by barb
Sassee is our 3 year old 150 lb spayed spoiled rotten rott.
I can not leave the house without taking her, she has a total child’s fit if she is left alone. When her dad, my husband, is home and I leave she is totally fine but if he leaves and I stay she goes wild tries to attack him to keep in the house she just started this behavior — we do not punish her because she had an ACL repair a year ago and I am afraid she may get hurt.
This is our 2nd rott and i babied the first and boy did i do this bad, does anyone think I am able to change and we can correct this now?
please help
Barb – I can understand that you need to be careful after Sassee’s surgery, but she should be healed up just fine by now and you can’t allow her to control you or your husband with her behavior.
She’s an adult, but still plenty able to learn new behaviors and understand a correction. When she gets ‘wild’ about your husband leaving her, be firm but loving and a verbal correction in a low, firm voice will help.
She’s big and strong but Rotties are sensitive dogs, so you don’t want to have to be physical with her in terms of pushing or punishment, that will only make her more upset. Have her wear a pull-tab leash (see my Leash Training page to see one of these, they’re basically a very short leash that looks more like just the ‘handle’ and are used for training)attached to her prong collar if you are expecting your husband to be leaving and use that to give her a quick ‘pop’ as a physical correction. Not HARD, just enough to get her attention, then repeat the verbal ‘No’.
If it helps, put her in her crate in another room before you husband gets ready to go out, that way she won’t get agitated knowing he’s leaving. Then let her out ‘after the fact’ and be very calm and low-key with her.
It takes time for any puppy or dog to un-learn bad behavior and learn the more appropriate or acceptable one, but Rotties are very smart and your girl will ‘get it’ given time.
Meanwhile try to refrain from spoiling her in terms of allowing her to get her own way, that isn’t good for anyone. You will all be happier if she has firm, fair behavioral guidelines to follow, that are enforced with loving discipline.
Good luck with it all. Thanks for visiting 🙂
