Is The mastiff good with Children

The Mastiff and Children .

I often get asked if mastiffs are good with children. My answer is, if the mastiff is raised with children they are wonderful with children. I am going to be very frank and honest in this article .

I have sold mastiffs to homes with children and in every circumstance the mastiff has been gentle and loving towards children when raised with children. I have even sold a mastiff in 2 situations where the child was handicapped and both these mastiffs were the perfect dog to have in a household with a handicapped child.

The mastiff owners had nothing but praise about how good the mastiff was with their children.

But I have found that if a mastiff is not raised around children they can sometimes find children frightening. Children tend to move faster and be louder and more unpredictable then adults. If a dog is unfamiliar with children it can cause any dog to be nervous with children,. If a dog is nervous of children there is the possibility of a fear bite.

As a mastiff owner you have a responsibility to make your dog safe around all people, especially children.

I highly recommend all mastiff puppies to be exposed to young children . When you have a mastiff puppy, fill your pocket full of doggy biscuits and walk past a few schools in the morning or at lunch time. Get children to be gentle and pat your puppy ON THE SHOULDER , NOT THE HEAD, and feed treats to your mastiff puppy , get your mastiff accustomed to having a good experience with children. Go visit friends with children and closely supervise you puppies experience with the child , Make your puppy think children are a jackpot of wonderful treats and lots of love . Teach the children how to walk slowly when approaching a dog how to properly pat a dog and how behave around dogs..

CHILDREN SHOULD ALWAYS BE SUPPERVISED AROUND ANY DOG.

Here is what children should be taught about meeting a new dog.

1. Never disturb a sleeping dog.

2. Never bother a dog when it is in its crate , let the child know that the dogs crate is the place a dog goes when it dose not want to be disturbed and the dog should be left along when it is there .

3. Never approach a dog that is eating a bone or food and never try and take food from a dog.

4. Before giving a dog a treat make sure the dogs owner is present and you have asked permission first .

5. Approach all dogs slowly .

6. Play quietly around strange dogs .

7 Do not pat a strange dog with out permission.

8. Always speak to a dog before patting a dog so it knows you are going to pat it.

9. Do not ever reach to pat a dog on top of its head. Always pat a dog on the shoulders or body.

10 Never put your face near a dogs face.

11. Never blow in a dogs face, many dogs take this as a direct threat and may bite.

12. Never run around dogs, the dog may get excited and nip. Also many herding breeds or protection breeds will chase and may bite in the excitement of the chase .

If you have children and want a mastiff I would say the mastiff is a good choice in breeds, but please teach your children to respect the dog and to treat it well. Do not allow a child to sit on a mastiff , no matter how large the dog. Never allow a child to play tug a war with a mastiff. I also highly recommend that the children partake in obedience training with the dog . When your pup has learned to sit on command give your child a dog biscuit and have the child instruct the dog to sit for the treat . Make it a rule that the children never give the dog a treat with out the dog first performing a command for the child . This teaches the dog that it is not dominant over the child . Include your children in as much training of the dog as possible . The teaching of recall is a good way to include your child in the training aspect of dog owning.

Have the dog on a 10 foot leash and have the child hold the leash . Let the dog wander about on the leash and then have the child say Duke come , If the dog comes the child gives the dog praise and a treat if the dog dose not come directly to the child have the child pull the dog in close to him , once the dog is close enough to touch have the child praise and give the dog a treat .. NEVER ALLOW A CHILD TO PUNISH A DOG. . A child should only use praise and reward forms of training with a dog.

Never allow a child to take a dog for a walk with out and adult present. Teach your child if they are ever around a dog fight, to stay clear of the fight and to NEVER try and stop the fight , but instead to run for adult help.
 MASTIFF LITTER ANNOUNCEMENT TO SEE MASTIFF PUPPIES FOR SALE OR EXPECTED LITTER , CHECK HERE www.englishmastiff.com


By Sharon Medforth

Island West Mastiffs.

So you want to breed mastiffs . Breeding mastiffs .

So you want to breed mastiffs. Breeding mastiffs is not an easy job , Please take a moment to read this before considering being a mastiff breeder.

Breeding the Old English Mastiff .

