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The English Mastiff, often called simply Mastiff, is a large breed of dog descended from the ancient Alaunt through the Pugnaces Britanniae.Appearance
With a massive body, broad skull and head of generally square appearance. It is one of the largest dog breeds in terms of mass, though the Irish Wolfhound and Great Dane are taller but not nearly as robust.
Their size is very large and gives an impression of power and strength when viewed from any angle. The body is massive with great depth and breadth, especially between the forelegs, causing these to be set wide apart. The AKC standard height (per their website) for this breed is 30 inches (76 cm) at the shoulder for males and 27.5 inches (70 cm) (minimum) at the shoulder for females. A typical male can weigh 150–250 pounds (68–110 kg), a typical female can weigh 120–200 pounds (54–91 kg).
The former standard specified the coat should be short and close-lying (though long haired Mastiffs, called "Fluffies", are occasionally seen) and the color is apricot-fawn, silver-fawn, fawn, or dark fawn-brindle, always with black on the muzzle, ears, and nose and around the eyes. (See Coat Colour Inheritance below.)
Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the heaviest dog of all time as a Mastiff from England named Zorba, at over 343 pounds (156 kg). Zorba stood 37 inches (94 cm) at the shoulder and was 8.25 feet (251 cm) from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. Zorba set this record in November 1989, when he was 8 years old, and about the size of a small donkey. There is a widely circulated claim that a St. Bernard named Benedictine weighed 357 lbs. This figure is based on "successive studies", rather than direct measurement of a living dog. The largest direct measurement of Benedictine's weight was 336 lbs. There is a picture of a Neapolitan Mastiff circulating online being walked next to a small horse and the two animals are the same size. This is a doctored photo and there is no evidence in history of a dog of this magnitude. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the tallest dog is a Great Dane named Gibson. The dog is 42.3 inches (107 cm) tall.
Coat Colour Inheritance
The colours of the Mastiff coat are differently described by various kennel clubs, but are essentially fawn or apricot, or those colours as a base for black brindle. A black mask should occur in all cases. The fawn is generally a light "silver" shade, but may range up to a golden yellow. The apricot maybe a slightly reddish hue up to a deep, rich red. The brindle markings should be heavy, even and clear stripes, but may be light, uneven, patchy, faint or muddled. Pied Mastiffs occur rarely. Other non-standard colours include black, blue brindle, and chocolate mask. Some Mastiff have a heavy shading caused by dark hairs throughout the coat or primarily on the back and shoulders. Brindle is dominant over solid colour. Apricot is dominant over fawn, though that dominance may be incomplete. Most of the faults are recessive, though black is so rare that it cannot be certain if it is recessive, or a mutation that might be dominant.
Temperament
The Mastiff breed is a combination of dignity and courage; calm and affectionate to its master, but capable of protection. This particular mastiff-type breed is an extremely capable guard. If an unfamiliar person approaches near their perceived territory or its master, the Mastiff will immediately position itself between its master and the stranger. If the approaching person does not back down, they take immediate defensive action. It is because of this instinctive behavior that English Mastiffs have earned themselves a spot in the world's top 5 guard dogs. The breed is innately good natured, calm, easygoing, and surprisingly gentle. It is a well-mannered house pet and it does not need a lot of room, English Mastiffs just need exercise and activity daily to keep them healthy. The Mastiff is an extremely loyal breed, exceptionally devoted to its family and good with children and small dogs.
Health
The mastiff is a particularly large dog demanding correct diet and exercise. Excessive running is not recommended for the first two years of the dog's life. However, regular exercise must be maintained throughout the dog's life in order to discourage slothful behavior and to prevent a number of health problems. A soft surface is recommended for the dog to sleep on in order to prevent the development of calluses, arthritis, and hygroma (an acute inflammatory swelling). Due to the breed's large size, puppies may potentially be smothered or crushed by the mother during nursing. A whelping box, along with careful monitoring can prevent such accidents. The expected lifespan is about 7 to 13 years.
