They were used to pull carts and carry heavy loads on their powerful backs. They excelled as guardians to the children,homes and grounds of noble's as well as those of peasants. Today the mastiff is generally a rather large, lazy, couch potato. The mastiff is very intelligent, easily obediance trained and we have found them to be usually housebroken within a matter of days. The mastiff is a dog of massive body, large head, broad chest and powerful hind end.
Males tend to be larger and heavier than females.