On 19/07/2013 1:20 PM, Bob Sullivan wrote:
Bill,
Thanks, I appreciate your insight and will forward on to my son Bill.
His Golden really likes people and kids in particular.
My daughter-in-law is a special ed teacher who had 'behavior
disorders' classrooms until this year. She is probably better with
the dog than he is, certainly better reading the dog.
But all good advice and insights from you.
A few more things about the breed. They can be quite reticent around
strangers, which is a huge temperament difference from what you would be
getting from a Golden. I think with Rotties, it is really important to
meet the parents and see if you like them, as the apple tends to fall
quite near the tree with dogs. They tend to be accepting of people that
their people are accepting of, but an approaching stranger who his
person doesn't know may not be well received. Lots of socialization
early on is really important with Rotties. One of the problems that
Jester plagues us with is because he didn't get a lot of early
socialization. A good way to get your Rottie to accept a person faster
is to take the person's hand in yours and take it down to the dog's
nose, showing the dog your hand, then turning it to the other person's
hand, and then hold both hands in front of the dog's nose for a few
moments. The dog gets both scents and will tend to discriminate the
scent of the other person as a good thing.
You might find this interesting. Apparently there is a link between
black & tan coloration and what is called "resource protectiveness",
which is what gives breeds like Rotties, Dobermans, GSDs and other
breeds their advantage as guards. A friend of mine has a black and tan
male Chihuahua. The dog is an excellent guard, given that he weighs all
of 6 pounds. I stay out of his way, I'm not part of his Clan, and he
attacks and bites pretty much anyone who isn't family. Really, he is an
extreme example of black and tan temperament.
All three of my Rotties have been very good with kids. The breeder that
Jester came from had 5 Rotties living with three young kids in a not
overly large house. When we did birthday party shows with the kennel
club, I would often find a little kid to give Leica to for a while. It
didn't matter how badly the child gave commands, Leica would do what she
was told to do. As long as you could coach the kid into saying "Leica,
Heel" at the beginning, it didn't matter what happened after that. She
had been told to heel, and that was what she did until told otherwise.
She would obey commands that were inadvertently said by the television.
One time at a class I was in, the instructor told us to teach our dogs a
new trick for the next class. The next morning as I was getting dressed,
Leica was sitting beside me, and I took a sock and put it over her nose.
There was my trick.
A few times of saying "Leica, Sock", and putting the sock on her nose,
and she was pushing her nose into the opened sock. After that, it was a
simple case of combining it into a recall, and the next week, I sat my
dog on one side of the room, walked across the room, held a sock open
and called "Leica, Sock". She dutifully came across the room, stuck her
nose in the sock and sat in front of me with a really put upon expression.
It was the best trick ever.
Soft female dogs are really easy to get along with.
best
bill
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