Rottweiler/Retriever Mix (Golden Rottweiler): A Complete Guide

It is important to make sure you know everything you need to know about a specific dog breed before you make the final decision on what pet you are getting. Golden Retrievers and Rottweilers are both breeds that are among America’s favorites. Buying a mix of these two breeds could be the perfect fit for your new four-legged family member.

Golden Retriever/Rottweiler mixes or “Golden Rottweilers” are sweet, loyal, and energetic. It is usually 60-90 pounds and is around 24-27 inches. They have life expectancies of 9-12 years. Personality traits help balance out less popular personalities that each breed exhibits.

A Golden Retriever and a Rottweiler are two dogs who have very individual and unique personalities. It is important to know the tips and tricks to this combined breed. This post will include everything you need to know about the Golden Rottweiler; size, color, personality, and how to best care for them.

The Golden Rottweiler 101

The best way to understand how a Golden Rottweiler is going to behave is to look at each parent dog individually. This is also a good way to determine how the pups will look.

Both of these dogs, the Golden Retriever and the Rottweiler, have specific traits that make them unique. Although these breeds are very different, there are a few similarities that help to strengthen the traits found in the mix puppies.

The Golden Retriever is well known as an extremely loving, playful dog, with a lot of energy. These dogs literally love everyone. They are among the most social dogs out there. They were also originally bred to go get things, so they are great with fetch and obeying commands.

The Rottweiler is a great breed as well, but their strengths are exhibited in different capacities. Rotts are great guard dogs. They will protect you, your family, and your house. This breed has a history of guarding. They were originally bred and trained to be guard dogs and work dogs.

According to The American Kennel Club, both of these dogs rank in the top 10 most popular pet dogs in America.

Other similarities these individual dogs have are that they both make great service and therapy dogs. Interestingly enough, this is for different reasons.

The Golden Retriever’s loving personality helps them to excel as service dogs in showing love and meeting affection needs. On the other hand, a Rottweilers keen ability to protect and guard qualifies them for this job.

Mixing these two breeds can bring the best of both worlds as service and therapy dogs.

Temperament

These breeds are also both extremely obedient. They have a history of being trained in different ways for different reasons, but their ability to obey makes them stand out from other, less obedient dogs.

Each breed certainly has less attractive traits. However, many of these traits balance out when mixed with the other breed.

Some of these include aggression for Rottweilers. They are very protective dogs, and occasionally they can be aggressive. The Golden Retriever is exactly opposite of that, and likewise will help to balance out the Rottweilers gene instinct to be aggressive.

Another example might be that Golden Retrievers aren’t protective or defensive. Where this might be a weakness for Golden’s, Rottweilers were made to defend and protect, balancing out this trait.

Both breeds have a lot of energy. They will need to have a large amount of exercise daily. They will want to have someplace outside where they can run around. But, these dogs, by all means, don’t want to be left alone.

Rottweilers get very attached to their owners and Golden’s always want to play. Therefore, the Golden Rott will need some attention from people.

They are good dogs, and their personality traits compliment each other and bring out the best in each breed.

What Will They Look Like?

There is no way to know for certain what your Golden Rott will look like. It is best to look at both parents to get a good idea of what physical traits your dog will exhibit. However, we can assume a few things.

These dogs will be really big dogs. On average a Golden Retriever will be 55-75 pounds, depending on the gender. The average being 22-24 inches tall, while also some may be even taller. Size is also heavily dependent upon the gender.

A Rottweiler is bigger than the Golden Retriever. Their weight ranges from 90-135 pounds and they can be anywhere from 22 inches tall to 26 or 27 inches.

The combination of these two dogs typically ranges from a weight that is 60 to 90 pounds, and around 2 feet (24-27 inches). However, as we see, the Rottweiler is much bigger than that, so it is possible for your Golden Rott to be larger than the average range.

This will depend on which parent the Golden Rottweiler takes after more.

Aside from the height and weight, your pup’s coat is another aspect of physical appearance to wonder about. Their coat can be an assortment of different colors, textures, and lengths.

Their coat color could be:

• Golden Brown (taking after the Golden Retriever)
• Brown
• Black (Coming primarily from the Rottweiler)
• Red or Fawn

Their coat is typically very dense with straight fur. It is usually a medium length, or longer. Their eyes are also usually dark colors.

It is common to see the Golden Rottweiler’s body shape take after the Golden Retriever, and be similar colors to the Rottweiler.

Since both breeds are known to shed, you will likely have a pretty good mess of fur to clean up with a Golden Rottweiler walking around the house.

How to Care for My Golden Rottweiler

Caring for your dog is very important, whatever the breed. It is crucial to understand the possible medical needs or challenges for your dog.

As you look into getting a Golden Rottweiler, make sure that you get as much information as you can from your breeder so that you can have the medical history of your puppy’s parents.

Both breeds have a history of needing to be tested for or having these medical needs/concerns:

• Hip Dysplasia
• Elbow Dysplasia
• Eye issues
• Cardiac issues (Sub-aortic Stenosis)
• Short life expectancy
• High risk to develop cancer

Often times, many of the health issues dogs face are and can be a direct or indirect result from the dogs being bred to close to their own breed, highlighting and bringing out the worst medical problems they could have.

Mixing a dog, like the Golden Rottweiler can help to eliminate many medical issues each breed individually has.

Due to the fact that both breeds have a history of these similar medical issues, it would be a good idea to keep your eyes open and watch out for signs of the issues listed.

