Rottweiler: The Original SUV Part II, the Deluxe Model

As we looked at a couple of months ago in "Drover Me Crazy", drover dogs tended to be larger than a herding dog. They needed the extra bulk to manage strange, unruly cattle over unfamiliar terrain. Also, look at all of the other breeds that did double duty as drover and draft dogs (Bouviers, Giant Schnauzers, Bernese Mountain dogs, Greater Swiss Mountain dogs, etc.). I haven't found any info on two strains existing of any of those breeds, some of which are even larger than your common Rottweiler. Clearly, large dogs were used as efficient cattle dogs.

Likewise, I have a hard time believing that color would play more of a role in selecting a draft dog than it would in selecting a herding dog. Only the rich could focus on something so trivial. If the dog was to play a working role, then it's ability to perform the task at hand had to be the most important consideration.

Plus the fact that the American Rottweiler Club makes no mention of the theory does not bode well with me.

So, who's to believe?

That's hard to say really. The first breed standard, saying that this is what a Rottweiler should look like, wasn't written until 1883. Before that time, there isn't much information and a lot of speculation. More than likely, Rottweilers evolved from a group of dogs in one geographical region that gradually, through interbreeding, began to show common similarities over the centuries. If they could do the work before them, whatever it was, they had a home. If not, they didn't contribute to the gene pool.

But what if the theory is right? What if two strains of working dog evolved around Rottweil, Germany? Which strain does the modern Rottie represent? Personally, I believe that if the theory is true, today's dog wouldn't represent one or the other, but an intermingling between them both ... in other words, the best of both worlds.

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