File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
I'm thinking of getting a mastiff.

What does /an/ think of them?
>> Anonymous
I have a female english mastiff and she is the fucking coolest thing in the world. She is a 170ish pound snuggle bunny. Her AKC name is Athena Goddess of War and Cuddles. I love her...too bad she'll be dead in 5-7 years. Very understanding of your moods, carefull around children (she lays down automatically for children, no training), very sensitive, yet I'm positive I could hit her on the head with a bat and she would not feel it. Takes up the WHOLE fucking king size bed whenever she wants, very loveable and loving. Needs, needs, needs to be an indoor dog, they are so attached and sensitive it would be cruel to forget about them outside. At some point when she was growing up she ate a 40lb bag of food around every 2 weeks, now that she has grown up it is probably closer to evey 3 weeks. And of all the dog breeds you really absolutly can not skimp on the giant breeds food either. DO NOT BUY unless you can see the parents and their hip scores, you do NOT want to pay vet bill for a 200lb dog with fucked up hips, it might cost you a few hundred more for the puppy, but it will save your A$$ later, and if it gets you another year with your dog before they die or have to be put down from artheritis/bad hips etc...then it is money well spent.
Also ,make sure the female was at least 3 years old before they bred her, a 1 year old mastiff is still a fucking puppy (and might not be manifesting any genetic problems yet either) and we should NOT be rewarding these fuckers who just want to spit out expensive puppies to pay some bills.
>> Anonymous
The first time you see your mastiff bow up at somebody you will be afraid, you will think that poor SOB is dead, but your mastiff will just stand there, looking like the pics in the books, making sure you are OK. Though usually if you are around then everybody is their friend, children are friends without exception. If they do not think you are around though then they bark and hold their ground, bark and hold there ground. The first time you surpise your mastiff in the dark before they know who you are you and they let out their real bark you will think you are going to die, you will shit brix, you will say a prayer with your dying breath...but they will just bark and hold thei ground, then when they realize who you are they will feel SO ashamed and sad and want cuddles for awhile cuase they didn't mean to scare you they was just doing their job.

For being so sensitive and understanding, Athena is as dumb as a fucking box of hammers, we crate trained her and it took 3 months before she finally stopped laying massive shits on the floor, it took our lab a week. She will sit, and stay, and knows when you want her off the bed or sofa or to go to her crate or outside..but it took forever. I saw a list of the number of times it took of a command to train the various breeds of dogs..dobemans, herding dogs where all at the top, the english mastiff was like 2nd to last at 200 times it took for a command to be understood. Fucking dumb, but that makes you love them even more. That said , the local Petsmart trainer owns a male that she runs her classes with, and that dog makes a field trail labrodor look like a wild coyote, but he's an excepetion I'm pretty sure.

tl;dr: DO IT FAGGOT!!!
>> Anonymous
Athenas owner here,

>>311617
Bull mastiffs are COMPLETELY different dog, we are talking black and tan coonhound to doberman different, if you buy a bull expecting an english that is a few pounds smaller and lives a little longer then I think you will be in a metric fuckton of trouble.

True story: the Breeder of Athena also bred bulls, some of these kennels were adjacent to each other. A family came to pick out an english puppy and went into the run with the english bitch and her puppies, a bull in an adjacent run was NOT happy about this and was barking like crazy, the english walked between the family and the bull and sat there a little while, and everything was cool. The family went on picking out there puppies. The bull starting barking again and surprised the little girl and she started crying. The English bitch went through the chainlink fence (she bent the metal clips holding the links to the posts, went through it like a terrier goes through a dogy door and ripped the throat out of the bull mastiff. Obviously the family left in a hurry, they later came back and bought two of that bitches puppies, that bitch is Athena's aunt. The family was filming the duaghter getting her first puppy, they gave a tape to the breeder, he showed to me, it was nuts.
>> Anonymous
The only experience I've had with a mastiff was an English Mastiff that came in to the salon to be bathed. He was such a sweetheart for everything, didn't yank when we did his nails, didn't flinch if we cut them a little too short, nothing.

However, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TEACH IT LEASH MANNERS. Holy shit it was like it didn't even know what a leash was. Three of us had to direct it so it wouldn't go where it pleased or touch any of the other dogs.
>> Anonymous
OP here.
I'm used to large, protective dogs. My mother is actually a professional dog trainer, so I know the basics and could easily get help in training if I needed it.

I'm curious though as to if they'd do well with smaller dogs. I presently have a pekingese who is very stubborn and loyal. She was fine with my other dogs before they died, but she is food bowl aggressive and likes to try and bully larger animals. If I did get a puppy, should I worry about them possibly fighting?