At my wits end, need help

He sure is a beauty!  I can see why you were attracted to him, and I'm sure with hard work your lives together will settle down and be very rewarding!
 
FYI...Chuffy lives across the ocean, so shipping him off to her would be a lot harder and more expensive than shipping him off to ME!!  [sm=rofl.gif]

Just remember every day, when the sun comes up, that he's one day older.
 
You can say this to him:
 
"Yes! You, my very own monster, are one day closer to being an adult!"
 
In the meantime, be thinking about what you can do in order to teach him a behavior that clashes with his usual phone behavior.
 
Maybe when the phone rings it's Kong time or hurry and run to the back door or something like that.
 
I'm working to teach my shy dog to run to his bed when people come in the door so that he doesn't get worked up by repeating non-useful behaviors.
 
Just be thinking about what you'd rather he does and between you and this board, we'll get going on the steps for getting there!

Just one set of thoughts about this phone problem provided he's already crate trained:

1. Get a friend/assistant who will ring your home phone for you a few times and have that person on hand but unobtrusive, just hanging out in a corner, ignoring the dog.

2. Have really fantastic, high value treats. Do a warmup with Max. Show him a high-value treat, throw it inside the crate, let him go and get the treat. Do this a few times, to establish a little rhythm and make sure you guys are on the same page.

3. Add the phone. Friend rings phone just as you throw very high value treat in crate, luring Max inside. Close door, let Max enjoy treat, the phone stops ringing, you let him out. At first, this should all be very quick.

4. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repeat some more. Repeat a few times more. Repeat again--it takes dogs many repetitions (like 2000) to really really learn something cold.

5. By now you should be able to ring your own phone to practice some more, over the course of a few days.

6. So since Max is so super-smart, your phone will ring, and he will go to his crate, expecting his big treat. Reward him (you can reward him a number of ways, but since you're on the phone a treat or a kong will be easiest for awhile...) regularly for going to his crate and shut the door and have your phonecall.

7. When he consistently gets it, (and this is really important) FADE the reward. Reward him sometimes, but not others. You can be random or you can also use the reward to judge his performance (ex: if he gets in doublequick, he gets a treat. If he ambles into his crate at his leisure, he's out of luck) You can also use different rewards. Praise and affection when you're done with a short call. A quick game of tug or chase when you're done with your call, etc. Putting him on a variable schedule of reinforcement keeps him working hard, and keeps you from moaning, "he only listens to me when I have treats!" It's crucial!

I am not a professional trainer, but it seems important to keep him from rehearsing this unwanted behavior anymore and to learn what he's supposed *to* do when the phone rings.

Good luck, keep it up!

wow... what a SWEET little face!!!  aren't they always the worst??? so hard to stay mad[]

I just want you to know that I completely understand your great great love for Baron. I had a dog named Beau. He died 2 years ago and I still cry nearly every day over the loss of him. He was a great dog. Rarely even a simple problem with him. I will ALWAYS miss him. And your tendency to compare is only normal. []

First of all, we all have had that very special dog - I'm sorry you lost Baron.
 
Second, congrats on changing your attitude and the progress you have made with Max!  You're headed in the right direction.
 
And third, the "time-out" command has worked wonders with our problem hound.  Gandolf got himself wound up so easily when we first got him, and now on the rare occassion when we need to issue it, he takes HIMSELF into the bathroom (his time-out space) and waits there until he's released. 
You could use it for instance, when Max gets barky or obnoxious.  At first, have him drag a leash or a line, and when he starts to act up, say "time-out" and take him to an enclosed space (not his crate).  Bathrooms work great.  Make him stay there for 30 seconds or so, close the door if you have to, and release him after that if he's calm.  If he makes a fuss, DO NOT let him out (only when he's calm).
 
I'll never forget one time when I told G. to "time-out" when he was getting whiny, pushy, barky - he actually looked at me and with all his might he was saying, "Thank you - I needed you to tell me to bring it down a notch."  Every since then, he happily trots off to the bathroom if we have to give the command.

Nice detail work here, Fisher!
 
Thanks!

Bump!
 
I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to hear how Max is getting on.....

Hello everyone! I appreciate all the help thus far. Max and I are doing well. I apologize that it's taken so long for me to get back in for an update, but it's been a fairly busy week. His behavior inside the house has done a 160 (I'd have said a 180, but it's not quite a TOTAL turnaround...yet). We move a bit more every day toward being the perfect team. He's beginning to understand what I expect of him. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without everyone here. I simply cannot express my thanks in words. You've taken a hopeless situation (or rather what *I* thought was hopeless) and turned it into a wonderful relationship between Max and I. We're getting along instead of me doing a lot of yelling and spanking. A couple of weeks ago, I'd have never thought this was possible.

