New friend

Hi all, I gained a new friend today. As near as I can tell a Rottweiler mix or a very underfed full bred. She weighs about 40 pounds and I'm guessing about 6 months old.

A neighbor found her abandoned at his shop about 2 weeks ago. He said there was nothing but bone when he brought her home and started feeding her. My daughter fell in love with her through a hole in the fence. I learned about this situation today and that she was heading to the pound on Friday because he has too many dogs already. She seems in good shape except the weight, and has to be the most affectionate dog I've ever met.

What I'm looking for is any advise you can offer to start us out on the right foot. I've only ever gotten a dog as a pup and I won't be able get her to the vet for a tune up till at least Monday. Although she's very well mannered outside I don't know what to expect indoors. Any ideas on house training or basic obedience? What's done about shots on an animal with unknown history?

Thanks in advance for any help on this

Mike McConnnell

The big debate right now is a name, maybe some suggestions on that too.

Hi Mike, congratulations on your new addition. I have a couple suggestions for you, relevant to the fact that she was a stray. First, get a collar with some ID on her. Strays that are used to wandering will often wander away from their rescuers. Your local petsmart has a quick tag machine, I know they aren't open today. You could put an old tag on her, if you had one. Or use a permanent pen and write your address and phone on a collar. Or how about a luggage tag clipped to her collar? I don't know how good your fence is, you should go out in the yard with her at first. Which brings me to housetraining.

To housetrain a dog like this, pretend she is a tiny pup. Keep an eye on her, take her out after she wakes, after she plays, after she eats, etc. Don't beat her for mistakes. Go out with her when she is sent out to potty. She should learn pretty quickly, because body is more mature than a puppy's. It is all too common for foundlings to have housetraining issues. You might have problems with her being reluctant to go at all in front of you. If this is a problem, post back. Many people have faced this problem.

The last thing? Rotts are known to be kind of assertive. For now, until you can get her in a class and know her temperament, be careful around her and food. You should feed her, and never mess with her while she is eating. Especially caution your daughter about this. You should take her for walks, with your daughter accoompanying, so you can find out if she has any leash manners. Decide now if she will be allowed on any furniture, and stick to it. Putting a towel or blanket on the floor can help them identify their bed. Good luck on your foundling. jdoee and Stacey Dog

Hi Jdoee, Thanks for your reply. After our first 24 hours together I think we are doing as well as I should expect, but we need a lot of work on manners. This morning she had what I think was her first ever bath. Lots of fleas and dry skin, she didn't bite during the bath and really liked the brush, so that went well.

Except for a scary incident with my mother in-laws miniature snauser (her idea), she was happy and friendly with all our Thanksgiving guests. After everyone went home and things quieted down I brought her in the house. From the look of wonder and amazement, I don't think she's ever been indoors before, so were working on things like don't eat off the dining room table or chew the sofa. I did get her to lay at my feet by the fire for awhile so she knows indoors is good.

So.... here's the problem and possible deal breaker. I can gently manhandle her when she goes wrong but my wife and daughter can't, we need to establish rules NOW.

I won't beat her and I don't think it works anyway so I need to find a way to get her attention. Until I get her serious about trying to please, I don't think any training methods will do much good. So I'm going to have to leave her in a pen when I'm not home. I hate to do this but as long as she can get out of the rain and be safe I guess its better than where she'd be other wise. Does this seem reasonable? My family doesn't want her penned but can't handle her alone.

Happy Thanksgiving Mike Mc

I am *not* sure what others here have told you already, but I would suggest that you buy a dog crate or kennel (like a wire cage) to put her in. This way she can stay in the house and get used to the family. And when you go out, she can spend most of her time in the crate. Dogs who are crated can learn to like their crate, and often treat it like a dog house inside your house.

As for discipline, we either spank our dogs with a light rolled up newspaper, or we have a spray bottle filled with tap water. Even dogs that like water, hate to be sprayed in the face with the tap water. So if one of our dogs runs off with a dish towel, we try to take it away. If the dog will *not* surrender the towel, we threaten to spray with the spray bottle. If there is still *no* cooperation, then the dog gets sprayed in the face. This almost always gets the dog to cooperate.

