Author Topic: Rottweilers living with other breeds.  (Read 16611 times)

Offline RNF Kennel

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • This is Storm one of my Furkids.
    • View Profile
    • RNF Kennel
Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« on: April 05, 2005, 05:46:44 am »
Hi Everyone,
I am Michelle and lover my rottie furkids very much.  I also have other breeds of dogs. I have Pomeranians and Chihuahau's also.  And they all get along great.  I was wondering if anyone else out there also has smaller breeds that live in harmony with their Rottweilers?
:D
Michelle
RNF Furkids

Offline aendicott

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2005, 11:16:04 am »
I have a Rot/Shep Mix. He's very friendly. He plays great with our Basset Hound. He also plays well with other dogs while off-leash (dog parks). He sometimes acts strange towards other animals when he is on-leash though. With larger breads he is ok. He doesn't do well with smaller dogs/animals. I have two cats also and he loves to chase them and grab them by the neck. Of course, I stop this immediately. He just trampled a 5-8 lb dog the other day. I was walking him on his gentle-leader. He saw the dog and he began running towards him. He is so strong and I couldn't prevent him from continuing. I called out to the owner that we were apparently coming over there. She yelled back ok but did not pick up her dog. I apologized for scaring her dog, Peanut. She was fine with it. My dog did not hurt her dog but he did "mouth" on him. She insisted her dog was a big baby and that he was just fine. She finally picked him up and I continued to hold my dog back as best as I could. She then lowered the dog to my dogs level and wanted them to meet. Ok, but my dog had scared the heck out of little Peanut already. Point of this is that my dog is very "friendly" and wants to meet everyone. However, he is a little rough for small dogs/animals. Since he's still under a year old we are still training him and working out these small behavioral issues.

Offline rotts4me

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2005, 01:01:59 pm »
I have a rescue rottie age 7 1/2 years old, an amstaff age 4 years and another rottie 1 1/2 years.  They all get along great and when my youngest girl is out ont he show tour, the other two (especially the amstaff) get sort of mopey around the house and look for her. :D

Offline lisa2270

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 7
  • Anatolian Shepherds Rule...But So Rotties!
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2005, 02:06:39 pm »
Actually, my Rottie lives with 2 Anatolian Shepherds, which are bigger than Rotties.  My oldest Shepherd, is 4 yrs old, my Rottie is 2 yrs old, and my other Anatolian is 8 weeks old.  My Rottie gets along with everyone, although he's not sure how to play w/the new puppy, but he's being quite gentle with her.   ;D
Love my 3 babies - Zeka, Bodhi & Princess Buttercup

Offline Gulliver

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 6
  • My late and wonderful 140 lb. pal, Gulliver
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2005, 05:54:03 pm »
I had a Rottweiler/Husky mix (Gulliver in the pic).  He loved to play with small dogs, and especially loved it when they "beat up" on him. He would roll over and let them chew on his belly.  He wouldn't, however, let bigger dogs rough him up the way he would a smaller dog.  I also have a Basenji. He and Gulliver got along famously.  The only dog Gulliver had problems with was a young unneutered male Rottweiler who lived in the neighborhood.  Whenever Gulliver saw him he went crazy screaming and howling.  I know if Gulliver had ever gotten off the leash he would have killed that dog.  Don't know what that was about. As I say, though, Gulliver adored small dogs.
From Vinalhaven Island, Maine

Offline rotties4us

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2005, 09:01:45 pm »


I just lost my last of four Rottens.Two were littermate brothers who I had for 10 1/2 years and were Therapy dogs.  The third was a SAR cadaver and tracking/trailing dog who died at 3 1/2 of Lymphosarcoma, and the fourth was given to a lady to be trained as a service dog for her.  We had these four Rotties along with two Pomeranians, and a Heeler mix.  Plus four cats.  The Poms weigh between 4 and seven pounds, full grown, and were the bossdogs.  Itrained all of them myself.  They were never allowed to be ornery to other animals.  They were good or they got popped.  I got MANY compliments on them.  We could take them anywhere dogs were allowed and they were always gentlemen.  They have stayed in many hotels with me at conventions for fire prevention and were the hit of the convention.  I was and am so very proud of my babies.

