Rottweilers: a devil dog or man's best friend? (UK)

[Rene Allegrini]

Rottweilers: a devil dog or man's best friend?

Recent attacks by rottweilers, including the death of a 13-month-old boy, have increased their vicious reputation. But is it the fault of the dogs - or the people who own them?

On a wind-blasted fold of the North Pennine Moors, not far from a branch of the Priory, the refuge for troubled celebrities, is a place where dogs go to be rehabilitated. Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary serves as a home for 110 unwanted dogs: nine are deemed beyond help, nine are undergoing rehab, the other 92 have been passed as safe to return to human society.

Each week Suzanne Holding, a pet behaviourist, tests the progress of the inmates. Among them are two rottweilers: Sally and Ally, representatives of a breed whose reputation as fearsome creatures has lately been burnished by a series of savage attacks.

The death of 13-month-old Archie-Lee Hirst, killed by the rottweiler his grandparents kept in their yard, was followed by reports of other rottweiler attacks that weekend. Earlier in December a kennelmaid lost her arm in a gruesome mauling by a rottweiler that she was exercising: proof for many that this was an unpredictable breed that could “suddenly turn” on anyone, even people caring for it.

Statistics for dogbites are not broken down by breed in the UK - studies in the US have shown that increases in rottweiler attacks have correlated only with the rising numbers kept as pets. “You see more bites by yellow labradors than any other dog,” says Neil Martin, manager of Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary, “because there are more of them and people treat them as teddy bears.”

Rottweilers have become less popular in recent years: the number registered with the Kennel Club has dropped by more than 2,000 to 4,257 last year. Overall the Pet Foods Manufacturers Association estimates there are 100,000 in the UK. Even if there are proportionally fewer rottweiler bites, the dogs do more damage. They typically weigh between 6st and 8st and “their jaws are phenomenally efficient”, Martin says.

The other problem for the breed, as he sees it, is “the moron brigade”, which buys them for their perceived dangerous qualities. He often rescues rottweilers named Tyson, or Bruno, or Major: dogs with fighting names. “Dogs are faithful animals,” he says.“If their pack leader - their owner - is aggressive, they are going to be aggressive,” he says.

In aroom at the sanctuary, Holding, 48, and fellow pet behaviourist, Jenny Harter, 24, test the temperament of Sally and Ally. Harter rushes at Sally holding a dummy child, arms outstretched; she sits beside the dog holding a small doll, mimicking the sounds of a baby crying; she dresses up in a mackintosh and hat for the “stranger test” and she pulls away a bowl of dog food using a plastic hand. Sally passes all the tests with flying colours and hopeful glances at the high shelf to which the bowl of food was removed.

Ally appears fine until the plastic hand taps his bowl. He lurches and clamps his jaws around it, shaking it and growling. “He has ‘food aggression' issues”, Martin says. Holding is reluctant to attempt the baby-doll test as she fears he will interpret the sound of crying as “prey” and try to eat it.

Such “issues” are not specific to his breed, however. After the two rottweilers we meet Harry, an English cocker spaniel. “We all thought Harry was good as gold,” says Martin. Harry had ignored the food, but at the sight of the hand he explodes with rage, leaping forward, knocking over the bowl to shake and bite the plastic flesh. His former owner was an elderly lady who is now in care. It was a loving relationship, but Harry felt that he was in charge when it came to meals.

Ally the rottweiler and Harry the fearsome cocker spaniel are in rehab: their trainer feeds them a spoonful at a time, teaching them not to bite the hand that feeds them. Martin is looking for a suitable home for Sally. Though she will make an excellent family pet, Martin will insist that the new owners have experience with dogs. “I wouldn't let them have a rottweiler if they had never had a dog before,” he says.

You need to have them trained

“Licensing would be a start,” says Kimberly MacDonald, 43, a rottweiler breeder from Wiltshire. “People think they can bring these dogs up leaving them in the back garden. It doesn't work. They have to be used to people, you have to take them to training clubs and out in public from an early age.”

