I recently just rescued a 3 to 3-1/2 month old Rottweiler puppy. Long story short, my cousin's neighbors moved out and left him in the backyard. I've heard multiple people on the Rottweiler forums say that they tend to be pretty natural retrievers and pretty easy to train as a tracker. I'd really like to try to train the Rott puppy to do some smaller game hunting (Mainly bird, but rabbit, squirrel, etc. would be nice as well). This would be my first hunting dog, so I don't even know where to begin. I'd love any tips/reading material you have to suggest.

I know there are places that can train the dog for you, but I would like to maintain a part in training the dog so I can learn how to do it myself for future reference.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you have.

I have heard the same thing. I guess you can start like most folks that have labs and so forth. Find yourself some really good books and start there.

There is a lot of chatter out there re: what they did w Rotts way back in the day. I am sure that it would depend greatly on the genetics of the dog...very similar to any other. But I bet you could do it with patience and repetitive training. Now that, would be cool!

I grew up with Rotts and love the breed. Great dogs and when I have land again, I will own a couple of more.

With that said, I am sure they can be trained but mine were not "natural" retrievers. I would throw a ball, he would go get it, I would throw it again, he would go get it, I would throw it the third time and the look on his face was pretty much saying "dude, I got it twice...you can get it this time."

As far as tracking goes, the ones I had weren't very good at it. My German Shepards were ten times better than the Rotts. They tried hard but weren't great.

They were all "high" bred dogs, so maybe they bred them for build rather than ability

One thing I can assure is that they will kill a coyote quickly and if you turn your back, they can take down a cow.

Good luck and congrats to acquiring a great dog

my Rott was an awesome dog, but he didn't like to go outside if it was raining! He would turn around and go right back to sleep if raining! As far as fetching anything. He loved to chase a ball, but wouldn't bring it back to you. He would chase the ball and then lay down and start chewing on it. Great family dog, and he was awesome with my kids. But not sure about tracking, I never trained him for it...but maybe with enough time.

Just a little update, my Rott is about 5-1/2 months old now (best estimate). I'm a total noob at training a hunting dog, as mentioned above. I've tried a few things just trying to get a feel for how he seems like he would do with certain things. I bought a canvas bird dummy (with wings), some bird scents, and a cap gun (hear me out). I started out putting the scent on the dummy and throwing it, having him return it and drop it in front of me. He LOVES this, has WAY more interest in the dummy than he does tennis balls. Then I started throwing it more difficult places where he'd have to look for it. So far I've hidden it from him twice (not throwing, that way he has no idea where it's at) and had him sniff it out (since i've had him, his nose has always been going a million miles an hour). The first time I just placed it where he didn't know where it was and let him sniff it out. The next time I made a slight trail with the scent and had him follow it to the dummy. Both times he found it with little effort. I've made sure to handle my shotgun on a regular basis since i've had him. I bought a cap gun to start shooting here in the city to start getting him used to the bang before taking him out to my family's house to start training him with a real gun.

Does it sound like i'm partially on the right track with him? Where do I go from here? Like I mentioned, I was just testing the waters with him to see if he even seemed interested. So far he seems to be doing really well (to me atleast). I'd like to take it to the next level now. Thanks for reading, and any advice you may have.

yep. Keep up the good work. Sounds like you're doing a great job

You could most likely find some live rabbits on craigslist if you plan on using him on small game.

Look up the author wolters has a few books such as water dog game dog gun dog etc all the same training method. I ordered some from half price books and saved. his books are easy reading and have been around since the early 60 s I believe good stuff

My hunting buddy has two, one which came from his sisters dog that was 160lbs...I understand that they were orig. stock dogs
and war dogs...His give the squirrels and house cats a fit..DD

Our female Rott will fetch most anything you throw and most likely you'll give out before she will. She loves it. She's also a "high" bred dog that we paid more for than I've ever before given for a dog.
Her sire weighed 145#. She's just turned two and she weighs 92 pounds and doesn't have any fat on her, just solid as a rock.
She is our third Rott with the other two finally going from old age. I seriously doubt that I'll ever own another breed of dog again. I have a male lab too and even though he's a good dog, he's just not a Rott.

Dear God I would hate to be the one to force fetch a Rott.

the Rott might force fetch you!