Famous rottweilers in history: notable dogs across the centuries

Part 1

Where the rottweiler breed began

You can trace the earliest ancestors of your dog's breed half a world away, marching alongside Roman soldiers. Roman legions traveled with mastiff-type dogs that helped move cattle herds intended for food as the army crossed the Alps into southern Germany. These drover dogs kept the herds together and guarded them from thieves and predators along the way. The army often stopped in a trading town that later took the name Rottweil, a place once known by the Roman name Arae Flaviae.

The town of Rottweil and the butcher's dog trade

Rottweil grew into an important center for the cattle trade, and local working dogs took on new jobs there. Butchers used the dogs to herd cattle to market and to pull carts loaded with meat. Some butchers tied a money pouch around a dog's neck so it could guard the day's earnings on the way home. This work earned the breed the name Rottweiler Metzgerhund, or butcher's dog of Rottweil.

A breed that nearly disappeared

Railroads changed things for working dogs like your dog's ancestors. Once trains could carry cattle and meat to market, drovers no longer needed a dog for the job, and rottweiler numbers fell sharply. By 1882, only one rottweiler reportedly appeared at a dog show in Heilbronn, Germany. Breeders who valued the dog's working ability kept the line going through this decline.

Part 2

Rottweilers in police and military work

You can trace the rottweiler's next chapter to Germany's police forces. In the early twentieth century, the German Police Dog Association began employing rottweilers alongside German shepherds, Doberman pinschers, and Airedale terriers. The buildup to the First World War brought fresh demand for police dogs, and that demand revived interest in the breed. German breeders founded the Deutscher Rottweiler-Klub in 1914 and the Süddeutscher Rottweiler-Klub in 1915; the two later merged into the Allgemeiner Deutscher Rottweiler Klub in 1921.

Part 3

Rottweilers in film and television

You may know the breed from a screen just as often as from a history book. That on-screen image sits at odds with the breed's working history as a herder, guard dog, and family companion.

Part 4

Rottweilers connected to notable people in the breed's history

You might expect a section on famous owners to be full of celebrities, but the clearest records point to the people who built the breed instead. Otto Denny, a German immigrant, bred the first rottweiler litter in the United States in 1930. Joan Klem's family founded Rodsden, the first rottweiler kennel in the country, and she registered her first litter in 1949. Her dog, Rodsden Berte Von Zederwald, went on to earn American and Canadian championship titles and multiple Working Group placements.

What is documented and what is anecdote

Robert Galusha, president of the American Rottweiler Club, has described his own rottweiler, Diego, as confident and courageous but gentle with people who greeted him.

Part 5

How the rottweiler's reputation has changed over time

You may have heard rottweilers described as dangerous, but that reputation sits on top of a much older working history. Popularity followed its own path: by the mid-1990s, the rottweiler was the most-registered breed with the American Kennel Club, and at one point ranked as the second-most popular breed in the country. The American Kennel Club ranked the rottweiler as the eighth-most popular purebred dog in the United States in 2024. Whether a rottweiler is dangerous depends on its upbringing, training, socialization, and individual temperament, rather than on the breed alone.

Part 6

Notable rottweilers in competition and record-keeping

If you follow show rings, some of this record may surprise you. The American Kennel Club added the rottweiler to its stud book in 1931, placing the breed in the Working Group. Rottweilers were first exhibited in Britain at Crufts in 1936, and a separate breed register opened in 1966. The American Rottweiler Club formed as the breed's national parent club in 1973 and became a member of the American Kennel Club in 1991.