OT Burglar makes a BIG mistake! - Page 2

Having grown up with horses I have a fondness for large dogs and we owned Mastiffs for many years. A combination of grandeur and good nature with nerves of steel our Mastiffs were 100% English import bloodlines. Our dogs were large, quiet with kind and gentle temperments and nothing rattled them but their imposing size and tendency to calmly watch people, not taking their eyes off visitors without malice or aggression, always elicited comment. We had 3 or 4 in the house for years and our house is not big, fortunately they were calm and not prone to jumping around. When we had visitors, all of them would go to the door, not because they wanted to greet people but to see who was there. I would have them sit and stay while opening the door and know that the sight of several giant dogs staring at you gave most people pause. One time a friend came over with another person we didn't know who was rather animated and frankly slightly annoying. This guy jumped up from the couch telling a story and our big male Mastiff Damon jumped to his feet and rushed over to stop within 2 feet of the guy letting out a very loud and deep warning bark that turned this person sheet white and caused him to sit back down and shut up, they left shortly after that. Our Mastiffs had stable and dependable personalities and I could trust them to not only watch out for us but be gentle with young or small. They always liked children and would welcome kids to hug and pet them. We had a oversize lovely bi-color German Shepherd Jai during the time we were raising Mastiffs and they all were great friends, think our Jai kept the Mastiffs more active than they would have been without him. They never tried to intimidate him. Our Mastiffs were remarkable and memorable dogs, we had fawns and brindles. I'm partial to the dark brindle. I'll post a couple of photos of our 220 lb. brindle male, Ch. Scarey Creek's Damon.

Thanks FLcoast for your post..Will look forward to seeing pics of your Mastiffs.

My friends love their male and the calmness of a big dog was what they wanted..The shepherds with a terminally ill husband were too active but she wanted the image of a huge dog answeing the door or being with them for her own self feeling of protection. And they will protect without a doubt..but they do it with a different grace and dominance.



YR

 YR your friends will not be disappointed in the protection provided by a dignified and imposing Mastiff. You are right they they protect with dominance first, Mastiffs chose to stand ground and impose, next is warning signals, then physical contact. Romans used Mastiffs in the Coliseum to fight bears and lions. Mine weren't shy, sloppy or overweight, they were agile and their size was honest weight on a large frame. Big heads and bone and admirable sound personalities. Alas I found I cannot upload photos of my Mastiffs to this forum. We had the Mastiffs in the 80s before digital cameras. I have scanned and saved older photos to my computer however in scanning the photos they are saved as a PDF file and apparently I cannot upload PDFs to this forum. I get a message saying cannot read file.

My son purchased  a Bull Mastiff puppy a few months ago, He is now 9 months old and a horse but a great dog. He weighs about 120 lbs and what a head he grows every time I see him. He is very tall. I really like the Mastiffs I think they make great dogs for a home and they appear to be for the most part stable dogs. I may soon get one when my Golden passes away. My Shepherds are cycled in and out  but for a full time home dog I think they would be great. Not sure which I would want a Bull mastiff or English Mastiff. My biggest complaint would be the droooooooooooolllllllll  LOL I suppose the Bull Mastiff may be a little more athletic and could jump a little better and move better but I love the English's head ......

 Found a way to convert PDF files to JPEG file format at www.zamzar.com/. Doesn't require you to download and install software, converted file received in email.
Here's a couple of photos of my much loved and often thought of Mastiff, Ch. Scarey Creek's Damon. 100% old English bloodlines, a 220 lb. black brindle. Correct topline, well angulated, beautiful head, dark eye, bone, substance and most important in a dog of this size, an excellent and stable temperment. He was a great family dog in addition to being a credit to his breed, a combination of grandeur and good nature.

1984 photo

 A well bred Mastiff does make a wonderful family protector. This photo is Ch. Scarey Creek's Damon in  1985 at 6 years old. This was his last show , breeder judge Marie Moore, before we retired him from the show circuit and brought out one of his fawn daughters. Damon did place first in the Stud Dog Class and Veteran's Class at Mastiff National Specialty later.

Love the brindles!  Thanks for sharing. :)

beautiful dog Flc. How did the daughter do in the ring.

Rik

Has anyone noted that 22 stone = 308 lbs = a very fat dog?

That poor mastiff would probably be a whole lot happier about 80 pounds lighter...

Not that I like starving, bony dogs.  But he looks morbidly obese to me.

 I'm of course referring to the mastiff in the original story, not the handsome fella immediately above.