When the ancient Romans invaded Europe they had to eat somehow. To solve that problem they brought herds of cattle with them. Big mastiff type dogs were used to herd, drive, and guard these animals. These mastiffs were supposedly the ancestors of the Rottweiler.

The Romans captured a small town called Rottweil. The Romans big mastiff dogs bred with some of the local farm dogs in Rottweil and henceforth came the Rottweiler.

The people in Rottweil (and most every where else in the world back then) would not keep a dog if it wasn’t useful for anything. So, they put the Rottweilers to work. The butchers would use the dogs to herd their cattle and other animals.

The butchers also found another use for the big, strong, and brave Rottweilers. Sometimes, on the way home from market the butchers would get robbed. They found that if they tied their money around their Rottweiler’s neck in a leather pouch, then nobody would want to get close to the dog and steal the money.

Later on in the Middle Ages Rotts were used to pull carts. This is one of the two reasons many say why Rotties tails are docked. Tails get in the way of moving parts when pulling carts, so they simply cut them off when the puppies were a few days old. The other suggested reason why tails are docked is because Rotties were sometimes used as boar hunting dogs. The absence of a tail was one less thing to get damaged during a fight.

Centuries later, railroads and trains were invented. They grew very popular. Often enough cattle would be transported by railroad instead of by Rottweilers herding and driving them. And bad for the Rottweiler breed, in the middle of the 19th century driving cattle over roads became forbidden by law.

A little before World War I, only 1 Rottweiler bitch (female) existed in Rottweil. Fortunately, in 1901, efforts were made to form a Rottweiler/Leonberger club. This club did not last long but all Rottweiler lovers can be thankful to the club for producing the first Rottweiler breed standard. Rottweilers have not changed much at all in personality, character, or physical appearance since this first breed standard.

In 1910 Rottweilers were recognized as police dogs along with German Shepherds, Doberman Pinschers, and Airedale Terriers.