Major issues can include hip dysplasia and gastric torsion. Minor problems include obesity, osteosarcoma, and cystinuria. Problems only occasionally found include cardiomyopathy, allergies, vaginal hyperplasia, cruciate ligament rupture, hypothyroidism, OCD, entropion, progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), and persistent pupillary membranes (PPM).
When purchasing a purebred Mastiff, experts often suggest that the dog undergo tests for hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, thyroid, and DNA for PRA.
History Before The First World War
The Pugnaces Britanniae (Latin) was the name given by the Romans to a now extinct breed of dog who was the progenitor of the English Mastiff. It may have been descended from the Alaunt, the dog of the Alani, a people of Indo-European origin.
The Mastiff name probably evolved from the Anglo-Saxon word "masty", meaning "powerful". In 1631, Conrad Heresbach referred to "the Mastie that keepeth the house". The Mastiff is descended from the ancient Alaunt and Molosser and is recognized as the oldest British breed. The Mastiff might have been brought to Britain in the 6th century BC. It was used in the blood sports of bear-baiting, bull-baiting, dog fighting, and lion-baiting. Dogs known as Bandogs, who were tied (bound) close to houses, were of Mastiff type. They were described by John Caius in 1570 as vast, huge, stubborn, ugly, and eager, of a heavy and burdensome body. Throughout its history, the Mastiff has contributed to the development of a number of dog breeds.
When in 1415 Sir Peers Legh was wounded in the Battle of Agincourt, his Mastiff stood over and protected him for many hours through the battle. The Mastiff was later returned to Legh's home and was the foundation of the Lyme Hall Mastiffs. Five centuries later this pedigree figured prominently in founding the modern breed.
Some evidence exists that the Mastiff came to America on the Mayflower but the breed's documented entry to America did not occur until the late 1800s.
In 1835, the Parliament of the United Kingdom implemented an Act called the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835, which prohibited the baiting of animals. This may have led to decline in Mastiffs used for this purpose, but Mastiffs continued to be used as guards for country estates and town businesses. Organised breeding began in the 19th century, when J.W.(John Wigglesworth)Thompson sought out a bitch, Dorah, from John Crabtree, the head gamekeeper of Kirklees Hall, whose dogs were often in the name of his employer, Sir George Armitage. Dorah was descended in part from animals owned by Thompson's grandfather, Commissioner Thompson, at the beginning of the century, as well as a Mastiff of the Bold Hall line, recorded from 1705, one purchased from boatmen and another caught by Crabtree in a fox trap. J. W. Thompson's first stud dog Hector came from crossing a bitch, Juno, bought from animal dealer Bill George, to a dog, Tiger, owned by a Captain Fenton. Neither of these had any pedigree, as was normal for the period. Between 1830 and 1850 he bred the descendants of these dogs and some others to produce a line with the short, broad head and massive build he favoured. In 1835, T.V.H.Lukey started his operations by breeding an Alpine Mastiff bitch, Old Bob-Tailed Countess, bought from dog dealer Bill White, to Pluto, a large black mastiff of unknown origin belonging to the Marquis of Hertford. The result was a bitch called Yarrow, who was mated to Couchez, another Alpine Mastiff belonging to White. Lukey produced animals that were taller but less massive than Thompson's. After 1850, Thompson and Lukey collaborated, and the modern Mastiff was created, though animals without pedigree or of dubious pedigree continued to be bred from into the 20th century. Another important contribution to the breed was made by a dog called Lion, owned by Captain Garnier.
