Nail Trimming

[KylieDaniels]

Hello!

 

My name is Kylie and I have a 5-month old Rottweiler named Gibson. I've been using this training program since we brought him home in July, and it's worked very well for me so far. He's a truly brilliant companion, and is the sweetest and most gentle "little" giant I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

 

However, there are two things we've been struggling to achieve with him for the past few months. Firstly, he refuses to allow anyone to clip, trim, or even shave his nails down. I've tried multiple brands of clippers, trimmers, and shaving tools to file them, and he will not allow anyone to use them on him. He spends the most time with me at home, and follows my commands and training more so than anyone else in my family. We all work with him, but he knows I'm Mama and tends to do much better with me. But, he will not even let me near his nails. He will especially not allow the Vet to do anything to his paws, and I asked them not to force it upon him to ensure he doesn't get too fearful of seeing the Vet. And secondly, he fears the Vet a great deal. As soon as we enter the parking lot, he recognizes the building and cowers into the backseat. 

 

During his second visit, he wiggled just as they inserted his vaccination and it caused some pain and bruising. Since that visit, he dislikes going to the Vet and they mention every time how he's very fearful of them and cowers when they bring him into the office. However, I think this could also be because they're not allowing the owners to enter the building right now. They come to the car, take the dog inside, and bring him back out when they've finished treating him. They blamed and then shamed me for not socializing him, but I socialize him every day on his walks with friends and strangers. He greets our neighbors every afternoon when we walk to the mailbox, he greets the neighborhood kids that play outside, and he goes on several outings a week to public places. Every time I go to the Pet store, I take him with me. My husband is a Carpenter and goes to Home Depot often for supplies, and he takes him with him there as well. So, I don't believe his fear of the Vet or his hesitation to allow us to trim or shave his nails is due to poor socialization. During the current situation, there is no other way for me to socialize him more right now without putting him and the rest of our family at risk. Not many stores allow pets to enter, especially larger breeds due to fearful customers. He's the sweetest boy, but many stores have told me not to bring him because people tend to fear Rottweilers, even if they've never met one.

 

Therefore, my first question would be: do you have any recommendations as to how I could socialize him more? Or do you think he simply fears the Vet because he was hurt by them during his second visit? Is there anything I can do on my end to make Vet visits less scary for him? Is there anything I can ask them to do to make Vet visits less scary for him?

 

In terms of clipping his nails.. I've tried reinforcing with treats and other rewards. I've tried distracting him with love and attention from others while I attempt to clip or shave them. Since we brought him home, I've made sure to have everyone touch his paws at least once a day while rewarding with treats and "Good boy!" I've only been able to successfully clip them once and even then, I only made it through two nails before he got up and ran away.

 

I've seen quite a few videos online of owners straddling their larger dog to clip them while another person they trust is petting them and keeping their attention. At the end, they reward their dog with a treat. But, I don't want to force him into complying because I don't want to instill fear or aggression in him at all. All of the articles I've read regarding his breed state not to use aggressive actions, voices, or words to ensure he doesn't turn aggressive in his adulthood. As our family has a 3 year old at home, it's imperative for me to understand aggressive tendencies in his breed and avoid triggering them to ensure he will never hurt her or anyone else in our family.

 

I take him on walks once or twice a day to ensure walking on the pavement naturally shaves them down, but as winter approaches, I may only be able to do this once a day because it will be too cold. I also worry about his paws getting too cold during the winter on our walks. I'm worried that one walk a day will not naturally shave them down enough, so I'm inquiring to see if there is anything else you can recommend for me to try for him. I've read many articles that state it's dangerous to not trim or shave their nails because it causes pain in the joints of their legs. I do not want him to have joint problems later in his life, but I also don't want to scare him or force him into complying because I don't want him to perceive that as aggression from me, anyone else in our home, or the Vet.

