What would we give today for Rottweilers with natural
short tails - no docking - no controversy.
Provided that trait did not bring with it serious problems we would
probably all say yes please!!
The Rintelna Rottweilers brought to Australia in the 1960's brought
with them a bobtail gene. Many breeders in the 1960's, 1970's and
even later experienced bobtail puppies. We certainly had our share.
In fact the very first Rottweiler puppy, and
he was a single puppy, born under the Allerhochst banner was
Allerhochst Tonto (dam Ch Auslese Orleanais), and he was a bobtail.
Of course we thought that was normal and it was not until we
reported this fact to Yvonne Pettengell that we realised that
it was an unusual occurrence and not at all the common case.
Tonto's sire was Auslese Pedro Ximenes, a son of Ch Rintelna
The General. Like his father Tonto grew to be a very large Rottweiler
indeed, and won many Best Baby in Group awards. However unlike
his father, he developed an undershot bite and was placed in
a pet home where he lived out a long comfortable life.
Allerhochst Tonto
Auslese Bold Envoy
In 1977 a male, Auslese Bold Envoy, became available.
"Brando", as he was called, was placed with friends
as a prospective stud dog. Brando was also a son of Auslese
Pedro Ximenes.
Brando was later used at stud and produced a litter for Jeanine
under the Rakib prefix that included 4 bobtail puppies.
To prove this was no fluke, Brando produced the first Allerhochst
"M" litter, to Rakib Astrid, and in that litter was
a bobtail Allerhochst Marko.
At that point serious consideration was given by us
to perhaps put more effort into this trait and try to increase the
incidence of these bobtails. On paper the prospect was looking quite
possible. Much discussion was had with Veterinarians and Geneticists
because there were a number of detractors within the breed who pronounced
that this trait was a mutation that would bring serious spinal problems
and hip dysplasia.
Personally we had not experienced any structural problems and indeed
those of our bobtails that had been x-rayed (and this was very early
in time for systematic hip x-rays in the breed) had been proven
to have good hips. Marko for example was graded as "normal".
As always our approach was to listen to all
but believe only that which we could see or experience first
hand. We continued and Marko went on to sire the Allerhochst
"R" litter. This litter also had a bobtail, a male
puppy Allerhochst Rosco.
Allerhochst Marko (12 weeks)
Allerhochst Marko (12 months)
As we have previously mentioned, some directions were
terminated because of unacceptable results. Well it was not structural
problems that caused us to terminate this direction, indeed not.
Unfortunately Rosco was far too soft in temperament for our liking
and had quite unacceptable eye colour for us to breed with. Two
of his sisters were subsequently bred but did not produce any bobtail
offspring. What did occur was an unacceptable number of puppies
with entropian, also suffered by Marko's sister. This was not a
problem that we had to endure before except on rare occasions, and
so we discontinued with Marko and his progeny.
We now look back and wonder what would we have done if the current
docking issues had been present at that time. Would we have persevered
further? Life has its unanswered questions
