Cunliffe Bullmastiff

1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59378-961-9
Verlag: CompanionHouse Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 155 Seiten

Reihe: Comprehensive Owner's Guide

'The Gameskeeper's Night Dog' is the moniker the Bullmastiff has enjoyed since his beginnings in England when he was created to be the ultimate man-stopping guard dog. Devised from Britain's two most impressive and accomplished canines;the Bulldog and the Mastiff;the Bullmastiff, weighing in over 100 pounds, is a first-class option for families seeking companionship, protection, and a giant dose of silly bully fun! The Bullmastiff is an engaging, people-oriented working breed that is as gentle and reliable as it is courageous and powerful. Author Juliette Cunliffe discusses the breed's origins in Britain and how the breed came to world fame as well as its many unique characteristics prized today by fanciers around the world.New owners will welcome the well-prepared chapter on finding a reputable breeder and selecting a healthy, sound puppy. Chapters on puppy-proofing the home and yard, purchasing the right supplies for the puppy as well as house-training, feeding, and grooming are illustrated with photographs of handsome adults and puppies. In all, there are over 135 full-color photographs in this useful and reliable volume. The author's advice on obedience training will help the reader better mold and train into the most well-mannered dog in the neighborhood. The extensive and lavishly illustrated chapter on healthcare provides up-to-date detailed information on selecting a qualified veterinarian, vaccinations, preventing and dealing with parasites, infectious diseases, and more. Sidebars throughout the text offer helpful hints, covering topics as diverse as historical dogs, breeders, or kennels, toxic plants, first aid, crate training, carsickness, fussy eaters, and parasite control. Fully indexed.

Juliette Cunliffe has owned sight hounds for 30 years. She judges competitions around the world and is a Kennel Club Accredited Trainer of Judges. Shw is the author of many successful dog books and lives in Shropshire, England.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cunliffe, Juliette

Leseproben

ORIGIN OF THE BREED

It was not until the mid-1920s that the English Kennel Club recognized the Bullmastiff as a separate breed. However, there is no doubt that long before this time there was a dog closely resembling the breed we know today. Before looking at the more recent history of the breed, we should also consider that both the Bulldog and the Mastiff arose from common early stock. This stock was very old, and of the purest canine blood known in England.

References to dogs originating from the Mastiff and the Bulldog were found in many early works and manuscripts. In the middle of the 17th century, Abraham Hondius painted a picture of something described later by the author Walsh as a dog that was larger than the Bulldog, but without proof of the strain to which this dog belonged. In 1791, Buffon wrote in his Natural History, “the Bulldog produces with the Mastiff a dog which is called the strong Bulldog, and which is much larger than the real Bulldog and approaching the Bulldog more than the Mastiff.”

Just a few years later, in 1795, an advertisement was placed for a lost Bullmastiff, while in 1871 The Field made reference to a fight earlier that century between two lions and “bullmastiffs.”

The Olde English Bulldogge is believed to be the recreation of the ancient British Bulldog used in Bullmastiff crosses.

The modern Mastiff is a giant among giants and possesses many of the same qualities of its protégé, the Bullmastiff.

In the years leading up to the end of the 19th century, keeping large estates free from poachers was a difficult task. The very life of a gamekeeper was not safe, for poachers would frequently prefer to shoot it out with the keeper rather than risk the heavy penalties they would have to pay if apprehended.

Gamekeepers, particularly in the Midlands area, decided it would be helpful to have a fierce dog suitable to accompany them on their nightly rounds. They tried the Mastiff but found that, although he was sufficiently courageous and powerful, he was neither fast nor active enough, nor indeed sufficiently aggressive for this work. The Bulldog was also tried, a Bulldog very different from the dog appearing in show rings today. This was a big, strong, active dog, used to bait bulls, but for the gamekeepers he was rather too ferocious and not quite large enough to suit the purpose they had in mind.

PURE-BRED PURPOSE

Given the vast range of the world’s 400 or so pure breeds of dog, it’s fair to say the domestic dog is the most versatile animal in the kingdom. From the tiny 1-pound lap dog to the 200-pound guard dog, dogs have adapted to every need and whim of their human masters. Humans have selectively bred dogs to alter physical attributes like size, ability, color, leg length, mass and skull diameter in order to suit our own needs and fancies. Dogs serve humans not only as companions and guardians but also as hunters, exterminators, shepherds, rescuers, messengers, warriors, babysitters and more!

Sir James and Lady Dunn with one of their Bullmastiffs, photographed in the early 1930s.

They needed a dog that would remain silent when poachers approached; such a dog needed to be trained to attack and hold a man down, without savaging him. For this, the combination of blood from these two breeds, the Mastiff and the Bulldog, served admirably well. However, there was no particular incentive to breed to any set standard of conformation, and in some parts of the country it is believed that the Great Dane was also incorporated in the breeding. Nevertheless, there was inevitable rivalry between keepers; consequently, they used the most outstanding performers in their breeding programs. So, at this stage, the Bullmastiff’s history was wholly utilitarian.

