owners of 'big' dogs, can you talk to me please

[bunnyfears]

I have an 18 month old rottweiler. she is a big smooch. she loves all other dogs and most people. her recall is 98% great.

she does 3 things that are undesirable...

1. she will bark at some passersby if she is sat in the car (waiting to leave). I can live with this

2. if a man takes her by suprise, she will bark. so for example, appearing out of the bushes, in the woods etc. I'm pretty ok with this also, because we got her for safety having encountered too many weird men out walking/intruder (me and 3 daughters)

3. she will chase after male runners and bark 😬...this is the one that is getting us into trouble. it's not aggressive but it definitely sounds aggressive if you don't really know dogs. many people are great, stop running, give her a fuss and it diffuses into nothing. but as you can imagine, some people are furious. I don't really want to keep her on a lead because 1) it happens maybe once a fortnight (haven't worked out what it is about some men that brings this response as opposed to others that she ignores or can be distracted from and 2) it's ot actually aggressive

because it's not consistent I'm at a bit of a loss

interested in other people's experiences and how they have dealt with inconsistent/occasional unwanted behaviours

You have a responsibility to control your dog in public and prevent it from chasing runners who don't know whether the dog is friendly or not! Please keep her on a lead.

It's not acceptable to have a dog that size chasing runners - you could end up with them reporting her if they felt threatened.
I would suggest you put her back on the lead immediately when u see a runner. Get her to sit and wait while they go past, then treat and off leash again after. Only way to avoid issues

If your dog chased me running I'd take a photo and send it to the dog warden as a minimum, I may call the police. If someone says my Rotty is friendly I wouldn't believe them, your point number two is also a major issue. That is a dog that should only be off the lead in a dog park.

You have to keep her on the lead. My dog does not and would not chase people, nor is he aggressive, but I keep him leashed because people are understandably wary of him (working line GSD, massive, and has police dog connotations etc)

Sorry agree with others and you must put her on a lead, someone only has to feel threatened by your dog to report them and being a rottie she will always be the baddie (I have a male rottie). There are plenty of secure fields around now where you can pay around £10 to hire them for the hour. She could have offlead time in one of those but she really can't be chasing people.

I have a German shepherd and if there was a chance that she would run after anyone at any point she would always be on a lead unless in a secure field!

"interested in other people's experiences and how they have dealt with inconsistent/occasional unwanted behaviours"

By training and keeping the dog on a lead or long lead, that's how.

You have to keep your dog on a lead because of point 2 and point 3 of your OP. It's not in anyway ok for your dog to bark at people or chase them. You risk having your dog reported as dangerous.

You either need to be hyper vigilant for runners and put her on a lead as soon as you see one, or if you cannot do that then you need to keep her on a lead at all times.

I have a large dog (not a Rottie) and even as a dog owner would not stop and make a fuss of any dog chasing & barking at me. That’s unacceptable whatever the dog’s size.

does anyone have any advice about how to train dogs out of occasional behaviours?

Has to be on a lead unless recall is perfect (applies to all dogs but especially so with "big" dogs tbh)
I have a large medium dog and he is very friendly but recall not great so he has to be on a lead, its not great but its necessary.
She's young, work on her recall and hopefully it won't be forever.

I AM hypervigilant for runners, and she only does this occasionally, which is why it isn't often a problem...if we are taken by suprise

there is a tiny percentage of dogs whose recall is perfect tbf

You need to desensitise her to runners... keep her on a lead and take her somewhere where she can see people running in the distance.. this needs to be at a distance where she does not react... treat her and slowly move closer. If she reacts you are too close and need to go back a step. Keep her focus on you with treats and praise and slowly decrease the gap so eventually she will be able to sit and focus on you as the runners go by. Look up desensitisation for dogs it's very useful

and she DOES recall, but on these occasions not fast enough

And if she stops getting to occasionally chase then the behaviour may disappear completely. Look up extinction training (basically the dog "forgets" the undesirable behaviour if not able to practise it).