 

We have a 7-year-old German Shepherd and she is very well trained. As soon as she sees I've pulled out our shaving tool, she sits and hands me one front paw at a time, and then she lies down for me to shave down her back paws. I never had issues with shaving her nails down during her puppy/training stages. She isn't always happy to comply and often voices her opinion with whines and moaning. We call her "Moaning Myrtle". But, nonetheless, she sits and allows me to get it done within 10 minutes, gets her treat, and moves on with her day as if nothing happened.

 

Therefore, my second question would be: do you have any recommendations as to how I can successfully trim, clip, or shave his nails down?

 

Kylie Daniels

 

 

[KylieDaniels]

Hello!

 

Just wanted to upload a picture of two of our Gibson for reference! Our German Shepherd’s name is Ava!

[Adrienne]

Hi Kylie, 

Welcome to the forums!

Gibson is a adorable and so lucky that he's in a home where he is cared for and provided loads of gentle guidance. I am also glad to hear that he has been learning so much and is turning into a brilliant companion.

 

In regards to your first question: "Do you have any recommendations as to how I could socialize him more? Or do you think he simply fears the Vet because he was hurt by them during his second visit? Is there anything I can do on my end to make Vet visits less scary for him? Is there anything I can ask them to do to make Vet visits less scary for him?," here are my thoughts. 

 

It honestly bothered me to read that your vet has accused you of not socializing your puppy properly when you have worked so diligently on that despite all the COV19 social distancing hardships. From your description you have done a great job and it's not correct for them to point fingers just because they may have struggled on visiting him or what not. While it's true that as part of socializing pups we should include teaching them to accept and look forward to manipulation of all body parts, with our current situation this is harder said than done, as that would involve inviting friends or volunteers over to perform "mock vet visits. " 

 

Sure, we can work on this at home, but it's impossible to recreate at home what happens at a vet's office, unless the vet office collaborates with our efforts by working on making the visits more pleasant. On top of this, we don't know what may have happened behind closed doors.  I had a similar issue once when Einstein was just 8-weeks old. Basically, the same evening we got him from the breeder, he developed explosive diarrhea on the car ride home (his sister did too). It was not what I would describe as the best day for us when we had other projects that day (like getting the pups used to their crates and letting them get used to their new place) rather than cleaning messes. 

 

We chalked it up to them eating something unusual when still in the breeder's home, but the diarrhea continued until next morning, and then the puking started. Of course, that morning we worried sick and it had to be a Sunday and all the vets offices in our town were closed. So we made the almost two hour drive to the next big city where there was an emergency animal hospital with our two new pups. Einstein was hospitalized that same day as he started to look dehydrate, while his sister who was feeling better came back home with me. 

 

When Einstein got better, we got a call to pick him up. I was super eager to bring him home when the receptionist greeting me remarks: "Boy, your pup is wild. We had a hard time restraining him and we needed to get extra help." I remember saying something along the lines of "What?" He's just a 9-week old puppy!" but he kept telling me he was acting like a wild horse giving everybody a hard time. I therefore chalked it up to two things: they either confused him with another non-collaborative older puppy or they were just not too experienced in handling pets who were just scared of going to the vet.

 

The moral of the story is that, I think some veterinarian offices lack the proper training needed to understand how scary a vet visit can be for dogs and some may appear biased on certain breeds (I even had a vet that refused to microchip my Rotties because he was afraid, even though they were wagging their tails and happy!). We changed vet the same day and got them microchipped with no issue from a more experienced veterinary clinic.

 

Here's the thing: I think it's super important to build a good relationship with vets and their staff. It's best to start from an early age so that the pup learns to get familiar with the staff and vet so that a long lasting relationship starts on the right paw. I am super picky on vets and often I had to visit several until finding the right one who proved trustworthy to both me and my dogs. The search is not always an easy one. 

 

Lately, I have been telling owners to seek veterinary offices that adhere to the "fear free" principles. https://fearfreepets.com/  If you have one nearby, it may be worth of a try (I can't of course say they are all great, but at least they have undergone specialized training to tackle a dog's emotional wellbeing during visits) and mention the reason you chose them in the first place so to emphasize the importance you place on the emotional aspect of veterinary visits and establishing a long-lasting relationship. 

