Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I sure wish more people posted on this site. We are having so much fun with our inheritance (Max) ... we want to share! We took him to a local shelter's fund raiser to see how well he would socialize with other dogs and people, and it went very well. He loved all the kids and wasn't afraid of anything except for the strollers. We would like to find other events that we can take him to. He has a lot of energy, and walking him around all day sure wore him out and he slept through the night. Sometimes it's like having an infant in the house again - yikes.

Hope to hear from someone soon!

Wow! I just saw the pictures of Max and he looks awesome! I don't have Mastiff myself but think they are great looking dogs. Given the circumstances in which you obtained Max I think it's great that he has fit in so well with you and your family. Also sounds like the socialization isn't really a problem and with all of the noise a fundraiser can cause... Max was a good boy to handle it so well. Keep plugging away here and hopefully some other Mastiff owners will happen by. I have Shiba Inu's myself but do like checking out the other boards so I'll be looking for some more Max stories.
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Bob

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

You are welcome to join some of the other more active boards and brag about Max. I do hope others with Mastiffs come alone, but in the mean time, join the shiba forum. There are numerous "adoptees" over there.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

I just found this site myself, seems to be a scarcity of mastiff activity....what type of dog is Max, and where do you live, maybe we can recommend some outings for you. I have a one year old dogue de bordeaux- he is our second after losing our last boy to bloat last summer. We are working towards CGC testing in December, unfortunately we had to take a break from obedience training for a while over the summer as the boy was dealing with a huge abcess and some other health issues, and it was just too darn hot for me....Hope to get him back to obedience class in Nov. do the CGC in December, then maybe first obedience trial next spring. In the mean time, we have been practicing and working on reinforcing social skills. Some of the restaurants here in Miami are finally allowing dogs again in outside dining areas, so we will be soon taking him out for dinner! Since we have no small children anymore, and I don't have any in close proximity, we are also trying to get around kids by incorporating the nearby elementary school into our morning walks so he is familiar with the sight and sound of little people, strollers, wagons, etc. plus we get to deal with the distractions of morning traffic noise. So far that is going well so we shall continue. Glad to find some other mastiff owners out there....

Max is a Bullmastiff and is about 1-1/2 years old. He has a lot of puppy in him! We walk him frequently and tie him out and watch him run back and forth with his volleyball. He is a total nut. We have tried letting him loose a couple of times, but he doesn't come back right away, and our daughter has to chase after him. She will also run with him on the leash, but the cold weather is coming (we are in Ohio) so that won't last much longer. We have a very large yard and hope that after obedience training we will be able to be outside with him loose. He learns everything so fast! He already would sit for us, and it took about a day to teach him how to shake. Next we will try "stay on the rug" when he comes in from outside.

Sorry for the delay getting back to you, we were out of town last week. Sadly, my boy passed away while we were gone, I did not even want to come home, we miss him terribly. The breeder has at this point acknowledged that "something was not right" but we still don't have any answers- he was some special dog. I luckily have a fenced rear yard, so we are able to let everyone out for free time at will, even with reliable re-calls, I am too worried about traffic to let anyone out loose. I know you were looking for some other outing kind of options, I can tell you some of the places we took our mastiff- the beach (unfortunately I know Ohio is lacking beach- but maybe you have a park with lake access that doesn't prohibit dogs for warmer months. ) Our state parks here in Florida mostly allow dogs, so we were able to take Bo camping several times, to an evening concert in one of the state parks, etc. We also took him to Key West- many of the outdoor restaurants and bars allow pets on leash so he got to go on a modified pub crawl. You can also check for activities hosted by the Humane Society or Animal Welfare- I know our humane society has several social type events every year- they are generally fundraisers, they have a "Walk for the Animals", a responsible pet owner day, may even have some sort of Halloween event. The Wellness Community (A Cancer support group here) also hosts a "Fido and Friends" walk every year- nice 1/2 day event at a local park with a leisurely 1 mile walk. You just have to dig around, and you can find dog friendly activities. Haven't done much with the few dog parks in our area, as they tend to be super crowded. Enjoy your boy, they are great fun.

I'm so sorry to hear about Bo! Did you find out what happened?
Max is still doing well, but he has chewing issues. It's been a long time since we had puppy behavior, and it's hard to get used to. I retrieved my cell phone from him just in time ... he did manage to kill the battery, though. We have to keep all of the bedroom doors closed at all times, otherwise he will bring us things like clothes, shoes, any kind of paper ... it never ends. The most difficult thing is that he will bark at us if we are sitting in the living room and eating something. He DEMANDS that we share, and I am having a hard time breaking him of this. We try not to give him people food. Some day we would like to get a fence for the yard. We live on 20 acres, so there is plenty of room, we just need to save up some money!

No, unfortunately since we were out of town when all the trauma occured, I had to make arrangements for 2 of my employees to deliver him to our vet the following morning. The vet called and said a gross autopsy at that point wouldn't tell much, but did offer to take a bunch of tissue samples and fluid samples and ship them off to the University of Florida- after spending nearly 3 months and I don't even want to calculate how many dollars treating and attempting to diagnose what was going on, as much as I would have liked a definitive answer, I decided it really wasn't worth the additional expense as it would not change the outcome. We have gated off the passage from the family side of the house to the halfway decent side of the house just to keep the dogs out of the bedrooms, off the sofa that doesn't smell like a dog, and off the hardwood floors. They have full access to the kitchen, family room, and home office area, which are all tiled. I know what you mean about the chewing, Bo was a very good boy overall, but had a thing for cardboard and the runners on my kitchen stools, we were still working on that at 1 year. I don't like rawhide chewies cause they have a tendancy to swallow them whole, so we used a lot of bitter apple and tried to be vigilant. I found the best way to keep him from getting in trouble was to wear him out- If we went for a one mile walk in the morning, he would come back and crash until about noon....the exercise didn't hurt me any either. We have been promised a replacement puppy from the same breeder, so I guess we will be starting the puppy thing all over again soon. Regarding the demanding food sharing, as hard as it is, the best thing to do is ignore the begging consistantly, if any body gives in even one time in 10, they just keep on trying. When we had leftovers to share like chicken skin or pizza crusts, we would save them and make him work for them, not in our eating area, but maybe a few minutes of practicing down/sit/stays, or just toss them in the dogs food bowl to mix with the kibble. Have fun with your boy, take care.