"He's Friendly For A Rottie!"

First I'll say hi to everyone b/c I'm new to this forum. Now on to my message:

I volunteer for a no-kill rescue shelter and one day I was walking our new rottie (he's an absolute doll, rather thin but we'll bulk him up!) and a potential adopter came up to us and he sat down right in front of her, no jumping up or anything (somebody obviously worked on obediance with this boy!) and started licking her when she went to pet him. The next thing she said was "Wow, he's friendly for a rottie!"

I wasn't sure what to say because I always take dogs by the individual dog's personality and not by the breed. I guess she hasn't met very many nice rotties in her time...or perhaps she has seen too many movies with rotties portrayed as vicious guard dogs!

Ha the worst thing a rottie ever did to me was cover me in rottie spit, the little drool monster!

I work for a humane society too! Hi!
And yes... I've experienced the same thing... people are suprised when they meet a well cared for Rott. Pretty sad.

I always get the same remark when I'm walking my current Rottie aswell as each of my past ones. It's pretty sad that people are surprised to see a nice Rottie, though I've never met any really mean ones.

There's a rottie at our shelter right now that's the same way. Very sweet and gentle and too skinny. Some people just don't realize each dog is different.

Everyone should read the " Carl " books !!!!

Grammy! I LOVE the Carl books! I stole them from my nephews and read them all ... then returned them of course. It was fun to read them to the kids too becasue then i could make up my own dialogue. Hee!

I like rotties. My boyfriend is scared of them because he was attacked by one as a teenager. The rottweiler was a poorly trained attack/guard dog for a drug house, and he was over there to say hi (he doesn't do drugs but was friends with the guy who lived there) and the rottie just leaped up for his throat. The owner got between my bf and the dog, so he got bit pretty bad... but my bf has been scared of them since.

I want to take the bf out and desensitize him to rottweilers, because I think they are wonderful animals myself... but he's not too keen on the idea.

lol desensitizing bfs too bad they are so hard to train, i tried to clicker train my but he caught on when i started giving him lots of cookies!!

j/k but why not take him to a place you know a friendly one is and show him how nice the dog is?

I used to help my Dad with his land surveying quite often. I never really worried when we were working around Rotties - or any other large dog for that matter . . . as long as there weren't any little ones around to get the big ones cranked up!

I was leaned up against a fence on day, waiting for Dad to finish up some notes, and felt something warm on my shoulder and face. I turned my head very slowly and came face to face with a HUGE Rottie head resting on my shoulder, snuffling my ear

Mojo ... aren't the Carl illustrations wonderful !! I also like that they are picture stories...I feel so much more stimulating for a child as they can use their imagination more .

I've never met a mean rottie, ever. Every rottie I've met has been a big teddy bear and they LOVE kids!!!

It's the movies I think that make people think rotties are mean and vicious.

my dad has one that's close to 10 yrs old now. the only thing that rott has ever done is bark at certain people (i won't say who or why so no one gets offended). it's not because my dad doesn't like the people, but if he senses my dad doesn't trust them for any reason he'll bark at them...either til my dad changes his mind or til they leave.

i've got neighbors that are scared of Labs for goodness sakes??? can you believe that? i think lots of people are just scared of big dogs in general...not necessarily a specific breed. they see our puppy and "ooh" and "ahh" over him...and it makes them realize (a little more) that our female is just a bigger version of the puppy.

i was bitten by a chow when i was a little kid and was scared to death of chows for a long time. i hated the breed cause i thought they were all mean. well, i realized...after a few years...that that's not true. the dog that bit me was always chained up and had very little human contact so he didn't know about "playing fetch". when i threw something, he thought it was meant to hurt him, so i was bitten. we have a neighbor with a 13 yr old chow mix and it got loose the first weekend we moved in. i knew i had to catch her so nothing would happen to her (she's deaf) so i did. she was very quiet and calm and i wasn't so worried about her doing anything mean cause she'd been cared for. her "mom" was very thankful for the help.

i realize being bitten or attacked by a dog is not pleasant...and it will stick with you for the rest of your life if you don't do something about it.
LOL, i was thinking about the dachsund that tried to bite me a few months ago...he was way worse than any other big dog i've ever met. old, cranky and didn't like people. also thinking about the dachsund that attacked my puppy while i was walking him and our female the other day. owner doesn't obey leash laws and let's the dog loose all day to do as he pleases. my baby is ok, but it scared him badly!

it's ALMOST funny how little dogs can be meaner than big dogs...some for seemingly no reason at all. i still don't know why the dach attacked him?

Dachshunds have a tendency to be feisty to other dogs. My guess is that the owner didn't take the time to teach his dach that dog agression is unacceptable. The owner probably thinks: "Oh look at my little dog acting all big! Isn't that cute??" Blech!

it sure wasn't cute for me and my puppy. i mean, here i am trying to keep things as calm as possible because he's in a new environment...no family...new people...new different colored dog and an inside dog. i think that's enough for a 9 wk old puppy (8 1/2 at the time) to deal with. they never even apologized for what they, and their dog, did! that's just rude IMO. i also found out that the guy who owns the dachs was one of the one's calling him...he was just to lazy to do anything about it. ( i.e. walk across the street and get his dog)

I volunteer at the HS, too. There were two rotties at once(rare for a small HS) that looked exactly the same. It was eerie. Anyways, some idiot put the wrong Rotties in the kennels(mixed the two up). Both were strays & when the one Rotties 5 days were up, it was to be PTS as it was a hazard(he had bitten several times in 3 days). So, I showed a couple & their 2 kids the dogs. I went into the kennel of the friendly Rottie, which had the mean one in it(they were interested in him). I knew immediately the problem(growled/baring teeth). I couldn't get out of the kennel with those people there, so I sent them out of the room. I got out of the kennel with only a few scratches. The HS called the vet right away & had that dog PTS that night. Sad, I know, but you absolutely cannot risk the safety of young kids or even adults for a dog like that. THe HS even tried to find a rescue to take him, but no one would.

The nice Rottie got adopted very quickly, though. The adopter drove 3 hours to get him. I hate it when people stereotype breeds.