Rottie negatively featured on MTV show "Jackass"

[Chloesmom]

I watched this past week's show "Jackass", which, for those of you not familiar with the format, consists of young guys acting out bizarre stunts with a 10 yr old mentality. For example, jumping off the roof of a house while holding a patio umbrella or riding a scooter down a steep incline. Well here's where the rott comes in:

They dressed a guy up in an Easter Bunny costume and took him to a kennel where police dogs are trained. Then, they set him running while the handler released a rott which very swiftly took him down. They repeated this several times, once, the dog ripped the costume head off, shook it furiously, then ran back in to latch on the guys arm again. In that moment, the guys head was completely exposed, and he could have had his face ripped off. Stupid.

While it was exciting to see our tax dollars at work, I was disturbed at the way the breed was portrayed. I doubt that many viewers noticed how the dog instantly backed off at the handlers command and only took the guy down by grabbing his arm. It bummed me out because I "heard" a million people thinking - yup, that's a vicious dog. It's no wonder the show is named "Jackass."

[LucyJ]

I'm ashamed to admit that I actually watch this show occasionally (usually with a beer in hand and kids in bed). I missed that one but I'll try to catch it. At least those of us who know the breed can be PROUD of this dogs behavior and obedience to commands. But I'm surprised that they would actually let these people tape this kind of show in their facility. It's extremely bad judgement IMHO to have such a reckless group of people interact with their dogs for this kind of TV show. I can imagine some teenager dressing as Santa and jumping a fence into a backyard full of pit bulls!


[ February 25, 2001: Message edited by: LucyJ ]

[WorkinDogz]

A man wearing a Ronald Reagan mask robbed a bank in Poughkeepsie last week...

I'm fairly certain Ron really didn't do it. I'm leaning toward a man "dressed up" as Ron.

Street dogs are trained to bite when told. Old ladies, big men and even the Easter Bunny.

You'd be surprised how many "lesser" dogs would have been confused and lacked the confidence needed to take that Bunny down.

GOOD BOY! :)

By the way...Hi Annette...Annette here too..nice to meet you. :)

[Michael C.]

I thought it was funny. Sorry. I don't think it was negative towards the breed at all. THe dog was doing what it was trained to do. They were police dogs and the dog let go as soon as the trainer gave the command. The dog was doing what it does everyday, it just so happens it was chasing a person dressed up in a bunny suit.

[Chloesmom]

Hi Annette!

I agree with all of you. I didn't think of the fact that the dog might be put off by the bunny suit. My rott loves fuzzy toys, but they're usually not 6 feet tall!

I just wished it could have been a breed more well known as a police dog, like a GSD so Joe Public would see it as a heroic act to take down the Easter Bunny. ;)

[rottweiler_fancier]

I watch the show all the time (my odd sense of humor :)) and when I saw the previews for the season premire (which I missed) I saw a dog chasing a guy...couldn't tell it was a Rottweiler though. Looked more like a lab but that was a 5 second clip.

It could be negative to how people view the Rottweiler, but aren't those guys negative to how other species view the Human? :) Heck... you named the most sane things they do! Swimming with sharks after bathing in raw meat...running in a fat suit in front of a bus....urban kayacking...need I say more? I'll have to see if I can catch that episode and see how bad it really was.

[Michael C.]

Originally posted by rottweiler_fancier:
I watch the show all the time (my odd sense of humor :)) and when I saw the previews for the season premire (which I missed) I saw a dog chasing a guy...couldn't tell it was a Rottweiler though. Looked more like a lab but that was a 5 second clip.

It could be negative to how people view the Rottweiler, but aren't those guys negative to how other species view the Human? :) Heck... you named the most sane things they do! Swimming with sharks after bathing in raw meat...running in a fat suit in front of a bus....urban kayacking...need I say more? I'll have to see if I can catch that episode and see how bad it really was.

They showed it again last night at 9:00. It really wasn't much. Just a guy running and the dog running him down and latching onto his arm. And once the guy was running and tried to jump over a hurdel and fell. As he was falling the dog grabbed his bunny head and pulled it off and started shaking it all around. The guy with the bunny suit on had no sleeve or anything, just the bunny suit to protect him. He said it felt like all his bones were cracking!

[Taulmaril]

MTV.com has the clip of the Rottweiler and the Jackass on it's site if you guys want to see it. Here's the link: http://www.mtv.com/mtv/realmedia/pla...ckass_bunny.rm

[frau]

How about the music video clip which shows a rottie on the subway, with Snoop Dog's head? It shows the dog's real head for a few secs so that you can see it is a rottie.

I like it and I don't like it.

Frau :D

[Mattweiser]

come on guys.... it is a comedy (dark) show.. It is not intended to drive home any political agenda, other than these guys should never be allowed to reproduce :D

[SpaceCity]

In "Big Momma's House" they had a Rottie that appeared to be mean and lethal. A guy crawled right inside his pen and the dog snapped at his face. When they cut back to that guy, he was stting there while the Rottie gave him a tongue bath.

At first I was all "Man, that ain't right!" but then then I was like "That's more like it!"

[winniecnm]

A little off subject, but did anyone see when those guys put an e-collar on one of their friends and zapped them??

Either way you view this, those guys sure don't show much in the brains department. :)

[Michael C.]

Originally posted by winniecnm:
A little off subject, but did anyone see when those guys put an e-collar on one of their friends and zapped them??

Either way you view this, those guys sure don't show much in the brains department. :)

I saw it. I forgot what they told him it was, but he did not know what it was until they zapped him. Looked like it hurt. :o

[Debbie H]

Hi all
I am actually a mastiff breeder, not a rottie owner, so I hope you guys don't run me off, :p I came here to get some info for a rottie owning friend, but I like the format, and it is a nice board I must say. Our best mastiff board online is about to be shut down so maybe I am getting my dogtalk fix here.
Anyway I didn't see the show, but it doesn't sound like a positive to me. There is WAY too much breed paranoia these days and anymore anything by any dog that even remotely appears aggressive can be very hard on a breed and their owners.

The recent killing in SF by 2 Presa's has been terrible for the mastiff breed because in the beginning the dogs were mistakenly reported as being mastiffs. We still haven't heard the end of that as owners. And our breed is known as the gentle giants of the dog world. Still the today's show even misreported it AGAIN the other day.

So I think anything aggressive on the media can really be harmful to a breed. I only watched Jackass once and in it some idiot swallowed a goldfish and then after about a hundred tries, pucked it back up into a fish bowl. It showed the whole thing.

All I can say to you guys who like the show, I'm not in to animal (or fish for that matter) cruelty and I'll never watch it again. And they certainly named the show correctly.

[cdbeez]

I think the problem was not that the dog was or was not doing his job...in that respect I agree that it was a great example of a well trained Shutzhund Rott...the problem was that in the foreground you hear the guy keep saying "man that's a vicious dog!" It only adds to the negative stereotype people have about our beloved breed.