About once a fortnight is loads ! Has to stay on a lead I’m afraid

yep, so this is where I am struggling. we are often in the park when there is park run. we live in a city, so most of our dog walking places have lots of runners as well. it's not a consistent problem AT ALL

Maybe, what I am asking is ...can anyone help identify what potential triggers are for this? why some people and not the 50 people we just passed by with no issues?

@bunnyfears then they should all be on leads

oh brill thanks, I will look that up. she has improved after being on lead for an injury, so maybe this is the answer

Our younger dog gets on well with most dogs when out, but sometimes is reactive to certain dogs, we think this is because he was attacked by an off lead dog when he was around 12 months old, he was on a lead at the time. We try to distract him and offer positive reinforcement if he stays calm, if he sits and lets a dog pass he gets a treat.

We have 2 dogs and don't let either of them off lead in public places. Walking to the park they are on a short lead and we then put them on a longer lead when in the park. The reason for this is our older dog has reasonably good recall but not 100% and the younger one is reactive to a few dogs.

We do hire a secure field 2 or 3 times a week, so they do get to go off lead.

Could be on days she is more energetic, scent of runner, how startled she is by them there are unfortunately 100s of reasons

Sorry, but your dog is out of control if it's not only not coming back when called but also chasing people. It'll just be a matter of time because someone says it is aggressive - and you end up wishing you'd trained your dog a bit better. Chasing after male jogger, barking at men...can you really not see how this will end? Because I can. I'm actually really surprised you are even happy letting her off the lead, because I certainly wouldn't be.

No one should ever be getting a dog for 'safety.' Why? Because 99.9% of the time you inadvertently reinforce these undesirable behaviours.

She needs to go back on the lead and you need to distract her with a high value treat to stop her barking, chasing etc.

She's a normal rott reaching maturity, most undesirable behaviours in guard breeds will come out at 18 months - 3 yrs. You chose a rott and need to treat it like one, especially now she's reaching maturity. That means if she's acting as she should according to her breed and barking at people who are acting "not in line", she's only off in secure fields or somewhere very out of the way you have visited several times and know that nobody goes there, with a good line of sight in all directions. You say it's once a fortnight but she's fulfilling her genetic purpose each time she does this and it's extremely rewarding to a guard breed, so every time she can do this the behaviour will get stronger and happen more often.

You can still socialise her with the above, but it should be on a lead so she can meet people and other dogs, but a rottweiller who acts true to breed shouldn't be loose to do what it pleases and her off leash time should be given appropriately.

Rotts can also be prone to same sex aggression and she's becoming a fully fledged adult now, so don't be surprised if the aggressive behaviour starts extending to other dogs who are acting "not in line", ie dogs who don't take kindly to her going over to see them. The problem with you letting a large dog like this free is she might not take kindly to a smaller reactive dog being aggressive and do damage, especially if she thinks she's protecting you from a reactive dog protecting its space. Chasing and barking is aggressive whether you want to admit it or not, easy going dogs don't do this.

I've had large guard breeds and sometimes you get flukes in the breed who are congenial and friendly with everyone like a golden, but it's not necessarily something you can just train/socialise into a guarding breed, sometimes it's just their nature and you need to manage vs change. If you had a problem with strange men a large show line black lab would have been a better deterrent, rotts can be challenging dogs.

Seriously, you cannot let your Rottweiler chase after people!!! Keep her on a lead and under control. You shouldn’t need to be told this!

We have a Weimaraner with similar issues.
He's just turned two and for the last six months he's been put back on a long line until we get to the fields where he can run to his hearts content. And even then we call him back every few minutes and pop him back on the line.
I understand what you're saying about your dog's behaviour being a bigger dog.
It's one of my main grievances with smaller dogs, they are often allowed to get away with this behaviour.

You just have to accept that if you have a powerful dog that they have the propensity to do real harm and people perceive them that way.
Keep your dog safe and put him on a lead.

Also second those saying to get your dog to sit and wait while the 'threat' approaches.
IME you'll get so much pleasure from people who appreciate your efforts.
We get no end of praise and thanks because he's under control.