Hounds of war: Let`s see `em!

[Bob F.]

Mention a cat and the thread dies..............

[barnetmill]

Mention a cat and the thread dies..............

Maybe this will get things going. Ms Memphis has 6 pups born about last Friday.

[barnetmill]

from the Clube del Alano
I love long and lean mastiffs.

[Boetman]

Arent they kid biters the mastiffs? No offence meant, but like GSD (mine awesome around the kids) they are spoken about as kid biters

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[barnetmill]

Arent they kid biters the mastiffs? No offence meant, but like GSD (mine awesome around the kids) they are spoken about as kid biters

Sent from my SM-J106F using Tapatalk

Very good question. There are mastiffs and other mastiffs. They were used for many things in the old days. The surviving english mastiff is more like a ban dog. Type of mastiff shown in old drawing would not harm a child. A lot of the modern mastiffs are poorly bred and inferior pups are not culled. Any family dog that bites a member of the household, especially a child or attacks a puppy should be culled. A more common problem with alpha male dogs is that they attack the male head of the house hold. Such dogs should be culled. The picture of my dog with pups is very similar to the old drawing and she is quite the defender of the weak. I do not suggest in south africa that someone go out and buy what passes for mastiffs these days. Some of the individual English Mastiffs I hear are very good dogs and some are not. To properly write about mastiffs would require a lot pages and should be done by someone that is an expert that is not me. I might add about 3/4's of what is written by mastiff breeders just shows their ignorance of their breed or at least what it should be. When they call mastiffs a molosser breed for example. Molossia did have mastiffs, but most mastiffs did not come from there. The alaunt and alano mastiffs came into Europe with the Alani barbarian tribes that were from elsewhere for example. This website explains the original American Mastiff breeds and where we think they originated from http://afmastiffs.weebly.com/ You may not know that German Shepherds have Mastiff DNA markers in them. They originated from livestock breeding areas and were at one time used to guard livestock. Those areas are full of mastiff livestock guardian dogs. The GSD has been rebred for police work and many will kill livestock.
If you have a good german shepherd, it should be safe with the small children.

[Boetman]

Dont sell yourself short on dog knowledge, your are more of an expert than most. Ja our gsd is a good dog, but have unfortunately killed a lamb the other day. I normally shoot a sheep killer immediately, but my dad let it out unsupervised, so he got a pass. He is a good dog, and is veru obedient when I speak. Wife and kids he just lick, protect and play with. Wanted to get more, but pops is completely against it. I think you know my real name and surname, go search me on facebook. I liked two different clips of gsd's one where two little girls stand with a gsd and this guy tries to crab them. Very oulik. And the second one is where this guy walks down the street with these two gsd and another guy throws them with a brick. These two gsds just piled into him. They looked calm and relaxed while doing it. I spoke to another guy the other day think they have 4 or 6 untrained just roaming around and staying in the house as pets. He reckons by themselves they are skittish and wont sommer attack, but he reckons when three and more are together they are fearless. When they start walking in a group, nobody comes near there homestead. Also noticed the same behavior on a clip a breeder sent me the other day, where half the pack runs on oneside of the fence and the other on the otherside. You can clearly see the pack attitude, clearly reminds a person of a wolf pack. Imagine having a trained pack of 8 to 10 gsd roaming around the house some of them riding with you to town some staying with the kids playing in the garden etc. Feel sorry for any fool even thinking of approaching a pack like that.

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[barnetmill]

Thanks for the vote of confidene. Much of my knowledge comes from corresponding with people that have devoted their entire lives and even a large part of their incomes to dogs. Right now I am dealing with my first litter of pups, but of course the mother is doing all of the real work.

I remember an Uncle once telling me the worst thing he ever had to do was to cull his dog because it was killing sheep. Basic rule on a farm is that a sheep killing dog is culled. He did not want to do it and his cousin volunteered to do the deed. He blotched the job and the wounded dog came running back to my uncle for help.

A pack of dogs is something that is can do a lot of damage for sure. In your situation it would be a strong deterrent.


By CM from old white english preservation facebook page.

