a 60yearold woman was mauled to death by a couple of pet dogs in wayanad recently both rottweilers which belonged to a neighbour the dogs had escaped while the owner and family were away and attacked the woman a tea estate worker on her way to the plantation last month a chennai woman was killed similarly by rottweilers which belonged to her son when she went up to their terrace unaware that the dogs were let loose there understandably a certain amount of panic and fear have spread among the public with regard to rottweilers a common breed in kerala though expensive is the rottweiler such a killer as it is projected to be what can owners do to keep themselves and the public safe while keeping one as pet we explorewhile it is rumoured that rottweilers are aggressive by nature dog experts say that it depends entirely on how they are raised by their owners a badly socialised or caged terrier or dachshund or pomeranian will be as aggressive as a rottweiler but the rottweiler has immensely strong jaw muscles and is a powerful animal and so the harm they cause is several times more and it gets talked about widely says dr sushma prabhu who has worked with dogs for two decades the same applies to other strong breeds like the doberman german shepherd and the less common pitbull she saysand while it is often said that rottweilers are single master dogs those who actually have one at home beg to differ the misconception might have arisen from the fact that since rottweilers are huge some of the members in a family might be scared of it according to anupama a homemaker from kochi who owns a huge rott named handsome there seems to be some kind of a hype built around the rottweiler that it is a beast which is much more than a dog but in my experience they are no different from other breeds the one i have is a gentle giant he loves all of us in the family she says the problem arises when people keep them like a showpiece if you dont show them love and affection they can be dangerous its basically like bringing up a child it will grow up into whatever you raise it to be the only problem with handsome is that he is so strong that when he jumps on someone in affection it may cause them to fall according to anupamathe answer thus is to socialise the dog from a very early age so that it gets used to people as with any other dog the first three years of a dogs life decides its temperament mostly dogs that are kept in cages all the time or tied up tend to be aggressive as they are unused to human contact says sally kannan an animal lover in kerala people have a tendency to cage their dogs 247 they are told that the dogs will become friendly