Breed hub
Rottweilers
A calm, devoted, powerful dog with a reputation that arrives before they do. Everything we've learned about living well with a Rottweiler, from the first thirty days to the senior years.
New · interactive handbook
The Complete Rottweiler Owner’s Handbook
The articles below answer one question each. The handbook puts the whole breed in order: socialisation and the guarding instinct, hips, elbows and cruciates, the limp that must never be ignored, food and bloat, training the mouthy puppy, the long adolescence and the neutering question, resource guarding and the reputation, the coat and eyes, family life, and health by age. Twelve chapters with tools you tap, slide and tick, a socialisation list, a lameness sign checker, a portion calculator, a true-or-myth test and a certificate.
Before you get one
Honest answers for the thinking-about-it stage.
Are Rottweilers Good for First-Time Owners? The Honest Answer
Calm, devoted, clever, and a powerful guarding breed with a reputation, breed-rate insurance, serious joint and cancer risks and a three-year adolescence. The honest pros, cons and costs of a Rottweiler as a first dog.
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Your Rottweiler Puppy’s First 30 Days: Parvo, the Mouth and the Joints
The first month sets the tone for a decade. A week-by-week plan for a new Rottweiler puppy: the parvo risk, sleep, the mouth rules, protecting the joints, preventing guarding, and the jobs to do before day one.
Read more →Socialisation, training and the long adolescence
The things that decide what kind of adult you get.
Rottweiler Socialisation: The Guarding Instinct, the Stillness and the Muzzle
Bred to watch and assess. Why careful, positive socialisation for two years decides whether that becomes calm judgement or fear, how to read a puppy who goes still rather than backing away, and why the muzzle is a kindness.
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Training a Rottweiler: The Mouth, the Muscle and the Mind
Clever, willing, physical and slow to mature. How to train the mouthy puppy, rough play with rules, the five skills every Rottweiler needs, why force-free matters more for this breed than any, and when a behaviourist is needed.
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Rottweiler Adolescence: The Long Road to Three, and the Neutering Question
Adult-sized at one, adult-brained at two or three. What’s happening in the teenage Rottweiler, the first growl, same-sex intolerance, and why the research on early neutering, joints and bone cancer in this breed changes the timing.
Read more →Body and health
Joints, cancer, weight, and what to watch at every age.
Rottweiler Hips, Elbows and Cruciates: The Breed’s Biggest Orthopaedic Problems
Elbows, hips and cruciates are the breed’s weak spots. What each looks like, the exercise rules for growing joints, panosteitis and OCD, why lean weight decides everything, and the two-week limp rule every Rottweiler owner must know.
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Rottweiler Cancer: Osteosarcoma, Lymphoma and the Early Signs to Know
Cancer is the leading cause of death in the breed. Bone cancer and the limp that doesn’t resolve, lymphoma, the splenic bleed, mast cell tumours, the monthly lump check, the neutering link, and the signs that mean the vet this week.
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Feeding a Rottweiler: Weight, the Lean Rule and Bloat
A food-driven dog who gains weight easily on joints that can’t afford it, and a deep chest that can twist. How much to feed, the lean rule, why two weighed meals matter, and the bloat emergency every Rottweiler owner must know.
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Rottweiler Health by Age: Puppy, Adult and Senior Care
Rottweilers live eight to ten years and the risks arrive on a schedule. Parvo, the heart, JLPP and eyes in the puppy; joints, weight and neutering in the adult; and the senior signs of cancer, arthritis and heart disease that are not just age.
Read more →Not a Rottweiler question?
Our Dog Language Handbook reads any dog’s eyes, ears, tail and posture, and the plan finder matches one problem to one step-by-step plan.