 

It is difficult to know exactly what may have happened during that visit that may have turned your pup's experience going to the vet an aversive one, since he was taken inside without you. It could be he was restrained for the procedure, it could be he didn't like the needle prick and now associates going to the vet with pain, it could be he just felt insecure being around strangers without you. If you took him in to have his paws and nails checked if could be he didn't like them handling his feet and didn't collaborate as they would want. Not to mention, some dogs during vet visits release alarm pheromones if they are frightened and your pup could have detected them and started labeling the place as scary.  So several variables there. 

 

If you don't have a fear-free clinic near you, sometimes, veterinarians who own large dogs may also be more understanding. My last vet owned a Cane Corso and she admitted that she wasn't able to clip his claws and brought him in to have her veterinary technicians do it for her!  Here's something that may be perceived as shocking: I have known some of the most obedience and socialized dogs (dogs who competed in sports and dogs who were service dogs) who dreaded having their nails clipped. All it takes sometimes for certain dogs is just clipping too close to the quick and the dog's trust may be gone. 

 

Here's the thing: dog feet play such an important role for a dog's survival (they are used for locomotion after all), and dogs seem to be aware of this at an instinctive, adaptive level. In the wild, an animal with an injured foot would become very vulnerable. Add to that the fact that dog paw pads are loaded with nerve endings and the top paws are also loaded with them (to the point of those nerve endings firing off upon sensing pressure and sending a warning to the brain). So pressing on those paws to trim the nails is already unpleasant on its own. 

 

However, this doesn't mean that we can't override somewhat a dog's instinct to withdraw his paw when touched and not feeling comfortable in us handling them. We can (and should) work on paw handling exercises, especially in puppies, so that we will be able to remove a thorn, inspect the paws for cuts and clip them as needed. From your description, I think it's more of a matter of taking baby steps since you describe being actually able to trim one or two nails without objecting much. This gives you a good starting point to work on. 

 

Actually, I must admit to never really doing a whole full four paws nail trim to my Rotties so to keep things short and sweet rather than doing the whole paws at once. I could have done that if I wanted to, but always thought it was best to not push things as I never take a dog's collaboration for granted (a day may come that for some reason or another they may be more paw sensitive one day). I know there are people who restrain their dogs no problem and forcefully subject their dogs to tolerate things, but I think as one becomes more attentive to a dog's subtle signs of discomfort and listen to their silent conversations (a quick tongue flick, a yawn), we get more attuned to how they are truly feeling. 

 

I wouldn't worry about his feet getting cold in the winter, unless it's unusually cold and you're planning to walk him on ice and places where ice salt is spread. Those cases may warrant doggy boots. I think there are more dangers with walking on hot concrete than walking a dog on a cold day. If where you live gets super cold and it snows a lot, tell your vet your concerns. Rottweilers luckily don't have much fur between their paws so little snowballs forming in between toes is pretty rare. 

 

 Walks can certainly help trim those nails down. Now that I think back, I rarely trimmed my Rottweiler's nails when younger unless they got some injury requiring weeks of rest or when they grew older and started walking, digging and playing less. Vets mostly said their nails looked good, until they started aging. That's when I started to see more of that little curve needing a trim so I needed to step in and trim nails, but initially only the front paws, then later on, even the rear.  Of course, not all dogs are made equally and therefore some dogs may need more frequent trims due to individual nail shape (some claws wear down easier). 

 

In general, long nails start creating problems affecting gait when they are overgrown. You sound like a too diligent owner though to allow that to happen.  I would check with you vet about the necessity/ frequency of nail trims for your pup to play it safe. Every dog is different and therefore may require more or less trims.  