Dusty :)

Offline Wildlonewolf

  • Full Fledged Chewer
  • *
  • Posts: 63
  • My Lucy Sue!!
    • View Profile
    • Windsor Cheapcycle
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2005, 09:37:42 pm »
Lucy's Best Friend is a Rottie, they get along famously. Even if it does look a little funny to see a Rottie playing with a greyhound!!  :)

Renee & Lucy

lins_saving_grace

  • Guest
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2005, 12:29:29 pm »
We now have 2 Rotts.  Before our second came along though I had a Silky Terrier mix.  She had been around forever and always liked other dogs no matter what kind.  When our first Rott happened she did ok with her...I say only OK because by the time we got the bouncey new puppy Missy was about 14 years old and not able to play much anymore.  But until the day I had Missy put to sleep, we didn't have a problem with either dog getting along.  Lady and Grace, the new Rott, are best friends though...maybe not so much for the reason they are both Rotts, but because they are both very young and playful (too playful almost...it's like raising 2 horses in the house.)   ::)

Offline RottnPeytonsMom

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Peyton
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2005, 12:44:48 am »
I was wondering if you had any tips on how to train your rotties to be gentle with the little dogs. I am getting a yorkie min pin mix pup and I want Peyton to be gentle with him. I am also having trouble getting Peyton to settle down when playing with her house mate which is a springer spaniel lab mix. I never had trouble with the male rottie that i used to have with any other dogs. I trained him myself but for some reason Peyton is more head strong and the training methods that I used on my old rottie Duke just aren't working with Peyton. ANy tips from anyone would be very much appreciated.

Kelly
Please dont forget me, for if I thought you would I would never leave-Christopher Robin

Offline mxphile

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2005, 12:02:47 pm »
Peyton is more head strong and the training methods that I used on my old rottie Duke just aren't working with Peyton. ANy tips from anyone would be very much appreciated.

Kelly
Quote

Hi, Kelly,

What methods of training are you using?  Traditional training methods, even the gentle kinds (like saying "no" to certain behaviors), don't always work well depending on the dog's personality (as I think you're discovering).  Have you tried positive-only training methods?  I've been told that it works particularly well for the head-strong dogs that don't respond well to traditional training.  It also has the added bonus of strengthening your relationship with your dog  ;D.  

We're using it on both our rescue rotties that we got last October.  Murphy is 3 y.o. and was never properly socialized (left alone a LOT) and his former "parents" divorced and gave him away.  Wonderful is 8 y.o. and came from an ok family with kids.  Lots of love from the kids I think, but they bred her for profit and didn't feed her properly so she was malnourished.

Both dogs are responding really well to positive training methods and usually don't get negative attention (I have to keep reminding my husband not to yell at the dogs  >:(... of course the flip side is they mind me better than they do him  ;)).  But there's no hitting, shake cans, leash pops, or anything like that.  We don't walk them on choke chains, although Murphy has to wear a gentle leader when he's out... he's so reactive.

The other thing is Murphy has a high prey drive.  The day after we brought the rotties home, a stray cat adopted us, but after Murphy got the cat in his mouth once (cat was unharmed, but wary of Murphy after that, not surprisingly), we knew we'd have to do a whole lot of training with him or find the cat a new home.  At first we opted for training ('cause she is such a wonderfully sweet cat), but as I mentioned, Murphy had little socialization so it will be a long road before he's good around small animals.  And it may be that the best we can hope for is that he won't go charging after small animals (and blowing leaves, candy wrappers, etc.)  We might never get him to play nicely with them, just leave them alone.  In the meantime, it wasn't fair to the cat to be kept by herself so much (to keep her safe and she didn't like being outside unless we were with her) so we found a great home for her.  Murphy's prey drive kicked in at dog training classes too with the small breeds, which is why I'm wondering if that's what's going on with Peyton.  It's as if, below a certain size, they don't register as fellow dogs to Murphy.

