As you can see from the picture above, we’ve equipped the farm with a couple of ferocious guard dogs to keep predators away. We named them Coco and Misha as the result of several hours of intense negotiations between Sara and Alana, who started out with little common ground (Alana’s first choice was “Lulu,” which Sara hated) but eventually worked through a list of possible names using a rating system developed by Alana and came to an agreement.
Sara is a major dog-lover, a trait she inherited from her father. When we lived in a subdivision, anytime she spotted a neighbor walking a dog, she dropped whatever she was doing and ran outside. I’d eventually have to go outside and say, “Sara, the nice lady would probably like to go home now. Get the dog off your lap and say thank you.” Chareva’s brother has a big ol’ pit bull named Henry, and whenever we visit her family in Chicago, Henry is the main attraction for Sara. As we drove away after our Christmas visit in 2010, Sara was in tears.
“Don’t cry, Honey,” I said. “You’ll see Grandma again soon enough.”
“I don’t miss Grandma (sob, sob). I miss Henryyyyy!”
She has of course been begging us to buy a dog for years, but we always had to give the same answer: someday, when we own our own house with a decent-sized yard, we’ll get you a dog.
Well, we’re in the house and the yard certainly qualifies as “decent-sized,” so it was time. Besides, a farm without a dog just feels wrong somehow. On a purely practical level, we wanted a dog that’s big enough and scary enough to ward off any predators once we start raising chickens and sheep. Coco and Misha aren’t big and scary now, but they’re rottweilers and will grow into the role. (That’s Misha below, demonstrating her escape and evasion tactics.)
Rottweilers have been bred as herders and guard dogs for centuries and were listed as one of the best farm-dog breeds in an article I read on the subject while doing a little research. Once we decided to take the plunge, I suggested we look for a couple of siblings so they could keep each company. It’s not as if they’ll be socializing with other dogs on nightly walks around the subdivision.
Since I work full-time in Nashville and spend most of my evenings working on other projects (like this blog), Chareva will be taking on the role of dog-trainer. She told me years ago she’s not really a dog-lover like I am, but I’m already seeing her mommy instincts kicking in as she feeds them, pets them, talks to them, and of course cleans up their little dog puddles.
When we were at the pet shop on Saturday to buy a doggie bed and other pre-adoption necessities, I couldn’t help but notice the dog food. Most of it was such junk, I’m surprised the USDA doesn’t require it on school-lunch menus. One brand’s label bragged that it included protein for strength, dried fruit for good health, and whole grains for a healthy coat!
Head. Bang. On. Display Case.
If anyone out there can explain to me why any natural carnivore anywhere in the world needs whole grains for a healthy coat, please do. By contrast, the breeder who sold us Coco and Misha told us she mostly feeds rottweillers raw meat to keep them healthy. And not just muscle meat, but livers, lungs, tripe, bone marrow and gizzards as well.
As she told Chareva, dogs need those organ meats in their diets to get all the necessary nutrients. And by the way, if you feed them dog food made out of grains, that can make them fat and sick.
Funny how a dog breeder knows more about nutrition than the average doctor or dietitian, isn’t it?
After the puppies each consumed a half-pound of raw beef for dinner here in their new home, we took them out to the back yard to do their business. As we approached the trees, I heard something that sounded reasonably large scamper off. In my mind, the scampering critter was saying, “Holy @#$% – ROTTWEILERS!”
Ha! You think you’re scared now, critter? Just wait until they’re grown. Then try causing trouble around here.
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Congrats on the puppies Tom!
May I suggest Evo for a dry dog food (if that is what you are looking for)? Its the lowest carb chow I can find, and have been feeding my somewhat new puppy and my cat it ever since I got them.
When I first got my cat (1.5 years ago) I fed her the standard Purina cat ‘chow’ (meaning: crap) and what a surpirse, she got fat.
It was around this time I found your movie and said to myself, “Hell, I doubt cats are meant to eat hearthealthywholegrains either,” and started looking around the interwebs.
The lowest carb food I could find was Evo, and what do you know, she has been losing weight.
I have been feeding my puppy it since the day we got her (about 3 months ago, she is 5 months now) and she is a lean, ‘mean’, haswaytoomuchenergy machine. Her coat looks amazing, and the vet keeps saying she is the picture of goof health.
Here is the website in case you are interested: http://www.evopet.com/
Sorry to sound like a paid advertiser, I just like this stuff a lot (and so does Kaylie and Gracie!)
