Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all. I am the proud new owner of a 1.5 yr old amstaff. I adopted him from the kinder partner of an abusive home. So far he is doing incredibly well. I would like to get opinoins on keeping him with a rotweiler. My room mate wants a male rott. Both animals would be fixed of course. My concern is that they would both be male. The amstaff lived with a female dog and cats previously with no problems. I have had him out and about with me and he has shown no agression to any other dogs, people, ferrets, and even ignored a squirrel in the back yard. Sorry for the long post, just want to know if I'm going to be playing with fire.
Thanks in advance,
Brendan

I personally wouldn't try it.. They're both "fighting" breeds, for lack of a better term (I don't condone fighting in any way, shape, or form, just don't know what else to call them).. Combine that with the fact that they're both male, and I think you're asking for trouble.. Is there a rott in specific your roommate wants, or does he just prefer males? If at all possible, I would get a female.. And your am staff is young, how long have you had him? I would be worried that he's just not settled in yet - if he came from an abusive home you might have even more problems on your hands in a few weeks when he starts to show his true colours.. At the very least I would wait a few weeks, even a couple of months, and then introduce him to the rott on neutral territory like a park and go from there..

It all depends on the dogs -- I don't see how you can get any answer otherwise.

I would find a trainer that uses positive techniques (no chokes, prongs, etc.) to evaluate your amstaff with other dogs and to oversee not only the introduction of your dogs, but help through the transition of teaching them how to live together. I would also recommend McConnell's book on multidog households.
http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB722