Here some of our advice, gathered from experience, to best meet your new homey needs! 

HEALTH 

Puppy are use to alternate moments of energetic vivacity and moment of deep rest spending many hours sleeping. His growth is exponential until the 15th month of life and it will be complete only at second year. So in the first fifteen months his bones and muscles will be developing and improve considerably, and is fundamental not to force him with excercise and movement, it's essential to respect his times. So if the puppy feel tired to walk or doesn't want to go up the stairs, don't be to hard on him/her. Only after fifteen months you can change his rithm. 

When you pick up the puppy be carefoul to not force limbs. 

After meals the puppy need to rest, never go for a walk or a run or play, growing up he/she will be exposed to intestinal and stomach twists. 

NUTRITION 

From second moth to the fourth the puppy can eath 3 to 4 time a day for a 200 gr of dry feed in tota a dayl. Then the ration will gradually increase, considering that a puppy of eight months will eat on average 600 gr of dry feed in total a day.  

Is good abith to give him food and let the dog eat and finish all the feed and then take the bowl away. But if he/she doesn't finish everything you must take the bowl away anyaway. Only water must be always available.  

Bowls should be raised from the ground in order to prevent the dog to bend to far down, in such a way he will ingests less air, therefore less hiccups and front legs won't assume incorrect postures. 

Why dry feed ? Is definitely the easiest and balnaced way to feed your dog, of course it depends on brand. We are currently using Neobreeder, but of course you might prefer a different one, what we recommand is to pay attention to composition: made with fresh or dehydrated meat but NO meat derivatives ! Meat percentage should be at leats 55 % and is good if it has protein from legumes or egg up to 30%. Fat 20 %, Glucosamine at least 800 mg/kg, Chondotrine at least 600 mg/kg. With these values there is no need of integrations or chondroprotectors and it should be used until 18/24 months of age. 

EDUCATION

Dog’s world is at about 70 cm from ground… very low respect our world ! Their view is not exceptional but they have an amazing hearing and outstanding sense of smell, in addition to link capacity and and good memory. Is important to remember all these aspects to share our life with them. 

• Puppy phase, from 0 to 10/12 months. It is necessary to put him at ease, with a lot cuddle and play. It’s important to bend legs and put yourself at ita height so the puppy will not be "closed" by my shadow and will feel at the same level, so he will be more confident and more open to me. Modulate the voice, the tone will be sufficient for the puppy to understand my state of mind and my requests. When he/she does something correct I will reinforce it with a reward (food, cuddle, happy voice tone). When he/she does something wrong, you will pretend nothing has happened, the missed reward will be equivalent to frustration. The puppy will link and memorize.
• The persistence of a wrong attitude in the puppy, can require a stronger action from us. In nature the mother bites the puppy on the scruff, so with my hands I can take the scruff and shake the puppy until it signals pain, the puppy will connect the wrong attitude to the pain and memorize.
• It’s crucial that when we want to reward a good behavior or reprimand a bad behavior we have to intervene immediately, in the moment it’s happening. No sense to intervene after it’s happened. 
• Being big and temperamentally strong I advise not let them sleep in the sofa or bed because he/she we’ll be no longer at 60 cm from ground but at the same level as us ... ATTENTION!

PLAY  

The best way to build a relationship with a dog is by play ! Dogs communicate by their mouth and biting is a way to communicate so it is important that the action of biting goes through education. I can activate the dog’s predatory instinct with a leather rag, a ball or a bite tug, he will slower or faster learn to catch it and he/she will have a lot of fun. Attention in his/her first months they still have baby teeth, so by biting and pulling they might fell pain, so you need to be delicate.

Remember that you are the alpha figure between you and him/her so biting should never result in aggressive behavior, if she/he start to growl when trying to get the toy back you need to be strong and intervene immediately.

Interactive games can help when we leave the puppy alone. There are different levels of difficulty, and generally they associate olfactory research with a reward. They are useful, and Trixie is a brand  synonymous of quality and experience that you can trust.

Concentration! Yes, our puppy must also practice this activity with you. Above all he must learn to focus on you. Still using the principle of connecting skill and reward the puppy have to learn to concentrate on you without being distracted by external events.

HYGIENE

The puppy can be washed if is washed at home! Dogs have a different pH than ours, so a specific shampoo is needed. We have to get him used to water without creating stress for him. It MUST be dried very well.

Don’t get your puppy to a dog grooming until she/he has got all the vaccines.  

You can brush your puppy at least once a week, during molt, once a day.

Trixie offer also in this field a wide range of reliable products.

VET

The puppy will meet the vet sooner or later for vaccines and for the prescription of specific internal and external pesticides so it’s essential to get the puppy used to deal with doctors ! Every time, after examination, remember to give him/her a reward like a snack to let the puppy make a connection as a enjoyable experience. 

After sixth month put muzzle on you dog as respect for the vet.

DOG TRAINERS 

It’s a current trend to be a dog educator. Pay attention because there are more than 300 dog breeds from 5kg to 80 kg, with extremely different aptitudes! Dog ethology is of course the same in every dog but a dog genetically selected for utility and defense will not have the same temperament to a dog genetically selected for hunting or a shepherd dog, so it’s quite clear that they need a different approach.  

The Rottweiler is part of group 2 dogs : utility and defense dogs (classification F.C.I.). It follows that: ONLY who is an official “helper” I.G.P. (classification F.C.I.) and any handler who has brought at least two subjects in I.G.P. III may be of help to you.