Bob's Dog Blog

It’s been a year since I began researching dry dog food to find out for myself exactly how this type of food works within the digestive systems of working dogs (Rottweilers and German Shepherds, to be specific).

Well, although I am not a canine food science ‘expert’, I am an expert at what works and certainly very good at observing the obvious as regards my own animals. Here are the results of one year of observation regarding dry dog food:

1. The kcals per kg and kcals per cup are vital to the viable nutrition of the canine. Using this page from a vet supply web site gave me the initial information necessary to begin research and determine how many kcals were needed for active working dogs.

2. Ingredients alone do not determine the caloric content and usable food value of dry kibble. In October of 2010, I had five underweight dogs in my kennel, despite being fed ample amounts of a supposed ‘high performance’ dog food, with chicken as the first ingredient. Since switching to a calorie-dense food with a less fashionable first ingredient (chicken by product meal), every one of those dogs has gained back weight, using the same or lower amounts of kibble per day. So, it really does not matter how much ‘deboned chicken’ or ‘wild salmon’ is thrown into some of these foods, the bottom line is that all of that mush has to result in a calorie dense food that the dog can convert into usable fuel for growth, maintenance and viability. My rule of thumb is that the food must contain at least 400 kcals per cup to do the job.

3. Calorie dense foods are vital to canine reproductive systems and milk production. Prior to switching foods, the loss of newborn pups from mothers fed a lower calorie food was at or around 35% per litter without exception.  Unsuccessful breedings were commonplace. Lack of adequate colostrum and milk may also have resulted in lowered immune systems and more difficulty with puppy growth, but these are not provable with the data to hand. The bottom line is that since switching to a calorie dense food, the newborn loss has reduced to 0%-20% per litter.

4. Calorie dense foods are vital to new puppy growth at weaning. I have observed that pups fed a high calorie diet develop stronger immune systems and experience more stable growth than those feeding on lower calorie diets. Weaning pups on high calorie puppy food had zero ramp up time. This means that before, it would take three or four days for pups to start eating the ‘high performance, all life stages’ kibble. Now, they begin eating immediately, first day, and never look back. Wormings and other preventative meds also appear to work more completely than before. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I don’t think so.

Well, that about wraps it up. If you are a dog owner who is simply status conscious, you will continue to feed your dog low calorie, high cost salmon and bison free range organic kibble, since that is what your vet or the sales rep at the local pet store told you to feed.  If you are a cheap dog owner, you may continue to feed your dog Field Trial or whatever corn based stuff you can buy at the local carry out. Maybe those foods work for you, and that’s fine. I’m not here to revolutionize the dog food industry.

However, if you have a dog that is not doing well on his kibble, for any reason, including, but not limited to:

not gaining or maintaining weight,

having skin or coat issues,

immune system issues,

reproductive issues,

recurring soft tissue injuries,

lack of energy,

constantly hungry resulting in overfeeding, resulting in loose stools and a host of other issues,

then maybe you might consider looking into what’s really in your dog’s food. I hope this has helped.

I was just sent this YouTube  video montage from a proud, responsible Fallhammer Rottweiler Owner, who, having seen it, wanted to share it with me and others on the Kennel Facebook page.

It really communicates what the Rottweiler breed is all about and is an honest and heartfelt presentation.

Take a look at it and enjoy. Note: if you don’t get at least a little choked up while watching, then something’s wrong…

The True Character Of The Rottweiler

Bob

It has happened more than once, that I am asked why a three or four month old pup looks rangy and awkward, as opposed to the fat little eight week old most are used to associating with as regards puppy pictures.

I have gone over this with various prospective owners, but until now have never written an article on it. So, here we go.