Walking into MacDonald's living room for the first time can be alarming: she has four rottweilers (one has died since), the product of four generations of breeding. Her son Alex, 6, walks among them like a farmer in a field of bullocks. A Great Swiss mountain dog was in the kitchen. “It's the cat you have to watch out for,” she says.

A rottweiler raised without rules, left alone to guard a yard, might become aggressive, but a dog is also born with a certain character. “You shouldn't be breeding if you haven't got the right temperament,” she says. She has seen problems even at the top level. “I saw a dog belonging to a top breeder. His whole body language was telling me something wasn't right.
He bit a small child at a show about a year ago. The mother was persuaded not to go to court. It later bit a judge.” She says that there have been other instances of judges being attacked, that even when a character test is imposed some breeders know how to get around it. Meanwhile, “in the past ten years we have seen a lot of new people in the breed”,
she says. That is not counting “the people who breed hundreds of puppies to sell for £250 a time.

“The majority of these attacks you don't know where the dog came from, or they got them from someone in Loot, or from a puppy farm.” As well as licensing, she would like to see more council dog wardens, checking where and how dogs are kept and mandatory training classes for working breeds: rottweilers, German shepherds, dobermans. “The Kennel Club can do more,” she says. “Ask relevant questions, stop accepting registrations from people who don't character-test and demand health screening. If this does not stop every single rottweiler attack, it will be a start.”

Entire article:
Rottweilers: a devil dog or man's best friend? - Times Online

[Sissy]

I was about to post this article too, because I was on the phone this morning with a friend of mine who went to London to see her mom. She told me that her mom read an article today about Rottweilers in Times and was horrified. When my friend told her that I own a rottweiler she replied: OMG don't take your kids there these are vicious dogs.

[EmmysMom]

I too was going to post this article!!

[Calin]

Originally Posted by Rene Allegrini

Earlier in December a kennelmaid lost her arm in a gruesome mauling by a rottweiler that she was exercising: proof for many that this was an unpredictable breed that could “suddenly turn” on anyone, even people caring for it.

What a bunch of garbage. Grr.

[Rene Allegrini]

Originally Posted by Calin

What a bunch of garbage. Grr.

Sadly Calin, these are the kinds of articles that put our breed in a bad light with the public. As responsible owners, we need to educate the public about our breed and always show them in a positive light.

[OnyxGold1]

I found the part in the article about the breed being one to attract the "moron brigade" particularly true. Gosh I have lost track of the number of people who fall into this particular category who have contacted me for a puppy.

It seems never ending at times and you just have to shake your head at the puppy questionnaire and politely refuse....but ultimately if that person is determined enough to get a pup it probably will be from some byb who could care less where their pup goes or what it may do in the future.

Truly sad

Heather Peters

[maxcat]

It amazes me the amount of thug and gangster type characters that stop to marvel at our puppy. Some surprise me and turn out to not be what they look like at all, but most are what they appear to be. Such a shame.

One compliment I particularly remember is, "That's one badass dog."

What do you say to that accept, thank you, and keep walking?

On the plus side, I have had a lot of people say how much they love rottweilers - more people than not, actually.

[maddieandmason]

Originally Posted by Calin

What a bunch of garbage. Grr.

Am afraid she did lose her arm, but she was not exercising the dog, she thought at first the dog was playing, she was cleaning out the kennel.

Mason as you may know I have had for nearly a year, and he has quite a few issues, he is four years old, and what I found out about him, from his previous family is that he hardly went out for a walk, he was entire and escaped from the back garden quite a lot, so being entire he was up for fighting any dog he could get hold of, so he was not socialised very much with people or other animals, even though we have had him nearly a year we still have a few problems when we are out, I can not take him to training classes as he is too unpredictable, so I am now looking for a good personal trainer to help me, even though I have trained him myself, and we do have some manners now, I need some more help.

I do keep in touch with his previous family as I want them to be able to know what difference I have made with him, and that this is the way you bring up a dog, not let him rule the house.
The first thing I did before we brought him up to my home, was have him castrated as there are far to many unwanted rotties, and other breeds of dogs, so I was not going to add to them.

