by Prof. Dr. Peter Friedrich
President of the Verband für das Deutsche Hundewesen (VDH, German Kennel Club)
Member of the Standards Commission of the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI)

Controversy has broken out among Rottweiler fans. Differences of opinion between breeders across the world are becoming increasingly evident. Preferences are drifting apart when it comes to selecting stud dogs and bitches to breed from and judging dogs at shows, and it seems that two camps have emerged. A second type of Rottweiler has appeared alongside the type reflecting the traditional breed standard which has existed for decades. While the new type is prized by quite a few people, it must nevertheless, on closer inspection, be deemed problematic. The new Rottweilers have striking features – especially in the head area, but also in relation to their physique more generally – which have developed due to exaggerated interpretations of the breed standard.

Duisburg - Excitedly Anton, Amigo, Artur and Antonia run around the yard of the police station in Duisburg-Neudorf. The four Rottweiler puppies are fighting over each other.

_{Photo: Marc Vollmannshauser}

They are still sweet and playful: The Rottweiler puppies Amigo, Anton and Antonia are the offspring of the Duisburger Service Dog Squadron.

_{Photo: Stephan Eickershoff / FUNKE Foto Services}

Duisburg. Rottweiler puppy Amigo wants to become a service dog when he grows up. Henrik Richter, his owner, trains with him every day.

At the presentation of the poizei on the "Blaulichtmeile" in Düsseldorf on the last weekend of August 2016 on the occasion of the 70th birthday of NRW, the Duisburg police were also represented with a shepherd dog and "our" service-rotti Quintus from Avalon with service-dog handler, police chief commissioner Henrik Richter.