Keeping Your Rottweiler Healthy and Happy.

Assuming that you have done your homework and found a breeder or rescue group from which you will get your puppy or adult Rottweiler, you must now prepare your home for the dog's arrival. You must have the recommended food, safe and secure place for the new arrival to sleep, toys, leashes, collar and water bowl. You should have also located a veterinarian.

Some vets are not particularly comfortable treating Rottweilers. This is because they have either personally had a bad experience, or one of their colleagues has had a bad experience. You could ask neighbors or other Rottweiler owners to recommend a local veterinarian. If the vet you have chosen acts a bit fearful of your puppy, run, do not walk, to another vet. You can also ask your breeder or rescue group who they would recommend.

Your Dog's Diet

Most breeders and rescue groups will explain diet. If you cannot locate a source of this brand, be sure to talk it over with the breeder or rescue group to see if there is another brand that he or she recommends. We recommend a quality dry kibble that is not too high in protein (21 to 26 percent is plenty). The kibble you feed should be one that the dog will eat readily, does well on, and is convenient to purchase and does not break the household budget to obtain. We use Diamond dog food as we feel it is important for a Rottweiler to have the Glucosmine/Chondroitin

The breeder or rescue group will also explain how often, how much and when the pup or adult has been eating. We recommend feeding Rottweilers twice a day: morning and evening. The meals can be split in half, or you can give a smaller meal for breakfast and a larger meal in the evening.

Please remember that the most important nutrient for your Rottweiler is water. Always have cool; fresh water available for your dog. This is especially important in warm weather.

Crates

Crates also make housebreaking a snap. Most dogs will not soil their beds. Thus, a puppy in his crate will try to hold as long as he can, giving you the opportunity to get him to his specified potty area. A distinct potty is really nice, especially if you do not have an outside kennel run or if the dog shares the yard with children. This also makes training the dog to eliminate on command easier. Remember, too, that you cannot housebreak a puppy without going out with him to be sure he remembered what to do. Just opening the back door is not enough. Pups get outside and start to play and simply forget.

Crates are your dog's den, his safe haven. If you take your new canine family member visiting, you can also take his bed with him, and he will very secure in his own surroundings. Also, Rottweilers should travel in crates. This also makes it easier to pay tolls, get gas and go through drive-through windows at fast feed places.

Veterinary Care

The first place your puppy or rescue dog should visit is the veterinarian. The breeder or rescue should have given you a shot and worming record when you picked up your pup or rescue dog. Take this record with you on your dog's first visit to the veterinarian.

Heartworm Check

IF you are taking a Rottweiler older then six months of age for his first veterinary visit, the vet should pull a blood sample for a heartworm check. Heartworms are very destructive, life threatening, internal parasites. They are not to be messed with. After testing for heartworm, your vet will make a recommendation of either daily heartworm preventative or monthly ones. Puppies less then six months old are too young to test, and your vet will probably recommend one of the monthly types of heartworm prevention.

Rottweilers do not have the strongest immune system and are prone to viral and bacterial diseases. You must follow the vet's recommended schedule for inoculations.

Fleas External parasites are the pits. If you have been doing your regular examine, you should catch the first signs of flea infestations. Fleas are not to be fooled with because they can and will infest your home and bite people as well as cats and dogs. If you find small, black grains of sand on your Rottweiler, even if you do not se the actual flea, you have a problem. These grains are not sand, but flea excrement. You can bathe your dog in flea soap, dip him or talk to your vet about the new topical flea controls. But you must do it right away. To delay means fogging your house and yard, vet visits, tapeworm treatments and tremendous expense that isn?t necessary.

Dogs get tapeworms, an internal parasite, from eating fleas. You will know that your dog has tapeworms because the segments will appear in his stools or even on him. They look like grains of rice when they dry or white, moving, yucky things when adhering to his coat. Another potential veterinary problem associated with fleas is flea-bite dermatitis. Some dogs are allergic to the flea?s saliva and develop an itchy rash when bitten. Flea bites can also be a cause of a bacterial or fungal infection known as a hot spot. Hot spots are very itchy and oozing. If allowed to go untreated, they will spread at an alarming rate and require veterinary attention. If you catch a hot spot early, it is early treated. First you have to kill the causative agent. Try cleaning the area with Betadine or some other antibacterial soap, and then clip the hair from the area. Cleanse the area again and dry thoroughly. If the spot does not improve by the next day, consult your veterinarian. After you stop the itching and oozing, you should apply some type of first-ail cream to encourage regrowth of the hair. Do not apply an ointment, however until the lesions heal. IF you make little or no progress with this line of defense, take your Rottweiler to the veterinarian.

Ticks

Ticks are the other external parasite that must be prevented. They are sometimes hard to find on a Rottweiler, but you must do a tick patrol after each walk in the park. Ticks carry some very nasty diseases. It truly is in the best interest of your dog to remove ticks promptly. Do so by numbing the tick with a dab of petroleum jelly or rubbing alcohol. With tweezers, grasp the tick by the mouth parts near the dog's skin. Firmly pull the tick off the dog and deposit it into a can of rubbing alcohol or gasoline to be disposed of later.

Health Red Flags

As the Rottweiler lets older he may develop some lameness. These are also red-flag situations. Some Rottweilers develop growing pains, or panoesteitis. This condition is not life threatening, but it is a cause for concern. A diagnosis of Pano can be made by x-ray or even palpation.

A severe limp that does not go away in a few days is a major red flag. Not an emergency, mind you, but you should schedule a vet visit quickly. Front lameness may be due to a tear in the cartilage of a joint. This is known as osteochondrosis dessecans or OCD. Sometimes rest will take care of it; other times surgery is required. If your dog develops OCD, you need to talk to your breeder and your vet because some think this condition is genetic and, therefore you should not breed this animal. The breeder will want to know if it's in his or her line, too.

Hip Dysplasia is the condition most people are aware of when it comes to dogs and limping. This condition means that the femur does not fit into the acetabulum correctly. The thighbone into the hip joint, and arthritis will set in, causing your dog mild to severe pain. X-rays are called for when your dog has rear-leg lameness or difficulty getting up.

Rottweilers are also now experiencing heart problems. That initial visit to your vet should most definitely include a careful listening to your dog?s heart. Any murmurs detected must be monitored carefully. In most cases, the dogs outgrow murmurs, but there is a condition known as SAS, or subaortic stenosis, that is life shortening.

Eye problems are known to afflict Rottweilers. The most prevalent is entropion, where the eyelid turns inward. It is most painful for the dog and requires surgery to correct. If left uncorrected, the dog's vision may be jeopardy because the scratching eyelashes cause corneal ulcers to develop. This condition is universally thought to be genetic, and the affected dog must not be breed.