairs are favorites), underwear dragged from the laundry room, etc. In short people, when you say no, mean it and follow thru immediately. Their acceptance of strangers will be up to you. Socialize puppy as much as humanly possible because a Rottweiler has the potential to be in insular thinker and if the only world he gets exposed to is the backyard and a brief ride to the vet's office, he is not going to cope well when exposed to the outside world later in life. Imagine how a child would be who was left alone in a room with three toys for a 7 year duration and then put into a public school - do you really think a youngster could cope? What makes you think a dog can? Give your new dog a vocabulary - Rottweilers are very, very bright dogs and will readily absorb your input - YOUR ROTTWEILER IS WHAT YOU MAKE HIM - THERE ARE NO BAD DOGS, ONLY BAD TRAINERS. Your physical Rottweiler will constantly be touching, leaning, stepping on you in some way, that's part of their herding quality. It is also an inherent instinct to be close to people for companionship and possessiveness. Most will protect you with their life with no formal training. On occasion, you will need to think ahead of your dog and anticipate a negative reaction to a situation the dog may analyze as potentially threatening. Watch for these situations, you may have to react quickly. (ie, a boisterous acquaintance slapping you on the back may not sit well with your dog). It is not expected that your dog should love other dogs, but they should be tolerant of them being around. A bad mistake, often made, is not socializing your puppy with other dogs while he's growing and therefore thinks he's a people and reacts uncontrollably aggressive towards other dogs. I really don't think you want the hassle you'll get when the remains of some little old lady's snotty, toothless, quarrelsome old poodle are extricated from the werewolf's mouth. It's not pleasant. BE CAREFUL AROUND TINY DOGS - they make big trouble by being antagonizing little pests, but they break real easily. Take your dog to local training classes so he learns he has to behave around other animals. Well, that's the basics. If you have any common sense at all, you should be able to raise your puppy successfully. I don't sell dogs to just any person that wants a Rottweiler, so you have made the first hurdle by convincing me you have some measure of common sense and good intentions of being a responsible dog owner. RESPONSIBILITY is a very large part of owning a Rottweiler - if it is too much work for you - bring the puppy back now. And, after reading this through 3 or 4 times, if you just can't get behind the Billy Martin/Virginia Wolf voice techniques, bring puppy back. It will make sure he'll live happily ever after in a home where someone will adore him 'till the day he dies. The foundation for some of this behavioral training has come from watching bitches and their puppies interact. There is very little halfway for a bitch - she usually mothers and fusses over her babies but as they get older and more bold, if they antagonize the bitch they get but a small warning growl and if they persist, mother jumps on their head like a Harpie and pounds them into the ground. It's all quite fast and loud and then it's over and there are no grudges, but the pup learned a lesson and knows that mom still loves him. Well, this is a wrap. Happy training and enjoy your puppy. They do so many silly, fun things when they're little it's worth all the paper towels in the world. Have fun. Be consistent. Be responsible. I'm here if you need me. ~~Author Unknown~~