"Your dog is either supremely confident and does not mind "minor" annoyances or competely devoid of any protective tendencies.
Either way, the mail man is lucky that you had a complete control of the dog."
Based on other experiences, I would say it was the latter. First of all, I spent a lot of time training my dog. I mean like an hour a day, 365 days a year. In fact, when I got the dog at 7 weeks of age I was fortunate enough to be able to take the dog to work with me for over six months. During that six month time, my dog was never away from me for more than maybe 10 minutes at a time. This obviously made him a very social dog. I put him though a basic obediance class when he was around six months of age mainly to socialize him with other dogs since he already knew all the commands that were taught in the course. After he was one year old I participated with him twice a week in a schutzhund club for a couple years. He is confident to the point of arrogance. When walking him down the street, other dogs bark at him and he totally ignores them (they arn't even worth looking at or acknowleging in any way) unless it is another Rottweiler. If another Rottweiler is encountered, he stops dead in his tracks and turns to face a possible opponent worthy of his time and attention. As far as being protective, I had two break-ins that occured when I was not there. One at my house, and one in my pickup truck. Both burglers were severely savaged after which the dog stayed right where he was supposed to, dispite the fact that the door was now open because of the break-in.
Contrary to what most people believe, a dog is a product of his training. This includes bite work. A dog that has been trained to attack on command, or to aggressviely hold someone in place is a much safer dog than one that does this by instinct. The dog knows that this behavior is only tolorated when the dog is told to do so; not when the dog decides to do so.
Either way, the mail man is lucky that you had a complete control of the dog."
Based on other experiences, I would say it was the latter. First of all, I spent a lot of time training my dog. I mean like an hour a day, 365 days a year. In fact, when I got the dog at 7 weeks of age I was fortunate enough to be able to take the dog to work with me for over six months. During that six month time, my dog was never away from me for more than maybe 10 minutes at a time. This obviously made him a very social dog. I put him though a basic obediance class when he was around six months of age mainly to socialize him with other dogs since he already knew all the commands that were taught in the course. After he was one year old I participated with him twice a week in a schutzhund club for a couple years. He is confident to the point of arrogance. When walking him down the street, other dogs bark at him and he totally ignores them (they arn't even worth looking at or acknowleging in any way) unless it is another Rottweiler. If another Rottweiler is encountered, he stops dead in his tracks and turns to face a possible opponent worthy of his time and attention. As far as being protective, I had two break-ins that occured when I was not there. One at my house, and one in my pickup truck. Both burglers were severely savaged after which the dog stayed right where he was supposed to, dispite the fact that the door was now open because of the break-in.
Contrary to what most people believe, a dog is a product of his training. This includes bite work. A dog that has been trained to attack on command, or to aggressviely hold someone in place is a much safer dog than one that does this by instinct. The dog knows that this behavior is only tolorated when the dog is told to do so; not when the dog decides to do so.
