any rottweiler owners that can advise me please

[typoqueen]

we have just taken on a rescue rotti he is roughly 18 months old neutered, he is quite big (over weight) dopy and acts the right clown, he does some basic commands like sit and down but his stay and recall is a bit hit and miss and we are working on that I know they can be slightly stubborn when they want, we did do a lot of research on the breed before we agreed to take him on I just need a few tips on training him to walk without pulling my arm out of it socket, what commands are the best to use, I have been saying "wait" and when he does I give him a treat but as soon as he has eaten it off he goes again pulling, he has just a normal collar and lead, should I be using something else? at the moment he is only on a 15 min walk twice a day as previous owners kept him outside in a shed never walked so he has very little muscle tone in his legs but jut that 15 mins my arms are killing me, don't want it getting worse once he is toned...we live in the country and the nearest dog obedience class is a 50 mile round trip so not able to take him there, thank you in advance please be nice :)

[tabulahrasa]

I'm using a gentle leader head collar on mine - he's only eight months old, but also on restricted exercise and it was more important to me that I could walk him than that he learnt not to pull using just his collar. So I'm using the head collar so he gets to walk instead of using all his exercise time on training.

We do go to classes so I use heel as the command - but yep he'll only do it if there's a treat in the offing and there's nothing more exciting about, which on his tiny walks is everything, lol.

There are lots of ways to teach loose lead walking - if you google Kiko pup, there's videos on YouTube.

[foolserrand]

We have 2 rescue rotts. The first was a brute of a boy, 12 months when we got him. I was tiny and couldn't hold him when he pulled so started him on a halter.

I used treats kept in my hand and in a pouch on my waist to keep him close, lots of praise and repeating "good heel". it didn't take me long to get him walking to heel, maybe a month?

He's now totally bomb proof and a therapy dog at 6. Just be warned, once you get him to heel, he will never leave your side!

[Thumbtack]

You can get a shock absorber for your lead, it's like a really strong spring that's fits between lead and collar, and takes 'the edge' off a strong puller, then you can work on his/ her walking on lead technique

[multitask]

As mentioned above, try this

You would be better to deal with the problem, spoken with experience.

[Booboostoo]

Try if you can to get to a training class, they are the best thing for a young dog and they will give you a lot of ideas on how to deal with issues as well as a good place to try out techniques.

The words you use are irrelevant, the dog does not speak English so chose any words you find easy to use. However becareful because what you want is the behaviour and if you name 'wait' a behaviour that involves pulling on the lead you will teach him that this is what 'wait' means. What you want is to somehow elicit the appropriate behaviour and the best way of doing so is to reward it (food is usually a good reward for most dogs), while ignoring or avoiding unwanted behaviour.

On lead: there are a couple of ways to approach this:

• a headcollar type lead tends to work well with most dogs (as long as you introduce it slowly) and will solve your immediate problems.
  

• walking on a nice, loose lead: this exercise works really well but you need the patience of a saint. Go for a walk as normal, the moment the dog goes in front of you and tightens the lead, stop. Wait it out until the dog turns back to look at you, click and treat. Then turn in the completely opposite direction and set off again, the moment the dog goes in front of you and tightens the lead repeat. You won't get to actually go on a walk because of all the changes in direction but if you apply this rule very strictly and keep it up for a couple of weeks you will teach him to walk without pulling. The idea is that if the dog pulls and you continue you are rewarding the pulling by going where the dog wants to go faster, whereas this way the dog learns that pulling is counter productive.
  

• heel work should ideally be taught as a separate exercise from lead work. I teach this through targeting to the hand, but it might be something for later on.

[typoqueen]

thank you everyone, your advice has been really helpful, we have been doing the stop dead in my tracks, wait till he turns and walk the other way, I am waiting on a halti to arrive mainly to help with the direction work along with lead work, he loves his treats, (mini sausages), took him to the park for a slow walk round and he was fantastic, tugged a little when seeing other dogs but soon settled, I did has a bit of a scare when a ball came rolling by I stood still and though please don't chase the ball please don't chase the ball, and thankfully he didn't...I know I have a lot of work ahead of me and may pop back from time to time for advise, he still on a month of small frequent walks till the muscle tone builds up in his legs, he is a bit overweight, where he was never taken out, but he is a dream of a dog indoors loves a good old snuggle on the sofa xx

[Booboostoo]

Well done, glad it's going well! With distractions like a ball your treats can come in handy, try putting the treat by his nose and using it to lure him to turn his back on the distraction, then treating him for the good behaviour.

[3kids2cats2dogs]

booboostoo, I saw this post last night and when we went out today he got a bit excited when he spotted another dog, I think he just wanted to go say hi, but it was a little dog and the owner did not seem too happy so I put the sausage in front of his nose didn't let him have it till the other dog had gone by and wow he completely ignored the dog as it went by ate his treat and carried on walking fantastic tip thank you :)

[Booboostoo]

That's brilliant, well done! :)