Socializing
Socializing a Rottweiler is a very crucial necessity in a Rottweiler's training. To build a Rottweiler's confidence to a variety of environments, you need to expose him/her to those environments as early as possible. When buying a puppy, you will need to talk to the breeder to know when you can start exposing your Rottweiler, as puppies need to go through all the necessary vaccinations prior to leaving into unknown territories and being exposed to unknown diseases and viruses. In the mean time of waiting, you can expose your puppy to people that you will be having in your home regularly and other pets that it will share it's home with (make sure all your other pets are up to date on their vaccinations).
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Who should I expose my Rottweiler to?
Everyone. Even to those people who don't care for dogs. Your Rottweiler needs to know who it can approach and who it shouldn't. Your Rottweiler needs to distinguish these behaviours through general public. This all protects the Rottweiler and whoever it is encountering.
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Exposing Rottweiler's to children?
Very big need as well. Rottweiler's have prey drive. Children are loud, extremely active and unpredictable. To a Rottweiler that isn't exposed to this, it can become overwhelming. The Rottweiler can sometimes think a child is a toy or if the child is being too "pushy" and up close to the Rottweiler, it may be in a state of fear and try to defend itself from the child. These are situations that NEED to be avoided. How to avoid them to expose them, even if you do not have a child, you need to find someone who does and invite them over so they can expose your Rottweiler to the child.
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How to best expose your Rottweiler to environments?
We recommend you bringing your Rottweiler to busy areas, such as bus stops, high traffic roads, pet stores, etc. It is also important to bring your Rottweiler where you will be taking it regularly. Exposing your Rottweiler to high traffic areas and situations will help desensitize it. Making sure you can avoid putting your Rottweiler through anxiety by exposure to high traffic, stressful environments at an early stage is a very big step onto socializing your Rottweiler properly.
Do you recommend dog parks at a young age?
No. It seems like the best place to expose your new Rottweiler to other dogs, but it is not. This is a very uncontrolled environment, you will have to put your new puppies life in other owners hands by going to these parks. First issue, is not knowing who is up-keeping on their dog's vaccinations, or not knowing what disease/virus their dog is carrying. Secondly, you are trying to do the right thing, exposing your new puppy to other dogs, it is too risky to know if other owners have done the same. Especially when they own a bigger adult dog who isn't used to puppies. Putting your new puppies life in the hands of other owners is never our recommendation.
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WE NEVER want to have our dogs or any other dog locked in a cage all the time. Crate training is a good way to train your Rottweiler, but we do not condone anyone leaving their Rottweiler in a crate for long periods of time, or any cage for that matter. Locking a Rottweiler (or anything) in a cage is like being locked inside solitary confinement in jail. It's punishment for a human to be locked away for 22 - 24 hours a day, so it is punishment for a dog to be in a cage for that long too. Your Rottweiler will develop undesirable behaviors such as aggression in most cases. This is solely the handlers/owners control to make sure this doesn't happen.
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Socialization is all on the owner. This is a very important part of a dogs life. You want to expose your dog to everything so it's afraid of nothing. You also want to expose your Rottweiler to environments that you know that you can control. Dog parks (as stated) are not an easy controllable environment. We recommend bus parks, street events, etc. Where you can see, handle and expose your Rottweiler. NEVER assume your Rottweiler will get out of the way of a bus or moving vehicle, especially at a young age. Make sure you are in control of your dog as well as the area. This stage is to protect your Rottweiler, other people and yourself. Socialization is a NEED in its life, and it NEEDS to be done.