For the Love of Rottweilers (For the Love of)

The first chapter ticks off the awesome design features that mark the Rottweiler as a triumph of genetic engineering. The second chapter recounts the firsts from the dawn of the breed (1882-1905): first written mentions, first images, first standards, and first dog show appearances. Hutchinson shows that all the specimens of this earliest phase were distinctly longer in the leg and muzzle than our modern Rottweiler. This lanky conformation was eliminated from stud by the triumph of a breed club that was formed in 1907 to advance the cause of a radically new mastiff-like conformation corresponding to that of the modern breed. The third chapter calculates maximum rates of point change attainable in dog breeding programs and concludes the modern Rottweiler could not possibly have been derived from the early Rottweiler by inbreeding alone. The final chapter presents a best-fit scenario for the development of the modern Rottweiler breed by successive outcrossings of a traditional long-legged herding type to two established breeds: first to the robust Leonberger, and then to the stocky early Boxer.