We had a fairly large problem today. I had to leave max at my grandparents' house for a couple of hours. He likes it over there, he's got a HUGE fenced-in area with tons of toys for him to play with. When I arrived to pick him up, he was very excited...jumping on the fence and generally going crazy, so i told him to sit and then walked away, waiting for him to calm down. I came back with his leash, put it around his neck, then he went wild again, so I walked away. We went through this 7 times. Each time he calmed down more, until on the 7th time, he was just sitting there, being his usual cute self. I thought he was calm enough to finally get out (or so I thought). The second I opened the gate, he bolted out at full speed, pulling my arm between my legs and smashing my elbow against my knee. When he hit the end of his leash, he came back toward me. I lifted my leg up to attempt to un-tangle myself and he took off at top speed again. My leg got caught up in the leash and got hyper-extended at the knee, but I finally got it loose and he pulled again...as he pulled this time, my front leg hit the ground and twisted my ankle over...sending me falling on my butt. The moment I fell, he ran back toward me, thinking I wanted to play a game, so he jumped on me and knocked me down onto my back. I yelled "BACK" and "SIT" at the top of my lungs and he backed up and stood there looking at me. I sat there for a few seconds, due to the pain, but I got myself up and hobbled to the car and put him inside. I probably should have let go of the leash, but it was attached to my wrist through the loop at the end, so I was pretty much at his mercy once he took off. I'm not a little guy...I'm 6'1 and 210 pounds...so that should give you some idea of max's strength. He's exceptionally strong and he's only about half of the size he's going to get. So things like this must be stopped IMMEDIATELY, or I will end up getting seriously hurt. When he's here at home, he is quite well-behaved on the leash, but there's something about being over at my grandparents' house that makes him a madman...or madpuppy, as the case is. haha I can't totally blame him, I should have let go of the leash, and I should have made sure he was 100% calm before every opening the gate enough for him to run. I wasn't happy with him at the time, but I resisted the urge to spank him.

Other than that little episode, we've been doing exceedingly well. The NILIF program is working precisely as it should. He sits before going out, eating, getting water, or ANY interaction whatsoever which he may construe as pleasurable. Once he sits and lays down, I heap on the praise, and he's getting to the point where I can get him to sit and go down in MOST situations (with the exception of over at my grandparents' house). Around home, he's nearly perfectly well-behaved. Inside the house, his energy level went from 90-100% down to about 20-25%, which is perfect. I don't want a lethargic dog, but I certainly don't want one who is going to bounce around and destroy everything either. I think we've found a happy medium. He's also getting better with the phone. The second he begins acting up, I stop my conversation and walk out of the room, and resume the conversation in there. he still perks up when he hears the phone, but he's not jumping around and trying to eat my shoes. That's a huge accomplishment in my eyes.

I'll post back in a couple more days, after we've had some time to work around the fence at my grandparents' house. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone for your replies so far, y'all have made my life, and max's life MUCH happier.

On a side note, I have a couple books coming next week, hopefully Max will give me a bit of time to read them. I have "The Culture Clash", "The Other End Of The Leash" and "Training Your Rottweiler" on their way. I'm looking forward to reading them and learning to deal even better with Max. We still have a ways to go, but we're gonna make it, I'm certain of that.

-baron

All that progress is amazing! Congratulations. You're doing a great job. Maybe you can teach Max to "Wait" to help with his self-control.
  

adding "wait" to my command list has been absolutely invaluable.  also, i wonder if you'd be willing to try a prong collar?  varitek used to do something very similar to what you described- he even ruined one of my tattoos by dragging me on a sidewalk after i tripped-  and a prong collar stopped that madness immediately.  if max has never worn one, the initial shock will be quite great, and it may be enough to change his mind about zipping off like that.  also, for dogs like mine, who tend to lose focus very easily, the prong collar is a very effective way for issuing corrections and returning them to MY reality instead of their "squirrel fantasies".

Max knows the word "stop" sometimes. For example, when we're going outside and he sees something that interests him, if I say "STOP!", he immediately returns his attention back to me. The same when he jumps out of the car and wants to immediately run. He's hit the end of his leash and flown into the air so many times that he knows "stop" means he's about to reach the end of his leash.

I'm not opposed to a prong collar at all. The choke chain never seemed to bother him one bit. He'd run all over the place, gasping for air, but continue pulling. He really seems to not feel pain. I think he'd make a brilliant police dog. He's very focused on what he's doing, he has the ability to listen very well (sometimes), he's got TONS of energy and he loves to chase things. Baron was great at security/police work. I'm sure he unknowingly saved my butt a number of times, and twice knowingly. Nobody was really interested in messing with a 155 pound monster of a rottweiler with a head which was nearly as large as their own. haha. That was the beauty of Baron though, he could turn on the aggression at a moment's notice, then at the end of the task, he turned it back off and went back to his normal, calm self. Max is more like a spinning top...he ramps up excitement very quickly and then it takes him a while to calm back down. Max is still young though, so I expect that he'll calm down significantly once he gets past this puppy stage. Even though I love puppies when they are very small, that adolescence period is a huge pain in the rear.

One other question I have for y'all...

A person I know has a female rottweiler who is 2 years old. She is well-trained and what one would consider a well-behaved dog. He's moving to the city and doesn't want to have to keep her stuck in an apartment most of the time, so he asked me if I'd consider taking her. Do you think it would be beneficial to Max to have another well-behaved dog around here, or would he just turn her into some kind of monster? She's spayed, so I wouldn't have to worry about tons of puppies running around, or anything like that. I'm just curious if it would HELP Max or be a hinderance to my training of him? I've always liked the female. She's quite large and exceptionally beautiful.