The Bullmastiff was by now known usually as the “Gamekeeper’s Night-Dog” and there are many interesting references to the breed from around this time. In 1885, we can read in General Hutchinson’s book, Dog Breaking, that Bulldogs had good noses and that a cross between the Bulldog and the Mastiff could be taught to follow the scent of a man almost as truly as a Bloodhound.

SPELLING THE BREED’S NAME

The breed’s name has been spelled as one word, Bullmastiff, and as two words, Bull Mastiff. Sometimes it has also been spelled with a hyphen between the two words, Bull-Mastiff. To further complicate the matter, various spellings have been in use at the same time. In America, the breed’s name had a hyphen, while in earlier Crufts catalogues it was listed as two words, though the breed clubs used the same spelling that we use today—Bullmastiff.

As further proof that such dogs existed before the 20th century, Heywood Hardy painted a picture in 1897, illustrating a dog that we would certainly describe as a Bullmastiff, looking through an open door.

A Mastiff painted by F. T. Daws in the early 1930s, illustrating what the Mastiff breed might have looked like during the establishment of true Bullmastiff type.

CANIS LUPUS

“Grandma, what big teeth you have!” The gray wolf, a familiar figure in fairy tales and legends, has had its reputation tarnished and its population pummeled over the centuries. Yet it is the descendants of this much-feared creature to which we open our homes and hearts. Our beloved dog, Canis domesticus, derives directly from the gray wolf, a highly social canine that lives in elaborately structured packs. In the wild, the gray wolf can range from 60 to 175 pounds, standing between 25 and 40 inches in height.

1900 ONWARD

Even as early as 1900, when dog shows were becoming popular, Bulldogs, albeit of diverse types, both coarse and clumsy by today’s standards, were being shown in special gamekeepers’ classes. These dogs had large, heavy ears and were formidable, fierce dogs. Often they were long in the body and slack in the couplings, and not soundly constructed in the forequarters either! The men who owned such dogs at that time were proud of the fact that their dogs were ferocious. They chained their dogs and arranged for their friends to attack them with sticks, thereby getting the dogs to display their ferocity.

The Bullmastiff today has a strong following throughout Europe and America. This handsome male was photographed in the Netherlands.

In 1901, it was reported in Sporting Life that at a show the chief interest was centered around the “Keepers’ Night-Dogs,” which were described as being “Old English Bull-Mastiffs.” In Nottingham, Mr. Burton of Thorneywood fame gave demonstrations of the duties these dogs performed, showing measures taken using dogs to suppress poaching.

So Bullmastiffs were in contests against man, not only on the moor but also in demonstrations. In such contests the dog was muzzled and the man was allowed a club, restricted in size by weight and measurement. It was said that no man could ever hold his feet against a dog of proven worth.

Another article of 1901, this time in The Field, again recounts Mr. Burton’s escapades with one of his Night-Dogs: “Mr. Burton of Thorneywood Kennels brought to the show one Night-Dog (not for competition) and offered any person one pound, who could escape from it while securely muzzled. One of the spectators who had had experience with dogs volunteered and amused a large assembly of sportsmen and keepers who had gathered there. The man was given a long start and the muzzled dog slipped after him. The animal caught him immediately and knocked down his man the first spring. The latter bravely tried to hold his own, but was floored every time he got to his feet, ultimately being kept to the ground until the owner of the dog released him. The man had three rounds with the powerful canine, but was beaten each time and was unable to escape.”

OWNERS OF DISTINCTION

In the 1930s, several distinguished people were supporters of the breed. The Marquis of Londonderry owned Ch. Simba, and in 1934 the Duke of Gloucester also showed a Bullmastiff considered of good type. Called Hussar Stingo, this dog was a son of Roger of The Fenns.

For such work against poachers, the dark brindle color was preferred, for it acted as a means of camouflage. But as the breed gained in popularity, with true Mastiff blood being used increasingly, a large number of light fawn dogs appeared. Even when poaching disappeared, there was still a demand for BullMastiffs as watchdogs, a duty for which they had become highly popular.

THE 1920s AND 1930s

During the early years of the twentieth century, orderly crossings between Mastiffs and Bulldogs took place, but not until the breed had had three proven generations of breeding to “pure” stock (without the introduction of Mastiff or Bulldog) could the English Kennel Club register the Bullmastiff as a pure breed. For this reason, The English Kennel Club then differentiated between “Bull-Mastiff (cross-bred)” and “Bull-Mastiff (pure-bred).” From 1924 onward, there was a significant improvement, with stability in type, and the breed began to make its mark in the seriously competitive show world. In 1927 there were 16 registrations of Bull-Mastiffs (pure-bred) in the Register of Breeds, though one of these was later cancelled.

A RUGGED ENGLISH GENT

In the 1940s, Major A. J. Dawson wrote, “the Bullmastiff is as English as the cliffs of Dover.” He went on to say that to children and honest people, the breed was only as harmful as a London policeman, whereas to the thievish and...