A Rottweiler puppy goes through several growth stages in its development up through adulthood. A lot of this will have to do with genetics, as some bloodlines occur where growth is more gradual than others. By the way, I have never been an advocate of genetic lines (or absurd feeding programs) that enable the pup to grow too quickly. In my opinion, a pup needs time to slowly develop muscle tone, bone substance and other body functions and IT TAKES AS LONG AS IT TAKES. That is why, when I hear from some disgruntled owner that his or her pup is ‘too small’, I literally laugh out loud. If one expects the pup to be sixty or seventy pounds at six months old, then you are indeed asking too much. If the owner is feeding the dog a proper diet, with a good high calorie dense food, then there is nothing to worry about. Again, we have another instance of people thinking that their pup is a baby in a dog suit.

Okay, back to puppy growth stages. A pup will gain weight regularly up to around ten weeks of age. You can actually feel the weight gain, but there is no pronounced size increase between eight and ten weeks. It’s mostly, in my opinion, internal weight, as the organs and tissue and bone further their development.

After that point, things begin to stabilize and the body begins to develop in other ways than just size and weight. The headpiece begins to develop, the baby teeth fall out, height and length begins to be the major growth activity and so on. The internal organs also continue developing, such as heart, lungs and so on. This is then what you will see in a pup of ten to fourteen weeks of age. No, they are not Dobermans. No, they are not underfed, or abused. They are growing. Do you remember looking at pictures of yourself as a teenager? Is that what you look like now? I didn’t think so. Well, a puppy goes through the same type of growth stages.

Between fourteen weeks and around six or seven months, there will be another series of growth spurts, where size increase occurs, the muscle tone becomes more developed and the ear sets become unstable. The pup is less prone to falling over when it goes to chase a ball, as they are really developing muscle tissue now.  However, the pup still does not look like an adult at this point.

Look, raising a puppy to adulthood is work. Nobody ever said it would be easy. But unrealistic ideals about what an adolescent puppy should look like are so embedded in people’s minds, that maybe a picture story might help. So, I have included on this post pictures showing growth stages of two Fallhammer pups, Nala and Titus. Of course, both pups have been marvelously cared for, but the fact remains that neither owner had any idea their gangly pup would turn out as they did.

Bob

For those of you who wish to correct the natural ear sets on your Rottweilers, I have an updated link to show you a very effective procedure for this.

On an earlier post, I explain how rubbing the ear and even gluing the corners of the ear leather will help retrain the ear to drop. Well, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t.

When you are not getting a result from either of these, you can do the ear taping method. I did this on two older pups who had either one or both ears flying away. After four days with tape, one of the pup’s ears fully corrected and the other corrected on one of the ears.

What I do is tape for four or five days, remove the tape and see how the ears look. If not fully corrected, I wait 24 hours, to allow the ear to get some ‘air’ and then retape the problem ear for another four or five days.

This should work in all cases, unless the dog is too old or the ears are simply too light (small) in the first place.

Best,
Bob

I just wanted to add a bit to yesterday’s post, ‘Learn About The Rottweiler Breed Standard’ after realizing that there probably needed to be a bit more context in order to fully clarify what I wrote.

1. To start off, in fact, there is no such thing as a dog that conforms 100% with this breed description. Anyone, breeder and owner included, who tells you that their dog or dogs are perfect is not being honest. Not with themselves, to begin with and certainly not with anyone else. All breeders should be working towards this standard and obviously, the closer we get, the better. All dogs have flaws and the ones with the fewest flaws are considered for breeding programs and the show ring. It’s not more complicated than that.

2. However, if your own dog doesn’t fully comply with this standard, that is of lesser importance compared to the qualities that are truly vital to a pet owner: temperament, health, intelligence, playfulness and all the other qualities that you love about your Rottweiler. I have seen Rottweilers that can work the pants off of most dogs, who are not necessarily dogs for the show ring. Some variations in appearance are natural, considering all of the genetic combinations available within this breed. When I evaluate a pup, for example, I certainly take into account the pup’s conformation. That is only one category out of several, including temperament, the various drives, nerves, focus, activity level, among others. The best pups, in my opinion, are those that are conformationally correct where it counts that additionally possess great health, spirit and working ability.

