A person who bought a pup off me is asking for help, i'm not sure what to say

A lady purchased a pup off me back last year, we travelled to their home which is 250 miles away to vet it before we gave them the pup, all seemed well.

The pup comes from a fantastic background and parents are very well behaved to both other animals and humans.

They have contacted me now saying that he is their daughters dog and is showing aggression to them eg: wont let them in their daughters room etc will growl and bark never bitten them.
Also a young child run up to him the other day and he snapped at him but this is the first situation that this has happened as he is usually brillient with children and babies, every time he sees the child in question now all he does is bark.

This is a rottweiler we are talking about, he has just turned 1 and I want to help sort this out before he gets any bigger

I have also been informed that usually if people walk into her room eg: her friends then he bounces up and down growling and barking which I think would most likely be talking but if he doesn't get shown any affection from them or if he is not being held back he will go for them as in bite them. To me this is just sounding worse and worse and I am gobsmacked that a dog I bred can behave like this it is actually very upsetting

My first thought is not trained but can any of you give me some pointers on what to tell them, maybe a bit of advice in getting him out of this ?
Thanks

Anything involving something like this sort of issue really needs someone experienced to see whats happening in person so they can gauge body language, triggers, environmental aspects etc etc.

The best advice you can give them is firstly a thorough vet check to rule out any medical cause then to call in a good behaviourist, [ not an alpha schmalpa merchant, they are totally blinkered in cases involving displays of aggression and dont understand that it comes in many forms ].

You can check for behaviourists in their area here

http://www.apdt.co.uk/

and here

http://www.apbc.org.uk/

If you can give us an idea which area they are [ nearest Town or City ] someone might be able to give a personal recommendation of a good behaviourist :smt001

don't beat yourself up for it either (((hugs))) as breeders it's very hard to breed perfectly sound nimals all thetime, with the rats, I would be heartbroken if any of mine were agressive in their new homes, as no doubt you are, but I do realise, that it's likely that a small percentage of the babies I breed will have some sort of temperament issue. what sorts the good breeders from the bad is a willingness to help the new owners, and also to work away from those problems as much as they can in the future - sounds like you're doing a grand job!

Sorry I can't help on the topic in hand though.
xx

Whilst I sort of agree with Zoundz, I think it is far more likely that the issues are due to the way the family are training and socialising (or not) the pup.

There was a similar thread on here not so long ago - an American lady who breeds boxers. She was told that the pup had resource guarding issues and she was devasted. She ended up getting the pup back and it was fine - seems it was just the kids in the home didn't understand how to treat a dog and wouldn't leave it alone.

I know they are miles away from you, but is it feasible for you to visit and see just what is going on? - I really feel that how they are treating the pup is key to this. Not that I think they are mistreating it, but probably just doing too many things wrong, probably without realising. If it is down to the family's ignorance and they are not likely to understand this, might it be better for you to offer to take the pup back?

I'm so sorry to read this post, you must be out of your mind with worry.

Whilst I agree with what the others have said regarding behaviourists etc., I also have to agree with Hali. If it were anything I had bred my first reaction would be to get it back and away from the environment that has caused this behaviour.

You obviously know your stock well enough to be gobsmacked that you could have bred anything with this temperament, that says it all to me, it's not something you have done wrong, the home it is in is obviously not suiting it and I would get it removed as soon as possible before anything serious happens.

I wish you luck with whatever route you decide upon.

Sounds like the problem is with the owners (parents) not the dog. They say the dog is their daughters, when they took the responsibility of having a dog. For the dog to act with them like this, sounds like they haven't done any training with the dog just let it hang around with their daughter and not socialised it equally between the family. The first thing I would do is take the dog out of the daughters bedroom and make it sleep elsewhere. Secondly if there are lots of kids in the house, not have the dog in with them if they are running riot. It's not fair on the dog. It is young and will want to play. Now rottis play in their own way and can play roughly, nothing wrong with this just not fair to put it on a dog so young.
I haven't seen this dog but it sounds to me like it is a typical young dog that hasn't had the training or socialisation to grow into that household. Someone shouts Behaviourist because the dog growls etc. I think this is assumed all too quickly sometimes. Oh the dog growls there must be a problem. The problem is the owners haven't committed to helping that dog know where he fits in the house. He's a baby that hasn't been told what's right and what's wrong. It annoys me sometimes when people take on a perfectly good pup, then start having problems when the pup starts finding his feet then blames it on the dog.
Either get them to take a good look at their routine and start committing to training. They are the adults, not their daughter. Or offer to take the dog back and get it homed with people who will appreciate the breed and put the time in. Rottis aren't stupid dogs and are one of the loyalist breeds, however they do need to know what is acceptable and what is not.

Sorry, I was in a rush at the time of writing and did mean to say that I would hazard a guess that the problem is with the owners too. Sorry, i do jumble my meanings in posts

xx

I'd say the problem is with the family, I expect when the puppy was really young the daughter thought it was cute that it defended her against her parents probably even laughed & fussed the dog which he took as praise & so things have escalated. I've seen this with dogs where the woman has praised the puppy by laughing & fussing when it told the husband off for being too close to her then found she had an adult dog who wouldn't let the husband close.
I would suggest they see a behaviorist as soon as possible, as he is now coming to maturity & needs help to learn the right way to behave before the silly owners mistakes become to entrenched. Don't blame yourself dog behavior is not just inherited its also environmental & unfortunately owners don't have to be bad to cause problems just foolish or uninformed.

I could have been clearer too, a good behaviourist assesses whats going on then corrects the human cause which, in the absence of anything medical in a dog, is undoubtedly the source of the problem, not the breeding.

It sounds like a situation where they have found the behaviour in the past funny and have let it go on to the point where they can't / don't know how to stop it, I would say its probably down to human error yet again and they should seek some sort of help where by they will be shown how to deal with it, don't think its the pups fault at all, good luck with it, the others are right don't beat your self up over it its not your or your dogs fault. xx