fabio , i'm a big fan of the hand feeding . . . but i take it a bit farther .

i'll take his portion of food with me on walks , and hand feed him throughout the walk . not only does this further confirm that i am the source of food , but also that the food can come at any time and anywhere . . . even more reason for the dog to keep tabs on me , not the other way around .

as well , i will let the dog take bits of food directly from my lips . i know some will cringe at the thought of that , but it mimics the way wolves feed their young . i do draw the line at regurgitating food lolololl . the other benefit of that technique is it promotes eye contact in close quarters , with an automatic reward for the dog !

i have another tale . . . one time after a long road trip to a training course , my dog would only eat from my hand . he just wouldn't feed from a bowl for a couple of days until he settled in to the new surroundings .

 Quote: ian bunbury

fabio , i'm a big fan of the hand feeding . . . but i take it a bit farther:

i will let the dog take bits of food directly from my lips . i know some will cringe at the thought of that...

When I first got my current dog (adult Doberman rescue) she had a super-hard mouth & took to hand-feeding like a SHARK to chum, LOL -- Then when she immediately developed an unrelated suture reaction at the site of her fresh spay incision, my Vet prescribed some chewable medication ... I fed it from between my inverted lips, and guess what ??? She would gently take it with all the finesse of a successful pick-pocket !!! I believe that really helped to accelerate our BONDING

Hand feeding

With my kids and now my grand kids I start all my dog getting used to their hands near the food dish.

Not that they will interfere with the dog's meals but just as a precaution.

The kids put the food bowl down half full. When the pup finishes that first half the second half is put in the bowl one handful at a time UNDER VERY CAREFUL SUPERVISION.

This teaches the dog that a hand coming towards the food bowl is a good thing and not a threat.

Keep in mind that some pups will be defensive from the very beginning.

One of my two GSD gets all excited and wiggles around like a puppy anytime the kids get within 10-15 feet of where they are eating.

The other dog would allow them to put food in their bowl but doesn't get all excited.

I do feel safe with both dogs BUT the kids NEVER touch the dog food bowls without me present and they don't even go in the yard when the dogs are eating without me present.

Accidents can happen but you can proof both kids and dogs to help avoid those accidents.

The first is teaching the pup and kids how to do the one hand at a time feeding.

The second is management of both kids and dogs during feeding.

Training may be on a daily basis but management of both kids and dogs ALL THE TIME is a lifelong duty of all dog owners.

I wanted to avoid a long post so here is another.

The recall


Getting a recall started is really simple when they are very young.

Between 7-12 weeks the pup can be imprinted with all info needed for any training later on.

By 12 wks old I expect my pups to know a sit, down, come and even a very short duration of stay/wait.

At this age they are also still dependent on their mom and litter mates. Their pack.
Take advantage of this.

They WANT to follow you. You are now that pack.

When they do come up to you it is worthy of reward even though you haven't asked for it at this time.
Your imprinting on the pup that coming to you is about the best thing in the world it can do.

NEVER call the pup when it is distracted. All that will do is teach it it can refuse the command.

NEVER call the dog to correct it. That will teach it that coming to you is NOT always a good thing.

If the dog is chewing on something it shouldn't be chewing on you just go to it and take whatever away.

That's what puppies do and they need to learn that it's not a good thing.
Then blame the person that left that object where the pup can get to it.

If it pees in the house, gets in the trash, chews something up guess who's fault it is. NOT the pup's!

Again, NEVER call the pup to punish it.

There are many great videos from LB that cover all this through marker training but we are also here to help you understand them and hopefully answer any questions you have.

I'd rather work with puppies then compete with a high level competition trained dog.

Nothing like seeing that bulb in their head light up.

Fabio - Can't overemphasize what the others have said about the types of things you should focus on in that first year, especially the importance of working on engagement with your new pup. The Leerburg video "The Power of Training Dogs With Food" was one of the most helpful videos we found in our collection of dog training materials. Also, for working engagement, the two free videos on this site that had a profound impact on us were these:

https://leerburg.com/flix/player.php/245/Cindy's_New_Puppy,_Endy,_Working_Engagement_at_13_Weeks

https://leerburg.com/flix/player.php/245/Cindy's_New_Puppy,_Endy,_Working_Engagement_at_13_Weeks

As for other training, I would recommend just focusing and proofing the recall (most important command you will use), work on housebreaking, and very basic marker training.

Also, some would argue against this but I wouldn't discount taking advantage of whatever training classes you can find. Just be selective and only use trainers and courses you are comfortable with. If something about them doesn't seem right, it probably isn't. We learned something useful even in the worst classes we took and it made us better trainers. Like anything, even with Leerburg, you will embrace the things you like and reject those things you don't agree with. You aren't going to come out of any of them with a perfectly trained dog or as a perfect trainer but they are at least good opportunities for socialization and exposure to new things under a reasonably controlled settings. And, they go a long way to getting your dog tired, which should be your goal every single day for the rest of her life.

That said, this best place for good advice and great training materials is still on this site, much of it free. Glad you're here. With such a challenging dog you're getting, this was a great first step just coming here. Wish more did the same thing.

In addition to all the great advice above, I'd like to add that developing grooming/body handling routines is an important part of raising a puppy.

From the earliest age, start things like nail trimming, ear cleaning, tooth brushing (even if you are just "pretending" to do these things at first.) Get the pup used to you touching every part of his body, and lying quietly while you examine belly, butt, feet, eyes, mouth, etc. You'll be glad you did--and so will every vet and groomer your dog meets when he his older and larger.

Oops. My intent was to also post this link on working engagement. The two I originally posted were duplicates, by mistake. Sorry about that.

https://leerburg.com/flix/player.php/235/Cindy_Training_Endy_-_our_New_8_Week_old_Puppy_from_Michael_Ellis

That Cindy training 8 wk old Endy video is as good as it gets.

If you have any questions about bonding with your pup and/or the beginning of training THAT IS exactly how it should look!

Fabio like Bob said, those clips are as good as it gets, try and keep grounded when watching some of these clips.

they are great vids in themselves but you are looking at professional long term dog trainers with highly selected and specialised dogs bred just to be able to look that way with high level specialist trainers.


just don't want to see you get set up for unrealistic goals as a new trainer with a dog bred for a whole different reason.

aim high but keep it realistic.

Thanks for the help guys, im still studying, and I will ask soon new questions :-)

About my rott, I looked on forums then I picked the bests, and I visited them and I found this guy that spent 1 hour asking us questions and showing us his place.

He mix only with German Rott lines, my future dog mum and dad both are ZTP and IPO champions.

He showed me the mother, and other dogs.

8 February gonna pick her ! :-D