 

So I think you are on the right path on creating positive associations with having his paws handled and may just need to tweak things up a bit. I therefore think you may just need to just make little adjustments and break down criteria into smaller components, such as aiming to do just one or two nails a day and checking your pup for signs of getting impatient/stressed and gradually working your way up.

 

I think in many young pups, they struggle more with staying still more with a lifted paw than the the fact they don't like having their feet handled. So the biggest struggle is often duration. When working on nail trims, it therefore helps to break up the action into small steps (make it short and sweet) and look for what's known as a conditioned emotional response. In other words, the pup acting happy and eager to have his paws touched because it means good things. 

 

It often  helps to have a helper hold some long lasting goodies while you clip. For example, you can hold the paw and clip/Dremel while a helper lets him lick some remnant of meat-based baby food (with no onions or garlic in it) from a jar. Then once done clipping the nail off that paw, all good things end, no more access to the baby food, until you hold the next paw for the next trim. Then once done, you can give a jackpot of several tasty treats. As always, go slow, this is a skill you want to preserve for the rest of his life. 

 

Here is an example of the process of using a Dremel for dog nails. Note the baby steps, however consider that your pup may need further steps or a personalized approach based on individual factors. 

So keep things short and sweet, make sure to end things before he starts growing impatient. End the trim always on a positive note (feed high-value treats), so he no longer has a desire to run out of the room but rather looks up at you for reinforcement. The ultimate goal is having him almost begging you to have his paws touched and/or trimmed because it leads to all these wonderful things. 

 

I hope this helps!

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Best,

Adrienne

 

 

 

[Adrienne]

Forgot to add: on top of taking a step-by-step approach, if your 7-year-old German Shepherd is very collaborative, have Gibson watch her having her nails trimmed and you praising her for being calm. Chances are, he may come to learn there's nothing to fear, and maybe when it's his turn he may feel a little more eager (or at least reassured) to have it done. Pups can learn quite a lot from watching other dogs.  However, if you know what triggers her moaning avoid exposing him to that (clip her nails while he is out in the yard or on a walk with another family member) or he may pick up her negative emotions about that and that can have a lasting negative impact on him. Just a thought.

[KylieDaniels]

Adrienne,

 

Thank you so much for your detailed response! I really appreciate you taking so much time to answer my questions! I appreciate your kindness and understanding even more.

 

I was very upset with my Vet for shaming me. I had thought I was doing almost everything within my power to ensure I socialized him because I didn't want people to fear him when he's fully grown. I take him everywhere I go unless it's to a place they will not allow him to enter (most grocery stores, clothing stores, etc.). I take him with me to any store that will allow him to enter. He's been doing so well in his training that he doesn't pull on the leash anymore, he matches his stride perfectly to mine and walks directly on my right side. Even if I need my hands and attach his leash to the cart, he matches me stride for stride in stores.

 

He's going to be a very large dog and I have a 3-year-old at home with me; therefore, she's going to have other little people here eventually. It's important to me that her friends or the parents of her friends do not fear him or think badly of him. This is why I've been so diligent in my efforts to socialize him in any way I can during the pandemic. I tried explaining to them that he doesn't act scared for anyone else, even complete strangers. Whenever we're walking or in stores, people are simply drawn to him due to his adorableness. I see them begin to approach him, I ask them to stop and wait a few feet away. I give him the command to sit and reward with a treat from my bag, and then inform them they are able to approach him. If he remains calm and in the sitting position for them to fully approach, I give him another treat from my bag. I was doing this in an attempt to train him to sit and remain calm while people approach him because once he's fully grown, his excitement can appear scary to strangers. The breeder stated his dad was 110 pounds and his mom was 125 pounds, so they're assuming he's going to be somewhere in between those weights.

 

I want him to be an everyday companion for me as I work from home most days. I'd like to be able to take him everywhere I go which means I'm extremely diligent and strict on the way I train him. It drives my family members crazy because they think I'm depriving him of having a care-free and fun puppyhood, but I keep stressing to them how important it is to train them when they're young because it will be much harder to train him later on. Our German Shepherd is very well-trained and follows every command of mine. She's not as obedient when it comes to other family members, but I think she simply knows I'm the head of the household for her and our other pets.

