Rottweiller (anyone have any experience)

[alelks]

Looks like I'll be getting a couple in the next few years. I was going to get 2 puppies at the same time but came to my senses.

I'm going to get 1 at the beginning of the year and get the 2nd one about a year later. This will be a predominately outdoor dog with a radio fence on 3 acres (all grass). I'm going to put in an automatic dog door in one corner of the garage so he can come in and out of the weather at will. In that corner I'm going to build a decent size dog house so he doesn't have full reign of the entire garage. It will of course be heated in the winter (the garage won't be).

I do plan on putting it through TONS and TONS of obedience training.

Anyone out there own a Rottweiler? If so do you have some good advice. I've done quite a bit of research on health problems so I'll DEFINITELY be purchasing from a quality breeder. Of course that comes with a hefty price tag, $1,500 and up.

[The Reaper]

I have had four, two from Kimbertal and two from the litter from the female I owned.

Great dogs, tremendously smart, powerful, loyal, and protective.

Down side is that they require regular exercise, are easily bored, can be very hard headed, and destructive. Wood and drywall are not excluded from their diet, if they decide to chew it or go through it. Your insurer may not like you having one.

Life spans tend to be a bit shorter than smaller breeds, eight years seems to be around average, I got eleven from the best one. Hip dysplasia is common among them, and common genetic defects occur from significant inbreeding.

Unless you plan on breeding them, I would go for a normal-sized female.

Exciting times await! Best of luck.

TR

[alelks]

Yea, females are what I'm getting for sure. I'm researching breeders now.

[Peregrino]

My father raised several litters of Rotties. They're everything TR said and more. I'm not sure how successful you'll be with your outside dog idea. The more socialized (discipline is just part of it) the Rottie is, the less behaviour problems you'll have. That usually means making the dog a fully integrated "family member". Then your house smells like big dog; complete with hair and body oils all over everything including walls and furniture to about waist level. (Experience with my father's Rotties including the aforementioned hard headed, easilly bored, destructive, and homeowners insurance risks are why we've stuck with GSDs.)Good luck.

[alelks]

Yea, That's part of the reason I'm getting a 2nd dog after about a year. As far as exercise, once trained to the radio fence they will have total freedom of the 3 acres. I do plan on letting them in the house (limited areas) on a daily basis for family time but once it's time to go to bed they will go outdoors. One thing I like about the radio fence I'm looking at is that they have small modules you can place in your house with an adjustable range of 2ft to 10 ft. It integrates with the base. That way I can limit them to specific areas of the house.

I've seen dogs trained not to cross a threshold into the kitchen before without a radio fence but I like the idea of having the same type of deterrent on the inside as I have on the outside so I plan on keeping them out of the carpeted living room area.

Definitely not going to have a dog of that stature inside full time due to the what has already been mentioned.

[glebo]

Hey Al,

We're watching our sons while he and his family are in Germany for three yrs. He's a Rottie/Chow mix. GREAT dog, mellow, loveable and he loves to go out and play when our daughters two dogs come over. They all get along great. He is an inside dog though, however, he will stay out in the yard for hours soaking up the sun or just meandering around checking the perimeter..

He is protective, he likes head butting you when he wants attention..LOL..

I believe he's around 3 yrs old, so any chewing/mischevious stuff probably happened when my son had him....woohoo, his stuff..not ours..haaa

We're gonna hate giving him up when they return, but he's integrated very well here.

[Flagg]

I have a Rottie who is still going strong after 10 years(rigid diet and exercise).

Besides all the good advise already offered(particularly socialization), I would state that Rottie's also require an above average amount of their owner's/family's time just hanging out.

They are incredibly affectionate and loyal dogs and love nothing more than to be with their owners.

They are fantastic with kids, but I think it is pretty important for the kids to be born/adopted BEFORE the Rottie.

I would consider the breed(or at least MY Rottie) to be not particularly bright.....my dog would never earn a doggie university degree(If you want a smart dog get a GS, JRT, or Corgie)....but he's incredibly intuitive.

While ours is still in great health......the biggest fear in my life now is seeing my dog go down hill fast

We will definitely get another....and probably a female as well......our male is pretty big at 50kg with no fat on him.

Seeing all these giant Afghan dogs about(my first trip over here)....I wonder what the story is with them and whether jillions of people coming in and out of here the past decade will see that breed make it's way into the west?

[SOF_VET]

Concur with what has been said about the breed. They are fantastic family dogs, but do require much interaction with your family as they need to familiarize themselves (and their place) with your "pack".

As you already know, puppies require a lot of time and involvement. I'm sure you're prepared for that; however, you may want to consider waiting two years between dogs. That way, you have an extra year to get that first dog out of the puppy stage so it doesn't regress in its training with the addition of the second dog. Additionally, two years is the earliest that any dog's hips can be certified free from hip dysplasia (despite what your breeder will tell you). Waiting two years between the dogs will ensure your dog matures into its training, the breeder isn't putting out dysplastic dogs and you don't get hit with huge medical costs.

