From: mandrews@portal.hq.videocart.com (Mike Andrews)
Subject: Re: Mastiff behavioral problem
Keywords: mastiff, bullmastiff, digging, behavioral problem
Organization: VideOcart Inc.
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 22:43:17 GMT

missi@u.washington.edu (Melissa Schilling) writes:
> 
> I have a three year old brindled English Mastiff that I got from a breeder
> in Colorado.  He was "pet quality" so I didn't have to pay the $800 she
> normally chose for them.  Despite his huge size, he is the most gentle,
> loving dog I have ever had.  He loves to snuggle and kiss and tries to get
> in your lap all the time.  The only thing is, he drools.  He drools all
> over you when he greets you because it is not good enough to be near you,
> he likes to press his nose right on you.  He drools all over the other dog
> (a keeshound, who is at perfect mouth-wiping height for a mastiff), and
> sometimes he shakes his head sending drool balls with little wads of
> keeshound fur in them all over the walls.  

Our bullmastiff is drooler, too.  When I'm eating something he often
"slimes" my pants leg as drools over what I'm eating.

When we got ours from the breeder, they weren't actually sure if a puppy
would turn out to be show quality or not. They priced the puppy pretty 
much the same. It's hard to tell when a pup is 2 months old.

In our case, our boy had some eye trouble that required surgery and
he had to be castrated because he had a distended testicle.  We told our
breeder who said, "Hey! You wanted pet quality anyway." We HAD talked
to them about showing him for fun. No chance now.

> 
> He doesn't need much exercise, and has in fact frequently "given up" on
> some of our hikes, and has just laid down in the path, much to our
> chagrin.  There's not much you can do when a dog that big decides he is
> walking no further.  He plays gently with the other dog by lying down on
> his back and batting him.  Only occasionally if he is cold, he will herd
> the keeshond into a corner and attempt to sit on him for warmth.  
> 

That's how our bulldog is, but she's an old 12 years old.  In warm weather
she'll lay down on a patch of wet grass and refuse to move. She sleeps
24 hours a day, except when she breaks for a short nap or a quick 40
winks. The bullmastiff is much more active, although he's happy to sleep
away the day in his crate while we're gone.

The ironic thing is that bullmastiffs were bred to unite the mass of
the mastiff with the speed, intelligence, and tenaciousness of the
bulldog.  The orignal bull dogs that were used in bull bating were
much larger and more active than the current breed I guess.

Both dogs are snugglers. They aren't laying down unless their backside
is firmly pressed into a human or, rarely, another dog. 


> I'm having a behavioral problem right now, however.  Since I moved to
> Seattle, he started pooping in the house.  Enormous poops I might add.  I
> tried confining him to the bathroom (he was too big for the crate) and he
> *destroyed* the bathroom, chewing through 2 X 4's and digging through
> sheetrock.  I was surprised as he was a pretty easy puppy to train and is
> a sweet docile dog, but despite his docility, if he doesn't WANT to be
> confined, his strength and size makes it difficult to impose it on him. 
> He also has dug up the yard since he loves to play with large rocks, and
> he figured out that rocks hide under the grass and dirt.  When I lived in
> Colorado with a big fenced yard, I thought he was the best breed of dog I
> had ever owned.  Since I have moved to Seattle where it is always wet and
> muddy, and it is difficult to find places that take dogs, much less that
> have big fenced yards, he has become sort of a challenge.  If anybody has
> any suggestions you think might help me out, please let me know!
> 
> Missi  
> missi@u.washington.edu (Melissa Schilling)
> 

Get a Giant crate anyway and use it.  There are extra heavy duty ones that
will even hold a mastiff (I hope).  Actually, we witnessed a lady bringing
a mangled crate door into Pet Care+ with, "my puppy wanted out real bad..."

We got ours by mail order from JMB(?) in Indiana. I'll look up a number if
you need it.


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Mike Andrews                                   VideOcart, Inc.
mandrews@hq.videocart.com                      Chicago, IL USA 
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