Raising a calm Rottweiler puppy from day one

A 9-week-old Rottweiler and you're already thinking about this — that's exactly the right instinct. The window you're in right now is genuinely the best time to build independence and calm, before any anxious patterns get a chance to form. Separation anxiety is one of those things that's far easier to prevent than fix, and the fact that you work from home part-time is both an advantage and a small risk — easy to accidentally have the puppy velcroed to you all day. Quick questions: is the puppy sleeping through the night yet, do you have a crate or pen set up, and has he had any time alone at all since you brought him home?

That makes total sense for the first few days, and it sounds like you've set things up well. The crate next to the bed is great for bonding and night-time security. Now though — and I mean this week — you want to start building in short, calm absences so he learns that being alone is just a normal, unremarkable part of life. The pen in the kitchen is perfect for this. One thing I'd suggest adding right now, before you start those practice absences: a pheromone collar. For a puppy this age, the Adaptil Junior collar is the one I'd reach for.

Adaptil replicates the calming pheromone that a mother dog produces when she's nursing — it's called DAP, dog appeasing pheromone. Puppies are naturally wired to respond to it, so it doesn't sedate or alter behaviour artificially, it just takes the edge off the physiological stress response. The Junior version is specifically designed for puppies up to around 15 weeks, worn as a collar so the effect travels with him wherever he is. Completely safe — it's used by vets routinely for exactly this age group, and size is irrelevant because it's scent-based not dose-based. For a Rottweiler puppy you'd just want the standard size and check the neck measurement fits, which at 9 weeks it easily will.

Put the collar on a day or two before you start the alone-time training if you can — let it build up a little. Then yes, start the absences, but keep them tiny at first. Step out of the room for 30 seconds. Come back before he fusses. Build to a few minutes over a week. The goal is that he never quite reaches the point of distress, so he accumulates a long run of 'being alone was fine.' The collar supports that process by keeping his baseline stress lower while his brain is still so plastic. Combine that with a stuffed frozen Kong in the pen when you leave, and you're giving him something positive to associate with your absence rather than a void to panic into. That combination — pheromone support plus systematic short absences plus a food reward — is genuinely powerful at this age.

The Adaptil Junior collar lasts about four weeks, which roughly aligns with the critical socialisation period you're in. Most people find one or two collars covers the window where it's most useful — you don't necessarily need it indefinitely. Once he's reliably settled with longer absences and you're into month three or four, you can phase it out. If you find he's still a bit wobbly about being alone after the collar period, the Adaptil plug-in diffuser is a good next step for the room he spends most time in. But honestly, with the foundation you're building now, most puppies don't need much beyond that first collar.