Pups are fun, but the older I get, the more I have come to appreciate mature dogs with a high drive (2 yrs old & up). The destruction and mayhem is exponentially reduced and I still have a dog capable of learning what I need it to do. As an alternative, you may want to consider checking out a Rottie-specific rescue group. Many of them have pups (more than I ever would have thought), most are purebred (albeit, without papers - but unless you're going to show, who cares?) and the cost savings won't leave your wallet suddenly thinner ($100 - $250 vs. $1,500).

Whatever you decide to do, have fun with them and post a few pictures here after you get em.

[44025]

I had two Rotties growing up and they were great. They both had to be put down early due to back or hip problems( i was kinda young and don't remember the exact cause).
I would def agree on waiting about 2 years. At one point i had to watch a German Shepard pup (about 3 months old) for my uncle while his house was under repairs. I noticed that as i trained the pup it was also picking up things from my collie. somehow from just observing my collie the Shepherd learned to stay on the property as well as other rules that made it a much better dog.

[rtj731]

Al,
check out ridgebacks, outstanding breed

[alelks]

I'm putting down a deposit for a pup from Ace and Nala on this page: http://weavers-rottweilers.com/upcoming_litters.htm

[SOF_VET]

That male is built like a brick shithouse! Should be some good pups.

[lovemycountry]

I would suggest Pet Insurance. I had one pup who swallowed a piece of cotton from her blanket. Xray's, Obstructed bowl, Emergency operation and 2 days at a veterinary Hospital....$3500. My daughter had a Rottie, great dog but had multiple bouts with paw and toe cancers that got costly. Your veterinarian's office will offer god advice on which company they work with.

[HQ6]

We have an eight year-old 120 pound American female. She should be 110 pounds and is on a diet to get her back where she needs to be. We got her when I was seven months pregnant with our first child. At that time we had a 5 year-old female cocker/mutt in the house. That cocker died about five years ago and was replaced by a male full breed cocker (worst mistake I ever made… I should have gotten another Rottweiler). The rottie got on/gets on well with both dogs.

The rottie has been raised with our two girls (who are now 5 and 7 years-old) as a member of the household. She has never been trained to be a guard dog, but it is in her nature to protect which she has and does even with arthritis in her front right leg and hip dysplasia.

I was apprehensive getting her at first because I had never had big dogs growing up. However, the husband was raised with Rottweilers and always wanted one, so I relented. I now love that dog almost as much as my kids. She is a great companion (currently snoring at my side as I type this) and a terrific protector. We are on our seventh deployment together, and she never leaves my side. She has been great with both our girls and has never snipped or snapped at either of them (something I cannot say about the freaking cocker). The Rottweiler has put up with them using her as a pillow, brushing her, dressing her up, playing with her ears (rottie ears are the softest thing ever), and generally treating her like another kid in the house. I am not sure if it is because they were all raised together or just indicative of the breed, but those three are peas in a pod.

I will admit that she almost didn’t make it through her puppydom with us. She chewed up a sofa, drywall, the husband’s NYFD hat, shoes, sunglasses, etc. We got her every teething item we could find, tried every trick the vet gave us, and she still tore through the house chewing things up. Although this is indicative of puppies from almost any breed, when you are dealing with a dog the size of a Rottweiler the damage is magnified. In the end, I decided to let her live and was glad that I did. If we get another one (which I am day dreaming about), it will be when the husband will be home to help train the new dog.

As for protection she is great. We had another Rottweiler go after our cocker (in defense of the other Rottweiler, the cocker did start the fight by trying to display dominance over a dog three times his size thus confirming my assessment that cockers are not the smartest dogs) and our Rottweiler jumped in to get the strange dog off the cocker. I have only seen her bare teeth at humans a handful of times and each time was when a stranger tried to put their hands on my child or was somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. She patrols the house at night and will not stand for closed doors. She wants to roam and check on everything and has learned to open doors to do that. She hates being in a crate and tore up her nose pretty bad as a puppy tearing her way out of the one we tried to use with her. Since then, we just used a dog bed on the floor between our bed and the wall which keeps her happy. When she is in trouble, I will tell her to go to her room, and she knows to go lay on her bed.

Honestly with the exception of her snoring (to which I have grown accustom) and the hefty vet bills we will have as she goes through her geriatrics (I echo what others have said about insurance with Rottweilers it is worth the money), I have absolutely no complaints about our Rottweiler.

ETA: Looking at the link with the puppies is making me want to get another one now

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by HQ6

ETA: Looking at the link with the puppies is making me want to get another one now

If you do get another one, do it soon - while the current female can still help you "raise the puppy". Our first female GSD raised/integrated our current male and he in turn did the same three years later for her successor. We still see aspects of her in the current female, two "generations" removed. Both of the current GSDs were far easier to raise as a direct result of her influence. (Somehow I doubt the cocker will be as helpful - we had cockers as children; I fully support your assessment of the breed!)