Hobbit is our second mastiff from the well known kennel Farnaby in England, and we got her to Norway in March 2004. We were originally planning to call her Arwen (after the main elf lady in Lord of the Rings – does it show that we love Tolkien?). But when we received the first pictures from Betty Baxter we soon decided that those big, hairy feet had to be from a hobbit, not an elf. We were going to call her Hobbit Rosie (after Sam’s wife, since Hobbit isn’t a very feminine name), but we have never used anything but Hobbit. You can see her pedigree here.
In many ways she’s the best mastiff we’ve ever had, but she has one problem, a problem that in the beginning seemed like it would be an insurmountable barrier for ever mating her. And you can believe me in that it has been four years with a lot of thinking before we finally decided we would try to get a litter from her. We are and have always been strongly against breeding dogs that has hereditary problems they may give their offspring, no matter if we’re talking about HD, heart problems, allergies or temperament problems. Especially the latter is a very dangerous route, since a mastiff with the temperament many of the smaller breeds are known for, can be nothing less than deadly! We all know that smaller breeds bite the most, but if a large dog bites, the result will be a lot worse. A quick bite can do a lot of damage.
I assume the readers of this knows about the mastiff’s correct temperament, so I won’t go into that. I wrote an article about or girl in the Norwegian English Mastiff Club’s magazine, and it is on this website as well. To make a long story short, several circumstances worked against her and a good result in the important socialization period from two to three months (one of them health problems (human, not the dog’s) and the Norwegian import law that was changed four months later – talk about insult to injury!), so the socialization didn’t work out very well. A dog should ideally be picked up when it’s two months old, so it can be imprinted on the family it’s going to live with. But a dog that has been one place from two to three months and then is picked up can in a few instances become shy, which is what happened to Hobbit. And that may be very difficult or impossible to work through.
In our case we have “Dr. Chicken and sister Hyde” (yes, I know that mr. Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson’s immortal novel from 1887 was evil, but I just love that joke!). When she feels safe, she behaves like any mastiff should do (with 16 years experience we do know a bit about the mastiff temperament). She’s friendly, totally mentally stable, trustworthy, cuddly and happy. But when she doesn’t feel safe, a situation that mostly is related to strange people, especially if they are not used to dogs or nervous and sends out all the wrong signals, she’s shy and reserved. But, and this was the important thing for us when deciding to breed her, she hasn’t got any, and I mean absolutely zero, aggressive tendencies. No matter how strongly she’s backed into a corner, she reacts with passive submission, if she can’t escape.
We have had behavior specialist and several vets on her, plus other experienced dog people look at her and meet her, and they all have the same conclusion as us: There are no problems with her basic temperament, the socializing part is the reason. And (yes, I am repeating myself here, but a fear aggressive mastiff is an accident waiting to happen) she has never ever been aggressive because of her fear, no matter the situation we have had her in. And we have had her in any imaginable situation. In addition to this I have made inquiries about the rest of her litter, and none of her brothers or sisters have similar problems. One brother is the German champion “Chunky”, who lives at the Of Seven Oaks kennel in Germany that also has the sire of this litter, Ivo, and I met him when I went down to do the mating. No problems what so ever, he behaves towards everybody exactly like Hobbit behaves towards us.
To avoid any problems with this litter we will from a suitable age expose them to all kinds of stimuli, like strangers – both grownups and children, other dogs, car trips, the vet and so on.
So that’s why it took us four years to arrive at the conclusion that we wanted to try to have a litter. But the main reason for having that litter is that she is a very healthy and correct mastiff. Because of her problems we haven’t shown her, but we have had unofficial appraisals of her, in addition to our own experience. The owners of her brother Chunky, Germany’s oldest and most successful mastiff kennel Of Seven Oaks, with experience dating back to the 70’s, meant that she was at least as good as her brother, especially because of the straight back line, powerful rear end and excellent movements. And believe me, Chunky’s no dime a dozen dog!
In our opinion she’s an even better and more correct mastiff than her predecessor (and aunt) Kira, a dog we made Norwegian champion in four shows. And then it’s her fantastic temperament (a trait she shares with her late aunt) when she has a chance to get to know people. This of course makes it double frustrating that she has her problem, but we have learnt to live with it. And since there’s no genetic component what so ever in this, and since we have planned our part of the litter’s socializing around her problem, there’s no chance of her giving it to them. If we had any doubts at all in this, we would never even considered mating her.
