50 Fun Facts About English Mastiff

The English Mastiff holds what distinction among all living dogs?

It outweighs the wolf by up to 110 pounds on average; the Irish Wolfhound and Great Dane are taller but far less robust.

The Mastiff is likely descended from the Alaunt and which ancient British war dog?

The Roman poet Grattius rated British dogs above the famous Molossians when serious fighting was called for.

Which colour feature must every English Mastiff display, whatever its coat colour?

Coats run apricot, fawn, silver-fawn or striped, but the muzzle, ears, nose and eye rims are always black.

How many Mastiff births were registered in the UK in 2020, leaving it a vulnerable native breed?

The breed has meanwhile grown in popularity worldwide, reaching 28th place in the United States.

The oldest sculpture of a mastiff-like dog comes from which region, during the Kassite period?

It is a ceramic and paint sculpture from the mid-2nd millennium BC.

The first written accounts of British Mastiff-type dogs date to 55 BC, when who noted them during his invasions?

Many were shipped to Italy, where they became fighting dogs in the arena.

The Greek historian Strabo reported that the Britons' exported hounds were used by the Celts for what?

They were also exported for game hunting.

The Alaunt, a probable Mastiff ancestor, was developed by the Alans and introduced to Britain by whom?

The Alans had migrated into Gaul under pressure from the Huns in the early 5th century.

The OED traces 'mastiff' to Old French mastin, from a Vulgar Latin word meaning what?

A rival theory derives it from an Anglo-Saxon word 'masty', meaning powerful.

The first list of dog breed names in English, including 'Mastiff', appeared in which 1465 work?

It is attributed to Prioress Juliana Berners and partly translated from a Norman-French hunting treatise.

Why were the Mastiff-type dogs John Caius described in 1570 called Bandogs?

They were noted as guard dogs on remote estates.

In 1415, at which battle did Sir Peers Legh's Mastiff stand guard over its wounded master for hours?

The dog was returned to Legh's home and founded the Lyme Hall Mastiffs, key to the modern breed.

The Lyme Hall Mastiff strain, descended from Sir Peers Legh's battlefield dog, died out around when?

They were bred at the hall and kept separate from other strains.

What was the family nickname of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, who owned the Chatsworth Mastiffs?

The Chatsworth dogs were said to be of Alpine Mastiff stock.

Which 1835 Act of Parliament ended the baiting sports that had employed aggressive Mastiffs?

Mastiffs carried on as guards for country estates and town businesses.

Systematic Mastiff breeding began when J. W. Thompson bought a bitch named Dorah from the gamekeeper of which estate?

John Crabtree's dogs were often held in the name of his employer, Sir George Armitage.

T. V. H. Lukey's 1835 breeding began with an Alpine Mastiff bitch of the Chatsworth line named what?

She was mated to Pluto, a large black Mastiff belonging to the Marquis of Hertford, producing Yarrow.

The dog Governor, source of all existing male Mastiff lines, was sired by Lion, who was born where?

Captain John Garnier of the Royal Engineers took Lion's parents Adam and Eve to his posting and brought back their puppy.

Which massive short-headed dog of the 1880s dominated Mastiff breeding and is the ancestor of every all-male line?

Soundness was sacrificed for type; he was straight-stifled and chocolate-masked, and owned by psychiatrist L. Forbes Winslow.

In which year did the American Kennel Club recognise the Mastiff?

Numbers then collapsed: only 24 Mastiffs were registered in the US between 1906 and 1918.

How many Mastiffs were registered in the United States between 1906 and 1918?

After 1910 none were bred in America, and by the end of World War I the breed was extinct outside Britain apart from a few exports.

The dog Beowulf, registered with the AKC in 1918 and starting the breed's North American revival, was bred where?

His parents were the British imports Priam of Wingfield and Parkgate Duchess.

Why did virtually all Mastiff breeding in the British Isles stop during World War II?

Post-war puppies then mostly died of distemper, for which no vaccine existed until 1950.

What was the name of the only bitch puppy from Britain's surviving wartime stock to reach maturity?

Her sire's parentage was unknown and some thought he was a Bullmastiff, so the Kennel Club had to declare him a Mastiff.

