If you have successfully identified that your German Rottweiler experiences fear and stress, the next step you need to take is to find solutions. Your reactions to your dog's behavior can make a significant change in helping your dog overcome his anxiety. However, when you handle it wrong, you risk accelerating its fears and other issues. Please read this article to the end as we discuss how you can help your dog cope with his anxiety and fears.
The German Rottweiler is naturally a strong and loving dog. Initially, the dog was bred to be used for driving cattle to the market in Germany. Subsequently, they moved to pulling cats for butchers and being among the earliest military dogs.
Pet lovers have used German Rottweilers as guardians and friends. However, new pet owners need to be careful and aware of German Rottweiler strength. They are naturally robust, energetic, and intense. As such, they need professional training and care daily. These include encouragement of calm behaviors and using certain dog calming products to make them submissive and happy.
You must also teach your dog to obey simple commands, such as sitting, eating, and keeping calm. With these actions, any willing pet owner will enjoy maximum friendship, protection, and loyalty from a German Rottweiler. You will also find German Rottweilers highly affectionate for your family members and young children.
A healthy German Rottweiler has an average lifespan of 8 - 11 years, with weight varying from 85 - 130 pounds and 22 to 27 inches at the shoulder. German Rottweilers are regarded as working dogs because of their strength and endurance in other activities aside from protection. Aside from protecting homes and families, they also double as obedience competitors, therapy dogs, and loyal companions.
One factor to consider when you have a German Rottweiler is your apartment if you would love to accommodate your dog there. German Rottweilers adapt to living apartments conveniently and get adequate exercise like a typical dog breed.
However, apartments are more suited for Adult German Rottweilers than puppies. As the puppies grow, their energy level changes which can be confusing to new pet parents. Grown-up German Rottweilers, on the other hand, become calm when they are inside. Using a simple cuddle bed for dogs or a calming cuddle blanket can also boost their mood and calm them. All you need is to make several trips to parks and fields a regular activity.
For every owner of a German Rottweiler, there comes a huge commitment and responsibilities. If you don't have the proper level of experience and endurance, this breed may not be for you after all. They are gifted with a muscular and athletic body; hence, they require regular training, exercises, socialization, and stimulating products, like calming zen chews and calming spray that can help them relax and improve their mental health.
German Rottweilers love to swim and walk with their pet owners and family members to maintain their physique. These activities often make them strong enough for any work, including detecting, tracking, and herding. They can also help the dogs relieve stress and improve their moods.
Pet owners willing to make the best out of their German Rottweilers must begin to train them at a very tender age. These include following instructions, socializing with other animals, and living in their owner's house.
These actions can help produce a well-behaved and calm German Rottweiler. German Rottweilers spend a lot of time with their owners, making it hard for them to cope when they are alone. This condition is called separation anxiety.
How can you help your German Rottweiler manage stress and anxiety, then? Pet owners should strive harder to train and spend more time with their dogs. It will help their German Rottweilers de-stress, cope with any fearful situation in the future, and help them survive loneliness.
You may not have any problems training German Rottweilers as they are smart, intelligent, and trainable. They are also people-pleasers, so you can bet that they will respond to you. However, you shouldn't forget to be firm with your actions and commands.
Other strategies that can reduce the stress level of your German Rottweiler include socialization and calming-effect products. That way, your dog can survive in your absence and amid other dogs.
Examples of Anxiety and Stress in German Rottweilers
Before you take any steps in treating anxiety in your German Rottweiler, you must be well acquainted with the signs and symptoms and their reactions in your dog. That means carefully observing and watching for unusual behaviors in your dogs.
German Rottweilers are susceptible to stress and fears due to many reasons, including boredom and loneliness. Knowing this can help you take the right steps. However, ignorance about your dog's anxiety can lead to mismanagement or an increase in undesirable behaviors.
According to the American Kennel Club, German Rottweilers are highly sensitive dogs due to their close attachment to their guardians. Also, certain situations or events that they have not witnessed before may cause them to react unusually. Thus, it is not strange for these dogs to experience separation anxiety, boredom and stress.
