American Mastiff

The American Mastiff is a relatively new breed although the Mastiff dogs have been around for centuries. Originally they were bred as an English war dog, where they had the job of attacking the enemy soldiers. Ferocious and tenacious - they were a dog to be feared. Between wars, they guarded the rich and wealthy homesteads and were occasionally trained in the sport of bear baiting. Thankfully in recent years, the aggression has been bred out of the dog, and they mellowed into a gentle giant. Mastiffs came to America with their colonist owners on the ship the Mayflower and were used as protection for families, stock and property. Sadly, there were a lot of inbreeding issues which began to cause health complications and a breeder called Fredericka Wagner in Piketon, Ohio decided to breed a new Mastiff to overcome these problems. She began in the late 1980s and carefully combined the Anatolian dog with the Mastiff. The offspring was vigilantly regulated with who they were bred with and eventually Fredericka developed the dog that had a tighter lip line. The dog she named the American Mastiff had a drier mouth and drooled less than the parent Mastiffs. By the late 1990s, Wagner had stopped outcrossing and was breeding with her existing dog lines. Later in 2002, Wagner started allowing a few breeders to join her newly formed American Mastiff Breeders Council. This has widened the gene pool to just 11 breeder members and they work hard to ensure the health and temperament of their dogs. Debate still rages as to whether the American Mastiff is as good as the breeders claim, but the fact remains that they have achieved a gentle giant of a dog that so far excels in health and temperament.