 

I will make sure to try those techniques with his nails! Perhaps I can simply keep him walking twice a day to avoid them getting too long.

 

A few things I've noticed and need some guidance on are included below:

 

1. Barking and whining. He has recently developed the desire to whine in the crate. He isn't in the crate very often, though. He never really has been in the crate very often since I'm home almost all day every day. He sleeps in the crate at night to ensure he doesn't chew anything or have an accident somewhere in our home, but his crate is in our Master Bedroom. We've always kept it in our Master Bedroom because we didn't want him to be fearful on his own elsewhere in the house. This also ensures our daughter isn't sneaking out of her room to go play with him during the night. We also have a crate for him in my home office to ensure he has somewhere safe and comfortable to lay down while I'm working at my desk. This crate door usually remains open unless I have to prepare meals or do an activity that requires my attention to be off of him for more than a minute. He's a chewer, so if I can't have my eyes on him, I have to put him in the crate to ensure he doesn't eat something that could harm him. He has also began to bark, but the barking isn't constant. He barks if I leave the room and he's alone in his crate. And he barks when he hears the doors open. Is this normal? He just started doing this, so I wanted to make sure this is normal and wanted to know if there is something I can do to get him to not bark when the doors open. His bark is cute and innocent now, but I don't want strangers to walk into our home someday and his bark scare the living daylights out of them. I just wasn't sure if there is something I can do to train his barking to ensure people aren't scared of him. He barks sometimes on walks now, too, when he sees strangers approaching. I simply want to be able to train him early on since it will be easier for me to do it now than it will be to do it later in his life.

 

2. Dogwalkers. Within the next month or two, I will be taking a position that will require me to leave the home for 7-8 hours a day. He's never been alone for that long since I've worked from home since he joined our family. He eats 3 meals a day (6:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM). I let him out of the crate in the morning to go potty, he immediately goes back to his crate on his own because he knows it's breakfast time and this is where he eats his meals, he eats breakfast, and 15 minutes later I take him on his morning walk around the block. He pees, poops, and we walk for about 20 minutes and then I take him back inside to his crate where he waits for me to finish breakfast for my daughter, shower, and get ready for the day. During the day he spends most of his time out of the crates with me either doing housework or working in my office. At 11:55 AM, I left him out again to keep the routine for each meal the same, and he immediately returns to his crate to eat his lunch. 15 minutes later, I let him into our backyard where he pees, poops, and has 30 minutes of yard time to play, run around, etc. while I prepare lunch for my daughter. He spends most of his time out of the crates with me either doing housework or working in my office, again. At 4:30 PM, I have to return him to his crate to prepare dinner. My family and I sit down at about 5:15-5:20 to eat. At 5:55 PM, I let him out to go potty and he immediately waits in his crate for me to put his dinner in there for him. 15 minutes later, I take him for his second walk of the day, he pees and poops, and we walk for another 20 minutes. When we get home, my husband usually keeps an eye on him while I get my daughter ready for bed. At 7:45 PM, it's story time and he's so conditioned in his schedule now that as soon as I announce it's story time, he pushes the door to my daughter's room open with his nose and lays down next to Ava while I read a story or two to my daughter in the rocking chair. Both dogs wait for me to finish and then I sit next to my daughter's bed until she falls asleep. Ava sleeps in my daughters room with her, and Gibson sleeps in the crate in our Master Bedroom. I let both dogs out, again, around 8:15 PM - 8:20 PM. Gibson doesn't return to his crate until 9:00 PM for bedtime. As you can see, he's used to a very set schedule. I guess my question would be, do you recommend dogwalkers or caretakers for pets to assist in their transition? If so, would you recommend I have them come twice a day (morning routine and lunch routine)? Our morning routine would change drastically because I will have to get up earlier, get ready for the day earlier, get my daughter ready for daycare, etc. to make it to my job by 7:30 AM each morning. If I hired someone, they would come around 5:45 AM to make sure his morning routine remains the same, and come back again for his lunch routine. Or do you recommend I begin changing his routine now and simply have them come once a day for his lunch routine?

