Mastiff ShowSight: I have some questions about getting started...

New Page 3

Visit the Mastiff ShowSight Home page

I have some questions about getting started...

Posted by Darren on 6/16/2009, 10:02 pm

Hello. I feel like I'm invading a group of friends with a somewhat random group of questions. Please pardon, in advance, the length of this missive...

First to start, my wife and I owned a Mastiff when we were first married. Tucker was a great pet and my daughter (who's now nearly 10) still says she misses him.

Second, I grew up with a variety of dogs (sheltie, springer spaniels, etc) as did my wife (yorkies, labs, etc). Currently, we own a great minature dashchund, Rosie, who had one litter of pups about a year ago, all of whom we placed in great homes. While she's not yet spayed, we do not plan on breeding her again. So, Rosie, plus the fish in our 1 acre pond are our only pets, currently...

Third, we're now up to four kids (three boys) and live on some acreage outside of KC and have been on an on-again-off-again search for the right 1-3 mastiffs for nearly three years. Note that there does not appear to be much in the way of serious mastiff breeders in the immediate KC area.

Fourth, my wife and I are continuing to go back and forth between looking for a great pet (or three) to slobber on our kids ... or ... a great pet (or three) who will also get our time and attention (and money!) for showing and breeding.

...so...

I've looked at lots of Mastiffs in person, and hundreds more on the internet, and, at risk of sounding exactly like I have no idea what I'm talking about (including the distinct possibility that I'm about to offend someone!), there seem to be two basic body types that show up in pedigrees of today's champions ... one I'll call the "American" body type (for males, 29-34 inches of total height, but with legs often more than 50% of total height (and therefore a taller look) and slightly longer muzzle) and the other I'll call the "European" body type (for males, 29-32 inches of total height, but with legs 50% or less of total (and therefore a shorter look) and slightly shorter muzzle (giving a blockier looking head)). And, yes, I know that the leg/height ratio is not anywhere in the breed standard...but, I use it here for discussion purposes.

So, here are my ten questions for the collective brain-trust:

1) How did you decide to show / breed (especially if you don't come from a family of show / breed people)?

2) How did you decide what sort of "look" you wanted in your mastiff line? I identified what I think of as two separate "looks", but I'm sure I've missed some important distinctives that would separate, say, a dog with a heavy dose of "Gropetti" or "Iron Hills" in its pedigree and another dog with a heavy dose of "Greiner Hall" in it's pedigree and probably a more nuanced eye would tell me that there are literally hundreds of "looks" as no one line is the same (tightness of skin, length of coat, etc).

3) How did you secure your foundational stock? Was it via some sort of partnership, outright purchase with full rights, etc?

4) If I'm limited in terms of the numbers of dogs I can committ to out of the gate to say three as an absolute maximum, should I get all females, or get a male or two? I've heard that "males are luxuries; focus on females" ... but want to get a wider audience for this one.

5) If I'm going to get more than one dog, should I consider getting more than one "line / type", or should I try to get dogs with similar and complimentary lineage (even possibly to the extreme of getting littermates)? Does your answer change if I only get females (or males) to start?

6) How important is absolute size in terms of your decision on foundational stock (i.e., how important are mins/maxs in terms of height and weight)?

7) How did you decide to go for "fawns only", "apricots only", "brindles only" or "whatever the good lord gives us"? I'm guessing it's solely personal preference, but I'm still curious.

8) How expensive is it to take a pup to champion? Are there any rules of thumb? Related to this, how much time does it take? I'm guessing that this is very dog-dependant in that some will champion in just a few shows (and therefore the cost is less) and others may take months (if not years) to champion.

9) How important is it to have a professional handler to get a dog to champion vs. doing it myself, and how much do they cost (or, alternatively, seeing if my daughter would be interested in doing it; she'll be 10 in July and I think this could be up her alley).

10) Any considerations I should have when striking a deal with a breeder for a pup if that pup ends up not becoming show material when they get older?

...anything else I missed that you think is important?

...and, thank you very much in advance for the answers and insight you'll give me...

If, after reading this, you know of anyone you think we should talk to (or anything you think we should read), please let me know! My family is looking forward to learning and, therefore, making a great decision for us (and the breed).

Darren