Rottweiler agressive toward dogs and jumping at visitors

[BeverleyKuster]

Our 2 year old Rottweiler has been going backward with regards to his behaviour. he has started being agressive towards other dogs on his walk and jumps up at visitors. It has got to the stage that I dread taking him out. We have tried many training courses on line and even had someone round for a while last year but it has got worse over the past 10 months. We are currently retraining him to walk focusing on us and he will be great for a couple of walks but then start pulling and barking and jumping and he is hard to control. We need help   

[Adrienne]

Hi there, 

Welcome to the forums!

At the age of 2, your Rottweiler is officially in the dog adolescent stage, a time when dog-to-dog interactions tend to deteriorate in some cases. 

The aggression you are describing towards other dogs on walks is something that requires (at least initially) more behavior modification rather than training. This is because when dogs are reactive, they are often too over threshold to cognitively function to the level of responding to our cues (commands) and therefore, they require a systematic approach which focuses to first work on the dog inwards, that is, through the emotional state. This can be accomplished through a well structured behavior modification program entailing desensitization and counterconditioning. If you haven't worked on these methods before (or there was sloppy implementation) this can be the missing link, basically the main reason why you are encountering hurdles in your process. 

Desensitization entails presenting stimuli the dog is reactive towards to in less salient, less overwhelming ways. In a dog reactive towards other dogs, dogs are often presented in a less overwhelming way by increasing distance and often starting with dogs who are less likely to elicit a response. Just like people phobic of spiders cope better seeing a tarantula behind a glass case at the zoo compared to having one crawling on their arm, dogs cope better with their emotions when we take baby steps and prevent exposure at levels that overwhelm them. Here is a read about the desensitization process:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

Counterconditioning entails creating positive associations. Back, to the person fearful of spiders, the emotional fear/disgust response may change if, every time a spider is presented, tasty food items appear and the participant's favorite music is played.  This method has been actually employed in a study with very effective results https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11060935/. 

Back to dogs, the use of high-value foods remains the most popular approach, although some dogs may struggle eating when they are in a reactive state, but that becomes an indicator that a more systematic desensitization approach is needed (often this entails increasing distance). 

When using desensitization along with counterconditioning it's always important to pay attention to a dog's body language, watching for signs of stress. Some signs may be quite subtle and not easy to readily recognize compared to others. Here is a guide:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/signs-fear-stress-dogs/

If we notice signs of stress, most likely that's a quite accurate sign that the dog is over threshold. Important in behavior modification is to ensure the dog is kept under threshold as much as possible. Here is a read about threshold levels in dogs:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

Management is also important in keeping a dog under threshold and for the purpose conducting behavior modification. The goal of management is avoiding to expose reactive dogs to situations they are not ready to be exposed to causing them to go over threshold. For example, if we are walking the dog and we haven't worked yet in closer exposure and a dog is heading our way, an emergency u-turn would turn helpful:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/

So to recap, the goals of behavior modification consist of taking baby steps, creating positive associations, keeping the dog under threshold and managing the dog's environment always scanning the environment to ensure our dogs are protected from encounters that may trigger reactive behavior (the more reactive behavior is rehearsed, the more it established and puts roots) while also having a back-up plan if another dog is coming too close (emergency u-turn, crossing the road).

A good place to start behavior modification is practicing having your Rottie act calm seeing other dogs from a window at a distance. You can see a sample of this exercise here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

Then, the same exercises can be applied on walks with dogs at a distance, ideally always under the guidance of a dog behavior professional using his/her own dogs (if calm enough) before proceeding to other types of dogs.  If your dog shows signs of regressing, that's often an indicator that we are speeding through the process too fast. This is a very common problem. It's therefore important to take some steps back and find again that sweet spot where the dog sees other dogs at more distance and acts calm, before gradually moving on working closer.

It also helps to identify several gradients that can make our dogs uncomfortable and keep tabs on them. For example, a dog who copes well seeing calm dogs on walks, may struggle with hyper pups or other dogs who pant and breathe heavily, so we need to more work around these types of dogs. Some dogs may have a more difficult time with larger dogs than smaller dogs. 

