I have a 16 month old rott bitch. She seems to fluctuate in her enthusiam for training. One days she'll head for the dumbell like a bullet the next she'll meander out like molasses.Some goes for general obedience exercises and bite work. Ive been told that bitches tend to be, well, a bit like a woman. One day hot the next cold. It may be what I am observing in my bitch is simply a product of her age. I understand that dogs go through periods of fluctucation as they mature. Any comments on bitch/dog behavioural differences would be appreciated. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Brendan comments on his Rott being up and down with its training and is it because its a bitch,I have never had a problem with any bitch during training,they do not differ from males in any way as far as training,its the end result were the difference is,they just seem to lack the reliability of a male.
Perhaps your methods of training are what you need to be looking at and not the bitch.

Brendan-

Rotts are a slow to mature breed.
Also, they tend to pout or sulk sometimes when given a correction.
My rott did not mature fully until he was well past 2.

Brendan. I have had several rotts. What I have experienced is tha the rott matures a lot slower than the GSD for ex. One use to say that the rott will be about six months behind the GSD the first 2-2,5 yrs. This can of course vary some. Another thing, the rott seems not so capable of taking the same amount of training as the GSD the first 1-1,5 yr. Therefor take it slowly the first year. ALWAYS make sure the training beeing portioned in small amounts, with lots of praise. If your rott shows dominance in it`s prey(growling, and holding it`s prey with the elbows), never stimulate this. (This is a common thing with rotts.)If you stimulate this you end up having a hell of a job trying to control it.

If your rott shows strong behaviour it`s first year, there is a good chance this will be several times stronger once it is mature. What I have seen with the rott is that if your leadership is weak and the dog has a good portion of dominance, this can also show it self in the kind of behaviour you are describing. The dog will decide for it self if it wants to do whatever it is you want it to do. So make sure you take good care of your role as pack leader. Once you loose this title the rott will give you a hard time. Remember that he/she is just doing work for YOU, not the other way round.

I hope this helps a little:-)

Thanks for every ones input. I am breaking her training down now. I used to stick to a rigid schedule, like a miliairy training regime. I try to be more flexible now. I agree that some of her behaviour is, hey , I dont feel like doing this so Im not going to. We have a bulmastiff/ dane cross that has the same mentality at times. It might be part of the mastiff type breeds psych make up.

She has very strong prey drives, she has growled at me several times when I given her a correction (i realise this is not a prey drive type behaviour) , loves kids and strangers. She attacked a miniature horse of ours the other day. The horse kicked the shit out of her but she wouldnt let go of his tail. I had a hell of a time getting her off the horse, I was chasing the dog, the dog was getting dragged at a gallop by the horse, it was chaos. The horse turned and bit her so she grabbed him on the throat. Needless to say the horse gives her a wide berth now.
I have seen the prey holding behaviour and growling at me when I take the sack off her. I will keep an eye on this.

Any more advice will be gratefully recieved.

Paul, Id be very interested in hearing more about your training philosophy. Perhaps you could recommened some books that parallell your ideas.