You know, some months ago I commented on one reader relating to us about how their vet was telling them to feed their dogs lots of healthy whole grains. I will say now what I said then: if some idiot tells you something like that, fire them. At the very least ask them what information they have that proves that an evolved carnivore can safely digest plants and especially GMOed grains. If they give you roundabout gobbledygook, fire them. If they can’t get something simple like that down, it raises questions about anything else they know about animals.
As for the vegan garbage; after all they whine and complain about animal cruelty, and yet they go out of their way to try to force a carnivore animal to eat foods that it can’t digest very well at all and will make it very sick and miserable, shows what monstrous hypocrites they really are. Feed the vegan stuff to rabbits, horses, cows or other herbivores, but not dogs and cats for crying out loud.
I put my poor diabetic kitty on the “Catkins” diet – no more dry food (30-50% carbohydrate for an obligate carnivore?!). Cats need moisture with their food and DON’T need carbohydrate. Within 2 days her terrible thirst was gone and is now much friskier. It never occured to me until she got sick, funny how a lot of the same nutrition needs apply to us and them. I’ve lost 30 pound since going low carb 6 months ago, she and I have gotten healthier together! Of course I’ve found all this information on the internet, not from my doctor or her vet.
Hey Tom, lovely pups.
My advice (for the moment) – start training NOW if you haven’t already. The pups are learning things every moment, better for them to learn the stuff you want them to and not bad habits. They’re plenty old enough to start understanding basics like sit, down and stay, and to learn tricks as well (tricks are good for building your relationship with them and to help them learn to learn with “fun” stuff). Puppy classes are a great idea as soon as you can get them in.
Socializing is CRUCIAL, especially if you’re out in the boonies. They need to be exposed to lots of different people, situations and places before they’re 16 weeks old to ensure confident, friendly and stable temperaments – especially important in a large, protective breed. Don’t make the mistake some people do of thinking that you want them to be “protective” and not sociable – an unsocialized dog is usually afraid of new things/people and untrustworthy. You don’t want to have to worry about them attacking visitors. A dog that you need to lock up when people come is useless as a guard. Having a couple of large Rotties, even friendly ones, is generally more than enough to deter evildoers – and the ones that aren’t won’t be stopped by a dog anyway.
Rottweilers are GREAT dogs and a good protection choice for your girls. Just make sure Tom that they recognize YOU as the Alpha male. They tend to attach themselves to one person in the household for that role, lol.
A house without a dog is not a home.
Dana Carpender (hold the toast) has a good post on feeding her dogs a raw meat diet.
I highly recommend that you look for a trainer who uses positive training techniques. This is SO much easier, more effective, and pleasant than the old “yank and yell” techniques. There’s a book, too–”The Power of Positive Training”.
Another essential tool is crate training. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Dogs love having a safe place when overwhelmed, it really helps with housebreaking ( we used to push the crate right up to the dog door and the dogs practically trained themselves!) and you have containment when necessary.
Enjoy and love these precious pets!
The best book I’ve ever read on how to train a puppy was The Art of Raising a Puppy by the monks of New Skete monastery. It really gets into the pack mindset. Ie. someone has to be alpha, and it better not be the dog.
Great addition to your family! It looks like you will be able to walk arownd your property safely any time of day or night pretty soon. Dogs like it when their owner walks with them to keep them a company while they run around. Otherwise they would be hanging very close to your house , which is not a bad thing for your.
I’m so glad to see someone else (Nathan Seitz) post about his dog being aggressive on Blue Wilderness. We have tried to take our dogs off Nutro Lamb & Rice two times, and both times it has almost resulted in the German Shepherd getting kicked out of doggie daycare! We’ve given up for now, but if I ever get a new dog, I’m going to feed it raw. The cat has been switched to grain free low carb cat food and is thriving.
Personal note – I usually prefer mutts but Rotties are great too. They just have a tendency towards some health problems, especially the larger males.
As for the diet, dogs are actually not pure carnivores, that’s cats. Dogs can and do digest some plant matter. However, they prefer meat and they’re optimized to eat it. And even if some veggies can fit into a dog diet, grains definitely do not.
I feed my dog (a black lab mix named Daisy) a mixture of raw meat (usually chicken or beef) and a few vegetables here and there. No grains at all. She also gets some raw beef bones on occasion (really good for their teeth).
Best of all, this ends up being far cheaper than some specialty dry dog food with grain in it.