2. That being said, my intention in writing yesterday’s post was to somehow neutralize the people who falsely think they know best about the Rottweiler breed who, in fact, are trying to influence others in their misinformation. These are the folks who want others to believe that a medium to large breed such as the Rottweiler should be the size of a mastiff. That the head must look this way or that, without even understanding correct type to begin with. The list goes on. These people are not only obsessed with their ridiculously false ideas concerning how a Rottweiler MUST LOOK AND WEIGH more than the overall picture of what the dog truly should look like and most importantly, what each dog brings to the table for dog ownership/companionship. None of these so-called experts have ever actually read either of the written breed standards, much less understood them.

So, to anyone who reads this, when looking for and purchasing a Rottweiler pup (or any other purebred dog) as a companion animal remember to view the whole picture and not just a few body parts.

Best,
Bob

This post is primarily for anyone who wants to learn about what a Rottweiler is supposed to look like. It is also for anyone who wishes to get into an argument with me or any other knowledgeable person about Rottweiler conformation.

Over the years I have been challenged on everything from muzzle length, physical type (are they ‘American’ or are they ‘German’?), head type, weight, size and so on. Since my arguing with ‘experts’ about these things goes nowhere, here is my solution. Read this post and follow the links.

The following links are the ONLY descriptions of what a Rottweiler is supposed to look like. It really doesn’t matter what mental pictures are in your head or what some moron told you about their five thousand pound dog with a short muzzle who is a ‘Giant King Super Sized’ Rottweiler.

The Rottweiler is considered a pure bred dog. As such, its appearance is dictated by a written ‘breed standard’, not the consensus of the general public. These standards were composed by people who had spent many years working with the Rottweiler breed and had developed a very specific phenotype for this animal, which they wanted to be preserved genetically. Thus there is a written description for other breeders, show judges and Rottweiler fanciers to compare their animals to, in order to maintain the correct appearance of this breed. Somehow, correctly, they knew there would be idiots out there (usually living in the US) who would attempt to aberrate the physical type of this beautiful dog.

As a result, the only two authorized descriptions of the Rottweiler breed are found on

1. American Kennel Club’s web site. The AKC Rottweiler Breed Standard is found at

http://www.akc.org/breeds/rottweiler/index.cfm

2. For European Imported dogs, the FCI (European) Rottweiler Breed Standard can be found translated at the USRC web site -

http://www.usrconline.org/breedstand.html

For those of you who want to learn, I hope this has helped.

Additionally, if anyone out there has a disagreement with any of the above, I suggest you write to the breed clubs and argue with them.

Good luck!

Bob

Sometimes, I work with young dogs and pups as sort of an ongoing obedience laboratory. I spend time imprinting them with what I feel an owner wants and needs and then continue with basic training and socialization. The real fun comes when the young dog is ready for some formal obedience training. I say fun because I write about this stuff all the time and tell owners to train, train, train. Should I really be espousing this philosophy if I myself don’t practice it? The answer is ‘No’, and that goes for any breeder out there who sells pups. If they don’t, won’t or can’t train their own dogs, then they are not worth your time.

That being said, I have been working on a particularly raucous young female, age six months, still available, but nonetheless living in my house and my yard until such time as she is picked out by her new owner. She has all of the energy of a working lines pup, hectic at times and in need of focus and obedience. She also forged quite a bit on the leash, which is something I felt needed to be taken care of before adoption.

So, I decided that, after a couple of months on the slip lead doing basic sit and focus commands, it was time for the prong collar. Now, a prong collar is not a cruel instrument. The prongs are all soft, rounded metal points. You start out snapping to both rings and use very light, firm pops. No dragging, no walking with it, no using it for jewelry. Trust me, your dog will only look ghetto in a prong collar that you can’t use because you never corrected your dog with it.

The obedience sessions have been no more than five minutes each, for a total of two days in a row. I generally like to do daily obedience until the young dog is somewhat conditioned to the corrections and starts to respond in a consistent manner, then back off to every other day.

Here is the summary of the training done so far:

1. ‘Sit’ command, followed by ‘Watch’ command. Verbal praise plus some kibble. Corrections done for ANY deviation from the command, as many times as needed to get the command executed.

