Im from a gun dog background owning female german shiort haired pointers.

I have my first rott, a 15 month male which i would like to do schutzhund with, so far a little bite work ob and tracking.
i am seeing behaviuor in him that makes me wonder if i a dominant dog.

With other dogs he has always been rude. As a puppy he would be very friendly, too much so. Straight up and sniffing the bum and jumping, trying to hump. I put him with my retired gun dogs, three bitchs. they all snapped at him. i thought maybe they could teach him some manners but no.

Now he approachs other dogs and will go head to head, his head high and freeze, or move forwards and freeze with his head over there shoulders. They all give him a growl but he just doesnt get it, his hackles do not come up.I have decided to stop his interation with any other dogs.
When on the lead or training he is distracted by other dogs, whining to get to them and no matter what distration, reward correction i can not break his focus on other dogs.

With people he is very friendly, though will push into their legs as if hearding them. He can also get very excited, if this is the case he may try and hump them which leads to a firm no from me and he will stop.

At the end of ob as soon as the toy gos away he will try to hump but again is sternly told no and will stop.

When playing tug of war with his toy he will growl intensley but out great, even on the sleeve.
When some gents from belguim came to our sch club for a weekend they told me he will be a serious dog when older and i must be carefull he does not focus on the helper instead of the sleeve.

It has been mentioned to me from several people that he is dominant but i have put it down to his confident personality. Am i wrong?

are these signs of dominant dog?

Am going to get the dvd soon but wanted peoples views in the mean time.
Sorry for the essay, thought i would get the detail in.

Thank you

Andrew

Yes, he sounds dominant. His stiff legged head over the back is called T-ing off. It does not sound like he respects you if he ignores commands and completely focuses on other dogs. A dominant dog can be friendly and still be dominant. Both with people and other dogs.

He doesn't hackle because he does not feel threatened, a dog hackles generally as a response to a threat, it is a defensive move. There was a thread that addressed this recently ... ah I think it starts closer to the bottom and continues on the next pages, discussing hackling etc.
http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/173031/page/7/fpart/1

Was he always kept with other dogs from when you first got him or did you keep him seperate initially?

Thank you.

No he was encouraged to mix with other dogs when i got him. i was of the belief that a dog should be sociazed to be comfortable with other dogs.
My family own boarding kennels and i would leave him with them to run with my familys dogs in the kennel compound with their own large run.
A neighbour also had a dog the same age and he was allowed to meet up and play.

With regards to the respect thing, well i hope that is not the case but maybe your right.

I have always been firm but fair with him. he will give me any object i ask him to and leave anything i tell him to.
With his feeding i made sure as a pup that he had to sit or down when his bowl went down and be told then he could eat. also he is comfortable with a stroke when feeding.
He is not allowed on the sofa or upstairs in the house. he must go through doorways and gates after me.
When i come home he will great me but for the first few mins i will be allof. Then he gets a pat.
In the evenings on the sofa he will come and sleep at my feet.
How do i figure if he respects me?
I put it down to him being too doggy focused.

Does he act different/behave different in the house versus on a walk? Is he more focused and obedient at home and not so much outside?

What does your average walk consist of, how does it go?

As far as socialization etc.. a pup needs to bond with humans at some point away from other dogs. The reason he is "doggy oriented" is because he is doggy. If a pup is left with other dogs too much, dogs become more important. A dog will always prefer other dogs to humans.

Do you use a prong with him when he ignores your corrections? He ignored verbal correction, collar correction..? What about physical touch(like fingers on the neck, tap on the back etc)? Have you tried blocking his view of the other dogs with your body?

Hes good in the house and outside, though i would guess hes better in the house. Outside he can be doing really well then suddenly stop to sniff the wind or ground. I try to keep sessions short so he is not bored.

He is walked for twenty minutes first thing in the moring, followed with 5 or ten min ob play session. This is repeated in late afternoon and then a 15 min walk before bed. Maybe a few 5 min ob play sessions through the day.

Yes he has a prong on but will ignore even very hard corrections if another dog passes while training, i am now having to give very few corrections for ob except with other dog distration. Have tried blocking his view. Now if he stops playing/training to watch a dog i will end the session, for his sake as well as mine because it is upsetting to see such great work go down the toilet. i am set to go to the club today and hope he focuses on me.

from four months to six months he went to the kennels pherhaps half a dozen times but the kennel handlers said he was always being told off by the old girls and i noticed the doggy focussing so i stopped it.

Ok. Your walks need to be more structured.. if he is allowed to sniff stuff etc he is not focused on you. Is he kept at heel?

I have dealt with exactly what you describe - a dog that wants to be around other dogs so much it really couldn't care less about anything else. It isn't aggression, its just a very hard focus and wanting to be with/near the other dog.

What happens if you actually touch him, or if you were to grab him and make him sit?

With walk we leave the house and he heels for five mins then were in the fields and he is allowed to have the length of the lead to run about like a crazy man. He must be heeling and look at me be fore i give him the release command to go off. Often he will be walked in busy places or the village and heels fine, but if he sees another dog will wactch that dog till out of view even through corrections.

If i tell him to sit etc and he sees another dog he will sit or down but will keep looking at them.

He is not so botherd with familiar dogs. I have been increasing distractions by taking him to the kennels and proofing the down stay etc by having family walk very close by with the girls on lead. Its strange dogs he really wants to meet.

With the strutured walks etc im a little confused. Structure? Are you saying he should not be allowed to run about in the fileds and streams but walk all the time to heel?

With ignoring me, he always tries to beat the pop on the lead etc, its just when he sees a strange dog its asif he is hypnotized. Should i set up a scenrio where by i get a dog to be walked past and correct him harder if he ignores me?

Thanks for the advice.

I wouldn't say "NEVER" run in the fields, but I would, as Jenn said, keep him at a heel so he learns that even on walks, you are in charge of what he does. You are absolutely right, IMO, when you say you chalk it up to him being to "doggy". You now realize that he spent too much time w/other dogs, and now he thinks that THEY are the ones he needs...but it's YOU he needs. Never too late to start over. Structure, structure, and more structure. Teach him "leave it."

I, personally, allow my dog to look at things, but I'll say "I see it" or "it's ok," etc. to communicate to him/her that I am in charge, I have seen what they've seen, and it's no big deal. If they ignore me, they get a correction (prong) and a stern "leave it." Leave it can be used for so many things from lack of focus to eating dangerous objects, etc. I would try to get him understanding a similar command asap.

Right now, other than not looking at you, he doesn't really think he's doing anything wrong, b/c he hasn't disobeyed a command. You said he sits when you tell him to, but continues looking at the dog. In his mind, he's behaving perfectly fine. If he's fully comprehending a "leave it" command and continues to look, and gets corrected, then he will begin to stop the behavior altogether...we hope.

Thanks Jenni. I must admit i am surprised about not letting the dog run free(at end of the long line at least). When walking if he is hanging back sniffing something i call him and he will leave it and come racing past me and carry on. If he gets too far ahead i will tell him to wait and he does so until i give him the release.
To keep the dog at heel the whole time for every walk.... How will he know he can do his business? Also he wont burn as much energy in the heel as he can when free.
I dont mean to sound argumentative, i really depend on this site for well balanced advice etc but am shocked ive been so wrong.