"Good dog"

Back when the whole dangerous dogs act thing was a tabloid frenzy, I remember reading a story about a bloke who was saved from drowning when a dog swam out to help him. Thing was, the dog was a rottweiller. You can imagine the bloke, fighting for breath, seeing that swimming towards him and thinking 'is someone taking the mickey?'

Jon

Yep, I imagine the sight of that thing charging at you would be enough to cool anyone's ardour, but if the dog had pinned him down and ripped his nads off (which is what should have happened), the poor beast would get put down.

+1 and a rescue dog to boot as well.

If it were me I wouldn't be worried ive had/ met rottweillers and rottweiller crosses and the main thing I know about breeds of dangerous dogs like staffs, english bulls and rottweillers especially is it is the owners not the animal's breed. The unfortunate thing is people are uneducated so read the papers and think that dog breed must be dangerous when I just think its the fact that they are the kind of dogs that vicious owners want to get because they are dogs bread for killing animals or protection so are naturally the type of dog a tit who wants to make a dog vicious would buy. Which quite frankly I've always found that irritating for people who like the breed.

Rottweilers can be excellent pets. They just need to be treated well, and kids need to be taught how to treat them. Dogs are pack animals and need to know where they stand in the family pack. As long as they are treated fairly they are pretty good. They need to know what the boundaries are and be kept to them. Simples. It is bad owners that make bad dogs.

Very true most of the time.

There are certain breeds that are more susceptible to bad ownership. These tend to be those breeds bred for fighting (e.g. American Pitbull, Tosa Mastiff, Staffordshire Bull Terrier) or other strenuous activity. However most problems that I've dealt with have seemed to happen in families where the dog perceives that the parents aren't in charge. Dogs not only need to know where they stand in the pack but that alpha-dog (i.e. the owner) is in charge, knows what he's doing and will protect the pack. Otherwise, if the dog thinks the owner isn't up to the job, they'll get very stressed and put up for the job. If they get stressed enough they'll bite anything.

Case in point:

Some friends and I were nightwatchmen for a concert venue and I borrowed a Rottweiler bitch to act as a deterrent. We were sat in a caravan and we brought the dog in to sleep and allow her feet some rest. However she wouldn't settle; I left her for a few minutes because it could have been the new environment making her nervous. After a few minutes of her pacing around I swapped seats with one slightly effeminate friend to sit next to the door. The dog was asleep within 30 seconds - she just needed to know that someone she trusted was in charge. Simples.

In my family I was top dog. The dog never bit me, but it bit every other member of the family. Usually when they were trying to demonstrate their dominance by taking the dog's bone. My dad was bitten twice and mum once but she could set the dog on my brother!