Have a nice weekend.
-b

It's great to hear you're both getting on so well!
 
I think if you had waited a few more moments at the gate for the excitement to dissipate, it might have helped.  Then you could have done like you do with doors:  get a sit, start opening the gate and if his bottom moves even an inch off the floor, close it again.  You can make sure you are in a position ahead of him so he can't lunge through the gap in front of you and also be sure to take up extra slack in the lead so you don't get in a tangle (not so that it's tight, just so that it's not dangerously slack!)
 
Do your grandparents know about the NILIF you've been doing at home and are they doing it too?  If not, maybe Max goes a bit loopy round at their house because he is confused or because he realises that the rules at home don't apply at their house, so he slips back to his old ways.
 
About the bitch, I would be sorely tempted to take her, because I'm a sucker for the breed.  I don't think it would necessarily help Max's progress, 1) because she is still very young herself and 2) because how she behaves at home with her owner could well be a world away from how she behaves in a strange home, with someone she doesn't know so well and another dog to boot.  At best I think it would be a lot of hard work for you, definitely an uphill struggle.  The turnaround in your relationship with Max is still fairly new and an upheaval like that might set you both back.  It will take a lot more time, space and money to take on another rottie; you definitely need to make sure you can spend quality time with both of them seperately each day and give them both their own space (like a crate or similar).  I'd also say feed them seperately, at least initially and be prepared to carry on doing that long term.  And certainly get the new dog started on NILIF right away, dishing out any treats or priveleges based on behaviour (not rank which can just be confusing).  Imagine that scenario at the gate with Max - and then add another smart, heavy, powerful rottie who may not be convinced of your authority right away and might be at least as much of a handful as Max has been..... can you cope with that? 
 
Lastly, drinking water is the only thing our dogs don't have to "work" for on the NILIF programme.  They have free access to water all the time.
 
Well done you for sorting Max out.  I'm sure he is much happier.

Chuffy, the female has known me since she was a young puppy, so I don't think it would be a HUGE shock for her to live with me, but i don't think I'm gonna take the chance, unless he can't find any other good home for her. I doubt it will be a problem, everyone who knows her, absolutely loves her...she's a calm and very intelligent rottie. Whereas everyone who knows Max thinks I should have named him "Osama" or "Lucifer". haha. Those people are all going to be in for a shock the next time they see max and he's all well-behaved.

I didn't mean I wouldn't give max water if he was being bad. I meant that when I poured new/fresh water in his bowl, that he needs to sit there and wait until I'm done pouring until he jumps in there and tries to drink. I'd never withhold water from a dog, no matter HOW bad or good they are!! Max drinks insane amounts of water, more than any other dog I've ever had...but then max has more energy to burn off than any other dog I've ever had! I have friends who live out the road past me and they see max playing out in the yard and they ask me if he EVER runs out of energy...which I of course answer "NEVER". He's always going at 100% when he's outside. I've never witnessed a puppy that could run all day long and still have MORE than enough energy left in the evenings or at night to continue to play.

Another positive side-effect of the training is that he's stopped chewing on things that I don't want him to. Before, it always seemed like he was walking around, just looking for some way to get into trouble, or something to chew on (even though he's always had plenty of toys). He shredded one of the blankets he used for his bed, but hasn't done anything like that lately.

Over at my grandparents, I have instructed them to have only a little contact with Max for now. I'm afraid he'll knock them down or injure them. They do interact with him through the fence, and he sits for both of them, but I'm not comfortable with either of them going inside the fence, or trying to get him out of his fenced-in area yet. Is this the wrong way to look at things?

Max is going in for his 10-month checkup today. I expect everything to be fine, as always. Last time we were there, the vet was a bit concerned about Max's attitude and behavior. Hopefully he'll behave better this time. He was going crazy, trying to get to the other dogs/cats last time he was in there. He loves nothing more than playing with the other dogs...however, they never have enjoyed playing with him much, because he's so hyper. He jumps on them, trying to tackle them. Fortunately, most of the dogs that I know are large, powerful dogs, so he won't likely hurt them with his antics. My grandparents' dogs just take off running the second they see him emerge from the car, they want no part of him. Occasionally, he hangs out with a retired police dog, which is the one dog that he WON'T jump on, because she put him in his place very early on.

My books should be here soon, so I'll get to do some reading later, hopefully. I'm looking forward to seeing what goes on in a dog's mind.

Have a great week everyone.

It's great that your vet is concerned about Max's behavior. In my limited experience, vets don't know or care much about behavior, even though behavior problems kill way more many dogs than disease or whatever.

It also makes sense that Max is less destructive after training. It's mentally stimulating in the same way dissecting a blanket can be... and you're also teaching him what you want to see inside the house.

Remember that all this energy and intensity is Max being a driven and *intelligent* dog--we often call calm dogs smart when in fact the opposite is true! Keep shaping Max's smarts into what you want, keep that vet, and keep up the great work!