Are Rottweilers family dogs (or too dangerous?)

Rottweilers are large and muscular dogs that make quite a few people change sides of the road when they come at you. Rottweilers are excellent guards and watchdogs. But what about children and families? In this article, we clarify if Rottweilers are possibly also good family dogs.

Are Rottweilers family dogs? Rottweilers can be good family dogs if you emphasize good education and socialization from the beginning. Rottweilers are naturally friendly, affectionate, fond of children, and obedient. However, a deliberately or negligently wrong “education” can turn the Rottweiler into an aggressive and dangerous dog.

Rottweiler in family life

Rottweilers have excellent essential qualities to become superb family dogs.

They are friendly, affectionate, and love children. Rottweilers need a lot of exercise and activity makes them interesting for active families who like to spend time in nature.

However, if you want to have a Rottweiler as a family dog, you must emphasize consistently – not harsh – training from the beginning and socialize the dog well.

This means that it is crucial that your Rottweiler is regularly exposed to all kinds of situations from the beginning and gets used to them so that he does not react inappropriately later on.

He must be exposed to other dogs, strangers, cars, driving, walking across the parking lot of a supermarket, etc., so that daily life becomes routine for him.

From my own experience, I can say that a dog enriches family life a lot. Our children love our dogs more than anything and enjoy spending time with them.

However, they are unsuitable if your family has allergy sufferers, as Rottweilers shed a lot on average.

Are Rottweilers fond of children?

Yes, Rottweilers are very fond of children. However, as loving as the dog is, small children should never be left alone with the dog. This is true for any breed, however.

Children, especially when they are younger, tend to treat the dogs a little rough from time to time.

You should intervene if the children start to push the dog for fun or the like.

Extreme cuddling should also be stopped.

Our youngest son loves our dogs so much that he always wants to hug them. Sometimes he is almost on top of embracing them, and we have to tell him to get down.

Even if the dogs accept it or maybe like it at that moment, you never know how the situation will turn out.

The same is valid with the Rottweiler, of course. There remain dogs that may accept unpleasant situations only for a certain period until, in the ideal case, they walk away or, in the worst case, they snap because they cannot defend themselves otherwise.

But this is also true for the Rottweiler, the Giant Schnauzer, Australian Shepherd, or Golden Retriever.

Rottweiler in the media

If you believe the media reports, the Rottweiler is dangerous and aggressive. A killing machine that in no case belongs in a family.

In my opinion, the topic

• has been highly inflated and exploited by the media

• It has not investigated or reported who is the dog’s owner and how the dog is educated. It is always only the dangerous Rottweiler

Of course, a Rottweiler can be aggressive and dangerous – if I want it to be. And, of course, tragic accidents happen when I, as a layman, train my 50 kg dog but then do not have it under control.

As an example: In our neighborhood lives a policeman with a Malinois police dog. The dog is muzzled outside exclusively, and the owner has him 100% under control.

If some “wannabe” had this dog, an accident would have happened for sure. Because he is poorly trained and, in addition, would not be under control.

Is it challenging to train a Rottweiler?

The most important thing with a family dog is education. What you definitely don’t want is a big dog (no matter what breed) that is not trained and does what he wants.

Rottweilers are basically very good to train.

It is not for nothing that you can find him in a wide variety of fields. He will be used as a police dog, as a herding dog, a guard dog, a sniffer dog, and last but not least, he is used as a therapy dog thanks to his empathy.

In everything, good education and training are necessary.

Rottweilers can be trained very well and efficiently. The emphasis is on the can. There are always specimens that are more stubborn than usual. Also, you should know what you are doing.

In addition to visiting a dog school, the online dog training by Johanna Esser* is also recommended.

Train Rottweiler consistently

With the Rottweiler, a consistent education is necessary from the beginning. Many, unfortunately, often confuse compatible with complex. However, I’m afraid that’s not right.

Consistent means that your decisions are always the same. If you don’t want your Rotti to beg at the table, you must not give him something now and then.

If you fold in between, you are not being consistent, and your dog had gotten the upper hand and his way in that situation.

It is the same with the following commands. If you want your Rottweiler to stand quietly next to you while you are talking, it is up to you to demand it.

Even if he wants to sniff ten times to the left or the right, you have to pull him back to your side ten times. (this was one of the first lessons from our dog trainer).

With this, you show your dog you are the boss and decide when action is and when silence is. This way, your dog accepts you as the leader and subordinates himself in the pack if you go ahead unerringly and consistently but lovingly determine what to do.

Conclusion: Are Rottweilers family dogs?

Rottweilers can be excellent family dogs. They bring all the prerequisites. They are affectionate, love children, loyal, obedient, and active. However, a consistent but loving education is necessary from the beginning; it is, after all, a large and powerful dog.

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