 

3. Training. Gibson mainly gets trained by me. We've noticed he doesn't seem to want to listen to the other people in our home. Do I simply have them train him as well? Or should I be the only one training him to avoid confusing him? He's very well-behaved with me, but he tends to ignore his training whenever I'm not home or if I'm not in the room.

 

Kylie

[Adrienne]

You are very welcome!

Getting our dogs to be collaborative with us touching their paws is very important. You never know one day he may get a little cut you need to medicate, or an embedded thorn or you may just need to check his paws or clean them.  I would still work on paw handling and mimicking nail trims every now and then (making it a fun, rewarding game), even if you can keep those nails trimmed down by walking. This because when they get older, those nail trims may become more and more necessary, and also because sometimes vets will give complimentary nail trims to their clients and we don't want them to restrain him and subjecting him to something unpleasant because he doesn't like it (hopefully you have found a fear-free practice in your area).

 

 You may find this read about socializing with children helpful, although I know with this COVID19 things may not be as easy as they were. But it even helps to have him watch/hear kids play (where permitted) while he's in the car, (as you work on creating positive associations) and it can help as well walking him at a distance from them but where he can see them and hear them. This doesn't mean though that even if we socialize our dogs, we can trust them around kids 100 percent. We also need to supervise and prevent putting our dogs in overwhelming situations always watching them carefully for signs of stress and doing everything possible to ensure safety. 

 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/socializing-puppy-children/

 

For sake of a story, when my Rotties were pups they both showed signs of loving being around kids. They where the impersonation of "Good dog  Carl".  So when the neighbor kids would stop by to say hello, I would let them free as the kids loved asking them tricks. Well, to make the story short, one day the smaller child started asking Kaiser to roll over and she tripped as she was doing that and fell right on Einstein's tummy. Einstein got startled and growled as he moved away and she got startled too by his reaction, although she understood and got over it quickly. To remedy, I asked her to feed him some treats so he could understand and there were no hurt feelings. She fed him a couple treats as she told him "my whoops scared you Einstein, but we are still good friends OK?" But sure that "whoops" got me thinking!

 

Although I was happy Einstein was good enough to "use his words" that day, I got worried about that and all sorts of "what if" scenarios started playing in my mind. "Gosh, what if he bit her?" Was his bite inhibition going to be good in that scenario to cause nothing more than wet skin? " We worked a lot on bite inhibition on our dogs since puppies but I wondered his response when startled. "Gosh what if she got hurt and I had to take her to the hospital" Even the thought of a small "boo-boo" and going to explain to her mom what happened sent chills to my spine.  I also went as far as wondering if I could desensitize him to a child falling on him by me mimicking the fall and feeding him treats right away. But then, what if he would be OK with me and not a child? Was I aiming too far? How could I recreate the event?  So to make the story short, that day, the  relaxation I had went away, it was surely an eye opener and I started to go with management, putting a baby gate and telling the kids to give treats and ask tricks from there. Better be safe than sorry!

 

On another occasion, a child with an intellectual disability at an open-event came from nowhere and went straight to hugging Einstein tightly in a headlock fashion placing his face so close to his. Something I really never did to him myself! I literally saw his eye almost popping out. Alarm bells started ringing, but I was happy I had treats so I just fed several to him in a row until the child dislodged and he appeared fine with that. Phewww.....

 

I like what you are doing in stores. Having him sit for greeting is good for impulse control and also for forming positive associations with people. In the dog training world, there's a saying "Pavlov is always on the dog's shoulder." In other words, even though we are asking for operant behaviors that fall under operant conditioning (like sit, down, heel, come etc). when we reward dogs for doing all that, we are also to some extent potentially forming positive associations with us and the environment that surrounds them (and that potentially includes people). It goes something like this: "every time I see a person I am asked to sit and get a tasty treat, seeing people is good!"

