Let’s Go Over The Breed Standard, Shall We? Part One

In lieu of writing more articles simply and only criticizing pet owners and their 180 pound ‘Rotties’, I have decided to try to educate by breaking down the breed standard. I mean, it would probably help if people actually understood what a Rottweiler was supposed to look like, how tall, muzzle length, etc. That way I might actually be able to change the viewpoints of people looking for a pup so that they actually avoid unethical breeders and start to pay attention to the fact that the Rottweiler is really a purebred dog and not just a jumping off point for designing a new, better, Rottweiler by adding four inches of height, sixty pounds and a face like an English bulldog with dewlaps like my pet lizard. Then again, I may totally fail at this. But I’ll give it my best!

To start things off, I would like to offer you the link to the AKC’s page that shows the Rottweiler breed standard in it’s entirety -

http://www.akc.org/breeds/rottweiler/index

Okay, now I will begin by going through each point as it is written and give my own understanding of that paragraph or descriptive point.

‘General Appearance’‘The ideal Rottweiler is a medium large, robust and powerful dog, black with clearly defined rust markings. His compact and substantial build denotes great strength, agility and endurance. Dogs are characteristically more massive throughout with larger frame and heavier bone than bitches. Bitches are distinctly feminine, but without weakness of substance or structure.’

So, I think that means that the Rottweiler is a medium large dog, not a giant breed. The dog is compact, which means he is NOT forty inches at the withers. Key words here are strength, agility and endurance. This conjures up images of an athletic dog, muscular, with good bone who carries himself well. Endurance? Yipes, that must mean that the dog should be able to endure through some kind of event or action that requires that he actually move his body around and not have an anurism after two minutes. Okay, enough on this point.

‘Size, Proportion, Substance: Dogs–24 inches to 27 inches. Bitches–22 inches to 25 inches, with preferred size being mid-range of each sex. Correct proportion is of primary importance, as long as size is within the standard’s range.’

Well, well, well. Look what we have here. Does the AKC really have a description of the Rottweiler that shows an actual limit to the height of the dog or bitch used for breeding? Yep, it does, Homer, and that is that. There is no weight in the description of this breed. Never has been, never will.

Look, do a test. Let’s say you are six feet tall, for a man, and five six for a woman. How much can your frame hold so that you look proportioned? Would 300 pounds be a good number? Well, not unless you are morbidly obese. A dog’s frame is designed to take just so much weight. When you add all that weight, you need to add height, and so on. Eventually you end up with a Mastiff. So, why are you trying to find a Rottweiler that looks like a Mastiff? Why don’t you just buy a Mastiff and be done with it? I don’t know, and that is why I am writing this post. YOUR DOG NEEDS TO LOOK PROPORTIONED, IN RELATION TO HIS OR HER SIZE.

So, breeders who promote their 160 pound sire and all this other nonsense, like how their 400 pound dogs never get HD and are totally correct, are fuller of crap than their kennel runs probably are. To clarify an earlier post of mine, I have never seen a correct Rottweiler that weighs one sixty. End of scene.

‘The length of body, from prosternum to the rearmost projection of the rump, is slightly longer than the height of the dog at the withers, the most desirable proportion of the height to length being 9 to 10. The Rottweiler is neither coarse nor shelly. Depth of chest is approximately fifty percent (50%) of the height of the dog. His bone and muscle mass must be sufficient to balance his frame, giving a compact and very powerful appearance.’

Okay, first of all, we need to understand a few terms here. The prosternum is a word that means breastbone. The withers are the top of the shoulders, specifically, the highest point on a dog behind the neck, typically the point of the shoulder blades. So he’s a compact dog, almost square looking, with a deep chest that is half the height of the dog. Pretty clear cut stuff here.

‘Serious Faults–Lack of proportion, undersized, oversized, reversal of sex characteristics (bitchy dogs, doggy bitches). ‘

Again, self explanatory. An oversized dog is a dog that is beyond the described height and corresponding proportion for a male or female, similarly described. Like the man says, it is a SERIOUS FAULT. Listen, your dog cannot possibly weigh 180 pounds and be a Rottweiler. I personally don’t care if he has an AKC registration. The AKC cannot regulate every dog on the planet. It actually requires something rare on the part of the breeder, like personal integrity! Okay? So, stop advertising it in your misrepresentative, STOOPID puppy ads and stop telling gullible or misinformed buyers that your kennel specializes in that ‘look’, like it’s some kind of fashion accessory. You are dopes and the worst kind of dope - one who thinks he isn’t a dope.

Next post: We will cheerfully discuss the head of the Rottweiler as described in the breed standard.

Bob

This entry was posted on September 12, 2007 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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