When one has lived with a pretty well trained dog over the past few years one tends to forget the mischief a little puppy can get into. Bella is in that mischievous stage. I must admit our dogs have always been pretty well mannered and although they will push the boundaries at times, the Rottweiler breed is noted for their tenacious and often headstrong streak, it seems as if they learn lessons so quickly that one must make each lesson count so bad habits are quashed right away. We have had Rottweilers for almost 25 years and a few who have had a good share of stubbornness in their genetic makeup, hard headed as Darrell would say, so they are a breed which tends to suit me as I can be a firm taskmaster. As those who know me will agree that when I say “sit” it means “sit right this minute!”
Brandy is a most wonderful dog, she is 
exceptionally friendly when people come to visit as long as we are home, rather protective of our place if we are away, very alert if I am here by myself and pretty well behaved for the most part. Being the first female we have allowed to have puppies has allowed her the privilege of having a certain amount of leeway given to her at the times when she is expecting, yes, she becomes much more of a pampered pet! Her customary nightly sleeping place either on the back deck or in her cozy kennel is replaced by a nice fluffy bed in the laundry room and much more time in the house on her rug or lying at Darrell’s feet, her preferred place in the living room. So when we decided to keep one of her pups from this last litter I think it has been a rude awakening to her as to how much work a new addition to the family can be.
Now Bella is a good puppy, if I do say so myself. I teach all the puppies by the age of 5 or 6 weeks to sit on command before they get their food dishes set down. At 14 weeks Bella knows to sit without a verbal command before the kennel door is opened, sit and wait until she is told “OK” before coming into the house, is doing very well on “come”, “down”, pretty good on “stay”, “in”, “outside”, dashes to you like mad when you whistle for her no matter where she is and recently got her first lesson in giving up her bone to a human. Brandy during all this puppy training looks at me with almost rolling eyes! The down side of this is that when I say “No!” to Bella, Brandy thinks I am also telling her that dreaded word too so I have to remind myself to phrase everything as; “Brandy, stay! Bella, come!” it is a work in progress! But back to the bone lesson…
I like, no let me rephrase that, I insist that all our dogs drop whatever they may have picked up in their mouths immediately when I say “Give!” They also must not pick up any food thrown to them, no matter how tempting the morsel or start eating their dinner until they are given the command “OK” which means go ahead and eat. So needless to say, it was not long before Bella would get her first lesson in this area. Darrell had given a morsel of fried chicken skin to Brandy then came in to tell me Bella had promptly absconded with it as Brandy, being a good girl, had waited to be told “OK”. When Brandy went over to Bella to get said morsel, Bella showed all the signs of; “Back off! This is MY food!” So I went out with more tasty morsels to see what Bella would do if a human went to take such food away from her, ready to have “lesson number one” in this department. At first she displayed the classic stiffening of her body and turning away from me as I went to take the skin away from her, she was about to swallow it when I promptly opened her mouth and removed the tasty treat. She immediately went to grab it back, wrong thing to do, as I snarled viciously and snapped at her. The look on her face was priceless! This was the last thing she expected me to do I am sure! Brandy just looked on with a somewhat “I told you so” sort of expression on her face. I lay down on the deck with the tasty morsel in front of me. Bella came once again to get it and was promptly bitten and royally snarled at! She immediately backed off. I then sat up and moved away from the treat watching her out the corner of my eye. As she started to approach it I once again bared my teeth and growled the result being she immediately backed off. A snarl works wonders! Of course had anyone else other than Darrell been a witness to this they would have thought I was going off my rocker! But it works.
Unfortunately there are times when my instinct to reprimand “Alpha” fashion happens before I think about it. One such case was with our first Rottweiler, Bear. Bear had tangled with a porcupine. The first time this happened he was just swiped and had a few quills in his nose which were easy to remove. The second incident the daft dog bit the porcupine and subsequently received quills in nose, mouth, tongue and near the back of his throat. I was able to pull almost all out but the ones far back in his mouth so promptly took him to our vet, Martin Warbington over in Tumalo just outside Bend. Now Bear was a very mellow dog and very well behaved but once on the examination table with Martin ready to remove some offending quills, he growled in a low and menacing manner. Without thinking I snarled and snapped and bit Bear’s ear, not stopping to think what on earth this vet would think of me! Bear rolled over on his back, lay like a statue and did not move an inch while Martin went deep in his mouth to remove the offending quills. Handy lessons I learned from running around with a dog pack in northern Canada!
So Bella, like all our dogs, will learn her place in the Howe family and she will be a happy girl. Hmmm… it is rather quiet all of a sudden, ominous when it comes to a playful pup. As I look out the kitchen window Brandy is lying quietly on the deck in the sunshine, watching her daughter playing with the back door rug and an old hot tub filter which she found from who knows where. Oh my goodness… puppies!