Just like people, some dogs do incredibly well living on diets with grain. Some don’t. I work for a pet food company, but I also agree with you on most things – I can see both sides of the issue. There is just as much misinformation out there when it comes to dog food or raw diets or organic diets or whatever, as there is with people food. emi11n up there isn’t very well-informed, specifically. By-products are just organ meats (doesn’t include hooves or hair or the like), which contain needed nutrients. Meat on the label means beef, pork or possibly sheep. (Rendered housepets and horses are not allowed by AAFCO standards in American pet food.) Melamine is now tested for specifically, so if you’re avoiding gluten because it’s from grain, fine, but don’t because of the 07 recall. Pet food is more highly regulated than people food.
Be careful to follow your own advice and think about what people are telling you. Just because a dog food is ‘organic’ doesn’t make it better than any other commercial dog food. (I’m lookin at you, Blue Buffalo with potatoes, oatmeal, barley, etc) It also doesn’t make those dogs necessarily healthier than ones on grain-based diets. It can, but not always. Remember: vegans think they’re healthy, too.
I do think that if you’re so inclined (and you are, sounds like), that probably the best thing to do is the raw diet, or paleo for dogs. Don’t forget the bones, though. My friend’s dog, Dexter, is on that diet, and he is the healthiest looking dog I’ve ever seen. White white teeth, breath that’s sweeter than mine, extraordinary coat, slender with very good muscle tone. And it’s less expensive than vet or premium diets because they don’t eat as much volume of food. And small, not-nasty poops, too. FYI, Dexter’s favorites include sheeps heads and fresh roadkill venison! It’s a tiny bit more work than pouring from a bag, but not as much as some would think, and not as expensive, either.
great puppies! good luck with them!
since going on Taste of the Wild dogfood (grain-free), my Spitz no longer has anal-gland issues — SURPRISE!
incidentally, when visiting my son’s farm, his tendency to want to chase the chickens was easily discouraged, and the geese and turkeys could have kicked his ass….
Hi, Tom. I strongly recommend that you get some in-person training help. ASAP. I get the impression that you and your wife are novices when it comes to dogs and training, and Rotties aren’t just another dog. They require a confidant, strong, and firm leader, otherwise you are GUARANTEED to have problems down the road.
One Rottie can be a handful. But two Rotties? The same age? Man, oh man, oh man. You’ve got your work cut out for you. Or your wife does, but NOW is the time to get that training started, not after the problems have already begun.
Frankly, I wouldn’t let Victoria Stillwell take one of my Rotties for a walk. Ian Dunbar’s books are okay, if that’s the route you choose to take. But you really can’t learn how to train a dog by reading a book. Not for a Rottweiler. Not by a novice. You going to need some help, Tom. Help from a trainer who trains dogs like Rotties, GSDs, Dobermanns, etc. Again, they really aren’t the right dog for novices. They even have group classes, and they’re usually pretty reasonable.
But good luck in whatever you choose to do!
I’ll pass that on to the dog mommy. I certainly don’t want big, strong, unruly dogs.
PS: Your breeder should be able to recommend a good trainer for you.
PPS: Look up the term “Puppy Socialization.” yes, YOU SHOULD BE DOING IT RIGHT NOW. It’s extremely important that puppies be socialized to all the sights, sounds, smells, and goings-on of life when they’re still puppies. And it’s DOUBLY EXTREMELY important for Rottie puppies.
Again, good luck!
Couldnt agree more with Miriam and others regarding training. Start NOW, and you’ll be rewarded well.
I love rottweilers! You should read your girls the Carl books by Alexandra Day. They’re about a rottweiler named Carl who goes on adventures while he trys to protect the family baby. Adorable!
I’ve looked into feeding my dogs (weimaraner and a maltese-poodle) dog food without grains in it, and the kind we found costs about $50 a bag. Sadly, we can’t afford to feed them like they should be fed, but I’m hoping that if we ever get another dog after they leave for the Big Park in the Sky we’ll be able to afford to feed the dog meat like it was born to eat.
Sara loves to read and loves dogs, so those sound like perfect books for her.
Cute puppies. I love Rotties. It’s so great you ended up with a breeder who’s into feeding them raw meat.
Eating paleo ourselves – and after a lot of reading on the subject – we feed our dog mostly raw turkey necks, a few other bones and bits of raw meat (beef, lamb, pork), a fair amount of table scraps, and a little Orijen or Acana grain-free kibble. Strangely she usually turns up her nose at the raw organ meats we keep offering her, but she loves cooked liver. She’s about 25 lbs and it’s a blast to watch her tearing apart a turkey neck and crunching up the bones. It’s hard work and she uses all her teeth, even the little front ones that so many dogs seem to lose (which look and smell great, by the way).
