Togo Update

Here he is , three years old. In the picture with him is my son, he is 5'6" so that tells something of his size, since they are also on a slope Togo being at the down hill side. Togo weighs 127 lbs, all solid muscle. He was heavier - about 135 lbs and the vet told us to make sure he does not get any heavier. We cut down on some "fattier" treats and he mostly gets carrots for treats, tons of carrots, I have been asked at grocery stores if I have a horse, the answer always is that I have a dog the size of a horse. He loves all the other vegetables too, except for celery, won't touch it. Lettuce leaves and Spinach leaves are especially yummy.

Togo loves other dogs, he just wants to play - I have noticed that Togo almost never barks at any other dogs, even if they are barking at him - he just don't care. He is not a barker in general - he only barks if someone is approaching the house, and he stops once people reach the house and he gets to see who they are. I think I read somewhere that the breed is known for not barking. So far we have not had any health issues with him, I worry sometimes, especially about his hips and joints. Does anyone have an older Mastador out there who could shed light on some issues we might face later on, we are giving him the dog food that has vitamins and other stuff for joint and hip health added.

Take care everyone

Leena

Mastador Group at Facebook

Hi everyone, I have created a Mastador group at Facebook which may be easier for members to post their pictures and stories. I have invited lots of you to join through Facebooks group invite. If I have missed anyone please send a request from Facebook. Although I have a personal Facebook account, I actually set one up for Jake (the Dog) to keep privacy. If you like, you should do the same. Just make sure you list your pets year of birth to 1990 so it clears the age requirement. It would be a blast to see all the fiends pictures as dogs! Lets have fun with this. Thanks for all your help, Mark, Jakes owner.

this is what started it all

this was our litter ...xmas three years ago....

Buford Update

Buford just turned one year old. I'm not sure exactly how big he is since he won't stay on the scale but I'm guessing 80-85 lbs. He's pretty tall and skinny, the vet thinks he'll fill out over the next 6 months. He's still got a ton of energy and is very excited his sister, Pickles, has joined the site. They've played a couple times at the park and I think they at least partially recognize eachother. Last time she ran right up to him.

Bailey

Hello!
I am a new owner of my first mastador puppy, Bailey. I adopted her from a local rescue shelter near my house in Duluth, Ga.
Bailey is 10 weeks old now, and so far she has been a great puppy. She is very rambunctious, friendly with people and other dogs; loves to play, and naps with equal enthusiasm. Being with the people is one of her main concerns, and she is happiest when everyone is in one room hanging out. New noises also keep her interest, and she has to check everything out.
Another thing I am noticing is that she is very vocal! She growls and barks at her toys, and huffs and barks at me when she thinks I should be paying attention to her and I am doing something else.

Here are some photos of her:



Bailey was at the shelter with her brother. He looked more like a mastiff in the face, and she definitely looks more like a lab in the face, with a brindle coat like mastiffs have. I am excited to see how big she gets in the upcoming months, because I don't know anything about her parents, other than one was a lab, and one was a mastiff. She was 8 pounds at 8 weeks, and seems to be getting longer.

Pickles McNickles

Pickles was Born 12/01/08 Orlando Fl
Brother to BUFORD on your site
mother BLK LAB father ENGLISH MASTIFFWe recently found her brother "Buford" at our local dog park and set up playdates for them.
Pickles is the most loveable affectionate dog I have ever had.

new to the site and a new owner of mastador pup

my rotty recently passed away and i came across gus a mastador. I found him on craigs list 100 miles away at a dog rescue. He's half chocolate lab and ? mastiff. i got him a 8 months and now he's 10 months. He is seriously the best dog. He has a superb temperment and is very affectionate. He can be left alone all day and not do any damage whatsoever to the house and has never had an accident inside. he was the perfect match for our family and lifestyle.

thumbs way up for the mastador

the pups now....ripley and milo.

father/daughter on right...mother/son on left.son has his mother's brawn, but his father's agility..and a typical male neo voice. daughter retrieves shoes and toys, sometimes two at a time..is very sweet, but has a neos protection instinct...and she's very smart/crafty like her father.

all dogs are well behaved.bart speaks french and english.maggie, milo and ripley are trined in english and some german.

the litter was eight strong. we adopted out six.(all pups went out the door with vaccinations).all pups had neo tempraments.in the remaining pack members shown, the two males hve been neutered.there were some dominance issues, but those have been taken care of....its pretty much a peaceable kingdom here.

father and son.

bart with his son milo in central park. milo was about 3.5 months old.you should see him now.

Togo is now two

Togo just recently turned two years old. Some one told me once, that dogs are puppies until they are two and then they are just plain dogs. Well, he might be officially a "dog" but he will always be puppy to me.