He bought two Mastiffs from the previously mentioned dealer Bill George. The bitch, Eve, bought by George at Leadenhall Market, was old enough to be gray-muzzled, but of good type; the dog, Adam, was of reputed Lyme Hall origin, but bought at Tattersalls and suspected by Garnier of containing a "dash of Boarhound", an ancestral form of Great Dane. Garnier took them to the United States with him and brought back their puppy, Lion. He was bred to Lukey's Countess to produce Governor, the source of all existing Mastiff lines. (Lion was also mated to Lufra, a Scottish Deerhound, and their puppy Marquis appears in the pedigrees of both Deerhounds and Irish Wolfhounds.)
In the 1880s soundness was sacrificed for type (widely attributed to the short-headed but straight-stifled Ch. Crown Prince), and subsequently, the Mastiff lost popularity.In the USA particularly, Mastiffs declined steadily through the 1890s and the early twentieth century. From 1906 to 1918, only 24 Mastiffs were registered in the United States, none American bred after 1910. By the time of the First World War, other than a few imports, the breed was extinct outside of Great Britain.
History After The First World War
In 1918, a dog called Beowulf, bred in Canada from British imports Priam of Wingfied and Parkgate Duchess, was registered by the AKC, starting a slow re-establishment of the breed in North America. Priam and Duchess, along with fellow imports Ch Weland, Thor of the Isles, Caractacus of Hellingly and Brutus of Saxondale, contributed a total of only two descendants to produce further offspring, Buster of Saxondale and Buddy. There were, however, a number of other imports in the period between the wars and in the early days of the Second World War, and those whose descendants survive were 12 in number, meaning the North American contribution to the gene pool after 1945 consists of 14 Mastiffs. In the British Isles, virtually all breeding stopped due to the rationing of meat. Only a single bitch was produced by the elderly stock that survived the war, Nydia of Frithend, and her sire had to be declared a Mastiff by the Kennel Club, as his parentage was unknown, and he was thought by some to be a Bullmastiff. After the war, animals from North America, prominently from Canada, were imported. Therefore all Mastiffs in the late 1950s were descended from Nydia and the 14 Mastiffs previously mentioned. It has been alleged that the Mastiff was bred with other more numerous giant breeds: Great Dane, Bullmastiff and St. Bernard, as these were considered close relatives to the Mastiff. In 1959, a Dogue de Bordeaux, Fidelle de Fenelon, was imported from France to the USA, registered as a Mastiff, and entered the gene pool. Since that time, the breed has gradually been restored in Britain, has reached 28th most popular breed in the USA, and is now found world-wide.
Miscellaneous
Extract from Abraham Fleming's translation of John Caius' description, dated 1570, of the "mastiue or Bandogge".
"This kinde of Dogge called a mastyue or Bandogge is vaste, huge, stubborne, ougly, and eager, of a heuy and burthenous body, and therefore but of litle swiftnesse, terrible, and frightfull to beholde, and more fearce and fell then any Arcadian curre (notwithstãding they are sayd to hane their generation of the violent Lyon.) They are called Villatici, because they are appoynted to watche and keepe farme places and coutry cotages sequestred from commõ recourse, and not abutting vpon other houses by reason of distaunce, when there is any feare conceaued of theefes, robbers, spoylers, and night wanderers. They are seruiceable against the Foxe and the Badger, to drive wilde and tame swyne out of Medowes, pastures, glebelandes (church lands) and places planted with fruite, to bayte and take the bull by the eare, when occasion so requireth. One dogge or two at the vttermost, sufficient for that purpose be the bull neuer so monsterous, neuer so fearce, neuer so furious, neuer so stearne, neuer so vntameable. For it is a kinde of dogge capeable of courage, violent and valiaunt, striking could feare into the harts of men, but standing in feare of no man, in so much that no weapons will make him shrincke, nor abridge his boldnes. Our Englishe men (to th’ intent that theyr dogges might be the more fell and fearce) assist nature with arte, vse, and custome, for they teach theyr dogges to baite the Beare, to baite the Bull and other such like cruell and bloudy beastes (appointing an ouerseer of the game) without any collar to defend theyr throtes, and oftentimes they traine them vp in fighting and wrestling with a man hauing for the safegarde of his lyfe, eyther a Pikestaffe, a clubbe, or a sworde and by vsing them to such exercises as these, theyr dogges become more sturdy and strong. The force which is in them surmounteth all beleefe, the fast holde which they take with their teeth exceedeth all credit, three of them against a Beare, fowre against a Lyon are sufficient, both to try masteryes with them and vtterly to ouermatch them."
