Pet Connections: Rocky the Rottweiler, Acts as Matchmaker for His Owner

‘Love me, love my dogs’ was Mark W’s mantra when he was single and looking for female companionship in the Tucson area in the early 2000s. The problem was that one of his dogs, Rocky, did not love his dates. And the women were terrified of him.

Rocky was, in Mark’s words, the “Arnold Schwarzenegger of Rottweilers.  I called him Cinder Blockhead. He was monstrous, as primal as you could get.”

He was also a huge softie (when it came to Mark, anyway), but the women in his life were not convinced.  Every woman who he thought could be ‘the one’ literally ran for the hills when she went to his home and had a face to face with Rocky.  

“I went out with a girl named Laurie for a while. Rocky glowered at her. You don’t know what they’re thinking when they do that, but it’s not good.“ Then at a party Rocky lunged at Laurie. “She was afraid to come over after that.”

More doomed dates followed.

“Another girl came over for dinner and Rocky just stared at her. It was not a good stare. She suggested we go out for dinner and didn’t come back. Another girl hugged me and Rocky growled at her.”

The first time Mark invited Dianne to dinner at his house after meeting her in a business networking group, he had intended to put the dogs in a bedroom “so that I wouldn't be frightened (or worse).” But because Dianne was early, the dogs were still outside and had stuck their noses into the fence corner.  

“I had no knowledge of Rocky's temperament so I stretched over the gate to pet him and scratch his ears. I then rang the doorbell to announce myself. The dogs pretty much beat Mark to the door to greet me and they utterly refused to go into the bedroom.”

Mark warily opened the door to let Dianne in and, as he was apologizing and warning her about Rocky, “the big rottie pressed himself into my legs and licked my hand. Mark was speechless! Rocky's instant love for me made a powerful statement to Mark and Mark very quickly developed the same feelings.”

“Dianne came up to Rocky and said ‘Aren’t you beautiful!’ Rocky knew what I sensed,” says Mark. “If there wasn’t a connection between the girl and the dog, the girl was the one that was going to go.”

Dianne didn’t go anywhere; she and Mark were married six months later.