How to make my Rottweiler less aggressive?

You have a Rottweiler puppy or a grown bad boy, either way, they can show their aggressive tendencies in no time and as you might already know that, you want to learn how to deal with this hostility of the Rottie. To put it another way, you want to know how to make your Rottweiler less aggressive. So let’s learn exactly that.

You can basically make your Rottweiler less aggressive by training it to obey your commands while rewarding it with treats and toys as motivation. Plus, taking the dog out for walks to let it explore the world and familiarize with everything outside of its human family, making the dog interact with other friendly people and dogs, avoiding giving punishments to the dog and making the dog exercise more are the most optimal ways to reduce the dog’s aggression.

You see, when it comes to training a Rottweiler to be less mean-tempered, the procedure differs based on the age, meaning teaching a Rottweiler puppy to listen to you from a young age is the most optimal to avoid triggering the aggression of the dog later on.

However, the younger a Rottweiler, the harder it is to train since puppies get distracted easily and are hyper all the time. On the other hand, the older Rottweilers are easier to train and will learn fast but regardless of the age. both puppy and mature Rottweilers can be trained to be polite and sweet.

In other words, it does not matter whether your Rottweiler is a puppy or a mature muscle beast (an adult), you can train both regardless.

Table of Content

What makes a Rottweiler aggressive?

A Rottweiler’s aggression can be triggered due to reasons such as emotional reactions to emotions such as anxiety and stress, being mistreated or trained to be aggressive by a previous owner, having to be aggressive in order to provide protection to their human, being hostile to protect its foods and toys, the owner themselves being aggressive and harsh towards the dog and lack of training to obey the owner’s commands with positive reinforcement.

Is it possible to make a Rottweiler less aggressive?

Of course, it is possible. The seven steps I mentioned below, are the best ways to do that. Just make sure to do the steps as a combination everyday as a part of the dog’s daily routine. It might take a while for the dog to adapt to changing its behavior from being aggressive and hostile to being polite and sweet but surely it will happen.

And eventually, your Rottie will become the most loving creature and would be great with not only you but kids and strangers too. Plus, the mailman will not have to risk his life to do his job anymore 😀

Do these 7 steps to make your Rottweiler less aggressive

Before anything, you firstly have to make sure the dog is not injured or suffering from a sickness because no matter what you do to make the dog act sweet and nice, if it is in pain, the dog will be as hostile as it can be to cope with the suffering.

So, bring the doggo to the family veterinarian and do a full examination first and see whether the Rottie is fine and not ill. After that, let’s proceed with the 7 steps.

One more thing, as I mentioned above I repeat that the steps below should be done as a combination. Just one or two of them will not do the job. So make sure to do all together throughout the day as a routine.

Reward for behaving politely (Positive reinforcement training)

This is the best way to motivate the dog to obey and repeat a command and ultimately shape the dog’s behavior for the better. Basically, you have to utilize rewards such as toys, treats and praise as incentives to give the dog when it repeats the desired behavior.

However, make sure to only reward for the desired behavior (the well-mannered behavior) and definitely, not when the Rottie is being aggressive. This way, the dog will eventually get the hint that it only gets rewards when it is well-behaved and obeys the commands of its human.

So the dog starts to behave as you want since it is motivated by rewards.

Make the dog interact with friendly people and also friendly dogs

By meeting friendly people of different appearances (from all races and genders), the dog will know how to react to other people outside of its human family and then, identify what is friendly behavior of a person and what is not. This way, the dog will not jump into being aggressive towards every person that comes to your home.

Similarly, by interacting with other friendly and even-tempered dogs, your Rottie will observe and likely would want to imitate the well-mannered behavior of its other dog pals to fit in with them. That way, the Rottie even without realizing, is behaving non-aggressively.

Also, the dog will not feel threated by any of these friendly people or dogs since they are not being hostile to your Rottie. Thus, the dog ultimately will understand who is a friend and who isn.t.

Let the dog explore the world more

If a Rottweiler with aggression sees something unfamiliar, they automatically think it is a threat and start to act hostile towards it as it probably makes them feel unsafe. This is why you have to bring your Rottie out more often to let the dog be more familiar with the environment.

When the dog explores what is strange and unknown to it like that, it starts to learn that not everything that it is not familiar with, is there to harm.

So, bring the Rottie to the dog park, pet stores or even to your friends’ house. Let it adapt to staying around different people and environments. Nonetheless, if these circumstances become too overwhelming to the dog and it starts behaving more aggressively and strangely, then call it a day and take the doggo back home quickly and then try the same on another day.

