by Dr. Howard A. Mintzer

Q. Karen G. of Hyde Park writes:

I hope that this isn't a silly question. My three month old Rottweiler puppy has a pretty bad attitude. He seems to snip at everyone in the house and gets very defensive around his food bowl. Since I have young children, I'm concerned about this behavior and worry about what will happen when he gets older. I took him to the vet for a Distemper shot, but his temper is still bad. What am I to do?

A. Karen, don't feel foolish about your question. Many of my clients think that their dog's distemper vaccine will help with a bad attitude. That just isn't so. Distemper is an old word that refers to a number of different diseases in various types of animals. The ancient Greeks believed that the health of the body was controlled by four humors (fluids) in the body called blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. To mix these four humors was called "tempering" them. If they were mixed improperly ("dystemper") it caused disease. Thus certain diseases that were felt by ancient doctors to be caused by improper mixing of the bodily humors were called dystempers, or in modern English-distemper. Therefore today we are left with the this ancient word describing some diseases such as canine (dog) distemper, feline (cat) distemper, equine (horse) distemper and a cattle horn distemper. These are all completely unrelated diseases caused by dissimilar viruses and having different symptoms.

Dogs who have distemper can show a number of different symptoms. They may show signs of cough and nasal discharge suggestive of pneumonia, vomiting and diarrhea suggestive of intestinal infection or seizures suggestive of a brain infections. Sometimes all three types of symptoms are seen. It does not cause your dog to act mean. Most of the time the disease is fatal. Although getting the vaccine will protect your dog from distemper and is very important, it won't help your dog's attitude.

The most important thing you can do to help the attitude of a young, aggressive, large breed dog is to take him to a good training course. I can't overemphasize how important early training is for your pet. Today when he is only 20 pounds his aggressiveness may only be a little annoying or perhaps even "cute". However when he is 125 pounds it won't be so cute-it will be like having a loaded gun in the house! Your dog needs to know his position in the family; that his is at the bottom of the totem pole and he will have to defer to everyone in the house. He needs to learn that he has to listen to everyone in the house and to never, never defend his territory against any family members or visitor who comes into your house. A puppy obedience course will socialize your pet to other dogs, other people and show him who is the boss in the house. I urge you to call our office for a list of obedience training courses being given in the area. Do this before he gets any older.

The next item of business will be to neuter your dog. Many veterinarians will give different suggestions as to the proper time to do this. I feel that between 5 and 7 months of age is a good time. He's old enough to fly through the surgery without problems and young enough so he hasn't "felt his oats" and picked up any bad habits such as roaming, mounting legs and getting more than playfully aggressive yet. Many men object to this procedure. When I suggest it in the office they often turn pale. Too bad-it's not to them that the surgery is being done (though they may act like it is)! Tell your husband that it will be you and the children at home all day with this 125 pound brute, not him. Too often I see large aggressive intact male dogs who all day long rule the house, the wife and children, until the husband comes home at night. For the safety of everyone in the house, have your pet neutered.

Finally, remember that no matter how well your dog is trained, or how early he was neutered a good parent would never leave a young child unattended for any length of time with a dog. It's just good common sense!