Yearly check-ups can help make sure that your Golden Rottweiler is healthy and help catch any health problems early on. Plus, it give you some piece of mind.

It isn’t just important to know how to care for you dog medically. These dogs have other needs that are just as important.

Since they have a big beautiful coat of fur, it is really important to brush their fur multiple times a week. This helps to keep it smooth and knot free. It also helps to remove any dirt that settles into your pups skin.

Brushing him or her often to remove dirt reduces the need to bathe your dog as often. They can be bathed every couple of months, unless they get really dirty, get into something they shouldn’t, or smell like they need a bath.

They also have floppy ears that will fold and hang on their head. It is important that when you do bath your dog or when they get wet, to dry their ears. Moisture can develop in or around the ear, making it uncomfortable for the dog and the skin around and on their ears can get really dirty.

Like mentioned earlier these dogs have a very high energy level, and so because of that, they need as much physical exercise as possible.

Daily walks are a great idea and that helps them to get some of their energy out. They love playing outside. Taking a few minutes here and there throughout the day to throw a ball around outside would be very good for them.

On average they need about two hours of running around time outside each day. You don’t have to spend all two hours with them, but it is important for them to have some time spent with people.

Let them run in the yard while you watch or take them to the dog park to get out some of that energy.

Training your dog to be social is very important.

Mixing a Rottweiler with a Golden Retriever does provide an upper hand in socializing this dog. Golden Retrievers are very social, and Rottweilers get a little uneasy around people they aren’t familiar with yet.

Taking the time to bring your Golden Rott out to be around people and other dogs will help him or her to magnify this positive attribute Golden Retrievers have.

As with any dog, your Golden Rott should have constant access to clean, fresh water, especially when they are playing outside.

Rottweilers are more likely than other dogs to bloat. For this reason, it is important to establish and then maintain a constant diet for your Golden Rott, in case this attribute is carried over from the Rottweiler.

It is more beneficial to feed your Golden Rottweiler smaller meals a couple of times throughout the day than to just let them have constant access to their food bowl.

Talk to your vet about how much food your dog needs to eat each day. It will be different for each individual pup based on age, size, and activity level. On average, Golden Rottweilers eat three 1-cup meals a day. This gives them the energy they need throughout the day, while not feeding them too much at one time.

They are big dogs, and they move a lot, so it is normal for them to eat a little more than a smaller or lazier dog.

Maintaining your Golden Rottweilers weight can really help in avoiding many of the health problems mentioned earlier in this post as they grow older.

Cost

Both Golden Retrievers and Rottweilers are popular dogs, and likewise, are pretty pricey to buy as a purebred. Buying puppies in either one of these breeds can range from around $1,000 to $3,000 depending on the quality of both the breeder and the parents of the puppies.

Rottweilers are a little bit lower in price in the $1,000 to $3,000 range, so that can decrease the price a little bit for your Golden Rott.

Golden Rottweilers are also fairly easy to breed since they are similar in size. This can also help decrease the price.

Again, depending on the quality of the breeder (ie. how experienced they are, what information they provide you with, and what care they provide to the puppy prior to your purchase) and the strength and stamina of the parents, a Golden Rottweiler puppy is going to range from around $1,000 to $2,000.

If you decide to buy a dog instead of a puppy, he or she will probably be a little bit cheaper. This is because you will most likely be rescuing or adopting that dog from a shelter or purchasing it from someone who is looking to get rid of their pup.

It may be more difficult to find a rescue Golden Rottweiler specifically, but doing so will save you a lot of money, and it will likely save the dogs life.

Pros and Cons of Golden Rotts

As established in this post, Golden Rotts are a sweet and fun dog. To summarize and help you decide if this dog is right for you, let’s go over the pros and cons of this mixed breed.

Pros:

• The parent breeds are pretty low maintenance, so as a mixed breed, they are low maintenance as well. The only real necessary grooming care to not forget is that they need to be brushed a couple of times a week to keep them clean and well kept.
• They make great Service/Therapy Dogs. They will have a wide variety of skills as a service dog because mixing a Golden Retriever and Rottweiler makes them a more well-rounded dog. Combining their personality traits used for serving covers most bases for anyone’s needs.
• They are loving and playful. Again, both breeds love people, Golden Retrievers love everyone, and Rottweilers really love and are loyal to their owners. He or she will want to play with you and stay with you.
• Golden Rottweilers are very obedient dogs, and they train well. This is really important because Rottweilers need to be trained well to control their aggression. Mixing them with a Golden Retriever helps to dampen that trait and adds a Retrievers obedience to the Rotts. Training this dog will not be nearly as hard as training other breeds.
• Mixing the Rottweiler and Golden Retriever helps to provide a balance out to less attractive traits that could be found in either individual breed.

Cons:

• These dogs shed quite a bit. Golden Retrievers shed year round, especially during two times during the year, and Rottweilers also have two strong shedding periods. If you are looking for a dog that won’t cover your coaches and carpets with hair, this is not the dog for you.
• Due to their high energy, they might not do super well with small children. Since Rottweilers are prone to be more aggressive if not trained properly and the fact that they are very large dogs, it might be less ideal to have this dog with babies or young children.
• The parent breeds experience similar health troubles that increase risks in the Golden Rotty, which can make it less likely for those health concerns being eliminated from breeding as seen in mixing other breeds.
• As with any dog you buy, there is always a chance that it won’t turn out the way you hoped. This is especially prominent with a mixed breed. You don’t know exactly what physical or personality traits your dog will exhibit from his or her parents.