Looking for advice 2-year-old male Rottweiler unpredictable around some dogs.
I’m looking for some advice regarding my 2-year-old male Rottweiler. Overall he’s a really lovely dog,friendly with people, well trained, easy to manage, and generally very calm. He walks nicely on lead, has excellent recall, doesn’t wander off, and I can even take him into work with me because he’s so well behaved.
The only issue we have is around other dogs.
For some background, he’s very well bred and came from a fantastic breeder who I know personally and still regularly keep in contact with. We’re all still in a puppy group chat with owners of his littermates, and he regularly sees his mum and sisters with no issues at all.
We picked him at 4 weeks old and when we collected him at 10 weeks he was already pretty much toilet trained, knew his name because the breeder had been calling him it from the start, and he was honestly one of the calmest, easiest puppies to train. We’ve had experience with large breeds before as we previously had a very boisterous Labrador, so this isn’t our first bigger dog.
Honestly, considering Rottweilers are known as great guard dogs, mine clearly didn’t get the memo. If someone knocks at the door or rings the bell, he just wags his tail and excitedly peeks out the window. He’s never once barked at someone coming to the house. The only bark he really does is a high-pitched playful bark when his little “sister” won’t play with him. Realistically, a complete stranger could walk into my house and he’d probably just think he’s made a new friend.
We also have a small female dog and he absolutely adores her. He was well socialised as a puppy and grew up around lots of family dogs. Normally when he sees another dog he’ll wag his tail and want to sniff them, but he gets very stiff and tense during greetings.
What’s difficult is how inconsistent/unpredictable it feels.
There have been multiple occasions where off-lead dogs have run up to him while he’s off lead and he’s been completely fine, stiff posture, intense sniffing, slightly overstimulated look, then he moves on.
But other times, especially on lead, he’ll approach another dog calmly and then react by snarling if the other dog suddenly barks, jumps around, or tries to play roughly. He’s never bitten another dog, but because he’s a Rottie it obviously looks quite intimidating.
A bigger issue is with my parents’ male dog, who’s a similar age. They used to get along until one incident when my dog was around 6 months old. My parents’ dog was eating, growled, and went for him. Since then my dog seems unable to fully trust him.
My parents’ dog is very playful/bouncy, and although my dog will sniff him and initially seem okay, if the other dog suddenly moves or tries to initiate play, my dog snarls. It feels like he wants calm, controlled interactions and gets uncomfortable with high-energy/playful behaviour. Even though he is bouncy and playful. It’s like it has to be on his terms, I can move suddenly and be bouncing and excited but you can’t. It’s almost like he invites the dog in for the interaction and wants to play then suddenly changes his mind and snarls.
We’ve tried parallel walks, alternating on/off lead, controlled interactions etc, but it’s difficult because one dog wants to play and the other clearly doesn’t.
I’m trying to understand what’s actually driving this behaviour:
- Fear/insecurity?
- Overstimulation?
- Leash frustration?
- Lack of confidence around certain dogs?
- A correction that escalates too quickly?
Has anyone dealt with something similar, especially with guardian breeds or large males? And what helped?
I’d also appreciate any advice on safely rebuilding tolerance with my parents’ dog without forcing interactions.
Thanks.