Just remember to take it easy with the dog.

Train to obey the basic commands first

If you have not trained your Rottweiler to listen and obey the most fundamental commands, it will be difficult to make the dog act a certain way such as to being polite since it means not only to do one task like “Sit” or “Come” but change the entire temperament of the dog. So first teach the basic commands.

Every puppy should learn The 7 Commands from a young age and they are Sit, Down, Come, Stay, Heel, No and Off but if you think that you are too late to teach your Rottie these commands since the doggo has grown into an adult, you are still not too late. Even a mature dog can learn commands. (Maybe even easier since an adult dog is not easily distracted unlike puppies)

Like I said earlier about rewarding the dog for good behavior, you have to use positive reinforcement to teach these basic commands too.

Here are two examples to teach your Rottweiler to sit and come:

Sit

Firstly, show the dog you are holding a treat in your hand.
Then, raise your hand which will make the dog’s head raise too.
After that, lower your hand as the dog also lowers its head.
Then, quickly say “Sit” while calling the dog’s name and surely, the Rottie will sit.
So now, give the treat.

Come

First, let the dog see that you are holding a treat or a toy in your hand when it looks at you from a short distance from you.
Then, tell the doggo to “Come” towards you while calling its name and showing the reward.
Trust me, the Rottie will come to you like it is using teleportation to get the reward and praise.

Try not to be energetic yourself when interacting with your Rottweiler

Rottweilers are Velcro dogs meaning they become so close with you to love and protect you at all cost. However, they are pack animals too and since it does not have a real animal pack, you are its pack.

So depending on how the pack (you) acts, the dog also reacts to them by behaving the same as its pack which means the more hyper you act, the more energetic and aggressive the dog also starts to behave. It is like you are a reflection to the dog.

Therefore, start being gentle with the dog and always show affection and tenderness even the doggo is not a puppy anymore. Dog experts have found that a major reason as to why some Rottweilers (mostly mature ones) are inclined to be so violent and aggressive is because of a past experience of being abused and mistreated by their past owners.

So always make the dog feel that it is being treated with a lot of love.

Ensure your Rottweiler is doing plenty of exercise

A Rottweiler can get aggressive if they have hyperactivity which can be caused by the stored energy that has not been spent on enough of activities. You see, Rotties are full of muscles and need a lot of activity to feed their hunger to burn that stored fuel.

So, making sure your Rottie burn enough calories to not get hyper and aggressive is all you have to do here.

At least two hours of exercise is needed for a Rottweiler to stay happy and occupied. Here are great activities:

Going on longer walks
Playing in the yard such as Fetch
Accompanying the dog with you on hikes
Swimming
Going to the Dog Park and play with other dog pals
Hide and seek with treats (You hide a treat somewhere in your backyard and let the dog walk and sniff around until it finds the treat itself. Then you can praise the doggo)

Avoid punishing the dog

I already mentioned that Rottweilers becomes hostile if they are being abused or mistreated by their owner. Punishing the dog also has a close relation to that.

You see, you might think you are punishing the dog to teach it a lesson to not misbehave and it’s for the dog’s wellbeing but the dog itself does not know that. In his/her head, you are just ill-treating. Thus, the dog starts being hostile and aggressive towards you and everyone else.

Instead of punishing, try using positive reinforcement to encourage the dog to behave properly by its own motivation for rewards. This is the most loving and right way to give a lesson to the dog without punishments.

When does a Rottweiler start being aggressive?

Generally, a Rottweiler begins to show aggressive tendencies when it reaches puberty which is at the age of 6 to 9 months or when the dog reaches social maturity at the age of 18 to 36 months which can be determined by the rate at which your Rottweiler grows into a mature dog.

When does a Rottweiler stop being aggressive?

From a young age (when a few months old), Rottweilers start to be able to control their aggressive tendencies but their aptitude to be aggressive and hostile will never go away as it is in their genetics. So if you can make sure to not trigger your Rottweilers aggression, then likely the dog can stop being aggressive at any age.

The best way to not trigger them is by just showing and giving as much attention, love, and training as possible.

Final Thoughts

It is safe to say that a Rottweiler can be quite the aggressive creature. If a dog of breed is not treated well with love and affection, it can go berserker mode. Luckily, you can make your Rottweiler less aggressive by mental stimulation (such as the 7 steps I mentioned above) and ultimately, transform the dog’s ill-tempered behavior to an affectionate and warm-hearted behavior.

Featured image credit: Photo by Ramith Bhasuka on Unsplash