I agree with the ‘not in condo’s, or apartments’ piece of your post, and the ‘exotic’ animals you list.
That said, you’ve never had a Rott obviously, nor seen how they are around kids. If you did, and you had a kid, you’d seriously consider one.
Trust me, nobody screws with the kid that has a Rott as its best friend.
Ever. They aren’t ‘mean’ just real alert. Til you put your hand on the child...then they explain in a low voice ‘You do understand I’m a Rott, and the child is with me, doncha?” as only that breed can.
Its very similiar to the effect one gets when you ‘rack the slide’ on a 870 pump shotgun in the middle of the night when an intruder is in your home. Everybody that hears it understands clearly somebody’s dying in the next few seconds if the ‘intruder’ doesn’t stop.
My Rott will lick you to death, love on you forever if I let her. But put your hand on my should, even at age 13 (very old for the breed) she’ll come up off the floor, bark once (all conversation stops when this happens...come to think of it so does movement) and just look at you with the question ‘Are you really an insane human? I’ve heard of your kind...’
Best damn dog I’ve ever owned, and I say that with fifty years of experience, more or less.
You just described my daughters Pit - lick you to death, just don’t tough the babies in the house without permission.
My brothers friend got a rottie as a puppy....took that dog everywhere with him in his truck. Then one ride, when he was about 7,,,he snapped and attacked the owner and ripped up his arm while driving. The dog was destroyed.
My mastiff sounds exactly like your Rott, but the mastiff doesn’t give a warning bark or growl, only an alert posture.
The one time I saw it in person, the person got the message while I was initially clueless. We gave an old truck to a young adult who needed transportati0n to work, and after he was in our house a while, maybe half an hour, he said, “Your dog doesn’t like me” and then I noticed that the dog was in the alert posture. He left the house and the dog went back to sleep at my feet.