 

Here are some tips/ideas that come to mind in regards to the issues you have mentioned:

 

Barking and whining

 

Although we try our best to create positive associations with crates, there are always chances that the crates risk being perceived as something unpleasant because they often come to be associated with: 1) a sense of frustration -not being able to do what the dog wants to do (especially if not exercised enough/not given enough mental stimulation, 2) social isolation- dogs are often crated when we must leave 3) restriction-staying still when young dogs want to be in perpetual movement, hence while it's best to coordinate crate use with when dogs are more likely to be ready to nap. 

 

Your dog's whining may be because he's not too used to being in it and/or he has associated it with social isolation or he's just bored/frustrated. To remedy this, I find it very helpful to find a compromise: "you go in the crate, but when you're in there, you get wonderful things." To help make a more significant impact, give something long lasting so that he'll be kept occupied for some time. 

 

You can find more tips on making the crate a great place to be here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/

 

Barking at opening doors is rather normal 'watchdog" behavior. Rotties were bred to be guardians so they are vigilant. They tend to take a "wait and see" approach usually, but if they can't figure who is opening the door, they may bark, especially if confined, which doesn't allow them to be aware of what may be going on. You can work on this by using the hear that method if you wish, although some dog owners want a dog who barks at noises of people possibly entering properties so they can be alerted, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. 

 

Here's the hear that method if interested:

 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

 

And here's  look at that, if he starts to bark too much at triggers out of the window:

 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

 

Same exercise above can be done with strangers on walks. When you spot one, make a smacking sound with your mouth, maybe ask as well to make eye contact and deliver a tasty treat. You'll find this mentioned as well in the look at that exercises link above. 

 

2) Dog Walkers

 

You will need to get him used to you leaving gradually if you are going from being home all day to suddenly being away. Many dogs struggle with this, if we don't take steps prior to getting him used to his new routine. With COVID19 owners staying home and then going to work we have seen a great surge of separation anxiety. So yes, I feel it would be important getting him used to what his new routine would look like once you start your new job. He will surely still benefit from having somebody stop by midday (or even on more occasion) as he will need to be exercised and taken out to potty and 7 to 8 hours are quite a lot for a young dog with lots of energy. So whatever your new routine will be make sure to get him used to it gradually, preferably weeks in advance. Where are you planning to confine him during your absence? Boredom can lead to considerable destruction. Has he ever been left for so long before? Will some family members be around during the day?

 

3. Training

 

I think it would be important for other family members to be able to train your dog too. They need to be totally on the same page as you though to prevent confusion and inconsistencies. So make sure they use the same exact cues and methods you employ. Initially, have them next to you showing what you do and stay there with them as they repeat and execute. This is so you can correct them as needed and to help your dog switch over more readily. Then start moving away in the background. Responding to others can turn helpful that day you may be busy or need to spend time away and your family needs to take over, and also helps your dog generalize his cues to other people, which helps proof his training as long as it's always consistent.  Your dog walker/pet sitters too may benefit from having him respond to their cues. 

 

Our Rotties were both trained to respond to both of us and other family members who would visit. This worked well when I was on business trips or continuing education events and when hubby was at work or called for jury duty.  I remember when we took Petra and Einstein the first day to boarding,  they told me they wouldn't eat until later when really hungry. It only struck me I forgot to tell them that they needed to say "go!"  in order to get them to eat! They were both trained to sit for their food bowls and only eat once we told them to and that word was "go!", so they were just being the good doggies they were. So if you ever board your Rottie, it's good if staff can also use the same cues you do, as long as you remember to tell them!

 

I am glad you are asking all these great questions. I am all for preventing problems and nipping them in the bud. Your Rottie is nearing the doggy adolescent stage, so if you haven't read about it, here's a head's up!

 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/

 

Happy training!