A dog of which French breed was imported to the US in 1959 and registered as a Mastiff?

Fidelle de Fenelon joined a pool of just 15 dogs: Nydia and 14 North American Mastiffs.

The English Mastiff is on average slightly heavier than which other giant breed?

Wolfhounds and Danes can be six inches taller but are not nearly as robust.

Roughly how much does an English Mastiff weigh, though the standard specifies no figure?

Height at the withers is usually about 70 to 77 cm.

What are long-haired Mastiffs, produced by a recessive gene, called?

The AKC treats the long coat as a fault but not a disqualification.

In Mastiff coat genetics, which pattern is dominant over solid colour?

Apricot is dominant over fawn, though perhaps incompletely, and black is so rare it may no longer exist in the breed.

The heaviest dog ever recorded, an English Mastiff named Aicama Zorba of La Susa, weighed how much?

In 1989 he stood 37 inches at the shoulder and measured 8 ft 3 in from nose to tail, about the size of a small donkey.

How long was Zorba the record Mastiff from nose tip to tail tip?

He was seven years old at the time of the 1989 measurement.

Since 2000, what category has Guinness World Records refused to accept?

Concern about encouraging overfeeding lay behind the change.

Sydenham Edwards wrote in 1800 that 'What the Lion is to the Cat the Mastiff is to' what?

He called it 'the noblest of the family; he stands alone, and all others sink before him'.

The AKC sums up the Mastiff as a combination of grandeur and good nature, courage and what?

It adds that the breed's size and need for space suit it to country or suburban life.

A UK study found what life expectancy for the English Mastiff?

Hip dysplasia and gastric torsion are the major health problems.

Why is excessive running discouraged for a Mastiff's first two years?

The fast-growing puppy may gain over 5 lb in a single week.

Why should a Mastiff be fed two or three times a day rather than once?

A soft bed is also advised to prevent calluses, arthritis and hygroma.

What danger to newborn Mastiff puppies makes a whelping box and careful monitoring essential?

It is a consequence of the mother's sheer size.

In the film The Sandlot, the fearsome English Mastiff living behind Mr. Mertle's fence is known as what?

Hercules is finally revealed to be a normal-sized dog with a stash of lost baseballs.

In The Sandlot, what precious item does Smalls hit over the fence into the Mastiff's yard?

Mr. Mertle, a blind ex-ballplayer, swaps the chewed ball for one signed by the whole 1927 Murderers' Row.

In The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, what is the starved Mastiff let loose at night called?

The dog turns on its master Rucastle and is shot by Watson.

In the 2010 film Marmaduke, the elderly English Mastiff Chupadogra, or Buster, is voiced by whom?

Marmaduke himself is a Great Dane.

Which Latter Day Saint leader owned an English Mastiff called Old Major?

After his death the dog belonged to his son Joseph Smith III.

Which Newbery Medal winner wrote the children's series Henry and Mudge, featuring a Mastiff?

The books, illustrated by Suçie Stevenson, are staples of second- and third-grade reading.

How does the Mastiff standard describe the body's length compared with its height?

The great depth and breadth of chest sets the forelegs wide apart.

Christopher Merret's 1666 list called the Mastiff 'Canis bellicosus Anglicus', meaning what?

It may be the first conflation of the Molossus and the Mastiff.

After WWII, most Mastiff puppies born in Britain died of which disease, unvaccinated until 1950?

That collapse left a single surviving bitch puppy to carry the British lines forward, so the breed had to be rebuilt from a handful of dogs.

Lion was also mated to Lufra, whose puppy Marquis appears in Irish Wolfhound pedigrees; what breed was Lufra?

Marquis turns up in the pedigrees of both Deerhounds and Irish Wolfhounds, so a Mastiff sits quietly in the family tree of two sighthound breeds.

In Mastiff coat genetics, which colour is dominant over fawn, though perhaps incompletely?

Apricot can range from a slightly reddish hue up to a deep, rich red, while fawn is generally a light silver shade.

In The Sandlot 2, the English Mastiff nicknamed 'the Great Fear' is called what?

The sequel's dog echoes the original film's Hercules, better known to the kids as the Beast.