Happy New Year to Rottweiler lovers everywhere.

   

How many is too much?

How many is too much? If you are thinking of Rottweilers, and that is all this blog is about, then the answer is simple: How big is your house and how big is your heart. I have met a lady named Grace Acosta from Florida who loves Rottweilers as much as I do and the only difference is her house is larger than mine. Grace owns 6 adult Rotties and she is a breeder and travels around the country to Rottweiler dog shows. Grace lets her Rottweilers live in her house. Grace once had a photo on her web site showing 6 adult Rotts lounging in her living room, just like I always wanted. You may have seen the famous photo that was copied off her web page showing 6 Rottweiler puppies in the trunk of her car. Grace has a very big heart when it comes to this magnificent breed.

If I had a larger house I would want more Rotties because they are so much fun and so entertaining to be around. The most we have ever had were three at one time. So let me show you what our life is like with our three Rottweilers. First there are times when you want to watch television and your best friends want to be with you. Yes, they also like to watch television, too.

There is actually room for one more human on the couch. Ruff and Sassy are sharing the couch while the lone Rottweiler, Axl, lays on the couch between me and my wife. It is too cruel to expect them to lay on the hard floor.

Then there are the sleeping arrangements to be considered. It isn't always like these two photos suggest but I will show them just to give you an idea what it is like sometimes.

See? Everything worked out fine. Of course I don't know how we would handle this if we had more of them. Rottweilers always want to be as close to their humans as possible. They will follow you around the house like a parade. If there is more than one human in the house then each will have their own protector. That was one of the first Rottie Rules I learned when we lived in a two story house with The Three Bears. When I was upstairs getting ready for work I had a Rottie with me and the other two remained downstairs with my wife. Here is an old photo of Nikko and Felony on the couch with my wife. The two Rottweilers were having a discussion across her lap all the time each was trying to get all of her attention.

Where was the third Rottweiler? Here is Mocha laying on the carpet at my wife's feet.

If you have a cat living in your house along with your Rottweilers that isn't a problem because cats don't take up very much room on the bed.

Hope this has cleared up the question. Pound for pound my Rottweilers have more love in their hearts than any other animal.

A Rottweiler Christmas story, December 24th, 2009

We had an incident today that looked pretty serious but it turned out to be OK and everything is now back to normal. (for Christmas, that is)

A Bengal Tiger snuck into our house and frightened one of our Rotties. It is fortunate that I walk around the house all day carrying my trusty camera because now I can show you what happened.

The tiger went after Axl first and Axl didn't know what was going on. Poor Axl, look at the expression on his face.

Click the pictures to view larger size.

But all of a sudden the tiger's purpose became clear. He was one of Santa's helpers and he was helping spread Santa's Good Cheer.

And as soon as the ferocious tiger put on his famous Santa hat Axl knew he was not going to be harmed so went right to sleep laying his head on the Santa Tiger's paws.

While Axl was sleeping, Santa's Tiger Helper told Axl how he needed all the volunteers he could get so he asked Axl to become a Santa Rott.

And Axl said, "Yes", he would help as soon as he finished his nap.

"Maybe you are getting too old, my friend", said the Santa Tiger. "I will ask some of the other Rotties in this house if they will help."

So he asked the youngest Rottweiler in the house, Ruff, but Ruff only wanted to play. Ruff kept saying he wanted to stay up all night and see the real Santa.

So the Santa Tiger asked the little lady Rott, Sassy, if she would like to be one of Santa's helpers. And Sassy said, "Yes, I like to work." and she would be proud to be a Santa Rott. So Santa Tiger gave her his Santa hat to wear, and here she is.

Sassy only had one question for the Santa Tiger, she wanted to know if this job was all year long. The Santa Tiger told her it was. Rottweilers must always spread good cheer, every day, wherever they go.

Merry Christmas, from all of the Rott-n-kids and their humans, too.

We have adopted another Rottweiler. His name is Axl.

Last July I received an email from a friend named Carey telling me about a 7 year old male Rottweiler named Axl that needed a home. This dog had been a service dog living with a handicapped woman in Akron, Ohio who's house burned down a few weeks earlier. The woman was placed in a home where she could no longer take this dog with her. The friend who sent me the email use to be a Rottweiler breeder and we met when we belonged to the same Rottweiler club. Carey had purchased Axl almost 8 years ago but later she sold the dog to the handicapped woman who trained him to become a service dog.