Extract from Barnaby Googe's translation of Conrad Heresbach's description dated 1631 of the Bandog for the house:
"First, the Mastie that keepeth the house. For this purpose you must provide you such a one as hath a large and mightie body, a great shrill voyce, that both with his barking he may discover, and with his sight dismaye the theefe, yea, being not seene, with the horror of his voice put him to flight. His stature must be neither long nor short, but well set ; his head, great ; his eyes, sharp and fiery, either browne or grey ; his lippes, blackish, neither turning up nor hanging too much down ; his mouth black and wide ; his neather jaw, fat, and coming out of it on either side a fang appearing more outward than his other teeth ; his upper teeth even with his neather, not hanging too much over, sharpe, and hidden with his lippes ; his countenance, like a lion ; his brest, great and shag hayrd ; his shoulders, broad ; his legges, bigge ; his tayle, short ; his feet, very great. His disposition must neither be too gentle nor too curst, that he neither faune upon a theefe nor flee upon his friends; very waking; no gadder abroad, nor lavish of his mouth, barking without cause; neither maketh it any matter though he be not swifte, for he is but to fight at home, and to give warning of the enemie."
Sydenham Edwards (1800), wrote in the Cynographia Britannica, London: C. Whittingham:
"What the Lion is to the Cat the Mastiff is to the Dog, the noblest of the family; he stands alone, and all others sinking before him. His courage does not exceed its temper and generosity and in attachment he equals the kindest of his race. His docility is perfect; the teasing of the smaller kinds will hardly provoke him to resent, and I have seen him down with his paw the Terrier or cur that has bit him, without offering further injury. In a family he will permit the children to play with him and will suffer all their little pranks without offence. The blind ferocity of the bulldog will often wound the hand of the master who assists him to combat, but the Mastiff distinguishes perfectly, enters the field with temper, and engages the attack as if confident of success: if he overpowers, or is beaten, his master may take him immediately in his arms and fear nothing. This ancient and faithful domestic, the pride of our island, uniting the useful, the brave and the docile, though sought by foreign nations and perpetuated on the continent, is nearly extinct where he was probably an aborigine, or is bastardized by numberless crosses, everyone of which degenerate from the invaluable character of the parent, who was deemed worthy to enter the Roman amphitheatre and in the presence of the masters of the world, encounter the pard and assail even the lord of the savage tribes, whose courage was sublimed by torrid suns, and found none gallant enough to oppose him on the deserts of Zaara or the plains of Numidia."
Famous English Mastiffs
• "Cash", owned by Trevor Dwyer-Lynch ("Patrick" from Coronation Street), also appeared in one episode of the show
• "Hercules" (a.k.a. "the Beast"), from the film The Sandlot (played by Ch. Mtn. Oaks Gunner)
• "Goliath" (a.k.a. "the Great Fear"), from the film The Sandlot 2
• "Carlo" from The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, a Sherlock Holmes story
• "Zeus", owned by Mark Calaway (The Undertaker)
• "Bluto", owned by Paul Levesque (Triple H) and Stephanie McMahon
• "Kazak", owned by Winston Niles Rumfoord, a wealthy space traveler in Kurt Vonnegut's novel The Sirens of Titan
• "Moss" and "Jaguar", of the Japanese series Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and its sequel Ginga Densetsu Weed
• "Mason The Mastiff", in the 2007 film Transformers (film)
• "Leo", owned by Richard Ansdell, R.A., and the model for his painting "The Poacher".
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