Like humans, dogs have basic types and personalities and those characteristics are pretty much locked in. It is up to a potential owner to figure out what characteristics he can live with and which one he can't before he jumps in and takes home a dog he will never be happy with. Bringing a hyper dog into a quiet household will cause problems forever, etc. But once that research is done, once a dog of the right temperament is chosen and brought home, the training begins.
I remember the day we brought Diezel home; after I put a collar and a leash on him he seemed to have had no training or discipline at all as he dragged me all over the property, even with a prong collar digging into his neck. I quickly wondered what I had gotten myself into. But then on the ride home he leaned up from the back seat and licked my neck as if to say to me that he was willing to make some changes in his life in exchange for a new home.
Dogs are creatures of routine, and as dog trainers it is up to us to develop routines that we like and discourage those that we do not like. Every night before we go to bed I take Diezel outside to pee. It is very dark out so I always take a flashlight. Now, after months of the same routine, all I have to do in the evening is to pick up the flashlight and even though Diezel might appear to be sound asleep, he will quickly jump up and meet me at the front door. I have encouraged this behavior because it is very preferable to that of my previous dog Zeus who would usually refuse to get up once it was evening. With him I would sometimes have to physically drag him out onto the porch before he would stand up and do what I wanted.
One tool I use a lot with this breed is food; Rottweilers are very food-driven and will do just about anything you want for a cookie. Some people don't like using food as a tool and would like to think that it is preferable that a dog do what they want in exchange for some higher reward like love or something but for me, if food is a driving force, then I use it. I have found dried chicken wafers to be the best for us; they don't make nearly the mess in my pocket as hotdogs! I never thought I would be able to put one on Diezel's nose and get him to wait until I said "go" but it only took a few tries and now we do it every night when we come back in. I try to make my dogs work for everything I give them; they get nothing for free.
The key tool for our training remains our daily walk; we try not to ever miss a day. This is considered a training walk and during the walk I am constantly in charge. Diezel is allowed out the door only when invited by me and he must follow my lead, always. He is not allowed to walk in front of me, he can sniff the ground only when I deem it okay, and he has to pay attention to me, not to the things going on around us. During part of the walk I usually allow him a portion of the time to be a dog but only when I allow it and not at his discretion. Some breeds might be easier than Rottweilers (Golden Retrievers come to mind) but with these bigger more serious breeds, you have to go into it knowing that you can never allow them to take control; the consequences can be just way too serious.
The main thing we have had to overcome with this dog is his extreme dominance. In his mind he has to always be dominant over every other dog around us and this has at times caused big problems. Some people confuse dominance with aggression, but they are two different things. In this case I have had to really watch him and to immediately correct him anytime I see the dominance issue coming to the surface. As long as I catch it early it is fairly easy to correct, but once he has the other dog down and is on top of it, it is much more difficult.
And so the work continues. This summer the main task is socialization using a neighbor's dog and occasional trips to the local dog park. Given Diezel's sweet nature this work has all been rewarding and worthwhile but the big test will be taking him on vacation for three weeks!
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