I just got a female Rottweiler puppy,(she's 2 months old) and I was wondering at what age should she be before I allow her to breed with my older male, also at what age is a male to old to be a good breeder? Any info you could give me would be greatly appreciated. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Barbara,

You should stop by your local humane society or animal shelter, or a local dog club, and ask them those questions. These are the responses that you'll likely hear:

The first question that you should really be asking is if you should breed your female at all. First of, does the breed improve by your female having puppies? Will you be putting titles on the dog? Are you planning on getting her OFA'd before she's bred? Will you have a home for the puppies produced, or are they going to be advertised in the newpaper for sale?

Millions of dogs yearly are euthanized in shelters, the need for another backyard breeding is zero.

I hope you can take a look at all the material that's out there about breeding and make the decision not to bred your dog.

Barbara, I'm sure that you love your dog, but before you consider breeding her you need to have her and the male's hips and elbows OFA certified. Both have to be at least 2 years of age for this. This means that you would need to wait until the female was 2 1/2 or 3 before even considering breeding her. You also need to train and title them (most dogs end up in the shelter because they aren't trainable enough, don't want your puppies getting the needle). The dogs in the pedigree should all have the same. Hip problems are extremely expensive and painful, and with new puppy lemon laws you could be paying the vet bills for several puppies if you breed your dogs.

Even then, you would have to carefully screen homes! Not everyone properly cares for a dog, and rotts are especially likely to be left outside without attention in order to make them look tougher (a.k.a. develop agression from being teased while chained up).

If you want to help people know how great rotts are, then volunteer with a rottie rescue. There are many of these dogs in need of homes.

Barbara,
Also, please don't be discouraged from what we're telling you. None of it is meant in a bad way. This is a Working Dog forum, and most of us here love giving advice to pet owners. But when the possiblity exists that someone is considering breeding dogs that probably shouldn't be bred, most pet owners don't like the answers that we give them.

Again, it's nothing personal or hurtful, we say what we say for the improvement of dog breeds in general.

In order to justify breeding any dog IMHO you need to follow the standards set by the parent breed club. In this case the ADRK, so as mentioned you need hip certs on both dogs. Both dogs must be age 2 or more and HAVE BREED SUITABLITY TESTS. The world doesn't need anymore $200 rott puppies or the people that own them in general terms. Also males are required to be done breeding by their 10th birthday and females by their 9th. Also please keep in mind that in rotts there is not the group of working dogs then a group of conformation dogs. Unless you count American bred AKC show dogs. The best rotts are all V-rated as a minimum and also great working dogs. The worlds best working rotts can go out and challenge for any Seiger title. To get a high scoring SCH III rott you don't need an SG rated dog as there are litterally hundreds of rotts worldwide that do both with killer bloodlines. But be ready to spend $1500-$2000 for the pups you won't find them in the local want ads.