He has definitely calmed down though, he is not quite as crazy as he used to be. He certainly gets excited and all that, but in general, much calmer.

Do your dogs have naturally the "chase" instinct? Togo has none of that, he just don't know that he can chase things... we have some stray cats that come to our back yard, and the first time Togo saw them, he just sat down next to them and stared at them drooling. (A snack?) We had to chase the cats and show Togo how it is done. He was a fast learner though, now we just open the door and say:"Where are the kitties?" and he runs out to chase them. No more stray cats hanging out in our back yard.

It is starting to look a lot like fall here in Atlanta, finally the day temperatures are hovering around 65 - 70 degrees and it goes down to upper 40s or low 50s at night. I was getting tired of the constant 80s - I am truly a fall person. Have a great fall everyone!

Hammerhead Ears

We both think the way Buford's ears have developed make him look like a hammerhead shark. He's doing great. 10 months old, still very puppy, about 80 lbs., very happy.

Togo's new collar

Togo got a new collar - kids are heading back to college and it is the start of the football season. And anyway, our children are very considerate and go to colleges where the colors look good on the dog - what's better than gold and black on a black dog?

Togo has lost some weight and we did not even know it. I guess taking your dog to 2.5 mile walk every evening does good for everyone, this summer he has gone from the 122.5 lbs to very slim 105 currently. We found out yesterday when we took him for his check up (15,000 mile service as my hubby called it). He got couple of shots, has some gunk in his ears that need some medicated ear drops (nothing too serious though) and he is now very fit dog obviously.

Dogs are like kids when you take them to the vet - you worry about them, you worry about what the vet is going to say, even though it is the routine check up and there really was nothing wrong when you took them in.

Note to Mark: the doctors did empty his anal gland sacs just as a routine, they have done it once before, they said that they just do it so that they don't get a chance to get infected and start stinking... who knew?

~Leena~

Rocco at the beach

Just some beach pictures. This was from April. He likes to dig in the sand, then sit in the hole. He doesn't mind that I cover him in sand. And yes, he's drinking out of an ashtray. We forgot to bring a bowl and brought that from the motel we stayed at, which is dog friendly!

This was in Ocean City, Maryland. They allow dogs on the beach and boardwalk in the off season.

Size Updates?

Hi everyone,





I noticed in the last few posts people mentioned how big their dog currently is. As Jade is a puppy, her weight is ever changing and I thought it would be fun and informative for everyone to post their dog's stats. Here are Jade's:





English Mastiff mom, Labrador/Rottweiler dad


Unspayed female (for now)


16 weeks


39 lbs.

Jade at 12 weeks

Jake stinks!

Hi everyone, sorry Ive been out of touch. Trying to make a few bucks in this lousy economy. Anyway as some of you might have guessed, Jake spends a lot of time down at the stone yard that I work out of. If anyone wants to see what I do, go to www.artezens.com, thats me. You can also find me at www.buddyrhodes.com

So down at the stone yard Jake spends most of his time in the little river swimming. You can see the videos from the Mastador YouTube link. He's been really smelling lately. I thought it was due to the muck from the river, so I banned him from the yard for a week, and he only smelled worse. Kinda like nasty athletes foot, or my sons soccer cleats after a game! I thought it was an ear infection but after smelling in that area he was fine. His rear quarters seemed to have the worse offense.

Finally my wife Googles "smelly Labs" and comes up with a diagnosis based on his symptoms. She thinks he has a clogged anal gland. Apparently wandering dogs leave their sent when they defecate, and their glands can get clogged. Well my wife tries to get me to take Jake to the local vet to have him check, luckily I just happen to be busy, ha! Turns out she was right, Jake needed to have his anal glands relieved, possible on a regular basis. $40 a pop. Apparently there are two glands to the sides of his anal pore that if analyzed "pardon the pun" and are swollen, are a good sign of clogged glands. Excessive licking in that area also. The vet says Jakes physique is just prone to this symptom. Its not due to swimming in the river, runny feces, diet, etc...

As he lies next to me now, the smell has not gotten better. I find myself placing chairs next to my side of the bed, and empty grocery bags near me when I watch TV, he's frighten of those.. luckily. But hes still my buddy, and I take him down to the yard to swim when I'm not to busy. I just usually get busy when he's due to have his glands relived as scheduled.

By the way, Jake is now just a little over 2 years old, and weighs 85lbs. I think he knows he smells, and my be a little proud of it.

Mark

Mastiff vs. Lab moods

I read several postings about how your dogs act, and it's funny that Rocco has many similar moods.

Like when it is hot, or when he's tired, he will lay out on the hardwood floors or the tile floors to try to cool off. And when he's real tired, he barely even opens his eye when you call him, let alone wag his tail. But like Togo, he bounces right up if we even hint that there might be food around.