I raised a couple of Mastiffs in the past. A good Mastiff can be incredible beast, sort of in a class of their own. The one in this Photo, Max, had amazing endurance, good speed, great instincts. Every time I thought I had him worn out and winded he would take a deep breath into his giant lungs give a hard loud exhale, and was good to go. This one saved my daughter's life when she was 3ys old and ran over a hill right into a large pack of javelina (Wild native Mexican pig). Max jumped over the cab of the truck shown in the photo, got between the pack and my daughter and chased the whole pack into thick brush. The fighting sound of this Mastiff and Jav's was deafening. I put my daughter in the cab,grabbed an axe handle and a pistol to help Max out, thinking Max would end up gutted like Old Yeller, but he came out with a huge bloody grin and zero injuries. That wasn't the first or last time he saved a family member.

[bigdogmom]

As a person who has had a couple Mastiff's, let me give a bit of my insight.

First off...my history with them. 22 years ago I got my first Mastiff...she was a Neapolitan Mastiff. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_Mastiff. She was a fantastic dog. Could take her anywhere, she was very protective of the kids in the household and very patient with new ones. She was well socialized and did well with other dogs, even other females. I did breed her once and shortly after weening the puppies she was diagnosed with bone cancer and I had to let her go. She was three years old. From her litter I kept one female. Again, a good dog. Definitely not the same as her mother but overall a great companion, a good protector of those she considered her family and great with kids. We lost her at nine to cancer.

After losing our Neo, we switched to rescuing English Mastiffs. The reason why is because there are a whole lot of people who do not research the breed prior to purchasing and end up with unruly, out of control 140 pound + dogs. Not a good combination. We are on our fourth rescue. We have had three EM's and our most recent is an EM / Staffy/ Hound mix.

We have had "easy" rescues (our first girl was eight years old and so easy) and not so easy rescues, but with the right attention and training they can recover from bad situations. The one thing I will say is the EM's are very good at the self redirect. What that means is they will take themselves out of a situation they are not comfortable with, such as kids. If they fill trapped they will snap.

The key to raising a good Mastiff is strong leadership, good training and lots and lots of socialization. They are definitely not for the faint hearted or those not willing to put in the time. We currently have one female who cannot be trusted out of our home....she is not aggressive and is fine with people here at the house, but away from here is goes into "guard" mode and everything that moves must be confronted. At 140 pounds it can be a bit much to handle. She has been with us for 2.5 years and will turn nine in July. Prior to us, she was bounced around (five homes in 6 years) and no one took the time to work with her.

Droid did it!

[barnetmill]

As a person who has had a couple Mastiff's, let me give a bit of my insight.

First off...my history with them. 22 years ago I got my first Mastiff...she was a Neapolitan Mastiff. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_Mastiff. She was a fantastic dog. Could take her anywhere, she was very protective of the kids in the household and very patient with new ones. She was well socialized and did well with other dogs, even other females. I did breed her once and shortly after weening the puppies she was diagnosed with bone cancer and I had to let her go. She was three years old. From her litter I kept one female. Again, a good dog. Definitely not the same as her mother but overall a great companion, a good protector of those she considered her family and great with kids. We lost her at nine to cancer.

After losing our Neo, we switched to rescuing English Mastiffs. The reason why is because there are a whole lot of people who do not research the breed prior to purchasing and end up with unruly, out of control 140 pound + dogs. Not a good combination. We are on our fourth rescue. We have had three EM's and our most recent is an EM / Staffy/ Hound mix.

We have had "easy" rescues (our first girl was eight years old and so easy) and not so easy rescues, but with the right attention and training they can recover from bad situations. The one thing I will say is the EM's are very good at the self redirect. What that means is they will take themselves out of a situation they are not comfortable with, such as kids. If they fill trapped they will snap.

The key to raising a good Mastiff is strong leadership, good training and lots and lots of socialization. They are definitely not for the faint hearted or those not willing to put in the time. We currently have one female who cannot be trusted out of our home....she is not aggressive and is fine with people here at the house, but away from here is goes into "guard" mode and everything that moves must be confronted. At 140 pounds it can be a bit much to handle. She has been with us for 2.5 years and will turn nine in July. Prior to us, she was bounced around (five homes in 6 years) and no one took the time to work with her.

Droid did it!

Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts on mastiffs. The poor health that you observed is a serious issue. I would like to experience or at least expect 13-16 yrs out of a dog, but so many of the large breeds just are not healthy and I am not sure why.

[bigdogmom]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts on mastiffs. The poor health that you observed is a serious issue. I would like to experience or at least expect 13-16 yrs out of a dog, but so many of the large breeds just are not healthy and I am not sure why.

My oldest was almost 12 when we let her go. She was from great breeding lines and had very few health issues until she developed DM and lost use of her back legs. Make sure you choose good breeders.

Droid did it!