Basically, positive training uses the Nothing In Life Is Free philosophy (NILIF).  The dogs don't get anything good (petting, food, treats, play, etc.) unless they offer you the behavior of your choice that either they know how to do already or that you're currently teaching them (sit, down, stay, etc.).  If they don't do what you want, they don't get the reward... in fact they get ignored === no negative reaction at all, just ignored.

With Murphy's prey drive, we reward his inattention to the small animal and reward his focusing his attention on us when small animals are present (both are the behaviors we're trying to reinforce).  At dog class, he was so intensely focused on the small dogs that we rewarded him anytime he relaxed the tiniest bit or acknowledged that we were even in the room with him  :P.

From what I understand, the danger in using traditional training methods to teach Peyton how to play nice with small dogs is that he might make the association of bad things (corrections) happening when small dogs are around, which will make him more stressed out and possibly more aggressive around small dogs.

I'm fairly new to positive training myself, but I belong to a great yahoo group where there are a bunch of experienced, professional positive-only dog trainers (inlcuding the list owner, Pat Miller, who's written a couple books on positive dog training; Amazon.com sells her books) and if you ask your question there, you'll get much better idea of what, specifically, you can do with Peyton to make his playtime with small dogs safer for the wee ones.  The group is Peaceable Paws at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peaceablepaws/?yguid=22805128.  Most positive dog trainers rely on clickers, too.  You can Google "clicker training" and get an idea of what it's all about.

Good luck and BTW, your Peyton is gorgeous!  What a sweet face!

Michelle

Offline mxphile

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2005, 12:08:43 pm »
Not living with small breeds, but my first rottie, Laney, used to love playing with small dogs at the dog park.  Like another poster here said, she'd go into a down and let the small dogs jump all over her, with a big goofy grin on her face.  Then she'd get up and play rough and tumble with the big dogs.

What was interesting too, is that she always seemed especially interested in other rotties, although she loved playing with all dogs.  Her focus and interactions with other rotties were different somehow  8).

Offline Love n Logan

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #11 on: May 04, 2005, 12:13:45 am »
Hi there,
I am Crista and new to this site. I have owned Rottweilers in the past who have since passed away, both from cancer, and am now staring again with a wonderful new boy. Logan is his name and he is 8 weeks. We have lived with Rotts for about 15 years total and have raised them in multi dog home. They were males and lived with Dachshunds, both Standard and Mini and a 5 lb Yorkie. We also have a senior dog rescue and took in mostly small dogs which our boys were always with. Neither of them had problems with dogs smaller than they were. Also no problem living with birds and other small pets. They were raised with them and saw new small animals who were not in our home as well. We nursed a lamb for a couple of weeks for a Veterinarian who I work for, and our Rotts would lay next to her in our living room.Wonderful ly stable dogs. We did have them from a very young age and made socialization our top priority for them. Especially during very specific "fear ages."

Offline charlotte5050

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 18
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #12 on: May 27, 2005, 02:04:27 am »
Hi!  I just found your board today and I love it here already!  My Rott, Loki, is a 10 month old female, so is still very much in the puppy stage.  I also have a 10 yr old border collie who is "Boss Dog" and doesn't tolerate the puppy nonsense.  I also have a Pomeranian.  Loki is just fascinated with her tail.  At one point she had almost all the hair pulled off it!  If Foxy is outside running around, Loki will catch her by her tail and lift her up!  I don't imagine that Foxy likes it much, but it is hilarious to watch.  I have gotten so that I put Loki on a chain when Foxy is outside without me.  At least she can do her business in peace.  Loki does not bother her when I am outside with them.  Nor does she bother her when she is in the house.  Maybe it is a protection/ownership thing?
Charlotte

lins_saving_grace

  • Guest
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #13 on: May 27, 2005, 07:21:28 am »
Welcome to the board.  Glad to meet you and look forward to seeing pictures.  One of my Rotts is 10 months old too.  The other one is a little over 4 months.  They are a lot of fun. 

Offline lokibud

  • Gnawer
  • *
  • Posts: 23
    • View Profile
Re: Rottweilers living with other breeds.
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2007, 06:31:03 pm »
my six month old rott is very polite with my wife's cat. she has a seven month old ragdoll and all they do is play and sleep. they are best friends and my rott is very good with other dogs as well.