He also LOVES ice cubes. I also give him a bowl of ice cubes when we get back from our hot walks. Only he doesn't mind them being in his bowl of water. He dunks his muzzle in and pulls them out.

Also like Jade, he will pout when he's in trouble. If we tell him he has to come inside because he was misbehaving, he walks sloooowly through the door, goes to his bed and plops down. Often, he lets out a huff, too. He also plops down and lets out a huff if we tell him he can't do something he wants to do.

Another funny thing Rocco does: He guards the barbeque grill when we are cooking. He will sit in front of the grill even if we go inside if there is food on the grill. If it's too hot on the deck, he goes behind the grill where there is shade and will sit there, guarding the grill. Lest some pesky squirrel tries to come and take his hot dogs! That or maybe he just likes the smell.

Buford, The Duck Hunter

Buford is 6 months old and getting used to his new home. We recently moved across town to a new place. There is a small "lake" in the middle of our new complex filled with ducks. To Bu these ducks NEED to be chased, constantly. We bought him a new stuffed duck so he might stop trying to catch a real one (hasn't worked). He's about 60 lbs.

This is what we call Togo's "flat puppy" position. I think it has something to do with him trying to get all the "coolness" out of the hardwood floors to his body. It is also when he is very tired and just observes the life and does not really participate. You might get a tail wag out of him if you really talk to him, but most of the time he is too far gone to wag his tail. If you offer him food it is then totally other matter - he will pounce back to life in no time. This is mostly on his mastador moods - when he is in a Labrador mood he will chase his tail for hours without any reason. During the hot summer (that is just now starting here in Georgia) we see more of the Mastador. It is way too hot during the day for him to be outside. We try to take him for walks in the late evening when the sun is setting and not so hot anymore. He absolutely loves his walks. And when we come back his treat is bowl full of ice cubes. Togo likes to eat ice versus drinking water after we come back from walks. Don't even think about putting ice cubes in his water, he thinks they are intruders in his water bowl and he just barks at them until they melt. Silly dog. But those little quirks are part of reason why we love him so much - they make Togo the lovable Mutt he is.

Happy Summer everyone

Leena

New pup in the group!

Hello! I'm new to the world of Mastadors, I recently brought my first one home. Her name is Jade, and she's 8.5 weeks old right now. She got shots yesterday, and weighed in at 16 lbs, so it looks like she'll be a pretty hefty girl! Jade's mom is an English Mastiff, dad is a Chocolate Lab/Rottweiler mix. His body type is a Lab, markings of a Rottie, color like a red Doberman. Jade got her markings from him.

Jade lives with me and Kai, my 1 yr. old male Kai Ken, in Texas.

She is independent, loves every dog and person she meets, learns quickly, and doesn't like to get in trouble. When she does, she will walk to the other side of the room, plop down, and pout! We start puppy kindergarten next week, and she's getting bigger every day, so I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about in here!

Jasmine

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Leena, I am Togo's Mom and I am new to this site. We live in state of Georgia, in the northern side of Atlanta, we have three adult kids (last one is graduating high school in a week) and we have Togo.

Togo was a Christmas Present to our youngest for Christmas 2006. When he came to us he was 12 weeks old and weighed 22 pounds. We got him from a Mastiff breeder in Wisconsin - they had had an "oops" litter, when their black lab male got too closely acquainted with a young female mastiff. The breeder's guess was that Togo would grow up to be about 125 lbs - and guess what, he is currently 125 lbs! Togo is still a puppy, very eager to please, very loving and affectionate - and totally unaware that he is a size of a small horse and therefor not a lap dog!

We have a blog spot page for Togo on his own, where my children also blog for him. That page is http://mistertaco.blogspot.com if you are interested in Togo's life through the eyes of all of us. I will also blog on the mastador site for updates every now and then. I should have plenty of time in my hands next year since all the kids will be out of the house. But we will have Togo.

Leena

Old Yeller - the mastador?

I have read in a couple places that the dog who played Old Yeller in the 1957 Disney movie was named Spike and he was a mastador (half yellow lab, half mastiff). Although I am not 100% sure (can't believe everything you read) Here is a video clip of the movie. I think I can see it, what do you all think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7SnGX_x8is

Barks

Have you guys noticed two distinct barks from your mastadors?

Rocco has a very lab-like bark when he wants to play. But when he's "alert" -- like when he sees something he feels might be a danger (or if he's scared) -- he's got a very deep, mastiff-like bark that almost ends in something like a growl. It's a longer bark and drawn out.

Also, I have never heard Rocco really growl before. And he really doesn't bark too often, even when other dogs bark at him. He does bark when we tell him to "speak." Sometimes it seems like he doesn't really like barking, because when we say speak his first bark sometimes is more like a huff of air.

He's a funny dog.

Buford @ 5 months