[Blog post from 2009] We’ve had our Rottweiler Lola for about a year and a half now, and I’ve learned a lot about training dogs in general and Rotties in particular from her. Here are five things that may help you with your own dog training, no matter what size dog you have… but especially if you have a large dog! (Here, Lola demonstrates one of her favorite postures.)

[1] Don’t believe everything you hear about any breed!

I had no idea that Rottweilers could be so loving, mellow, and easily trained. Admittedly, not every Rottie is, but it turns out that Lola exemplifies these qualities. I found an excellent forum just for the breed – rottweilersonline.com – and the people there were a huge help in getting us up to speed.

[2] Every dog is your best dog in some ways.

I always think my current dogs are the best ever in one way or another, and Lola definitely is. She is tied for best-ever all-round dog in our family with Cider, a Rhodesian Ridgeback we had back in the days when we ran a llama ranch. Ridgebacks are sight hounds, and after living with Lola I’m convinced Rotties must also have some hounds in their ancestry. Hounds are very good dogs for writers who spend hours on the computer, then get up and go wild for a while!

[3] Large dogs will take advantage of their size.

Lola does this all the time. I love this photo of both our dogs doing the sit together, taken before Lola was a year old, so she’s even bigger now. It’s here so you can get an idea of her size, more or less, relative to LarryDog, who is Blue Heeler – Chow.

Lola throws her weight and size around all the time. For example, if I am sitting on the sofa petting LarryDog, she will often try to hog my attention by shoving between Larry and me. This doesn’t work – I always give Larry all the more attention, reaching over Lola to do it – but Lola always seems to think it’s worth a try.

(It’s worth noting that one of our cats, the small one who started life as a Mexican street cat, doesn’t buy into the idea that Lola’s size gives her any rights. Misty runs a tight ship around here, and Lola is pretty careful not to incur her wrath!)

[4] Dogs are very smart. Rottweilers are very very smart.

Here is one example: Lola is standing on the front steps of our house. You can see a dog chew toy attached to the screen door. Lola learned so fast it was scary that she could pull on the chew toy and enter the house… that is why we had put it there.

LarryDog is no dummy but it’s been over a year that she’s been doing this and he has never done it. He has learned, though, to dash in behind her when she does it.

[5] Never stop training.

Because of all those brain cells, you have to keep any smart dog mentally interested. That’s one reason I like training tricks with our dogs, like Wash Your Face! that I made a video about recently.