Another punishment we have is using a light nylon muzzle that closes with velcro. The dog can breath fine and even can drink while wearing the muzzle. But our two dogs that get crazy sometimes, just hate to have to wear the muzzle. So if we threaten to put on the muzzle, the dogs will usually see clear to cooperate rather than to be punished.

Good luck with your new dog!!! I am sure that this dog will do fine, if you keep working with her.

Ditto to this. HOWEVER - please read up on crate-training. The crate should be presented and reinforced as a GOOD place for the dog. Use treats, soup bones, or rawhides, feed her in the crate, make it a good place. Read up on it. I would definitely advise putting her and yourselves in an obedience class with a good trainer right away.

I would not recommend 'spanking' dogs with newspaper or anything else. Better to set the dog up to succeed - dogproof your house and work on training, training, training. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you 'manhandle' this dog, but I would suggest NOT using brute force and concentrating more on building a solid, mutually respectful relationship. You do not need to 'spank' dogs - a very solid and humane 'punishment' is the withdrawal of your affection/attention. Example - dog jumps up and mouths. Cross your arms and turn around. DO NOT get into a power struggle with the dog, and manhandle or force the dog to the ground. You are then giving the dog what she's wanting - interaction, which may, in her eyes, be positive ('are you wrestling with me?'. Manhandling and brute force is NOT necessary in dog training. The better trainer is the one who whispers, not the one who yells.

Set the dog up for success. Dogproof the house. Puppies, esp those from bad environments, display undesirable behaviors. Dogproofing the house means putting things you don't want the dog to have out of reach. For those objects that cannot be put out of reach, if the dog gets hold of it, work on an OUT command (drop it). You can train the dog to OUT by 'trading' - offer the dog a more valuable item (eg liver treat) and praise the dog when they drop the desired item. Do not try to use force, scare the dog into dropping the item. Teach the dog that it will benefit the dog to do what you ask. Don't work on the OUT command for the two seconds that the dog has the dishtowel etc, work on it every day as part of what having and training a dog is about, so when she does grab something it shouldn't have, she will be more likely to release it. Simply tugging of war with the item teaches the dog that grabbing things she shouldn't have will make you play with her - great way to teach her to grab things she shouldn't have.

If the dog will *not* surrender the towel,

This is misuse of a spray bottle. And it's not training. The dog should not know where the water came from. She should not see a spray bottle in your hand. IF you use a spray bottle, use it correctly - timing is VERY important and if you screw that up you will not train the dog at all. The idea of a water spray is that the dog does [undesirable behavior], this strange act of God comes up and she gets an unpleasant experience. Using a water spray to get something out of a dog's mouth, I cannot figure out any logic. You are simply threatening the dog. This is not training.

I do not threaten dogs. I certainly would not threaten them with a muzzle. What happens if the dog NEEDS to wear a muzzle, for some reason, and they think they are being punished? eg a dog that needs wound care from the vet which may hurt, and the vet fears being bitten? You have taught your dog to fear a muzzle. Besides, there are many effective ways of training dogs to utilize self-control so that you have TRAINED them to behave appropriately. You don't wait for the dog to do something wrong and then threaten them with spray bottles or muzzles. These ideas are quite disturbing. Teach them how you want them to behave, don't set them up to fail by not teaching them what you expect and then making threats when they do fail. Training is a dynamic ongoing process and the idea is to communicate what you want in a way that the dog understands. If you cannot get an item out of her mouth until you physically win a tug of war or wave a spray bottle in her face, of if your waving a muzzle in her face is the only way to get her to settle, you have to go back to the beginning and train her.

The whole family needs to be involved - if only one person can handle the dog, this is a recipe for disaster and the dog WILL end up in rescue or a shelter or given away to someone sooner or later. You do not need physical strength or things that are scary to the dog to train her, the important thing is communicating what you expect. This can be done by a 100-lb woman. I would advise the whole family to take part in basic obedience with a good trainer. Try to focus on positive motivational training methods.

Good luck,

Jen Barlee's Angels Rescue Network - http://geocities.com/barleesangels Barlee, forever in my heart Until there are none...rescue one