Any thoughts on Rottweilers

Excellent post. To the original poster...I have had some experience with Rottweilers. To sum it up, this breed was pretty much unknown in the US about 20 years ago. Then this breed went through a popularity explosion (just like APBT's). Every freaking bonehead was breeding them to make quick cash. Now it very difficult to even find a quality Rotty from true working lines. But you'll find plenty of junk in your local paper and probably at the shelter, sad to say. A lot of the junk-bred dogs are plagued with health problems like dysplasia and even worse many have unstable temperments, will bite the sh*t out of you.
Now about the real-deal Rotts, they are a very different animal (if you just put a German working Rott up beside the American bred show dog crap, you'll see the difference right away). I've seen the real thing (Rottweilers from working German stock). They are very dominant animals and I don't recommend them for the average dog owner. Just like what was mentioned above, they require a firm and experienced hand or else they can end up running the show. And yes, even these performance bred Rotts may try to take a chunk out of you if they are corrected hard during training, it's called "handler aggression". I would do as much research as possible. You said something about using your dog to protect property. It'll still need basic obedience training along with proper protection training from a knowledgeable working dog trainer. Personally I wouldn't own a Rotty, nothing against the breed. Just not my cup of tea. Good luck with your search. All I'm saying is be careful when you make your final decision.

 

from what I've seen rotts are more about bark than attack...
same with boerboells... they will attack an intruder when pushed, but mostly they just "stand their ground" infront of the intruder by growling/barking...

if you really want a nice protection dog, malinois/gsd's/dutch shepherds and fila's are my top breeds

 

whoa ppl ik the apbt is a great dog but aren't we against training apbts to attack ppl besides lets not bring negative media to our dogs

 

nothing wrong with seeing an apbt preform shutzhund...
you just gotta find the right dog for the sport, just like with any other breed wether it'd be malinois or gsd's...
plus, with shutzhund most dogs are more driven by the sleeve as by the decoy himself.

I should have added to my previous post that I stated that only from personal experience and usually, "piss-poor" bred rotties just your average rott around the corner of the street

 

sure but the thing is .... is he going to do shutzhund training or just have the dog become a mean mofo to attack strangers shutzhund cost som decent amount of $ from what ive heard and time as well

 

Bad hips and too much shedding

 

get a neo mastiff!

 

Neo or Cane

 

neopolitan mastiff. I like the looks of the canes but dont know much about them