One of the best things about this is she’s totally self-feeding; we just leave food out for her and she eats when she’s hungry. Also, as others mentioned, the poops are quite small and turn white and disintegrate into powder in 2 or 3 days.
I can’t remember when or where it was recommended to me, but the e-book “Ol’ Shep’s Well-being: A Natural Perspective” by Euan Fingal is some very interesting reading on the subject. http://www.achinook.com/journal/2009/6/18/ol-sheps-well-being-a-natural-perspective.html Also, http://www.rawmeatybones.com
Have fun!
As the owner of a hobby farm in Iowa and being owned by three farm dogs, I feel compelled to offer a little advice. At your earliest opportunity go to the store and purchase the following:
Hydrogen Peroxide
Dawn dishwashing liquid
Baking Soda
Mouthwash
A plastic bucket
Place the items in the bucket and put the bucket somewhere handy. When (not if – WHEN) your puppies find their first skunk, you will grab the bucket and mix together 1 quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1 T Dawn, 1/4 cup baking soda, splash of mouthwash. Mix the ingredients together (it will foam), and rub well into dog fur (do not wet down dog first), pay special attention to spots that were sprayed directly, take care not to get the mixture into their eyes, nose or mouth. Leave the mixture on for 5 minutes, rinse well. Repeat if needed.
Do not put off buying these ingredients. Trust me, when your dogs are trying to rub their reeking selves all over you, your house and your kids is not the time to run around gathering up the ingredients or worse yet running to the store to get them.
Good luck and enjoy the circus!
Sounds like an insurance policy: you hope never need it, but when you need it, you really need it.
Love the pups! Rotties will be great with your girls, too.
After I adopted my first greyhound, I was talking to a vet about what greyhounds are fed. One comment has stayed with me: He said that greyhound breeders, as a rule, don’t know much about nutrition; but they know what works on their dogs.
Hey Fairfield, I’m so with you there on the anti skunk stuff. The first time my shepherd got sprayed it was 5:00 in the morning and I had to make an emergency walmart run. The next time I was ready though I think he’d eaten the skunk that time! That mixture is the only thing that I’ve found to work.
Just to pile on: Joe’s right about “puppy socialization” for Rotts. They need LOTS of exposure now while they’re looking for it.
Chareva has them signed up for a class.
Beautiful puppies! I joke that my cats eat better than I do – I feed them grain-free foods with stuff like lamb, duck, and wild-caught salmon in them. Yum. I only started feeding them like this at the recommendation of my vet, a few years ago – many vets are starting to recommend grain-free diets, maybe physicians will follow suit one day…
Tom they are adorable !! I am an animal lover and have a dog named “Cocoa” (Australian Shepherd/Choc Lab mix) and a cat named “Bailey”. Cocoa is on a raw meat and bones diet with a little “veggie” blend that I cook up and freeze once a month. Bailey eats EVO canned. They both are happy and healthy.
They’re loving their raw-meat diet.
cute pups!!! you will have your hands full. and, big dog = big poop!
I agree on CRATE TRAINING! google it. and no grain dog food.
very important, no jumping up on people, even when little, as they will be BIG in no time. no biting, even if playing. and buy them A LOT of CHEW toys! a LOT. I mean keep several in every room. and in the car.
my big puppy is now 6 months old and 65 lbs. (yellow lab) so fun, and a lot of work.
very happy for you, and your girls.
They’ll learn not to jump on people come hell or high water. I can’t stand that, even with little dogs.
I am in total agreement with all of the training comments above. They MUST start training classes very soon. Small dogs are just really annoying if they get naughty but we are talking about very very large dogs here that my just grow to be HUGE on the proper diet. They will easily soon be able to knock over the girls in mere puppy exuberance so they need to start training in obedience and behavior as soon as possible.
To be completely honest this really scares me your girls and your wife are tiny….the dogs will soon outweigh all of them.
Personally I think a Llama is a much better guard for sheep. And unless you have coyotes a medium sized dog is plenty to guard chickens… not sure that even a rottie or two could take on a coyote pack though.
I hope they don’t have to take on a coyote pack. I hope their size and their loud barks keeps the coyotes from even thinking about a confrontation.
The dogs start a training class next week. Meanwhile, they’ve already learned “sit” and “stay.”
Let us all know how Chareva feeds the dogs raw on a budget. I KNOW she will be a rockstar at it and I would appreciate some tips for my two grain-fed, overweight cats myself
I’ll ask her to write it up.
