Aggression in 12 week old Rotty

[Loba]

No...this is not the standard Rotty behaviour. I do understand the difference!

This is a 12 week old purebred male pup up to date with all vaccinations, worming etc and given a A grade health check by our vet.

He eats well (mainly a BARF diet? and his toileting is so  regular that it makes his toilet training far easier.  He is crated at night in the living room as our old dog (10) sleeps in the bedroom with us.

Twice now he has very deeply growled at a visitor who approached him. This was a head lowered  straight legged pose and his hackles were raised. He also lifts his leg to urinate. Nb 12 works old and often tries to hump the legs of children or timid adults. 

We keep him on a long line in the house so are getting better at preventing his behavior but even so occasionally we have to correct the behavior instead. We use a firm voice to say No and then usually tell him to lie down.

He complies INSTANTLY , is very submissive and affectionate afterwards. 

He is the most demonstratively affectionate dog I have ever owned and is easy to teach, given his age. 

Am I doing the right thing by preventing or correcting his actions? Is his behavior the sign of a naturally dominant dog or a puppy just *trying it on?*

How do I handle this?

 

[persephone]

have you discussed this with his breeder ? Were there any  signs of this when he was still at the breeders ? 
What is his behaviour like when away from the house/yard? 
Has he been to a puppy obedience class/puppy  school ?How was the behaviour there ? 

Can you video any of this behaviour ? 

[Dogsfevr]

Agree contact the breeder & then contact a very good trainer .These are warning signs & no one can tell you over the net how to go about things with this pup .
There could be many factors BUT seeing it in real time is a must

[corvus]

There's no difference really between "naturally dominant" and "trying it on". Both of them don't necessarily explain what he is doing and why, though. Some individual dogs have a very proactive coping style, which means when they are stressed, they are likely to choose a strategy that involves actively taking on the stressor rather than passively avoiding it or tolerating it. I had a puppy 9 years ago that was doing this kind of thing. I worked to avoid eliciting those behaviours in the first place and also worked gently on improving his tolerance of the stimuli that provoked them. For him, a lot of it comes down to stress. Things worry him and he thinks he should do something about it. Encouraging him to choose more passive strategies and rewarding him for tolerating things has helped enormously. He's a dog that has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, but I don't think that is why he was like this as a puppy. 

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

I don't want to worry you but one of my old bosses who'd had Rottis for years, purchased a puppy from a breeder.  There was trouble from day one with growling, he couldn't be trusted at all with any visitors - even people he'd known since he was a puppy so was always locked away for safety whenever anyone came to the house.

 

She was really concerned about him the whole time and his aggressive behaviour, she went back and forth to vets etc but then at 12 months of age he was taken for his vaccinations and attacked the vet.  He was immediately put to sleep.  

 

[tdierikx]

Was his growling behaviour towards the same person both times, or different people?

 

T.

[DerRottweiler]

Rotties are naturally aloof towards strangers. 

 

The fact that his head was lowered indicates fear as opposed to dominance to me. A dominant Rottie stands tall and strong when triggered by the relevant drives (puppy is too young for those drives to be active as well). 

 

Socialise him more with guests and teach him that strangers in your company are to be tolerated and not feared (he doesn't need to like them, but he should not growl at them either). 

 

Some Rotties are more wary of strangers than others. My previous Rottie was fine with everyone. Current male completely dislikes anyone foreign. Current female is like a cat and loves anyone and anything. They're all different.