Frankie is a beautiful boy from head to tail.  (Yes tail, just more to love).  He has had over $3000 worth of training and is well trained.  while he knows Sit...come...stay...down...quiet...yes...no...go play...eat, Frankie is at the 'teenage' stage and will test you to see if you are going to enforce the command.  His previous owner worked with a trainer using positive reinforcement which worked well until Frankie hit this stage. Then he started to exhibit dominance behaviors and some dominance aggression, such as snapping at her, her nephew, lunging at her elderly father while she had him on leash and running the fence and jumping on it while barking agressively when people walked by the house.

After the first couple instances of him snapping at her, she became nervous and anxious about his behavior and after his lunging at her father, became afraid of what might happen. Frankie sensed all this and when she contacted BSRR and spoke with one of our trainers, we advised her that if she could not get over her fear, then it would be best to rehome Frankie so he came to BSRR.

He is with one of our trainer/dog behavioralist and she says he is a great dog.  He has been good with her young adult/teenage kids, and has been introduced to her dogs--one at a time and is good with two of the younger ones.  His previous owner did take him to the dog park prior to him exhibiting the dominance behaviors/aggression. He does, however, have too much interest (prey drive) in her small dog and cats, so no small dogs or cats in his world.

Our trainers' comments are below:
He is gorgeous and still needs to fill out but I'm guessing he weighs between 90 and 100 lbs right now. Big, square head and a beautiful Rottie smile!

Frankie is a great dog! I can see his independent streak. For all the training he has gotten, he does not respond instantly to any command like he should if he accepted his place in the pack.  We haven't let him get away with that and have made him do what we want him to do before he gets any sort of praise or reward.  All this with just a flat collar and martingale.  He is understanding that we mean what we say and hasn't shown a bit of aggression, granted he hasn't been here even 24 hours yet.

When I went out last night before I went to bed and let him out in the yard.  He bowed at me to try and get me to play.  I did throw a couple toys for him and he ran to them and picked them up but he didn't want to bring them to me and I didn't try and get him too. Just talked to him in a low, easy voice and encouraged him to play with them. 

He really does want to please. I've been looking in his mouth, touching him while he eats, picking up his feet, etc and not one grumble or anything from him. He needs someone who won't let him get away with bad behavior. He is playful and happy, hasn't shown any signs of stress at being here in the kennel. I do plan to bring him inside, on leash and see how he does. He saw the cat this morning, outside the fence and while he did show interest, he didn't jump or bark at her. He and Roc played for about an hour this morning.

At the trap club with Frankie. No fear of gun shots. Two of the younger boys loved on him and he did fine with them with supervision. These boys were 13 years old.

Frankie has shown some minor food and toy possession aggression. He made a verbal noise with the food. I took him by the collar and made him leave the dish, then picked it up and allowed him to eat with me holding the dish. We have been practicing leaving the dish and resuming eating on command while the bowl is being held.

UPDATE 7/21/17: Also working on letting him know we own all the toys and he only gets them when we say. He doesn't like to share them with the other dogs and we are working on that also. My 20 year old daughter was playing with him in the house with a Kong Wubba, which squeaks and Franking is nuts about squeaky things! He dropped it on the floor by the couch where she was sitting on the floor. When she reached out to pick it up and toss it for him he was in high drive and he gruffed at her and grabbed her upper arm. No marks or anything, but we immediately corrected him with the leash he had on and put the toy away.  This has not happened again. We continue to work on him giving up toys using a leash to be able to have him sit and then taking his collar and telling hiim to drop it and waiting until he complies. This is a work in progress.

When outside if he finds a toy, he will pick it up and run around the yard like a maniac.  He toses them and then picks them up and stuff, but if you try and get him to come to you, he drops it, and play bows over it and if you move toward him he grabs it and runs, so this is another behavior we are working on as well.  He isn't growling, just thinks you want to play with him. I turn my back and go the other way and he runs to me, but not with the toy. LOL!

Good with Dogs, Not Good with Cats, Good with Kids