rottweilers

We have an adorable male rottweiller, two and a half years old. He is

unsurreality_2005...

Uh, wrong. Any TWO week old puppy got all the brains he needs to
OUTWIT the cunning of YOU, AssHowe.

a fantastic housedog and very loveable. However, when people come into
our house he is ok with most of them but if anybody is frightened of
him, he seems to sense this and to make matters worse, will
occasionally lunge at them. We could not trust him with strange
children as we could not take the chance of him actually biting
anybody. He plays relentlessly with our nine year old daughter and
also the six month old kitten !

It is just such a shame that a lot of people are actually frightened of
him and our daughter's school friends can no longer come to our house
unless he is locked in a room. This is only done once a month for a
couple of hours.

Anybody any ideas on how we can socialise him.

prgmrblu...

Walking is a great socializing tool.
When taking a rottie for a walk you just need to
remember that some folks are scared of them.

What I do is make my rottie sit off to the side whenever we
are about to cross paths with others. Be sure that
you have good control to keep him there as the
others pass.

While some will give a wide berth some will also want
to stop, pet, and talk. Your rottie should be made to
stay still in any event. It will make others feel secure
and teach you rottie to be tolerant of others.

I've also taken him to a park and sat him by the kids
(on the outskirts of a play ground). Some kids come running
to pet but he is far enough away to let others feel secure.
While the kids pet I make him stays seated. He loves the attention.
And the kids (and parents) get the idea that rotties aren't all bad.

Believe it or not some of this behavior will spill over to the house.
For more help in the house with friends and family. You should try a good
training class
(or coach in your area) they can really help.

TOTE...

Socializing is a process of exposure. You did attend obedience class with
him, right? If not, do so ASAP. First step is socializing him outside the
home. Every day. The more exposure the better. And to start with he
needs visitors he knows, every day, at the house. Then when you have his
outside socializing and his obedience down you can work on new visitors.
The more exposure the better. One very significant problem is that YOUR
behavior and YOUR reaction is very likely contributing to the problem.
So the wisest and most reliable course of action would be to have a
trainer come and SHOW you how your own body language and behavior can
contribute to or lessen the behavior. Quite often the behavior is
unconcious on the part of the people doing it. So just reading what not to
do doesn't cut it. You need to have someone observe you and bring it to
your attention - to create that crucial awareness.

I have some discussion groups listed on
http://dogplay.com/Behavior/behavior.html that is often a good source of
referrals to competent trainers in your area.