2. Sit/Stay with ‘Watch’ command. Done until dog was able to sit and watch for a few seconds at a distance of three feet. All done on leash. Verbal praise plus kibble. Repeated ten or fifteen times, with correction, until dog could do it.

3. Heeling (fusse) in circles. Similar to lunge work, only in a smaller circle. I started her in a small circle, about eight feet in diameter, giving the heel command with light correction. When she jumped up instead of heeling, she was corrected instantly, made to heel again, then praised verbally and with kibble. Repeated about five to eight times, all after doing the above sit commands. Occasionally, dog was put in a sit, then back to heeling just to ensure good control.

After two sessions (two days, five minutes each day) of the above actions, the pup went from hectic and unfocused to calm and more focused. Even her ears, usually flying and sticking out all over the place, settled down to a perfect pendant position.

I brought her into the house where she will rest, prong collar still on, for a few hours before play time (after taking the prong off).

I will keep you all posted on her progress, but am positive that after only another week of this work, the dog will fully flatten out on all the kinks and be on her way to obedience stardom!

I originally wrote about the following topic on the post ‘Buy Now, Pay Later,’, but I thought some more clarification was in order, being that this is an important issue, so here we go.

We all know that, in the human world, babies who are well cared for and most always grow up to be healthy adolescents and adults. I don’t have hard statistics for you, but as I said, we all know that this is true. We also know that an infant raised on crappy sugar based formula, tons of carbohydrates soon graduates to Pepsi and by the time he is twenty, may develop diabetes, or worse.

The same is true for canines. A pup comes out of the womb and if it is healthy at birth, should thrive, given the fact that the mom has adequate milk, the milk is good, meaning not infected or infiltrated with some harmful bacteria. Okay, given that, the pup should get off to a good start.

Here are some examples of getting a pup off to a bad start:

1. If the breeder fails to keep the whelping box clean, the pups are liable to develop coccidiosis, a very contagious and very deadly intestinal infection, if not treated immediately.

2. If the breeder fails to worm the pups early on and doesn’t continue to worm the pups as a preventative until eight weeks, the worms grow to adulthood and the pups develop enteritis and could possibly die if not treated. If they survive, they may have health issues later in life, I assure you. By the way, all pups are born with worm larvae. The mom passes them on, always. Go and ask your vet if you don’t believe me.

3. Feeding a cheap, low protein food when weaning will also be a cause of problems, just like the human baby formula example I mentioned earlier. Purina Puppy Chow is not what you feed a pup who is undergoing the stress of growth, weaning, socialization etc.

4. Weaning too fast may also cause issues, both physically and mentally for the pup. They need a nice, slow weaning runway so they can be done with mom and have their gastrointestinal tract fully adjusted to solid food.

Okay, so everyone nowadays is a breeder. A person with a male and a female canine is somehow qualified to call themselves a breeder, just because they have AKC papers on both dogs. I think some folks think this is some kind of cash cow that automatically makes money hand over fist and because they don’t really care about the breed they are dealing with, they do stupid, careless things and soon they are out of the breeding game. Successfully reproducing livestock is hard work, requires a thorough knowledge of the breed or species and several years of experience learning animal husbandry skills.

If you buy a discount pup from someone who knows nothing of this stuff and has done nothing to prepare the pup for the outside world, will you care? Even if you pay for double the difference in vet visits over the next few years?

Okay, this was ‘I told you so’, Part Two…

Best,

Bob

This is another little piece of false information floating around that I just have to comment on, considering that this is an all too common concern amongst pet owners.

I call it the eight week rule. Basically, this is the rule which states that a pup is only valuable at eight weeks old. There is apparently some kind of expiration date whereby the pup who ages one day past eight weeks is no longer viable as a potential companion animal and should more than likely be euthanized.

