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I have owned a Rotti, my RB Natasha. She was one of the best dogs I have ever had the honor of having in my life. She was extremely large for a female, at her healthiest weighing 125 to 130lbs. She was raised with two Cocker Spaniels and thought she was there size, she was indoor/outdoor, she slept inside and she liked to be outside with the cockers for a while. she was so gentle and loving and i could just go on and on about her. But we had never had one before so we asked the vet how to handle her, she told us to socialize her, be very loving and gentle with her, not to rough house too much, due to her size and lack of knowledge with it, she might become to rough. She never in all the years we had her, growled or acted mean towards anyone. It is in how you raise them and how you treat them, it is nothing about them in particular.
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I've never met a mean rottie. However, one of my uncle's rotties had rage syndrome and had to be put down. I've only ever heard of rage syndrome in springer spaniels, but either way it makes the dog too dangerous, especially for the owner themself. But this is extremely rare and can happen in any breed.
Rotties aren't meant to be aggressive toward humans. They are meant to work directly with their humans. They even have a long history with children. Being used as a cart-pulling dog on farms often meant pulling the little kids around the yard in the cart as well.
They do have a bad reputation though. It can be hard sometimes to own a dog and have people cross the street when they see you, or tell you to put the dog down just because of its breed. The neighbor of that same uncle once shot one of his rotties because it was roaming too close to his property. We're talking farms with acreage. He couldn't let the other dogs out of his sight because the neighbor's had this idea in their mind that all rotties were bad, and they weren't giving the dogs a chance.