These circumstances bring out the worst actions in your German Rottweiler. They may not become obvious at first, but some undesirable behaviors begin to manifest as time goes on. When Rottweilers are scared in any situation, they become more violent and aggressive.
When your dog has anxiety, you may notice some consistent pacing. You may also see your German Rottweiler posturing with its tail between its legs and flat ears. In the case of meeting another breed of dog for the first time, your dog may growl or bark continuously until the dog leaves or leaves its territory. This response is a way to tell the other animal to move away.
When a German Rottweiler hears a sudden noise, like fireworks or a thunderstorm, the common reactions are trembling, cowering, and hiding behind objects or their owners. In German Rottweilers, other signs of stress and anxiety include dilated pupils, yawning, urinating, and defecating, especially inside the house, whimpering, whining, snapping, and destructive behaviors. When left alone for long, your German Rottweiler may chew furniture, shoes, and remote in a way to cope with loneliness.
Again, these actions are normal behavior of German Rottweilers when they are scared and tense. It can be difficult for the owners of this breed to cope with some of these actions, especially the destructive ones. That means you may come home to a messy living room and damaged furniture. While it is hard, the best you can do for your German Rottweilers is seek solutions immediately.
You can take one baby step right now to help your dog by paying attention to its body language in different situations. For example, you can observe how it reacts to some of your visitors or thinks about preceding events that might have triggered your German Rottweilers to behave in a particular way.
Other ways to monitor your German Rottweilers are to observe their postures, eyes, the position of their ears and tails, and barking. If anything appears to be out of the ordinary, do not hesitate to look for a way out immediately.
Reasons German Rottweilers Experience Stress and Anxiety
Despite the great qualities of German Rottweilers, they appear to experience stress and anxiety due to boredom and separation anxiety. Due to their strong-looking bodies, many people think they are mentally strong to handle stress, but it is not true. In German Rottweilers, excessive fear and anxiety result from inadequate training, dog self-coping skills, and poor socialization.
Common anxiety triggers in dogs may include sudden loud noises, riding in the car for the first time, or being left alone. However, the most common causes of fear and anxiety in this breed include separation anxiety, phobia, lack of training, boredom, and poor socialization.
Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety is a very common cause of stress and fear among German Rottweilers. It happens when you leave your dog alone in the house. These dogs often find it difficult to stay calm when they can't see familiar faces around them. As such, they start exhibiting some unpleasant behaviors like urinating and defecating indiscriminately, destroying furniture and other items, barking continuously, and pacing around.
Phobia
When your German Rottweiler reacts towards a specific trigger, it is safe to say he has a phobia. According to the American Kennel Club, phobias in dogs happens when a dog experiences intense fear when confronting something that feels threatening, such as noise or thunderstorms. After a consistent occurrence, your German Rottweiler can anticipate a fearful situation. It is a typical experience as it happens in humans as well. No one can pinpoint the particular cause of phobia in animals, but one inevitable fact is that it triggers fearful reactions from dogs.
Fear
Fear is a normal response to strange and scary events, but extreme fear or anxiety in German Rottweilers are signs of behavioral problems. Fear-related anxiety results from unfamiliar people, loud noises, other animals, new items such as an umbrella, new environments, and new surfaces, like the grass or river.
While some of them experience these fears briefly, others show signs for a long time. If these dog owners aren't observant, it can also quickly progress to aggressive and violent behavior. So, it is essential to teach your dog to avoid these responses during training.
Age
Just like in humans, as your German Rottweilers age, some cells in their body will start to degenerate. This condition is associated with cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS). A German Rottweiler with CDS often shows learning difficulty, memory loss, disorientation, and low perception. Also, awareness and social interaction will start to decline, and they may begin to misbehave. For instance, your loving dog may suddenly withdraw from you and be scared of interacting with other animals.
Poor socialization
As your German Rottweiler develops, you must expose it to its environment, people, and other dogs. From eight or fourteen weeks to eight months, you should start introducing your dogs to certain things. If you own an adult German Rottweiler, you might not be conversant with its socialization history, which might pose a significant problem in your dog management. When your German Rottweiler is not familiar with meeting strange people or coping with other dogs or animals, it can develop fear for strange people and animals.
How to Manage Stress and Anxiety in Your German Rottweiler
Once you have made accurate observations from your German Rottweiler fear behaviors, you should visit a veterinarian as soon as possible. Vet doctors often recommend some home exercises or other treatment methods to help your dog manage its tension. In some difficult situations, they may have to direct you to an animal behavior specialist.
It is best not to react to anxiety symptoms in your German Rottweiler by encouraging it. Comforting your German Rottweiler appears to be the most natural response for any owner, but the dog sees it as encouragement. Since the dog naturally assumes you are the leader of its pack, it follows everything you do.
Furthermore, to help the dogs minimize their fear-related problems and anxiety, dog owners need to expose their dogs to new situations and people. Dog owners should not force them or make them perceive the process threateningly to feel comfortable and safe. To achieve the desired result, dog owners should introduce it when they are younger, but it is never too late.
German Rottweilers need to spend time around people and other dogs. Dog owners can do this by taking their dogs for a walk or stroll to a park. It is an excellent opportunity for the dog to have access to other animals and socialize.
Also, if you stay in a noisy environment, you should train your dogs to adjust to other animals' noise and noise. It might be not easy at first, but as your German Rottweiler sees other dogs often. A quick hack to this is to create a schedule when you want to visit the park. For example, you may wear a particular pair of sneakers when you want to visit the park. Once your German Rottweiler sees this, it prepares its mind for the journey.
Another way to lessen stress and tension in your German Rottweiler is to expose your dog to constant exercise. German Rottweilers love to swim and take a long walk, especially with their owners. No matter how busy you are, endeavor to take your German Rottweiler for a walk in a day. Exercise is vital for them because they struggle with weight maintenance. Healthy eating and calming snacks can help them maintain their weight and improve their mood.
An outdoor play can also help them relieve stress and stretch out their energy, especially for German Rottweiler puppies. That helps them avoid undesirable and irrational behaviors when they are faced with one threat or another. Since most of the causes of German Rottweilers include separation anxiety and boredom, exercise and calming spray or calming bed can help them keep their temperament under control.
The type of exercise your German Rottweiler engages in is very important to its health. Aside from the trip to parks, you can implement some workout plans for your dog. For instance, when you take your German Rottweiler puppy to the bathroom, you may give it some time to run around in the bathroom before making a signal for it to come out. Also, your German Rottweiler puppy should take several walks in a day rather than a long walk in days.
If you have a backyard, you may not necessarily go to the park. You can leave your German Rottweiler to play around while you watch from a distance. This strategy will make them get used to playing alone without your presence.
German Rottweilers are one of the most muscular dogs. They are regarded as working dogs because they are used as service dogs, therapy dogs, guide dogs, obedience dogs, and drafting and carting dogs. It is not strange that they are prone to separation anxiety.
Currently, about 14% of dogs are affected by stress, tension, and anxiety. According to the University of Melbourne, one in every four or six dogs experiences anxiety, with older dogs suffering more from it. Regular exercise is essential for your German Rottweiler so that it can maintain its weight and physique. According to a study, 50% of dogs suffer from obesity, putting them at risk for heart diseases and arthritis.
Conclusion
The German Rottweiler is a powerful and loyal working dog with enhanced protective instincts. Due to its size and strength, the German Rottweiler never ceases to prove itself as man's best companion. Aside from being guards and protectors, people have used German Rottweilers for different purposes, including military dogs.
A typical German Rottweiler will be calm and courageous and always active. However, they are not safe from stress and anxiety. As such, they need gentle and passionate pet owners who can track their behavior and help them lessen the effect of fear and anxiety symptoms on their mental health. Some ways to help the dogs cope with tension and stress include socialization, training, and regular dog workouts.