My Mom has kept rotties for nearly thirty years. My favorite was her first, a male. He came from near Portland Oregon, and was stunted due to salmon poisening as a pup. I would guess he grew to an adult size of just over fifty pounds.
In those days, we were at Mom's house with our kids four or five days a week. My six year old son became great buddies with her dog.
Then, Mom bought a large female to breed and sell a few pups.
A couple days later, we were down visiting. My son was running circles around the house with the small male bouncing at his side. As they made the third or fourth lap, they rounded a blind corner and surprised the new female.
They were just around the corner from me. I could not really see the dogs, but I heard a snarl from the female, then silence.
It took me a couple seconds to get there. When I rounded the corner, the little male was still holding the large female pinned to the ground by her throat. And he was not letting her go.
Mom came around the corner a bit later and gave the Dutch command for release. And he turned the bitch loose.
My son said he never saw any thing like it. The female snarled and the male just instantly grabbed her by the throat and threw her to the ground, despite the fact that she outweighed him by twenty pounds.
That first male had very extensive training before Mom acquired him and was one of the best dogs I ever knew.
Mom has had rotties ever since, but none of them had much training except to kennel or sit. And I would not give two bits for any of her subsequent dogs.
