My first Rottie: A few questions

by Kenia Trinidad
(Cranston, RI)

Hi all,
I just got my first rottie 2 weeks ago when he was 6 weeks old.
He is now 8 weeks old today 🙂
My husband named him Hercules!

Ok so here are my questions:

1. He is in biting stage right now.
How long will this last? and
What are some good techniques to use to prevent him from biting anything else besides his toys?

2. I already had a dog name Cindy she is a bichon frise and is 8 years old. She is not very fond of Hercules and gets annoyed when he wants to play with her or gets near her.

What can I do to make sure they get along? or I guess a better question would be:

What can I do so that Cindy likes Hercules?

I don’t want to keep them separate of fear that they’ll go after each other.

Thank you for all your help 🙂

Hi Kenia,
Congrats on your new puppy! A quick look at your questions and then I’ll leave it to the fantastic Rottweiler-owners community here to give you advice 🙂

1. ALL puppies nip and bite, it’s absolutely normal puppy behavior. Some breeds, and some individual puppies, are more stubborn about it than others. Rotties are not especially nippy, but it’s always going to happen when they’re young.

Puppies taken from their momma and littermates before they’re 8 weeks old tend to be much worse at nipping and biting, because they didn’t have enough time to learn bite-inhibition (how hard they can bite before getting into trouble!) within their ‘doggie family’ setting. The weeks from 4 to 8 are when the momma dog teaches her pups correct social behavior and the interaction of the puppies with each other re-inforces that.

Your pup missed out on at least 50% of these lessons, so you’re going to need to have to step up and do the job! This page…. Stop Puppy Biting has all the tips and advice you need to make sure Hercules learns that this behavior is NOT okay. You won’t put an end to it overnight though. It takes lots of time, patience and persistence to help him un-learn this habit, but you will be successful if you follow those guidelines and stick with it.

2. Again it’s perfectly normal for the older resident dog to resent the new puppy. Most older dogs already have their routine and their life is peaceful and just how they like it 🙂 Then along comes a rambunctious puppy to annoy, irritate and generally upset the status-quo. It’s expected that they would feel put out, sometimes jealous too.

This web-page… Introducing A New Puppy gives you tons of help and explains what to expect during those early weeks, and how to handle it.

There is absolutely no reason why you should have to keep these two separated. Cindy will set the ground rules and Hercules will learn where she draws the line. He might be clumsy and bouncy, but he won’t try to hurt her intentionally. Most puppies understand and respect an older dog, no matter if he/she is much smaller than them!

Plus older dogs are more tolerant and accepting of puppies than they are other adult dogs. Cindy will let Hercules know when he’s crossed the line and a little bit of growling, a snap and so on from her is also perfectly normal.

Just be patient, give them a chance to get to know each other and work this out. Obviously supervise them at all times until all the kinks are worked out of their relationship, but you only need to step in if one of them is getting ‘bullied’ to the point of distress or physical harm, and this is very, very rare. Usually if it does happen it’s down to over-excitement and too much enthusiasm, mostly on the puppy’s part.

If that happens, correct the ‘instigator’, separate them for a short while with a time-out, and then go back to normal.

Hope this helps. Best of luck with your extended canine family 🙂