Considering a Rottweiler Pup

boodee

Can anyone advise me on what a rottweiler pup is like.

Do you need to train them any differently than any other breed, are they any more likely to bite than other dogs, or is that a rottweilers bite is just worse.

Is it true you they are harder to train.

Is crate training them appropriate, ie, leaving them in a large pen in the kitchen for house training.

What should you look for when seeing pups.

Any help please.

Shanao

I may not have a rottweiler but have worked with a few and highly reccomend them (have been thinking for a long time about getting one as well in the next year or so). They are highly intelligent, very loyal and very gentle. They need to be trained the same as any other dog breed, they are only as likely to bite as you make them. Rottweilers have gotten a lot of bad publicity thanks to idiotic owners who haven't put the time and effort into them. They are strong-willed but as I said highly intelligent so training isn't really a problem. You just need to be patient and use positive training methods only; I've found, like most big dogs, that they really take punishment to heart. I am all for crate training regardless of breed as it gives them a secure place to call their own and ensures that you dont come down in the morning to chewed skirting boards, press doors etc.

When looking for a pup, you should be looking for parents that have been hip scored as the minimum, andreac on here will know which other health tests need to be done as I'm not sure if they have to have eye/elbow tests as well. The parents should be shown and judged to be of excellent quality and the pup should be fully registered, with full vaccinations and microchipped. In my opinion, I prefer the long tail as well, as there doesn't seem to be a need for the tails to be docked in this day and age other than it being a cosmetic thing, which i dont agree with.

callmekenneth

my only real rottie experience comes from fostering 2, a year old pup and a 2 year old big girl pup, i have to say you couldnt hope to find sweeter dogs, these were rescues so i dont know what sort of backgrounds they had but all they wanted was affection and pets and food. i'd imagine getting a pup they will chew a lot but they seem pretty smart and trainable

boodee

Hi,
I wouldn't mind taking a rescue, i hadn't thought of that. My 6 year old rottie is getting old and just wants to curl up in front of the fire and rest. She can't really make the stairs and only small walks now. I've had her nealy 2 years.
I was hoping to get a pup before she gets much older.

Or am i just mad...maybe i'ii just have a little look and see.:)

andreac

Shes struggling at 6 to walk? My rottie is 5 and hes in his prime at the mo, i honestly would wonder why a dog at 6 is struggling to go for walks.

Have you had her at the vets?

dudmis

PM sent

boodee

andreac wrote: »

Shes struggling at 6 to walk? My rottie is 5 and hes in his prime at the mo, i honestly would wonder why a dog at 6 is struggling to go for walks.

Have you had her at the vets?

She has some issues, a white nose...loss of pigmentation in the linig of her lips , mouth and nose. she's on steroids for it. As I say, she was 4 and a half when we got her so i wouldn't know exact history. She has started limping a bit. I'ii be taking her to vets soon.

Any suggestions fire away..

the_syco

If she's suffering from arthritis, I'd recommend giving her a spoon of Sasha with her food, but ask the vet first. 6 shouldn't be seen as old, though. But as you say, you have no knowledge of what the doggies first 4 years were like, so I can't really say anything.

boodee

She was well trained and well looked after, I know that for sure. Her previous owner was devastated at having to give her up.
The vet said her skin issue is an auto immune problem possibly caused by the stress of moving house as she only developed it when we got her. He said the pads of her paws might be affected and paw boots might help when walking.

What is the average age a rottie lives for, i know the jrt could be with me for 16+ years.

Cherry Blossom

boodee wrote: »

She was well trained and well looked after, I know that for sure. Her previous owner was devastated at having to give her up.
The vet said her skin issue is an auto immune problem possibly caused by the stress of moving house as she only developed it when we got her. He said the pads of her paws might be affected and paw boots might help when walking.

Sorry to throw a spanner in the works but you have recently just got a GSD which won't have helped her stress-wize. If I were in your position the last thing I would want to do is throw yet another dog into the equation and unsettle her even more causing further detriment to her health. Adding a new dog to a house is stressful on any dog never mind one with these problems.

The most important rule in any decision to get another pet is that always, - current pets needs come first, this has to be your absolute priority here.

boodee

I got the gsd jan dec 2010. The rottie about two weeks later.(ther's a long story attached to it and i just couldn't say no) My time line is messed up. Meaning i have the rottie less time than i thought.

You're right though, perhaps it's not a good idea, which is why I'm taking all advice on board. Food for thought.

Cherry Blossom

I think I got you confused with someone else from the other thread, apologies for that! But yes, it does still apply

_AVALANCHE_

It's very hard to get a decent Rottie in Ireland, their's no new blood, I'd say their's abit of inbreeding going on here now.

