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W

hen the Romans conquered Britannia in 50 B. C. they met the so called “pugnaces” or war dogs, the early ancestors of the Mastiff and the Bulldog. The Romans sent a considerable number of these dogs to Rome to let them fight in their amphitheaters. Already then these dogs existed in two sizes, a taller and a smaller variant. The actual separation in Mastiff and Bulldog took place in the 17^th century. However, these old Mastiffs might have looked like more the Bullmastiff in type and in size.

At the beginning of the 19^th century the Mastiff more or less seemed to have extinct. At the end of the 18^th and during the 19^th century many Mastiff breeders imported mastiff like breeds and some breeders used these breeds, being i. a. described as Alpine Mastiffs, Spanish Bullmastiffs, in their breeding program.

A Mr. Thomson bred a bitch called Duchess, which had an unusual big head with a short and dull muzzle, and with whom he had been successful on the shows in the years 1863 – 1865. Many favored this head type, others again thought that the breeding for a shorter muzzle would be wrong and would ruin the breed. However, the breeding for a broader head and a shorter muzzle brought back in the breed the original head type.

Ch. Marcella, at the end of the 19th century (breeder: R. Leadbetter)

After World War I and II the number of the dogs decreased drastically in England, as not many people could effort the keeping of such a big dog. Many dogs were killed, some sent to America. There were only left a few mastiffs after World War II, in 1947 there could be found only seven (!) specimens in England. Also in the USA there were not much more to be found. Some more dogs still existed in Canada, so in 1949 a pair was sent to England. Because of the sacrificing work of the Old English Mastiff Club and his member the number of the Mastiffs increased again.

Mastiff 1755

The early Mastiffs showed a great variety of colors. Mastiffs with big white patches, often on the chest or across the muzzle weren’t rare. There even existed spotted dogs, also black Mastiffs weren’t unusual.

Today’s Mastiffs are brown, silver-brown, brown brindle, apricot brindle and black brindle in color. Still today Mastiffs with a longer coat are born sometimes, because of the crossing with the St. Bernard (Alpine Mastiff). Some even state that such crossing in certain lines goes back only 20 to 30 years.

Mastiff in Italy