I informed Carey that I have a large home with a big piece of property and would love to adopt Axl. My request was approved and we arranged to meet at her home in Dayton, Ohio to make the pickup. The woman who worked for the rescue group drove Axl down from Akron and when she arrived it was the first time Carey had seen Axl in almost 7 years. The meeting was a joyous event and after awhile we drove back home to Kentucky with the newest member of our family.

Click the pictures to see a larger view.

Axl says goodby to his rescue mom while my wife and Carey look on.

Axl arrives at his new home.

Ruff and Axl explore part of the back yard inside the fence.

In the 14 years I have owned Rottweilers I have never before met one with the degree of gentleness of Axl. He is so sweet and lovable while at the same time so calm and easy going that we started calling him Dreamy. Axl very quickly attached himself to my wife Jackie and most likely he saw something familiar with the elderly woman he had lived with for 7 years. Axl follows my wife around like a shadow and when she sits on the couch to watch television he lays next to her with his big head in her lap. All the while when I sit on the opposite couch I get to look at the Dreamy expression on his face and his half-opened eyes, it is so peaceful.

Axl has only been in his new home for five months now but he acts like he has lived here all his life. At first Axl became my wife's dog almost exclusively because he was not used to living in a house with a man but now he and I are also best friends.

Axl brought another unexpected benefit to our home. He has become a constant playmate and companion to our other male Ruff. Ruff never had anyone to run around and play with before. Sassy had both ACL's torn when she was young and even after extensive surgery she does not do much running or playing.  I am still amazed at the physical condition Axl is in in spite of the fact he turned 8 years old in October. Axl runs like a Greyhound. When he is out playing with Ruff they start running in huge 100 foot circles around the trees and Ruff has never been able to catch up to Axl.

Axl is living a pampered life and he deserves every moment of it.

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Ruff grows up to become the world's most handsome Rottweiler.

I am biased towards Rottweilers. I am sorry if you happen to like or own other breeds of dogs. I have owned other dogs but nothing compares with their sense of nobility or stature or devotion or strength of character or intelligence or loyalty than a Rottweiler. When I got my first Rottweiler I learned an expression from some other die-hard Rottie fans: There are only two breeds of dogs, Rottweilers and Notweilers.

That's enough. Now let me tell you about the world's most handsome Rottweiler. His name is Ruff.

If one picture is worth a thousand words then what follows is worth an entire book.

Can you guess what Ruff is doing?

Watching television from his favorite chair.

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Ruff's adventures.

At the age of 1 1/2 Ruff weighed almost 90 lbs. By this time he gotten so used to strangers telling him how handsome or gorgeous he was he must have thought those were his other names. Here is a picture my wife Jackie took in July 2007. I was just able to still pick him up at that time.

Click the pictures to see a larger view.

In October 2008 we took him back for a visit to see his father in Burlington, Kentucky. Ruff was almost 100 lbs and when he met Kentucky Colonel, Ruff looked just like his father. Kentucky Colonel is owned by Cliff Haffer who also breeds Rottweilers on his horse farm. Cliff owns five Rottweilers and three horses.

Ruff had another surprise that day. We spotted Cliff's three horses out in the field and I asked if it was all right to take Ruff out to meet them. The horses were familiar with the Rottweilers Cliff owned so I didn't think there was any danger to letting Ruff get up close to them. Here is a sequence of photos of that moment.

I don't know if Ruff was able to tell how big the horses were because he never saw one before but as soon as one of the horses started walking towards us Ruff leaped back. Then the horse stopped and Ruff started staring at him.

Then the horse lowered his head and shook it back and forth. I have seen my Rottweilers do this same thing when they are in a playful mood so I am guessing Ruff recognized this as a friendly gesture. Then the horse walked slowly toward Ruff and got closer and closer.

Ruff and the horse were now nose to nose. I could tell when Ruff looked up how amazed he was at the size of this animal. Ruff has never seen anything this big before let alone get this close to one.Then the horse notice me taking the pictures and started to walk over to me when Ruff ran around and got up very close to the horse's face.

