9 month old puppy behavior

 

by stephanie
(arizona)

Hello,
i have a question that is really troubling me. I have 9 month old male rottie and a almost 2 year old female rottie. Just yesterday my 9 month old rottie injured my 12 year old female pug/chiuahua mix.

He has grown up with this dog since we bought him at 8 weeks old. I know that the 12 year old was not playing with him or provoking him in an anyway. I ran outside early yesterday morning because I heard what I thought was him playing too rough with her. But to my horror he had her in his mouth by her neck shaking her. I got him to let her go, as soon as he saw me yelling at him to stop. We had to ultimately put her to sleep because she was having trouble breathing because of the bite to her neck. She was not bleeding or mangled in anyway. So my question is why do you think he would do something like this?

Does a rottweiler puppy not know his own strength and maybe was playing too rough and can hurt a small dog without bad intentions? We socialize him and work with him almost daily. We have had him around our 4 children since the day we brought him home. He has never shown any aggression towards anyone, only a little with other dogs he doesn’t know. But as soon as he get close to the unknown dog his aggression subsides.

He is a wonderful loyal dog, and you can feel their love for you. I am really worried about this, and hope this incident doesn’t mean my dog is going to be dangerous…. :{

Thank you,
Stephanie Olvera

Hi Stephanie
This is a very difficult question to answer because it’s not possible for me to know why your Rottie pup behaved this way as it certainly seems totally out of character for him.

Rottweilers can have a very strong prey-drive, and this instinct (along with his guarding instincts) are likely to be increasing right now as he’s an adolescent rather than a young puppy. Often pups ‘don’t know what to do with’ these instincts at first and may over-react to situations. Generally, as they mature and their training and socialization continues, they learn the boundaries and how to control and understand their feelings.

Unless you were actually watching the dogs when the altercation began it’s impossible to know whether or not the smaller dog ‘provoked’ this reaction, but I would definitely agree that if she did it was entirely unintentional. It’s possible that she got over-excited, or was running and barking/yipping and this triggered your male’s prey drive. It’s a very basic instinct and isn’t something dogs think about, it’s literally an instinctive reaction and he may have grabbed and shaken her without any conscious thought being involved.

The fact that he dropped her when you told him too is good, and shows that he recognizes your authority even in a highly emotional state. Of course, that doesn’t make up for what he did at all, and I am so sorry for the pain that must have caused to you all. That’s a horrible experience to have to go through.

Right now, my personal opinion would not be to over-react to this, or assume your pup is a ‘dangerous dog‘, I think that would be wrong. It could well be that this was one of those isolated incidents that can happen with dogs (or any animals for that matter) and hopefully are never repeated.

BUT I definitely think it would be wise to monitor his interaction with other, smaller dogs and pets very carefully from now on and make it clear to him that ANY show of ‘rough-housing’ or aggression isn’t tolerated. The same goes for interaction with your children if they are very young or toddlers, although I seriously doubt there’s going to be any correlation between the two. This doesn’t mean he’s ‘dangerous’ or ‘aggressive’, but you can never be too careful and it’s always best to be over-vigilant than under-vigilant.

At 9 months your pup is going through some pretty substantial developmental changes and it’s always a challenging time (think of human teenage behavior and you’ll know what I mean), but with love, patience and discipline he will get through it and hopefully grow into a calm, stable and well-behaved adult. It’s important to continue his socialization and training though, as this is something Rotties need as ongoing activities.

IF by any chance, he shows any aggression or similar behavior in the future, then I would strongly recommend seeking some professional help from a dog trainer or canine behavioral specialist so that you can ‘get to the bottom of it’. Hopefully this will never happen, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

I hope this helps some and wish you all the very best of luck.

Comments for 9 month old puppy behavior

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Dec 02, 2015

starstarstarstarstar

rotties play rough NEW
by: Dan My rottie Jack, who is also 9 months old, just wants to play all the time. But dosn’t know his own strength. When your playing with him and you have one of his toy’s in hand he’ll full on jump up and ram you like a bull at a gate, not meaning to harm you, he just wants the toy. If you haven’t got a toy he’ll find a toy and barge into you trying to get to take it. Also when he’s playing with our 11 year old female rottie (who tires easy) and had enough. Jack hasn’t had enough, so to try to get her to play more, he barks, growls, and starts jumping on her hence hurting her. He isn’t trying to hurt her, it’s just that he dosn’t know his own strength. I don’t think we have anything to worry about, as our 10 year old male rottie (who passed away last year), was exactly the same, at that age. But grew into a 75 kilo gentle teddy bear

Jun 22, 2015

starstarstarstarstar

Time to act NEW
by: Anonymous Sorry, telling the OP not to over react is dangerous.

The fact lies that he has killed another dog.

A muzzle would be the least I would be doing along with speaking to a professional.

 


Click here to add your own comments

Return to Your Rottweiler Questions.

 

 

About The Rotty lover 2159 Articles
My name is Dr. Winnie. I earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Duke University, a Masters of Science in Biology from St Georges University, and graduated from the University of Pretoria Veterinary School in South Africa. I have been an animal lover and owners all my life having owned a Rottweiler named Duke, a Pekingese named Athena and now a Bull Mastiff named George, also known as big G! I'm also an amateur equestrian and love working with horses. I'm a full-time Veterinarian in South Africa specializing in internal medicine for large breed dogs. I enjoy spending time with my husband, 2 kids and Big G in my free time. Author and Contribturor at SeniorTailWaggers, A Love of Rottweilers, DogsCatsPets and TheDogsBone