I love Rottie's. I'm going to chime in a bit, but take what I say with a grain of salt - I had a slight hand in helping to raise one, but haven't been around many others (except for my aunt's, who I spent a lot of time with while growing up). I was a dogsitter for a Rottie from the time he was 8 weeks old until a little over 2. He definitely had a stubborn side... if he doesn't want to do something, he'll make it clear. You try to get him outside and he doesn't want to go outside? He'd just stand there by the door, stare at you, and look at you like you're nuts. LOL.
He was a big ole' bear though honestly. He loved to jump up and give me hugs and kisses. But he wasn't extremely obnoxious about it, or 'rough' about it either. But he certainly didn't greet everyone like that. He was VERY cautious of strangers... and on walks, I could tell as he got older, that he was on look out at all times. If someone was suddenly walking behind us on the trail, he'd look back, look up at me, look back again, just to make sure everything was okay. I never let anyone pet him because he had gotten questionable and since I was just his dogwalker, I did not want to be held responsible for anything.
He did have a bit of a reactive problem with other dogs on walks but nothing terrible or anything that I couldn't control. They did used to take him to the dog park, as did I on occasion, but he did not appreciate how some dogs played and found lots of in-your-face type stuff disrespectful so we stopped taking him, since we did not want him to get blamed for anything that were to possibly go wrong. He always did GREAT with Jackson - they walked together almost every day and when it was just the two of them, they did wonderful off leash in the dog park. Both had a mutual respect. I think that was the Rottie's thing... he got along with dogs who respected him, and he did the same thing back. An obnoxious Lab puppy playing in his face was something he was not comfortable with for example. And it was a definite change right at about 1.5yrs old with him becoming more dog and stranger reactive.
I did a few overnight sittings with he and Jackson in the house, and it went well. Jackson was totally comfortable with him, and used to egg him on to play, and sometimes they'd get too rowdy for a small town house so I'd have to have them calm down. But overall they really did well together and I was always very careful.
He was a resource guarder - bad. You couldn't take anything from his mouth, even the owners. He had been as a pup too. I remember at 8 weeks old, he was doing a growl at me when I took something from him, but at the time, it almost just seemed puppy playful sort of, but... it kind of scared me one day when I dropped a poop bag holder, and bent over to grab it, and he growled at me. I learned how to handle it and what to avoid doing.
They got him from a good breeder apparently, but who knows. They also were very Cesar Millan-esque in training and while I don't believe they purposely were trying to mess him up, I really think they made his small issues turn larger. He also went back to his breeder for training for 2 weeks at around... 7 months old? so who knows what happened there.
As far as exercise though, they hired me so he was getting out during the day for a 1 hour walk - we would typically walk 4 miles, he and Jackson and I. And sometimes the husband would take him running in the evening. When we used to go to the fenced in dog park when it was empty, I would use the chuck-it and he would fetch forEVER. But now, honestly, as far as I know, they don't really completely trust him anymore around others (pets and people) so it's no more dog parks, or pet stores, etc. They just walk him and run him in an open empty field and avoid other people just in case.
I really did love that dog though, always had a soft spot for him. He was my favorite out of the dogs I used to walk on a daily basis and honestly my easiest, even with his 'issues'.
He was also my ideal as far as looks goes. Wasn't as stocky and his head wasn't too large. I can't think of the right word. But he was kept in good shape.
one year old.
He was about 8 months old in this shot.