KENAI
Rottweiler

The breeds · working

AKC Working · UKC Guardian · FCI standard 147

Rottweiler.

A drover and guard dog by history, not a gun dog. AKC: calm, confident and courageous with an inherent desire to protect home and family, 'a companion, guardian and general all-purpose dog'. FCI 147: companion, service and working dog, 'with working trial'; descended from Roman drovers' dogs; in Rottweil the 'butcher's dog' drove and guarded cattle herds and could also be used for draught; officially recognised as a police dog in 1910. UKC: drove cattle to market over the Alps; used for police work, tracking and obedience. RKC: a strong drovers' dog that also guarded money bags from robbers, used by the armed forces and police. Wikipedia (editorial): herded livestock and pulled butchers' carts until railways replaced droving; now also search and rescue, guard and police work. American Rottweiler Club activity pages: agility, barn hunt, carting, herding, obedience, rally, tracking and therapy dog..

Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.

10.6YRMedian lifespan10.4 to 10.7, measured on real dogs.
0INHeightdogs null, bitches null. An ideal from the standard, not a range.
80–135LBWeight, all linesbreed dogs 95 to 135 lb; breed bitches 80 to 100 lb.
2.5+ HRSExercise, every dayMore than 2 hours per day (RKC band). The constraint most homes get wrong.

The body

What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.

Height at the shoulder

dogs 24 to 27 in · bitches 22 to 25 in

Breed clubAKC breed standard, 2022

All three registries print a range; center blank for the same reason as the male row. FCI 147 prints size grades for bitches: 56-57 cm small, 58-59 medium, 60-61 large (correct height), 62-63 very large.

Weight

dogs 95 to 135 lb · bitches 80 to 100 lb

Breed clubAKC

Band from the AKC breed page; FCI prints a single approximate figure (42 kg), which sits inside it.

Coat

AKC: outer coat straight, coarse, dense, medium length, lying flat; undercoat on neck and thighs; shortest on head, ears and legs, longest on the breeching; always black with rust to mahogany markings; long coat is a disqualification. UKC: black with tan markings; long coat, straw-colored markings and white disqualify or fault. FCI 147: black with clearly defined rich tan markings; top coat a little longer on the hind legs.

Breed clubAKC breed standard, 2022

Shedding

RKC: sheds (yes). AKC breed page: shedding level 3 of 5. AKC standard: undercoat present on the neck and thighs, amount influenced by climate.

Breed clubThe Royal Kennel Club

Heat tolerance

3 of 5 · AKC: outer coat straight, coarse, dense, of medium length and lying flat; undercoat present on neck and thighs, its amount influenced by climate. UKC: topcoat and undercoat, outer coat medium, coarse and flat. FCI 147: top coat of medium length, coarse, dense and flat, with an undercoat that must not show through.

DerivedAKC breed standard, 2022

Derived from the coat description (3 = medium double). A black coat on a large, heavy-bodied dog is a heat-load factor the scale does not score.

How long they live, and what they cost

Measured on real dogs, with the sample and the spread. Never a guess.

Median lifespan

10.6 years (10.4 to 10.7)

MeasuredMcMillan KM, 2024

Dogs Trust UK table from McMillan et al. 2024 (all-dog median 12.5 y in 584,734 dogs). Other measures, shown and not averaged: AKC breed page life expectancy band 9-10 years (a band, not a median); RKC band 'under 10 years'; Wikipedia (editorial) cites a 2022 English patient-records study with an average of 8 years and a 2024 Italian study with a life expectancy of 9 years against 10 overall (source studies not opened).

The dog at home

What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.

Exercise need

More than 2 hours per day (RKC band)

Breed clubThe Royal Kennel Club

RKC band mapped: more than 2 hours = 150. A floor, not a ceiling. The AKC breed page rates energy level 3 of 5, lower than the RKC band suggests; both shown in exercise_need.

Exercise need

RKC: more than 2 hours per day; large house and large garden suit. AKC breed page: energy level 3 of 5, mental stimulation needs 5 of 5, playfulness 4. The breed is a drover's dog by history, so work for the mind counts as much as miles.

Breed clubThe Royal Kennel Club

Energy

3 of 5

Breed clubAKC

AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.

Grooming load

2 of 5 · Once a week (RKC grooming band); coat length short; sheds

Breed clubThe Royal Kennel Club

RKC band mapped: once a week = 2. AKC breed page rates coat grooming frequency 1 of 5.

Grooming

RKC: once a week, short coat. AKC breed page: coat grooming frequency 1 of 5. AKC and UKC: always shown natural, without trimming.

Breed clubThe Royal Kennel Club

The work

What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.

Role

A drover and guard dog by history, not a gun dog. AKC: calm, confident and courageous with an inherent desire to protect home and family, 'a companion, guardian and general all-purpose dog'. FCI 147: companion, service and working dog, 'with working trial'; descended from Roman drovers' dogs; in Rottweil the 'butcher's dog' drove and guarded cattle herds and could also be used for draught; officially recognised as a police dog in 1910. UKC: drove cattle to market over the Alps; used for police work, tracking and obedience. RKC: a strong drovers' dog that also guarded money bags from robbers, used by the armed forces and police. Wikipedia (editorial): herded livestock and pulled butchers' carts until railways replaced droving; now also search and rescue, guard and police work. American Rottweiler Club activity pages: agility, barn hunt, carting, herding, obedience, rally, tracking and therapy dog.

Breed clubAKC breed standard, 2022

The breed's two jobs are droving and guarding; nothing read describes hunting use.

