This afternoon, we were out in the yard, in our swimming pool, when I noticed Lola chewing on something. She chews on lots of things… being two and a half now hasn’t really diminished her love of chewing on all sorts of things. She was a ways away from the pool and I couldn’t really see well, but  some guests had just left and one had been using a cellphone in the yard. That seemed to be roughly the size of item Lola was munching… could our friend have set his cellphone down? I was suspicious enough to get out of the pool and walk toward Lola.

Well, of course, she read my body language just fine and was all set for a good game of keepaway. I got close enough to her to see that whatever she had was green, so I figured it was not a cellphone and therefore not a problem. Back to my swim!

Lola seemed a bit disappointed that I wasn’t going to play, and after a bit she dropped her treasure up by the house. It was still there when I got out of the pool. I was able to pick it up without her grabbing it again.

It was, as you knew all along, the missing habanero pepper.

What’s most interesting about this episode to me is that she must have stolen it off the kitchen counter a good 24 hours before I got ahold of it. The pepper was dented all over from being in her mouth, but she had not broken its skin. Proof she has a soft mouth!

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I can’t always get things out of her mouth, partly because I really value my fingers highly. But I do play a lot of substitution games with her, and she will always (well, practically always) give up one thing for something different. That was my plan if it had been a cellphone. If I had realized what it was when I got out of the pool, I would certainly have offered her one of her balls or a nice stick lying in the yard as a trade.

Our Rottweiler Steals a Red Hot Habanero Chile Pepper is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

[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 – Plus Who Knows What.

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 is larger. 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 blogged about recently.

Rottweiler Training: 5 Things I’ve Learned from Lola is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

I’ll spare you the image of what those scratches did to the soft wood of the door.

So one day recently, my husband Kelly took a rope toy we had lying around, and turned it into Lola’s own doorpull!

She had already learned from scratching that if she hit the door hard enough, it might bounce open far enough that she could stick her paw in and flip the door open, but it didn’t work all that well.

When I saw Kelly’s handiwork, I grabbed some tiny pieces of cheese that I had, plus my clicker, and joined Lola outside the door. I used the cheese as a lure to get her to put her nose on or at least near the knot in the rope — the knot that sticks out, not the one right by the door.

We did this maybe 15 or 20 times, and twice she pulled a little on the rope but she didn’t seem to see what this could do for her.

The next day was hectic and we didn’t do any more training. I was going to… but Lola figured it out!

Stop Scratching the Screen Door! is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Not the same, not at all!

We took her to our veterinarian for a checkup, a heartworm test, and booster shots. She jumped willingly into the car, let Kelly attach the travel harness we use to the back-seat seatbelt, and rode in a relaxed manner. Great!

Once in the vet’s office, she was so interested in all the smells and people, and as we left, one other dog in the waiting room, that my occasional attempt to get her attention and have her sit didn’t work.

It was the attention part. Okay, more work to do!

Later, Kelly I went out to have dinner at the home of some friends. What with driving either way, visiting, and a quick grocery stop, we were gone nearly 4 hours. When we got back, I wanted Lola to sit before I opened the gate. But she was so very excited to see us that she was wiggling all over the place.

That’s dog training for you. Patience!

I test the sit with our new dog Lola is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

The third recipe involved getting Lola used to the clicker, by doing several things. Her favorite was that just before giving her a meal, I’d toss a bunch of pieces of her kibble on the floor and click each time she put one in her mouth. I was challenged a few times to click each piece as that mouth can operate like a vacuum cleaner!

We just moved on to the fourth recipe, and this was the first time that I used a treat other than kibble — I cut up some cheddar cheese into quite small bits. The process involved offering Lola the flat back of my hand, with the cheese tucked between 2 fingers. As soon as she touched my hand, I moved the cheese to the flat of my palm and gave it to her. After doing this, we advanced to offering the flat of my hand without cheese, clicking when she touched it, and giving her the cheese right after.

I don’t think she really understands what’s going on with the clicker yet, but she sure likes the cheese!

I practiced the exercise first with our older dog, LarryDog, and he had it down pat immediately. But then he’s an old hand at dog clicker training.

Clicker Training Our Rottweiler is Underway is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

We wanted a dog that would be a good guard dog, as there have been a lot of thefts in the region of Mexico we’re living in, by Lake Chapala not far from Guadalajara. Our quarter-acre yard is completely walled and fenced, so any dog would be safe in it.

A friend emailed me the information that Lola was available, and we went to see her. On the way over, Kelly commented that what would really be essential– besides all the practical matters — would be the bond we felt with the dog.

Keep scrolling down for photos that give an idea of that bond! We took her home with us within an hour!

I got there first, as Kelly had an appointment. Lola was a total love, but what really surprised me was how mellow and laid-back she was, not at all like the two Dobermans I mentioned in a recent blog post. They are several months older than her but intrinsically much more high energy. Lola was more my style, with all the hours I spend on the computer.

She let me touch her all over — adored it, as you can see. She wasn’t mouthy. She’s quite beautiful and has lots of soul in those big brown eyes…

We don’t know a lot about her history but she is purebred, though with no papers. She’s been at several homes recently but hasn’t worked out for one reason or another. (She isn’t housebroken, we were told, but we’re being vigilant and there have been no accidents.) She’s been spayed and had her shots.

When Kelly arrived, they hit it off just great too:

Once home, we crated her for a while, and after a few hours she and LarryDog got acquainted. We couldn’t believe how well that went. The cats are still wary of her but Lola is showing great self-control.

Last night our friend Linda, who had been the “go between” came over to dinner with her husband Bill. They gave Lola very high marks and commented that she will be an excellent guardian. Lola demonstrated her agreement by soon producing the first two barks she has done here. She has a deep voice already!

A Rottweiler means lots and lots of training, and she and I are at it already. She already knew some things, thanks to a local trainer who had already worked with her once or twice. She’s very biddable and very smart.

We are very lucky.

Here’s a family portrait Linda took last night, in our yard:

A Six-Month Old Rottweiler Has Joined Our Family! is a post from: Training Dogs Blog