 

Then they touched their noses together and I saw a truly amazing sight.

Ruff kissed the horse.

Then our brave but foolish young Rottweiler did what he he does to every animal he meets. He went around and checked out the rear end of the horse. Cliff, the owner told me if the horse hadn't been use to Rottweilers he would have instinctively kicked back with his hind legs and force would have ended Ruff's curiosity.

From that day on Ruff has shown a special reaction every time he sees a horse. If the horse is on television Ruff walks up to the screen and sometimes touches his nose to it, especially if the horse looks like the one he met in the field that day. The one that he kissed.

All photographs contained in Living With Rottweilers are copyrighted by Nelson Abdullah and may not used for any commercial purpose.

Mocha goes to the bridge. The last of The Three Bears is gone.

 

In looking back at the saddest day of my life, I must admit I prolonged the inevitable too long and caused my girl Mo unnecessary suffering. Sometimes, I think, you can love someone so much it makes it impossible to part with them. I wonder how many others have felt the same way. We always boasted how healthy and long lived our Rottweilers were. Apart from Felony's tragic sudden death, Nikko Bear lived to be 12, which is 2 years beyond their life expectancy. We used to think it was because of the pampered, stress-free life we gave them that allowed them to live so long. Mo passed her 12th birthday in good health. Her only problem seemed to be a slight limp which was a leftover from a miraculous recovery from a stroke three years before. We though that Mo had suffered the same problem as her father Nikko when he had a ruptured disk in his spine but after an extensive exam that was ruled out. In the Fall of 2005 Mo began to have trouble standing by herself. By Christmas she became lame in her hind legs and was unable to stand without a belly band to lift her up. She also had trouble holding food in her mouth and her voice sounded slurred. By her voice I mean her day to day conversation words, the moans, grunts and low barks, they sounded different. Then on New Year's Eve I saw Dick Clark on television and he had been recovering from a recent stroke and I listened to his slurred speech and I knew for sure that Mo had suffered the same thing. 

We gave Mo our own physical therapy spending hours moving her hind legs and massaging her thigh muscles and within three months Mo had worked her way back to almost her normal self. She was able to stand and walk without assistance and she got her normal voice again. She just had that slight limp and the Vet said it was a miracle she was alive at all. I think that love is a powerful vitamin and Mo knew she was loved and she got the strength to fight her way through her problem.

The next two years were almost a normal existence for us. Mo got her excercise in the back yard and Sassy became closer to her and acted almost like a nursemaid. Then in the Spring of 2008 following a nail trim, Mo got an infected toe and it had to be amputated. This seemed to be too much for her to bear and she became withdrawn. She wouldn't eat or exercise and she had a hard time just going out to pee. Finally, two weeks before her 13th birthday I realized I had allowed her to suffer for no reason and I picked her up and brought her to the Vet to put her to sleep. 

I blame my own ego for Mo's suffering. I was so proud of how old she had become it was like boasting of a record. I have gone into great detail with this in hopes that anyone who reads this and loves their dog as much as I did would not let them suffer needlessly. When their time has come do the right thing and let them die with dignity.

I look back at my 12 years with Mo and have fond memories of our relationship. We were so in tuned with each other it was like we communicated by thought waves. She had a remarkable vocabulary of understanding human words and she was such a wonderful companion.

Let me show you some pictures of her.

 Click the pictures to see a larger view.

This is Mo and Neek in laying in the bathtub. We used to say this place was their Fortress of Solitude.

Goofy Mo would let you do anything to her and never complain. Here she wears a babushka made from a shoe box paper.

Mo was curious about a cat that had come to visit us. She was checking it out through the glass table top.

The first time I saw Mo laying on the couch on her back I called her a Porno Puppy. It turned out to be her favorite way to take a nap.

When Mo was awake, she was quite a pretty Rottweiler.

Here is young Sassy, Mo and her father Nikko. They were all very close to each other.

 Among her unofficial duties, Mo was my sock warmer. She took every thing I gave her and turned it into a smile.

Mocha was buried next to her mother and father in the Highland Pet Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.

I am forever grateful to have been able to spend so many years living with this wonderful, loving canine.

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