Anyone else out there work a Rott? If so, let's hear about it. Age, lines, titles, SchH or PP?

I am always playing with the idea of getting one of this little monsters. Don't know of too many good breeders though. The one thing that I have had some trouble with is that I find the Rottweilers a little hard to read. They don't have as much facial expression or difference in body posture as shepherds. Am I the only one that thinks this? How about you Marine Joe?


Anybody know anything about this site/breeder http://www.jenecks.com (Private me if ya do)

Well, I have a young (14 mos) male that I am currently doing some work with. He is a great dog. Probably a better dog than I am a handler as I am learning the sport, jsut like him. Re: workability -> people (GSD folks) tell me that Rotts mature slower than GSD's so I guess as a result, the learning curve is a lot slower. He's coming along quite nicely. In fact, a major problem I am currently having is trying to cap his drives a bit. Overall, he is a great dog, great temperment, hard and very forgiving. I'm lucky to have him.

RE: reading the dog -> I have found quite the opposite. I find the Rotts pretty easy to read facially, posture-wise and drive-wise. One thing I have noted in my boy and I don't know if is pervasive breed-wise (ED?-> anyone know?) is that he has a pretty low defensive drive threshold. A couple of trainers have told me that this is pretty normal for the breed. In my case, we have to really be careful about putting too much pressure on him and knocking him out of prey at this young age.

Van: I can help you somewhat re: working lines. I have been doing some looking lately myself. One thing I have found through researching is that "true" working lines are not that easy to come by. I have found that a lot of the "working breeders" still blend a lot the conformation crap into the equation. :sad: Makes one question the veracity of the working titles. PM me re: Jeneck's and I'll pass along what I now. I'm pretty new to this board and haven't found out how to PM yet.

You've got mail Marine! Just click on the my profile section in the upper right hand corner of all pages. Your messages are posted there. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I'm glad this topic was brought up. I myself have always wondered about this breed. I've always assumed that because of its immense popularity it has clearly caused more of a result on attacks with people, children ect. The same can be said about many breeds that become popular to the general public. I remember reading in several books that Dobermans by the eighties were practically wanted outlawed by Joe Public. I also felt this was similar to today in the respect that it when a breed is so popular then owners come in every form, as well as breeders.

Many people I've talked to feel these dogs are top of the line protection dogs, and they wouldn't have any other breed. Sometimes I wonder if these dogs specialize more in home protection, rather then a GSD etc. I remember hearing often that the Doberman was very “one man dog” like, and they didn’t have a good transition to other handlers or people, and that this was why there weren’t as good for police work. I heard that their original purpose was to only be for their owner at all times. When I bought my GSD my original idea was to buy a Rott, but I didn’t know enough about protection dogs and I felt I might not be able to control it. I've noticed Rottweilers seem to have a great drive to want to fight with other dogs, this of course could be BS in reality. I couldn't officially say. I’m not an expert.

Does the discussion group feel they're better for home protection rather than police work, or are they just as good? I'd also be curious to know if one is professionally trained and mentally competent, does it have a tendency to disobey, or try to fight a dog while out in public?

I've always felt different protection breeds had different qualities and specialities, but that's just a feeling, I could be wrong.

My SchH trainer breeds working Rottweilers, and has told me that in his opinion that if you had to put the difference from a GSD into one word, that word would be "stubborness." Or, to put it light-bulb joke form:

How many GSDs does it take to screw in a light bulb?

"Alright, who broke the light bulb? Nobody move until we find him."

How many Rottweilers?

"Make me."

The problem with almost all working breeds comes down to socialization. A lot of people get these dogs and throw them in the backyard and do nothing with them and can't figure out why they are nasty. Most of these breeds need some level of contact and socialization or when their protective instincts kick in they view everybody as a threat.

Good point Richard. Then there is that whole "macho image" thing where mis-guided people get this kind of a dog and don't socialize them because they are afraid it will make the dog too "nice" or un-tough. They just don't get it.

I don't question either statement. So I guess the answer is no, they don't specialize?

I agree 100% with socializing protection dogs in many situations. If you don't, then that develops a nervous dog.

Let me clarify what I mean. If all three breeds were trained correctly, and they had a proper genetic background, would Rotts show certain tendencies?

Statistically if any breed is popular your going to get bad owners and bad media headlines. I still feel there are different psychological characteristics of Rotts, GSDs, Malinois, Dobermans, and several other breeds. That's what my question was basically.

Wolf,

There are breed chacteristics that are different between breeds. It is one of the wonderful things about the variety in the protection breeds. One thing is starting to happen is that people are trying to "homoginize" the breeds to compete them in the same area. This is one of the reasons I am so happy to see a wider variety of dog sports becoming popular. The different tests test the strenghts of the different breeds.