Well, let us examine the facts about this to see whether or not it is true. You can then draw your own conclusions:

1. An eight week old puppy is easier to train than an older pup.

This may have its merits, let’s say, if you were considering training the pup in competitive obedience. This would give you extra time to imprint the dog and begin it training for trial work. But, for the average pet owner? An eleven, twelve or even sixteen week old pup is no worse for wear, with this one exception: if the breeder has failed to do any socialization with the pup, there could be problems ahead. But, then again, if the pup wasn’t socialized prior to eight weeks old, you will have problems as well. So, the rule is, find out if the pup has had rudimentary socialization and is comfortable around other animals, humans, things, etc.

2. It is harder to housebreak an older pup.

No, this is not true. Pups are very eager to please and are very teachable, even at a year or two old. This is not a case of arrested development. You teach a dog what you have to teach them, as the need arises. Crate training is no exception. As a matter of fact, an older pup is somewhat more aware and has better learning skills than an eight week old. I have personally placed no less than six pups who were eleven weeks or older to pet homes, with no problems whatsoever occurring in their housebreaking.

3. Faults are more noticeable on an older pup.

This is true. So, why is that a bad thing? If you want a more realistic picture of what your pup will look like at adulthood, then seeing him at eleven or twelve weeks is a more reliable picture than at eight weeks.

4. An older pup will have more issues bonding with family members

No. I have no idea where this one came from, but it is simply not true. Both dogs and people have the uncanny ability to bond with each other, regardless of age. Sometimes, it takes a bit longer, due to one or the other being obnoxious, but that is a personal dog/human issue, not an age issue. I have placed dogs as old as one and a half years old in homes with young children/newborns and had zero issues with bonding. It takes around a month for the bonding to take effect, but at that point, the pup has forgotten his prior life and has fully embraced his new family. Haven’t you ever rescued a dog from the pound and had them fit in with your family rather quickly? Okay, then, why is it different for purebred dogs?

5. If a breeder has an older pup, then something must be wrong with it.

Not true. Remaining pups are going to exist relative to time of year (some seasons are slower than others), how many pups were in the litter and what criteria pet owners used in choosing pups from that litter. I was told this many years ago by a Rottweiler breeder who had spent over twenty years in the business of showing and breeding: The first pick is not always the best pick. As a matter of fact, whenever I have selected out a female for a brood bitch, I never, ever take what is considered the first pick. Of course, disclosure and honesty on the breeder’s part are a must, but finding an outstanding pup that is over eight weeks old is more common than you think.

Best,

Bob

Well, I am now going to expose you to traditional dog training, no frills.

Yes, that’s right. Correct! (no pun intended). Dog training as it is presented to the public, by and large, is comprised mostly of gimmicks and fads and buzz words and a lot of other crap that does not really equate to actual dog training.

To backtrack a bit, and by way of example, my son and his wife were over one weekend and she had mentioned a conversation she had with one of her friends, where the friend had to cut things short because she needed to go ‘dog whisper’ her pet. WTF? Now it’s a verb? When I stopped laughing, I simply said, ‘your friend is an idiot.’ Everyone agreed and we settled down to watch the Miami Dolphins lose another game.

Okay, so, my point here is that the current pup psychology (okay, enough with the puns) of dog training has trickled down to the common denominator of using Cesar Millan’s particular brand of behavior mod as a different part of speech, without once trying to understand what the guy is actually doing when he corrects some crazy woman’s peekapoo out of biting her ankles.

I mean, dog training has become a multi billion dollar industry. Just go to a ‘pet superstore’ and you can see and hear the dog clickers being used by those poor souls who actually pay for obedience lessons at one of these places. Walk down the aisles and you will be overwhelmed with all of the training aids, toys, reward systems, etc.

Then stop at your local bookstore and you’ll see a healthy row of books espousing this and that training method that will enable you to speak to your dog. Or if you simply pay twenty five bucks, some self proclaimed dog training genius will tell you that you need to become the pack leader and so on. I’m getting exhausted just thinking about all of the pages and pages of bulls##t that have been generated in the name of dog training.

