8. The dog trainer says "This Rottweiler will never be a good guard dog!"

"Mark (a dog trainer) tells me that my Rottweiler puppy will never make it as a guard dog!" the broad shouldered man with a face that has many hills and valleys lamented as he put the puppy onto the consultation table for her vaccination. "I bought her from a home breeder. She has the broadest head and was full of ticks. Now she is all right. I bought her to guard my house. Nowadays with so many robberies and murders reported in the New Paper, a guard dog will be best."

"Did Mark really say that this Rottweiler will never become a good guard dog?" I asked him. "It is too early to predict the puppy's courage at 3 months of age. When I was doing National Service in the Provost Unit Dog Unit, we assessed the dog at around 6 months of age as to whether it would be suitable for guard dog duty."



"This puppy is a laid-back lazy one," the man's mother commented in the Hokkien dialect. The Rottweiler was as still as a rock, as cool as cucumber, lying on the consultation table.

Overall, the puppy looked healthy. Well, she was not the Jack Russell breed, zooming in and out like a rocket. I checked her ears by palpating the vertical canals. Surprisingly the puppy gave a loud yelp as if she was being murdered.

Both her ears elicited similar screams of pain. No strong smell as I swab the ears with a cotton bud. Just reddish brown wax. She screamed more when I inserted the cotton bud to check the ear canals for mites or dirt.

Was it possible that the puppy was suffering from ear ache and therefore not inclined to be active? If only she could talk and tell us.

I put her on a table outside the surgery. Flushed her ears with a 20-ml syringe of clean water ten times on either ear. Big blobs of sticky reddish brown wax flowed out.

The puppy was given medication and proper veterinary ear ointment. A follow up would be useful. If the ear pain is removed, I predict that this puppy would be more active. In any case, this puppy does not have submissive or excitation urination---similar to bedwetting in some people or was frightened of me.

I said to the disappointed owner who bought the Rottweiler to guard his house: "Wait and see. She may make a good guard dog if she is well trained and not exposed to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the neighbourhood." Only time will tell.


SEP 13, 2007

Consultation: Puppy was limping on right hind leg, with toes out.

Put on examination table. Check length of both hind legs by extending both hips with my hands pulling back legs them backwards. Right hind slightly shorter.

Extend and flex hip joints. Palpate hip joints. Puppy screamed on palpating right hip joint. Subluxation or a congenital defect? Needs to X-ray.

In conclusion, the reason for this puppy being not active could be a painful right hip. As the first consultation was only for vaccination, no lameness examination was carried out, to save on veterinary costs to the owner.