English Mastiff
Also known as: Mastiff
Breed at a glance
- Origin
- United Kingdom
- Weight
- 80–85 kg (180–190 lb) [ 1 ] : 93
- Height
- 70–77 cm (28–30 in) [ 1 ] : 93
- Coat
- fine, smooth
- Colour
- apricot, fawn or brindle [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
- Other names
- Mastiff
intro
The English Mastiff , or simply the Mastiff , is a British breed of very large dog of mastiff type. It is likely descended from the ancient Alaunt and Pugnax Britanniae , with a significant input from the Alpine Mastiff in the 19th century. Distinguished by its enormous size, massive head, short coat in a limited range of colours, and always displaying a black mask , the Mastiff is noted for its gentle and loving nature. The lineage of modern dogs can be traced back to the early 19th century, but the modern type was stabilised in the 1880s and refined since. Following a period of sharp decline, the Mastiff has increased its worldwide popularity, although it continues to be classed as a vulnerable breed in its country of origin, with only 104 registered births recorded in the UK in 2020. [ 4 ] Throughout its history the Mastiff has contributed to the development of a number of dog breeds, some generally known as mastiff-type dogs or, confusingly, just as "mastiffs". It is the largest living canine , outweighing the wolf by up to 50 kg (110 lbs) on average.
Health
At all stages of development, the Mastiff should show the breed characteristics of massiveness and sound, if cumbersome, movement. The Mastiff is a particularly large dog demanding correct diet and exercise. Excessive running is not recommended for the first 2 years of the dog's life, in order not to damage the growth plates in the joints of this heavy and fast-growing dog, which in some weeks may gain over 5 lb. However, regular exercise must be maintained throughout the dog's life to discourage slothful behaviour and to prevent a number of health problems. A soft surface is recommended for the dog to sleep on 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. A UK study found a life expectancy of 9 years for the breed. [ 36 ] Major problems can include hip dysplasia and gastric torsion . Other 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 . A Mastiff may be kept in an apartment, but care must be taken to give it enough exercise. Mastiffs should be fed two or three times a day; it is believed that one large meal per day can increase the chance of gastric torsion . [ 37 ]
Record size
The greatest weight ever recorded for a dog, 343 pounds (155.6 kg) , was that of an English Mastiff from England named Aicama Zorba of La Susa , although claims of larger dogs, including Saint Bernards , Tibetan Mastiffs , and Caucasian ovcharkas exist. [ 31 ] According to the 1989 edition of the Guinness Book of Records , in March 1989, when he was 7 years old, Zorba stood 37 inches (94 cm) at the shoulder and was 8 ft 3 in (251 cm) from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, about the size of a small donkey . [ 32 ] After 2000, the Guinness Book of World Records stopped accepting largest or heaviest pet records. [ 33 ]
Temperament
The Mastiff breed has a desired temperament, which is reflected in all formal standards and historical descriptions. Sydenham Edwards wrote in 1800 in the Cynographia Britannica : What the Lion is to the Cat the Mastiff is to the Dog, the noblest of the family; he stands alone, and all others sink before him. His courage does not exceed his temper and generosity, and in attachment he equals the kindest of his race. His docility is perfect; the teazing 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 suffer all their little pranks without offence. The blind ferocity of the Bull Dog 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 in 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 probably was 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 worlds, 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 . [ 34 ] The American Kennel Club sums up the Mastiff breed as:
Characteristics
With a massive body, broad skull and head of generally square appearance, it is the largest dog breed in terms of mass. It is on average slightly heavier than the Saint Bernard , although there is a considerable mass overlap between these two breeds. Though the Irish Wolfhound and Great Dane can be more than six inches taller, they are not nearly as robust. [ 27 ] The body is big with great depth and breadth, especially between the forelegs, which causes these to be set wide apart. [ citation needed ] The length of the body taken from the point of the shoulder to the point of the buttock is greater than the height at the withers. [ citation needed ] Neither height at the withers nor body weight is specified in the breed standards ; [ 3 ] [ 2 ] these are usually in the approximate ranges 70–77 cm and 80–85 kg respectively. [ 1 ] : 93
Coat colour standards
The former standard specified the coat should be short and close-lying. Long-haired Mastiffs, known as "Fluffies", are caused by a recessive gene — they are occasionally seen. The AKC considers a long coat a fault but not cause for disqualification. English Mastiff colours are apricot-fawn, silver-fawn, fawn, or dark fawn- brindle , always with black on the muzzle, ears, and nose and around the eyes. 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 may be a slightly reddish hue up to a deep, rich red. The brindle markings should ideally be heavy, even and clear stripes, but may actually be light, uneven, patchy, faint or muddled. Piebald Mastiffs occur rarely. Other non-standard colours include black, blue brindle, and chocolate (brown) mask. Some Mastiffs have a heavy shading caused by dark hairs throughout the coat or primarily on the back and shoulders. This is not generally considered a fault. Brindle is dominant over solid colour, other than black, which may no longer exist as a Mastiff colour. Apricot is dominant over fawn, though that dominance may be incomplete. Most of the colour faults are recessive, though black is so rare in the Mastiff that it has never been determined whether the allele is recessive or a mutation that is dominant. [ 28 ] The genetic basis for the variability of coat in dogs has been much studied, but all the issues have not yet been resolved. [ 29 ] On the basis of what is known (and remembering that, as dogs are diploid animals, each gene location ( locus ) appears twice in every animal, so questions of dominance also must be resolved), the gene possibilities allowed by the Mastiff standard are A y BDE m h(k br _or_k y )mS. This describes a dog which is fawn with a dark nose, non-dilute, black-masked, non-harlequin, brindled or not brindled, non- merle , and non-spotted. To allow for the rare exceptions we must include "b" (brown mask and possible brown brindling), "d" (blue mask and possible blue brindling), "s p " (pied spotting), and perhaps "a" (recessive black). The possible combination of homozygous brown and homozygous blue is a pale brown referred to as Isabella in breeds where it is relatively common. On a Mastiff, this would appear on mask, ears, and any brindling that was present. Speculative gene locations may also exist, so a Mastiff may be "I" (apricot) or "i" (non-apricot) and perhaps "c ch " (silver lightening) or "C" (without silver lightening). [ 30 ] (Note that this "C locus" may not be the same as the one identified in other animals, SLC45A2 .)
