Mastiff Forum:
my english mastiff

I recently bought a apricot brindle mastiff. she is now 6 mo old.. I hesitated on buying one but was sure glad i did. she is an excellent companion. I will be breeding her in a couple years & would love advise from previous breeders..i bred boston terriers for 5 years but have never experienced a larger breed.

First I know you should aleast wait till they are over 2yr to breed (not fully developed). They don't stop growing till they are 3yr. I'm not a breeder, but when I was thinking of breeding mine I read up on the subject. My advise would be to do as my breeder does and have her hip checked (OFA) and her eyes Cerf. You want to make sure to do the best you can to produce healthy pups. Mastiff's big problem areas are hips, joints, eyes, and sometime thyroid trouble. She also has her girls artificaly insiminated. She does this to avoid the strain of her girls of having a 200lb male on top of her. I personaly see her side, yet I can see that "nature" has it side also. I mean Mastiff's like all other dogs been reproducing with out "our" help. She is just "protective" of her girls, just as I would be if I had gone through with breeding mine. If you are wondering why I didn't go through with it. I just wanted to be prepared if anything would have gone wrong with the pups or the momma. I felt I wasn't financially prepared, so I did the responsible thing. My story is on this board. Under Vet "killed" my dog. Actually she was my baby. If you have time check it out please. I could use all the help I can get. I hope I've helped a little good luck rebecca