My Uncle who works in a Vets and who has always had Rotties himself has decided to change to an Alsatian cross, as they had an 18 month old male in at the end of last year with the Cruciate ligament gone in a back leg. One in a long list of Rottweilers in with problems.

_AVALANCHE_

Shanao wrote: »

When looking for a pup, you should be looking for parents that have been hip scored as the minimum, andreac on here will know which other health tests need to be done as I'm not sure if they have to have eye/elbow tests as well. The parents should be shown and judged to be of excellent quality and the pup should be fully registered, with full vaccinations and microchipped. In my opinion, I prefer the long tail as well, as there doesn't seem to be a need for the tails to be docked in this day and age other than it being a cosmetic thing, which i dont agree with.

Only people selling a pup that would have these tests done would be special breeders, how much for a pup??

andreac

_AVALANCHE_ wrote: »

It's very hard to get a decent Rottie in Ireland, their's no new blood, I'd say their's abit of inbreeding going on here now.

My Uncle who works in a Vets and who has always had Rotties himself has decided to change to an Alsatian cross, as they had an 18 month old male in at the end of last year with the Cruciate ligament gone in a back leg. One in a long list of Rottweilers in with problems.

Sorry, but you are wrong about getting a good rottie. I know lots of good breeders using good lines and using dogs from Europe now. You need to contact the right people and not go through the likes of donedeal where there is only rubbish being sold.

You'd say theres a bit of inbreeding, is that your own thoughts and opinions on it? Have you any proof of this?

Regarding the cruciate ligament, yes its common enough in rotts, but its treatable and they make a full recovery from it. Im going through it at the moment with my own female rottie and shes well on the way to a full recovery, but i wouldnt let it stop me getting a rottweiler. My 5 year old male has never been lame since i got him.

A good quality pup will cost you anywhere from 600-800 euro. All breeders should be health testing. The breeders that do are not special breeders, they are responsible, quality breeders.

boodee

Does it matter that i'm not looking for a highly bred rottie, just a healthy one. Or is it that they're all overbred now and by avoiding buying one you decrease demand and therefore decrease imbreeding.
In any case, I'm looking at 'a dogs life' re homing, but there are a couple of terms i might not meet, so i think i'ii be leaving it for a while. There's a lovely soppy story dog there that i'd love to take but it doesn't look like thehy'd give it to me, which is a pity cause it would have one hell of a time here.

Cherry Blossom

_AVALANCHE_ wrote: »

Only people selling a pup that would have these tests done would be special breeders, how much for a pup??

Nope - this is actually what a breeder does - calculate the benefits vs negatives of any pairing in advance of mating. This includes calculating the inbreeding co-efficient, matching a dog that might not be as strong in one area with one that is and fully assessing any dogs that are to be bred from for health issues and congenital defects and not using them if they don't meet a certain standard.

Throwing two dogs together and crossing your fingers isn't breeding, it's just throwing two dogs together in hope of making a quick euro,

Delancey

Sorry , if I'm a tad off-topic here but is there a possibility that pet insurers will start excluding certain conditions that are perceived to be prevalent in certain breeds , for example might they refuse to cover Cruciate Ligament repair for Rotties ?

_AVALANCHE_

andreac wrote: »

Sorry, but you are wrong about getting a good rottie. I know lots of good breeders using good lines and using dogs from Europe now. You need to contact the right people and not go through the likes of donedeal where there is only rubbish being sold.

You'd say theres a bit of inbreeding, is that your own thoughts and opinions on it? Have you any proof of this?

Hard to prove....from talking to people in with problems, my Uncle has noticed things. I'll leave it at that.

andreac wrote: »

Regarding the cruciate ligament, yes its common enough in rotts, but its treatable and they make a full recovery from it. Im going through it at the moment with my own female rottie and shes well on the way to a full recovery, but i wouldnt let it stop me getting a rottweiler. My 5 year old male has never been lame since i got him.

Expensive time consuming problem, €1500 per leg (as once one goes, the other is likely to go aswell) is a quote I've seen to get it done right??

andreac wrote: »

A good quality pup will cost you anywhere from 600-800 euro. All breeders should be health testing. The breeders that do are not special breeders, they are responsible, quality breeders.

€700:eek:, jolly, that's alot of money to give for a Rottweiler that could still then develop problems anyway!

LucyBliss

The great thing about this forum is that it has really educated me about what a person should be aware of when choosing a new pup or dog.

I won't be in a position to get a dog for a long time (touch wood!) as my present three are young and thriving and to get any more would be detrimental to my mental health and the balance we've managed to achieve. But in the future, I would be open to getting a Rottweiler, but I prefer to go the rescue route. So with all the worries about hip scores and potential health problems, what would people do in that case? Because a rescue is hardly going to hip score a dog and while I'd never return a dog because of bad health, it'd be helpful to know if nothing else to prepare the old finances.