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 American Kennel Club, 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, ultimately contributed a total of only two descendants who would 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 Those who can still be found in modern pedigrees were 12 in number, [ 23 ] meaning the North American contribution to the gene pool after 1945 (including Buster and Buddy) consisted of 14 Mastiffs. Virtually all Mastiff breeding in the British Isles stopped during the Second World War, largely because of the rationing of meat. After the war, such puppies as were produced mostly succumbed to canine distemper , for which no vaccine was developed until 1950. [ 24 ] Only a single bitch puppy produced by the elderly stock that survived the war reached maturity, Nydia of Frithend. 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 (predominantly from Canada) were imported into Britain. Therefore, all Mastiffs in the late 1950s were descended from Nydia and the 14 Mastiffs previously mentioned, with each all-male bloodline going back to Ch. Crown Prince. It has been alleged that the Mastiff was bred with other more numerically significant giant breeds , such as Bullmastiffs and St. Bernards , with the justification that these were considered close relatives to the Mastiff. In 1959, a Dogue de Bordeaux , Fidelle de Fenelon, was imported from France to the U.S., registered as a Mastiff, and became the 16th animal in the post-war gene pool. [ 25 ] Since that time, the breed has gradually been restored in Great Britain, has reached the 28th most popular breed in the U.S., [ 26 ] and is now found worldwide.
Ancient times to the early nineteenth century
There is a ceramic and paint sculpture of a mastiff-like dog from Mesopotamia region during the Kassite period (mid-2nd millennium B.C.). [ 5 ] These dogs may be related to the dogs that fought lions, tigers, bears, and gladiators in Roman arenas . [ 6 ] Certainly an element in the formation of the English Mastiff was the Pugnax Britanniae that existed at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain . The ancient Roman poet Grattius (or Grattius Faliscus) wrote of British dogs, describing them as superior to the ancient Greek Molossus , saying: What if you choose to penetrate even among the Britons? How great your reward, how great your gain beyond any outlays! If you are not bent on looks and deceptive graces (this is the one defect of the British whelps), at any rate when serious work has come, when bravery must be shown, and the impetuous War-god calls in the utmost hazard, then you could not admire the renowned Molossians so much. [ 7 ] The turn-of-the-millennium Greek historian Strabo reported that dogs were exported from Britain for the purpose of game hunting, and that these dogs were also used by the Celts as war dogs . [ 8 ] As far as the origin of the Pugnax Britanniae is concerned, there is unproven speculation that they were descended from dogs brought to Britain by the Phoenicians in the 6th century BC. [ 9 ] This breed's first written accounts in England date back to 55 BC when Caesar noted them during his invasions. Many were sent to Italy and in the Roman Empire they became fighting dogs. [ 10 ] The Alaunt is likely to have been another genetic predecessor to the English Mastiff. Introduced by the Normans , these dogs were developed by the Alans , who had migrated into France (then known as Gaul ) due to pressure by the Huns at the start of the 5th century. Intriguingly they were known from the Romans to live in a region (the Pontic-Caspian Steppe ) about 700 km to the north of the region where the Assyrians once lived. Again, any canine connections are speculative. [ 11 ] The linguistic origin of the name "Mastiff" is unclear. Many claim that it evolved from the Anglo-Saxon word "masty", meaning "powerful". [ 12 ] Other sources, such as the Oxford English Dictionary , say the word originated from the Old French word mastin ( Modern French mâtin ), the word being itself derived from Vulgar Latin *ma(n)suetinus "tame", see Classical Latin mansuetus with same meaning. The first list of dog breed names in the English language, contained within The Book of Saint Albans , published in 1465, includes " Mastiff ". [ 13 ] This work is attributed to Prioress Juliana Berners , but in part may be translated from the early 14th century Norman-French work Le Art de Venerie , by Edward II 's Huntmaster Guillaume Twici. [ 14 ] In 1570, Conrad Heresbach , in Rei Rusticae Libri Quatuor , referred to "the Mastie that keepeth the house". [ 15 ] Heresbach was writing in Latin; his work was translated a few years later into English by Barnabe Googe as Fo