The English Mastiff is one of the hardest and most expensive breeds of dog to raise and breed . Fertility problems in both the male and female mastiff is common . Whelping difficulties are normal for the female mastiff as well as post delivery problems are a high probability in this breed. You can not breed a mastiff until they are at least 18 months of age and if you try breeding after 6 years of age you will be courting disaster. So you would be very lucky to see 3 litters out of a mastiff female , I have been breeding mastiffs for 10 years and have never managed to get 3 litters from any of my bitches. .This is one of the reasons the cost of buying a mastiff puppy is higher then other breeds .Reputable mastiff breeders seldom ever make money breeding mastiffs.

Before deciding to breed a mastiff stud dog or bitch , the breeder should be confident that their mastiff is a good example of the breed in both temperament size and confirmation and dose not have health or temperament problems that can be passed on to their puppies.

Health problems that should be tested for are Hip and Elbow Displacia , Heart problems, genetic eye problems , and thyroid . Many reputable breeders go even farther and do testing for many more genetic health problems.

If you are thinking why bother testing , I will tell you that from a monetary standpoint you do not want to be refunding money to unhappy puppy buyers because their pup has Hip dysplacia or a bad heart. You could go broke really fast , You may even find yourself in court over an unhealthy puppy. Your goal as a breeder should always be to produce a healthy , sound, friendly, mastiff, of outstanding breed type.

You can contact you local veterinarian and he can make all the arrangements for the testing you should do before breeding your mastiff.

If you are thinking of breeding your mastiff to make money let me show you how wrong you can be.

First of all you will need to factor in the cost of buying a breeding quality mastiff , you are looking at paying $1800 to $3000 dollars for a mastiff puppy from a breeder who dose genetic and health testing on their lines . . Then the cost of caring for that mastiff for 2 years before you can breed the mastiff.

Then you are looking at about $700 dollars to do X-rays on hips elbows , eye testing , and heart and thyroid .

You can then expect to pay $2000 for stud feel to the owner of the male you are using .

As I stated before mastiffs are very hard to breed so you may well have to do progesterone testing on the female to make sure you have bred her at the right time , so factor in another $400 dollars on progesterone tests . 60 percent of mastiffs need some sort of veterinarian help whelping and many end up in C-sections at a cost of about $800 or higher . After the mastiff whelps you have a very high probability of mastitis in this breed , this is an infection in then mammary glands , “My last 4 breedings my females all got mastitis” and you may well end up bottle feeding pups and have a bitch so sick she needs strong antibiotics and sometimes surgery to drain the infection, you could well be looking at another $400 to $600 dollars for this common complication. Then you must supplement the pups , pay for worming and vaccination and health checks before you can sell the pup , as well as the cost of registering the pups . Add another 600 dollars for this expense . We are not even going to factor in to this the cost of laundry , whelping box, puppy food, milk replacer, thermometer and other whelping and medical supplies . Now suppose you only have 4 pups in the litter ,, Guess what even if you sell your pups for $2000 each , you are in dept big time . Now to make matters even worse , lets say some of the pups have a genetic health problem after you have sold the pups , You will ether have to refund the puppy buyers money or they can take you to court and sue you. . Gee should have done that genetic testing and X-rays right !!

So you wonder why anyone would every want to breed mastiffs , There is only one reason reputable breeders keep on with the breed and that is LOVE OF THIS BREED, Any long time mastiff breeder will tell you they have gone in dept , that breeding mastiffs is hard on the pocket book . I know many mastiff breeders and do not know a single one who can say they make a profit.
island West Mastiffs


Here is a great article by Dr. robins on whelping and breeding the difficult mastiff.


Article on Determining if your mastiff is breeding quality http://www.angelfire.com/biz4/MastiffBreeder/m3ap2adetbrpotmast.html

Are you a wanna be mastiff breeder , this mastiff breeders site has lots of great article


Carting , draft work and weight pull with the mastiff


Island West Mastiffs

Mastiff puppies http://www.englishmastiff2.com

Mastiffs in Sandlot 2 movie



























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Sharon and Lloyd
Greenway RD Ladysmith
BC
Canada
mailto:mastiff@shaw.ca

see our home site

http://www.englishmastiff.com