Something else to consider is that, with dogs who pull on the leash due to reactivity, we often deal with two problems: the dog who is reactive, but also us humans, who, on the other end of the leash, start worrying about our dog's lunging and pulling behavior. This can surely impact our walks turning them from a leisurely hobby to a dreaded event.  

On top of this, the anticipatory stress of us not being able to control the situation, may travel all the way down the leash and can end up "alerting the dog" even if he was maybe in a calmer, non-reactive state. Concerns about equipment holding up our dogs in unexpected situations can therefore surely put a dent. 

Training tools that help attain better control such as front-attachment harnesses or dog halters (these latter often require a conditioning process) may therefore turn helpful in these cases. 

Most important though are systematic setups with the dog under threshold. These are the most helpful to help boost our confidence in walking dogs, knowing that it is possible to handle better the situation combining conditioning the dog to acting less stressed, and therefore, becoming more responsive, while us humans are learning to relax more.

 Now, a disclaimer is warranted here, behavior modification comes with risks. When dogs are over threshold or in a highly aroused state, dog owners are at risk for a re-directed bite (sometimes just from being touched!) and other people/dogs around can be at risk too if not enough distance is taken or should people come too close or should the dog lunge forward or escape. For safety and correct implementation of behavior modification, it is therefore best to enlist the help of a dog behavior professional for in-person coaching and to ensure the dog is kept under threshold and not exposed to stimuli/situations that may be too overwhelming.  

I hope this helps.

I will be tackling the jumping behavior shortly in another post. 

 

[Adrienne]

I find that jumping up at visitors is often more of a problem of visitor compliance than training the dog. I don't know about you, but when my Rotties were about your Rottie's age, we had countless visitors who couldn't help themselves but sweet talk to our dogs in an enthusiastic way and pet them and really hype them up. What was more bothersome was the fact of, telling them our "dogs were in training" and therefore requesting them to ignore them, but they just couldn't resist. My biggest pet peeve were visitors who weren't compliant at all in following our instructions and ended up often petting and giving attention to our dogs when they were jumping! 

These visitors would often remark "But it's OK, they are dogs, they just want to say hello! " but I remarked back, "it might be OK for you, but that doesn't mean other guests will be OK with that, plus dogs get confused when they are allowed to jump up on some people, but not on others!" So we opted to simply close our dogs when such non-compliant guests stopped by (or we kept them at a distance with one of us holding them on leash or behind a baby gate) at least until we got their jumping behavior more under control. This was important so to also prevent rehearsal of the problem behavior considering that, the more dogs jump, the more they will want to do it, especially if positive feedback through attention is provided by visitors. Soon jumping therefore risks becoming an established habit and the default way for dogs to greet people. 

So with jumping up on guests, it can help a whole lot if you could enlist the help of some volunteers willing to ignore your dog and should he manage to jump, provide quick feedback by turning their back on him and possibly even exiting the door if he keeps up at it. When they enter the home though and he behaves without jumping, he gets a tasty treat. 

You can read read more about jumping here (scroll down the bottom where it mentions jumping on guests/other people :

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/jumping/

And here is a case study on how I worked on an excitable dog's jumping by desensitizing her gradually to excited greetings: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-assessing-jumping-behavior-desensitization/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-practice-greetings/

With a young Rottie like yours it would also be helpful working on more impulse control and frustration tolerance, you can read more on exercises here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/

And of course, exercise, training and mental stimulation (brain games!) is important too to keep those teenager minds busy in productive ways. 

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Happy training!

Adrienne 

 

 

[BeverleyKuster]

Thanks Adrienne we will work through these. I can relate to the fact that it could be my own fear that rubs off on him when I see another dog but this is because he attached a dog for no reason and I am therefore worried it will happen again. We stopped using a harness as it only used his strength against us and are using a bridle lead now. We already use the turn around approach when we see a dog and that works well, we turn regularly so that he doesn't expect anything. Will give some of the techniques ago and let you know how we get on. Thanks Beverley 

[Adrienne]

Sounds like a plan! 

Keep me posted. I am here if you have any further questions or just wish to provide updates.

Best,

Adrienne