Now, I am not a stranger to the world of dogs and I am certainly not a stranger to training dogs. I own a twelve dog kennel and have been doing this for over ten years, pretty much full time. I have owned dogs all of my life. I belong to two dog training clubs and I have seen it all, believe me. I have paid a lot of money out to dog trainers, both good and bad. Consider me the common man’s dog training quasi-expert. With that said, and with a 100% disclaimer on the results that you may or may not receive from this article, I will give you the secrets to successful dog training, right here in this article, for free.

1. First, if you are NOT mentally, spiritually and physically capable of correcting your dog at any one time in his lifetime, then you really should reconsider your choice of species and get a GOLDFISH.

2. Correcting a dog consists of initially showing a dog what you want him to do and then, when he fails to follow the command, somehow showing the animal that he has done something wrong. Right then, not two hours later.

3. Correction collars are not used for decoration as a necklace, LIKE MR. T. Factually, if you leave a choke collar on your dog and he gets it hung up on the hose bib, you will be buying one of those doggie headstones as his next toy.

4. How about starting things off by socializing your dog? Socializing is the most important training you can and must give your pup from eight weeks until the day he dies. Take him everywhere and have him look at, listen to and travel to all points on the planet and you will have done most of the work. Ninety percent of the problems people have with their dogs, regardless of breed, has to do with improper socialization.

5. Here’s the truth. Dog training as a concept is simple. It’s the actual doing that takes work. Just like all of those weight loss diets, pills, etc that don’t include actually burn off the fat. You cannot lose weight taking pills. Just ask the 750 lb man, who is on after the Dog Whisperer on the NGC. Speaking of whom, stop watching ‘The Dog Whisperer’ because Cesar will never show you all of the correcting he had to do on the poor dogs he features on his show. He is good at what he DOES, not at what he TELLS his baffled guests, unless you think giving them more Eastern philosophy than the Dalai Lama even knows, to be useful to dog training. Use that time to actually train your own dog instead of being a spectator. Come on. Do you really think that the ‘people’ he has on his show actually change THEIR BEHAVIOR for more than ten minutes after Cesar pulls out of their driveway?

6. Okay, figure out what you want the dog to do. Like ‘Sit’ or ‘Stay’,etc. Make it into a customized drill, like an exercise and break down the actions that you need to do, in baby steps, to get your dog to comply. If you cannot figure out a simple exercise to do with your dog to get him to sit, you need to get out of the dog hobby thing and work with snakes (or the goldfish). They are easy to train. Seriously, the technique that you use is not as important as your timing in rewarding and correcting. You just want to get the dog to sit.

7. Start the exercise by giving the command and urging him to comply, gently and with food or a toy, reward the dog when it complies with the command. Be patient and don’t be a frustrated with the dog. Just work with him and he will get it. Trust me. It doesn’t happen in one or two commands. And, just like people, some dogs are smarter than others. Hope your dog is smart and that you are smarter. If you cannot catch your dog and get him to calm down for a second in order to train him, then you should read point number one again.

8. Do that one command about eight thousand times. No, really, about a thousand ought to do it. There is no secret here. Just do the damn exercise with him over and over and over, every day, until he gets it. Do you really think that dogs are people in dog suits? If you do, go to the PETA web site and forget about training your dog.

9. Once the dog has gotten that command, continue giving it, correcting as needed, correcting with a bit more force as needed to keep the dog compliant. It’s a dog, and I know he is your best friend, but come on, man, you need to deal with him so that he is compliant. I am not talking about being cruel to a dog. No. I am talking about a quick, short correction with either a chain collar or prong collar or slip lead, and/or the word ‘no’, followed by the command and when compliant, the reward. Big time reward, lots of hugs and kisses and all of that. Really let him know he did the right thing.

10. Then go onto the next thing you want your dog to learn.

11. If you are the type of person who thinks that the above is harsh or cruel and insists on using the same psychobabble that you used on your own disobedient children who are smoking dope and getting even stupider behind your backs, then go ahead. If it didn’t work on your kids, it won’t work on a dog.

Thank you!

Bob