As for the question devil dog or man's best friend?


Definitely Man's best friend, it is how you bring them up, dogs are not born bad, they are brought up the way you want them to be. :)

[BarryD]

I actually read the article about the woman who's arm was lost, and it actually said that she let the rottie out of her kennel, then turned her back on her to clean out the other dogs cages. Now, call me stupid, but surely a trained person should never turn there back on a dog they do not know, especially when they are in a kennel, and the newspaper did not explain why the dog was there. It could have been seized by police after raiding a criminals house. It may have been there as the owners hadn't trained it well enough, we don't know.

What also got to me in that report was the way the newspaper printed such things as,"The blood-thirsty beast savaged and tore the flesh from her arm, with a sickly crunching sound." No word of a lie, it was words to those effect. I could go into paragraphs how my opinion of rotties has changed since I got one, but that's another thread!!...

[akemo'sroyalflush]

Actually, you can see warning of your rottie not wanting to be around a person. I know a person that had 2 year old rottie pup, he was outside on his tie-out getting some exercise. A lil boy the grandmother watching walked back there where Boss was. I had personally told them that I didnt feel Boss liked the lil boy just tolerated him. When the boy got too close to Boss, the rottie grabbed his leg and punctured the boys leg in two places. To add to it grandmother was busy smoking and watching the child. Other children go around him just not the boy. Finally, the grandmother ran down to get him, yelling and put the rottie on alert. She went to gran the boy and Boss attacked her, ripping her leg to shreds. The boy wasput down but it is on the owners and the people wat hong the dog to notice situations. That one could have been avoided if they would have heeded my warnings. That dog wouldn't attack unless provoked, the boy had killed 3 puppies by throwing them.


Chris

[hennie400]

Originally Posted by akemo'sroyalflush

Actually, you can see warning of your rottie not wanting to be around a person. I know a person that had 2 year old rottie pup, he was outside on his tie-out getting some exercise. A lil boy the grandmother watching walked back there where Boss was. I had personally told them that I didnt feel Boss liked the lil boy just tolerated him. When the boy got too close to Boss, the rottie grabbed his leg and punctured the boys leg in two places. To add to it grandmother was busy smoking and watching the child. Other children go around him just not the boy. Finally, the grandmother ran down to get him, yelling and put the rottie on alert. She went to gran the boy and Boss attacked her, ripping her leg to shreds. The boy wasput down but it is on the owners and the people wat hong the dog to notice situations. That one could have been avoided if they would have heeded my warnings. That dog wouldn't attack unless provoked, the boy had killed 3 puppies by throwing them.
Chris

Well that whole appalling situation was a disaster waiting to happen. I wont comment further.

[akemo'sroyalflush]

I agree, the grandmother didnt her children at all. She had rather be smoking!



Chris

[Debbie Ervin]

I can make many coments but most everyone already said or knows. I have raised 2 Rottie boys from 8wk olds, both very big boned. They were socialized and anyone could come in if welcomed. They were never tied outside or left outside for long periods. With the family always in the house and never locked in a room. I now have rescued a 2 yr old male and he was never abused we think just very neglected. He now acts the same with us as my boys I raised sinces babies. Know the breed, know how to train, treat, and disipline them! Know not to put them or anyone else in a situation that could have a bad outcome. Remember you don't have to train a Rottie to be protective of his family or home, it is already bred into them. They need to be taught how far to go with it. Signs should read, "rottweilers to loving homes or experienced and responsible dog owners". My word.......... I love the breed and alot of these situations should have never happened, there is always a story behind them!!! Debbie Ervin

[ginolarosa]

MANS BEST FRIEND , HOUSE BEST FRIEND FAMILY BEST FRIEND ...

I Have 1 in the Uk . i have 2 in South America and 1 in Spain where i Live and People are afraid but my Dogs Will neva attemp to bite Unless You try to Fight it ..