They’re so cute! They look like perfect guard dogs for the farm and the people.
Just a word of warning, if it’s not been mentioned and since you have little ones, raw fed pups sometime go through a food aggression phase (it’s typically worse than kibble fed pups). Our most recent adoption – a black/golden mix – took at a nip at my oldest (9) when she ventured too close to the pup’s chicken leg quarter. It usually only takes a good whack or three on the rump to convince them it’s a bad idea. (I’ve never had a pup do damage, but DO remember the first time it happened thinking “where the eff did this come from?”)
Oh, and the coyotes? Don’t worry – coyotes for the most part are big babies. My 40 pound dachs-mix is enough to keep them away. And I don’t think there’s much shy of a large pack of wolves that two full-grown, raw-fed Rotties couldn’t handle…
I suspect coyotes won’t want anything to do with them. I used to see coyotes when I walked the hills in Burbank late at night, sometimes two or three together, and they always ran away when they saw me. I’m nowhere near as a big a threat as a couple of rottweilers.
I owned Rottweilers before The Omen came out and no one knew what they were. They are wonderful dogs! However, they bond strongly to their family and will protect you if they detect a threat. This doesn’t mean they will attack everything, but it is good to be cautious with strangers approaching and warn people not to be too aggressive with petting until the dogs get to know them. For some reason, all of the Rotties I had would take a strong disliking to certain people (notably, my father-in-law, and a friend of ours who took meds for schizophrenia). My Rotties never bit anyone – they knew better and were socialized- but they would definitely stand guard over anyone they did not trust.
Finally, I buy pet burger from US Wellness Meats for the Aussie I have now (another strongly-bonding protective type of dog). I mix this raw with just a bit of Blue Wilderness grain-free dry food. The improvement in his health since we adopted him 6 months ago is astounding. The pet burger is a mix of grassfed beef, liver, and heart.
I think “The Omen” is part of the reason lots of people are afraid of rottweilers. That’s fine by me … anyone shows up on the farm who shouldn’t be there, I want him scared.
Congrats on the pups! I have a German rottie named Otis and he is a wonderful dog. Very large, but wonderful. I also have two Labs and a chihuahua mix. We feed them Taste of the Wild and sometimes Natures Balance–the fish and sweet potato kind. I took them off grain based commercial foods over a year ago and they are doing so much better. They are all strong, muscular, and have beautiful coats. I add virgin coconut oil to their food once in awhile and their dad cooks them eggs a couple days a week. We supplement their food with chicken and beef livers, and ground beef. It is pricey to feed this way but worth every penny. I figure it will save us in vet bills in the long run.
What do you mix a chihuahua with?
Can we vote on the next fam addition? Turkeys anyone? Yes, I admit I have a Gonzo-like fascination with poultry but they do provide a useful outlet for all those hearty heatly whole grains you aren’t eating…..and they’ll beat the snot out of most dogs. I had a bullmastiff/akita mix (incredible dog) and the turkeys knew the exact extent of his tie out line. All 9 toms used to line up there and strut their stuff. They let him hit the limit of his rope, did a quick kamakaze style attack and ran.
Our dogs have the run of the place once they’re grown. So if any turkeys decide to taunt them, we’ll probably end up having shredded turkey for dinner.
I had said the exact same thing a month ago, except it was in regards to cats. Apparently feeding cats dry food with no protein is known to make them extremely ill and obese. A vet had created a blog about weaning these kitties off their severe dry food addiction (they actually had forgotten how to eat meat). It sometimes took weeks…I commented that the vet seemed to know a heck of a lot more about taking off weight than a doctor, my sister responded “oh but we’re nothing like any kind of animals”. Oh well.
We’ve been trying to figure what the mix is. To hear her tell it, she’s part mountain lion. She is constantly trying to kill the rott. She attacks him and grabs him by the throat while he’s napping. He lays there and takes it for awhile…then he plops a big paw on her and pins her to the floor. they’re pretty funny to watch!
That’s one brave little dog.
I highly recommend the Dog Whisperer by Cesar Millan. I know he can be kind of controversial but his results are incredible. A lot of his work involves training the owners how to be the alpha dog. He works a lot with breeds like bulldogs and rottweilers too. My library had his shows on DVD. Congrats on the puppies!
My Rotties have the worst gas ever. Since I eliminated grain from my own diet (and nearly eliminated gas as well) I have wondered if the grain based kibble they are on is the culprit and I have considered switching their diet to meat.
I would. Dogs aren’t meant to eat grains.