Cherry Blossom

LucyBliss wrote: »

But in the future, I would be open to getting a Rottweiler, but I prefer to go the rescue route. So with all the worries about hip scores and potential health problems, what would people do in that case? Because a rescue is hardly going to hip score a dog and while I'd never return a dog because of bad health, it'd be helpful to know if nothing else to prepare the old finances.

Insurance - go through all the terms and conditions with a fine tooth comb and get it organised from the get go. And have a bit of funds kept aside to cover the excess.

andreac

_AVALANCHE_ wrote: »

Hard to prove....from talking to people in with problems, my Uncle has noticed things. I'll leave it at that.


Expensive time consuming problem, €1500 per leg (as once one goes, the other is likely to go aswell) is a quote I've seen to get it done right??

€700:eek:, jolly, that's alot of money to give for a Rottweiler that could still then develop problems anyway!

How does your uncle know the problems are from in breeding, has he seen the pedigrees of the dogs? People are so quick to say its inbreeding, load of waffle if you ask me, esp when theres no proof, just speculation:rolleyes:

Thats what insurance is for, ive only had to pay the excess of €90. Yes its time comsuming, but if you own pets and they get sick and injured then you do no matter what it takes to fix them and get them better.

€700 is not a lot of money for a well bred dog, with health tested parents. If you want a pedigree dog then you need to do it right and not cut corners.

Any dog can get injured or sick, its the chance you take with owning pets.

are you serious

Ive two Rotties just like Andreac and I would back everything she has said about the breed.

There is no special or different training needed with this breed of dog. There is tons of information out there for you to read on the breed both on-line and in books.

Health problems differ with every breed, some breeds are more prone to getting certain injuries than others, but that is not to say that with getting a Rottweiler your more than likely going to be dealing with this injury.

In my opinion when buying any breed of dog you get what you pay for. If your going to pay top money for your Rottweiler in Ireland these days you will be dealing with a show breeder, someone who is breeding from the top lines in the country or someone who has imported great blood lines into Ireland, this person will not sell you any of their dogs/pups without you entering into a contract. This contract will or should have in it a clause about the pup picking up certain illnesses or injuries within a certain time frame. After this set timeframe lapses the breeder will then no longer be accountable for the pup in relation to the set out injuries/illnesses.

boodee

andreac wrote: »

How does your uncle know the problems are from in breeding, has he seen the pedigrees of the dogs? People are so quick to say its inbreeding, load of waffle if you ask me, esp when theres no proof, just speculation:rolleyes:

Thats what insurance is for, ive only had to pay the excess of €90. Yes its time comsuming, but if you own pets and they get sick and injured then you do no matter what it takes to fix them and get them better.

€700 is not a lot of money for a well bred dog, with health tested parents. If you want a pedigree dog then you need to do it right and not cut corners.

Any dog can get injured or sick, its the chance you take with owning pets.

I've looked at insurance and some of them wont cover gsd,rotts as they're the dangerous gods acts. I have insurance at the moment but it's minimal as it's with a club i'm in. My insurance broker doesn't do pet insurance. May I ask who you're with.
Also, vet said he has to sedate rottie to take a blood test, is that normal.

andreac

boodee wrote: »

I've looked at insurance and some of them wont cover gsd,rotts as they're the dangerous gods acts. I have insurance at the moment but it's minimal as it's with a club i'm in. My insurance broker doesn't do pet insurance. May I ask who you're with.
Also, vet said he has to sedate rottie to take a blood test, is that normal.

Firstly, no he shouldnt need to sedate to take a blood test, unless the dog is being really un co-operative. But i would be wondering why he has to sedate first, as its not standard practice to sedate to take a simple blood test.

Which insurance companies did you look at? Al the normal ones like Allianz, Petinsure.ie all insure rottweilers. Im insured with Petinsure.ie with no hassle whatsoever.

boodee

I'II look further a field for insurance on monday. I guess they wont cover Roxy for any tests and stuff if i change insurance that's why i wasn't going to change, but i'ii look at the ones you've said.

As for the sedation, I think the vet is afraid of rotties so I'm actually goignt to take her to a vet in another town for a second opinion. She's a genious with dogs, expensive, but worth it i'd say.

andreac

If you are already insured with a company and you change, she wont be covered for anything that she has already suffered from before as its a pre-exisiting condition.

Yeah i was going to say maybe the vet is nervous and doesnt want to have the dog fully awake. Why not just muzzle it if hes nervous?
I had a vet in UCD who was really scared of my female rottie when she was up there for her Op in November. She is such a little sweetie, and not that big either. She was actually scared of him as he gave off that nervous vibe.

Delancey

boodee wrote: »

My insurance broker doesn't do pet insurance.

I don't think insurers pay commission on pet insurance hence brokers don't deal with it.