Field trial standard

No hunt test or field trial applies. FCI 147 lists the Rottweiler in Group 2, Section 2.1, 'with working trial'. The American Rottweiler Club has herding, tracking, carting and obedience pages. No IGP/Schutzhund statement was read for the breed.

Breed clubFCI Standard No. 147, 2018

Schutzhund use is not stated by any source read except as a Wikipedia line marked 'citation needed', which is not recorded.

How common the problems are

Evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock; the numbers are still the best there are.

Hip dysplasia

21.1% · 21.1% dysplastic of 109,017 OFA hip evaluations on record (current all-data, accessed Oct 9 2026); 76.9% normal; mild 10.7%, moderate 8.9%, severe 1.5%; breed rank 49

MeasuredOrthopedic Foundation for Animals

Voluntary registry: affected dogs are under-reported and evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock, so true prevalence in the wider population is higher. OFA rank 1 = highest rate among the breeds listed. Wikipedia (editorial) cites two other US datasets: 10.53% of Rottweilers with hip dysplasia in a review of over a million veterinary teaching hospital cases (against 3.52% overall), and 20.1% in an OFA-record study (source studies not opened).

Elbow dysplasia

38.8% · 38.8% abnormal of 27,414 OFA elbow evaluations on record (current all-data, accessed Oct 9 2026); 60.8% normal; grade 1 29.8%, grade 2 7.8%, grade 3 1.2%; breed rank 3

MeasuredOrthopedic Foundation for Animals

Voluntary registry: affected dogs are under-reported and evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock, so true prevalence in the wider population is higher. OFA rank 1 = highest rate among the breeds listed. Most of the abnormal fraction is grade 1 (29.8 of 38.8 points), the mildest grade; grades 2 and 3 together are 9.0%. Wikipedia (editorial) cites an OFA-record study with 38.1% elbow dysplasia, the second highest in its table (source study not opened).

Most common disorders

American Rottweiler Club (parent club) lists: cancers (osteosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma, lymphoma), hip and elbow dysplasia, cataracts, entropion, ectropion, epilepsy, subaortic stenosis, protein-losing enteropathy, juvenile laryngeal paralysis and polyneuropathy (JLPP), neuroaxonal dystrophy, leukoencephalomyelopathy (LEMP), degenerative myelopathy and X-linked myotubular myopathy. Wikipedia (editorial) adds: a breed-club member survey attributed more than 45% of deaths to cancer; cranial cruciate ligament deficiency in 8.29% of Rottweilers against 2.55% overall in a US teaching-hospital review; and a possible predisposition to bloat (one study found it, another did not).

Breed clubAmerican Rottweiler Club (AKC parent club)

The ARC list is a list of conditions the club screens for or warns of, not a ranking by frequency. Wikipedia figures come from studies that were not opened.

What the studies found

Population-level findings, shown as a spread. Breed sets the odds; the parents set the dog.

Toward strangers

of 4 (most dogs 0.6 to 0.8) · C-BARQ stranger-directed aggression mean (Duffy 2008 Table 5): 0.84 in the breed-club sample (rank 2 of 8 breeds, 1 = most aggressive) and 0.55 in the online sample (rank 4 of 8).

StudiedDuffy D.L., 2008

Two samples, two means, shown as a span and never averaged (breed club n = 92, mean age 6.0; online n = 210, mean age 3.7). Table 5 compares only 8 breeds and reports aggression only, not fear; no SD is printed. The authors note Rottweilers were below average for fear of strangers but above average for stranger-directed aggression.

Toward other dogs

0.7 of 4 (most dogs 0.7 to 0.7) · C-BARQ dog-directed aggression mean (Duffy 2008 Table 5): 0.72 in both the breed-club sample (rank 3 of 8 breeds, 1 = most aggressive) and the online sample (rank 5 of 8).

StudiedDuffy D.L., 2008

Same two samples as stranger_directed; both means are 0.72. Table 5 compares only 8 breeds; no SD is printed.

Aggression, as studied

C-BARQ: 5.43% of 92 breed-club Rottweilers and 4.8% of 210 online Rottweilers had an owner-reported snap, bite or attempt to bite at a stranger; owner-directed 1.09% and 1.0%; dog-directed 1.09% and 7.6%; dog rivalry 1.1% (online). The authors name the Rottweiler among the breeds scoring in the eighth decile or higher for watchdog barking or territorial defence in an earlier survey, and cite a German study in which Rottweilers were often the aggressors in inter-dog conflicts.

StudiedDuffy D.L., 2008

Population-level findings, never a prediction for one dog. The authors link the more-aggressive-than-fearful pattern to the protection roles in the breed's history.

More

akc bands

AKC breed page trait scores (1-5): Energy Level 3; Mental Stimulation Needs 5; Trainability Level 5; Barking Level 1; Watchdog/Protective Nature 5; Good With Young Children 3; Openness To Strangers 3; Good With Other Dogs 3; Shedding Level 3; Coat Grooming Frequency 1; Drooling Level 3; Affectionate With Family 5; Playfulness Level 4; Adaptability Level 4.

Breed clubAKC

Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.

What to ask a breeder for

The health clearances the breed’s own club and registry name. Reference only: what to ask for, never a statement about any dog’s health.

How to read this page

Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.

Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 9 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.

Also called
Rottie, Rottweiler Metzgerhund

Every breed, read the same way.

The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.

All published breeds

Your rottweiler, on the record.

Log the days, the miles and the birds, and the KENAI app keeps the dog’s story beside the breed’s. Free to start.

Get the app