Rottweiler Puppies

From the Roman herds to the town of Rottweil

The job came first, and the name came later. When the Roman legions moved north over the Alps they moved their food with them on the hoof, and cattle on a mountain road need dogs. The drover dogs that walked with those herds were heavy, dark, mastiff-type animals bred to keep several tons of beef pointed in one direction all day, and when the legions moved on, the dogs stayed behind in the river valleys of southern Germany.

One of the places they stayed was a Roman settlement on the Neckar that grew into the town of Rottweil. The town sat on a crossroads and became a cattle market, and the dogs kept working there for centuries after Rome was gone: bringing stock in from the countryside and hauling the butcher’s cart home again with the meat on it. That is where the old German name comes from — Rottweiler Metzgerhund, the butcher’s dog of Rottweil. The best story from that period has the butcher tying his purse around the dog’s neck for the walk back from market, on the entirely sound reasoning that nobody was going to take it off there.

The droving trade thinned out once the railways began moving cattle instead, and the breed had a quiet few decades before Germany rediscovered it in the early twentieth century as a service dog. The Allgemeiner Deutscher Rottweiler Klub was founded in 1921 and still keeps the standard the breed is bred to in its home country. The American Kennel Club recognized the Rottweiler in 1931, and it has been in the Working Group ever since.

Black and rust, and the build underneath

A Rottweiler is meant to look substantial without looking heavy. Males stand around twenty-four to twenty-seven inches at the shoulder and females twenty-two to twenty-five, and the body is very slightly longer than it is tall — a working proportion rather than a square one. Weight runs from about eighty pounds on a compact female up to a hundred and thirty-five on a large male, all of it bone and muscle over a broad, deep chest.

The head is the part people picture. A broad skull, a muzzle that runs straight to a wide black nose, and small triangular ears that fold forward and sit level with the top of the skull, so the head reads as wider than it is. The eyes are almond-shaped and dark brown, and the expression is level and unhurried. A Rottweiler looks at you the way a person does across a table.

The colour never varies, and the standard is precise about the pattern. Black, with rust or mahogany markings placed exactly: a spot over each eye, a patch on each cheek, a strip along either side of the muzzle, a mark on the throat, a triangle on each side of the chest, rust running down the front legs, a stripe inside each rear leg, and rust under the tail. A well-marked Rottweiler in good coat is a striking dog in ordinary daylight.

The coat itself is straight, coarse and medium in length, lying flat over an undercoat that shows up mostly on the neck and thighs. Tails are traditionally docked and are increasingly left long. Both are cosmetic traditions, both are optional, and it is worth deciding what you like before you go looking.

The calm at the middle of the breed

Ask ten owners what the breed is like and nine will reach for the word calm. This is not a dog that vibrates. A settled adult spends a good part of the day as furniture — lying in a doorway where it can see two rooms at once, following you to the kitchen, going back to sleep. The energy is real, but it has an off switch, and that switch is one of the best things about living with one.

With its own family a Rottweiler is affectionate in a very physical way. There is a manoeuvre owners call the Rottweiler lean, in which the dog backs up to your legs and gradually transfers its entire weight onto them. There is also a low rumble while it is being scratched — the grumble, which sounds like an opinion and is in fact a compliment. Grown Rottweilers try to sit in laps, bring you things, and follow you room to room without ever quite being in the way.

With visitors they are self-possessed rather than effusive. The standard asks for a dog that is sure of itself instead of instantly friendly, which is a formal way of saying that a Rottweiler decides about you in its own time and is then completely yours. Inside its own household it is patient and steady with children and quietly pleased to be included in things, and most families find the dog installs itself in whichever room is busiest. They are not a chatty breed, either. A Rottweiler will let you know when someone is at the door, and then go back to what it was doing.

Training a dog who wants to work with you

The most useful line in the German standard is the one asking for a willingness to work, because that is the lever. A Rottweiler is not looking for a way out of the session. It is waiting for the next instruction, and once it understands that working with you is the game, teaching it becomes a conversation.

Start the week the puppy comes home and keep the sessions short. Five minutes before dinner, three while the kettle boils, one more in the evening. Mark the behaviour the moment it happens, pay well for it, and stop while the dog still wants another go. Rottweilers read tone closely and give their best to someone cheerful and clear, so the currency is food, praise and a tug toy.

Two things deserve real time while the puppy is still small enough to pick up. The first is loose-leash walking, because a dog this size walking politely is a pleasure for the next decade. The second is a set of habits practised daily: a wait at the door, a settle on a mat, a leave-it, and a recall paid every single time.

Socialization is the rest of it. Take the puppy places all the way through the first year — different floors, elevators, hardware stores, umbrellas, hats, bicycles, other dogs behaving normally. A Rottweiler that has met a hundred ordinary things by six months treats the hundred and first as ordinary too.

Grooming and the weekly routine

For a dog this size the grooming list is short. The flat coat wants a rubber curry or a hound glove once a week, which lifts the loose hair and brings up a shine. Most Rottweilers lean into the brush and fall asleep partway through. Twice a year, when the undercoat turns over with the seasons, swap the curry for an undercoat rake for a fortnight. That is the whole job.

Baths are occasional rather than scheduled. Nails matter more than the coat on a heavy dog, since long ones change the way it stands, so trim a little and often. Ears get wiped while you groom, and teeth get brushed early enough that a puppy decides the toothbrush is a game.

What a day together looks like

Two good walks, a run in a secure space a few times a week, and something to think about every day keeps most Rottweilers level and content. The thinking part is not decoration. This is a breed that likes having a task, and five minutes of real work does more for it than another mile of pavement.

There is plenty to choose from, because the Rottweiler is one of the most versatile breeds going. Carting and drafting come straight out of its history, and a Rottweiler pulling a cart at a fair is doing the job it was built for. The herding instinct is still in there, and the breed is eligible for AKC herding events. Obedience, rally, tracking and scent work all suit the mind, and Rottweilers turn up regularly in search and rescue, therapy and service work for one reason: they like being useful.

Around the house the day settles into a shape quickly. A walk in the cool part of the morning, which in a Florida or Tennessee summer is the pleasant hour for both of you. Breakfast, then a doze near whoever is working. A training game or a puzzle feeder in the afternoon. Another walk in the evening, and then a Rottweiler arranged along the sofa with its head on somebody’s knee, rumbling gently, thoroughly satisfied with how the day went.

Coming to meet the Rottweiler puppies

A photograph gets the markings and misses the manner. What you notice standing next to a Rottweiler puppy is how much attention it pays to your face — how fast it works out who you are, and then how it settles against your shin to think about it. That habit is the adult dog in miniature.

Our Rottweiler puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy’s parents were like. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.