Interview With a Mastiff - Brinkley Mastiff

Tell us about your family?

First there’s my people’s.  Mommy and Shawn.  Mommy takes care of me and trains me and gives me cookies and baths and all kinds of stuff.  Shawn… or dad plays with me and I cuddle him on the couch sometimes.  I like to lick his head and ears when he’s not paying attention.  Boone is my brother.  He’s a pain in my tail, but when he’s gone or I’m gone and get back he’s the first one I look for to greet!  I guess I love da big lug a little bit.  Finally there’s that mean furry gray one that I like to stalk and chase (Molly the cat), but she beats the crap out of me if I ever get to close.  Sometimes mom gets mad at me cause I won’t stop chasing her.

Here's me doing two of my favorite things...
lying in the bed and licking (not sure what I'm licking though)

Take us through a typical day in your life.

I don’t get to sleep in the bed since that person after a long car ride cut my leg open (TPLO surgery) cause mom says jumping off the bed could really mess up my healing.  I feel great though, so I make sure to stand beside the bed and whine for a few minutes each morning cause I still want up real bad.  Then the mom gets up and feeds me, I get REALLY excited about this.  Then I go out for 2 minutes and potty and patrol the backyard.  I sleep all day while the peoples are at work, then get excited and playful for like 15 whole minutes when they get home.  I get to go for a walk a lot of days.  And then the rest of the afternoon I sleep.  At dinner time (which I KNOW of course) I start to whine and groan until the mom gets up and feeds me.  If I don’t get fed by 8:00 I whine constantly making them think I’m dying.  Then they feed me.  After I eat I go potty outside for 2 minutes, then back on the couch to sleep until the next morning. 

How do you fit in with the household?

I’m the one who makes sure no one is trying to kill us.  I make sure if the window is open and something is going on outside I bark to let everyone know.  I patrol the backyard twice a day and growl and bark at anything I think isn’t right.  I am the family protector for sure.  The Boone is too dumb for this job, he loves everyone too much.  The responsibility falls on me to keep everyone safe.
 

Me playing in the hose

What is you’re least favorite thing to do?

I HATE getting my toenails chopped off.  It is HORRIBLE TORTURE. I HATE it.
 

What are some of your hobbies?

I spend a fair amount of my time (that I’m not sleeping) waiting for food, whining about not getting the food and most of the rest of my time is spent sucking on my toys and chasing the cat. I like to play in the snow too. I eat it. I eat grass too.... and play in the water.  I looooove the water.   I love doing all these things. 



Me and Boone sucking on our toys.  I gots the big monkey
and he has his nasty love bear

Where are your favorite places to visit?

The couch and the bed.  I like walks too, but don’t like to go to places where I’m expected to do anything productive.

What would you like to tell everyone about yourself?

I have a true Mastiff guardian personality.  I love everyone unless you give me a reason not to.  Mess with my family and I’ll mess you up.  I also love to lick people.  My tongue is a good 10 inches long, it wraps around people heads real good.  If you want to be my friend give me food and let me lick you.  That’s all I ask.

A Basic Understanding of Pedigrees

Tracing the lineage of a purebred dog should be easy, and the pedigree is the main tool used to do this research. Knowing the history of your pedigreed puppy gives you an excellent idea of what you might expect from the dog in the future. How it will turn out physically, what health issues it is predisposed to and what genotypes might be present.

Being able to visit the puppies litter, parents and other relatives is an important step in choosing a purebred puppy. Puppies brought home from a pet store have a shady background at best. How will you know whether or not a particular health problem runs in that litter or family of dogs? How did it's littermates and parents behave? What can you expect from the dog temperament wise? You have no history to compare the new puppy or dog to. It is always best to buy your pure bred puppy from a reputable breeder, after all, you are considering adding a companion and friend to your family for the next 8 -10 years.  It is not a purchase that you want to make on impulse.

To an amateur dog owner or potential puppy buyer a pedigree simply looks like a bunch of funny names on a page. Pedigrees are setup like a basic family tree.  The dog/puppies name will be center left, with its Sire (father) listed on top slightly to the right and its Dam (mother) listed on bottom slightly to the right.  The Sire and Dam’s parents are listed next (puppy’s grandparents) and so on and so forth.  Any reference to the puppy’s father’s side of the family is its paternal side and reference to the puppy’s mother’s family is the maternal side.

In researching pedigrees, breeders may use terminology to advertise a litter like “Champion lines” or “Championed pedigree”.  What exactly does this mean to an unsuspecting buyer? 

First of all what is a Champion? A Champion is a dog that has been shown to approved AKC judges in approved AKC shows and won enough points to earn the title of Champion.  It takes 15 points to earn a dog’s championship, which includes 2 major wins (I will reference this later).  The number of points in each show is determined by the number of dogs or bitches of the specific breed present at the show. The maximum number of points awarded at any one show is 5, so it takes a minimum of 3 shows to earn a dogs championship.  Included in those 15 points the dog must earn 2 majors under two different judges.  A major is simply a show in which enough dogs or bitches of that breed are present to make 3, 4, or 5 points available.

An International Championship through the IABCA is easier to earn than an AKC Championship, however it takes a getting a certain rating in three different shows by two different judges to be awarded this title.  A nice dog can complete this Championship in a weekend if several shows in the same location are offered. No competition needs to be present for the dog to earn it's Intl. Championship, hence why it's so much easier to gain.

So back to what a Champion Pedigree means... to reputable breeders this means numerous champions in the dogs first 3-4 generations.  For example, my female has 10 AKC Champions in her 4 generation pedigree (her parents, grandparents and great grandparents), 2 International Champions, and two dogs that did not receive their championship status. One of those happens to be her mother, who has 13 of the 15 required points and was unable to finish due to an injury.  This is a Champion Pedigree. 

Unscrupulous breeders will sometimes say their puppies are from Champion lines, but when you look at the pedigree you might see one or maybe 2 Champions 4 or more generations back.  This is NOT a Champion pedigree in my opinion.  After 2-3 generations of breeding to poor quality or sub-standard dogs, the genes of those Champions is diluted enough to make no difference in the quality of the puppies.

One might ask, if I am only looking for a pet, then why I care about such things as pedigrees, champions, lineage, etc.  Check out the article Why should anyone spend a little more money to buy a puppy from a show dog breeder?, for answers to these questions.

Intl.Ch.Harvest Haze Griffin's On The Brink

Brinkley earned her International Championship the first weekend in November! Her overall comments from the judges were “very typey bitch, balanced, solid” and “great representative of breed”. I didn’t get a picture, but here is a picture of her I took this weekend.

And to top if off I got the results back on her hips and elbows.  That complete's her health testing.  She is the healthiest Mastiff she could be! 

*OFA Hips:Good (MF-8451G24F-VPI)
*OFA Elbows:Normal (MF-EL5025F24-VPI)
*Cardiac: Normal (MF-CA2414/16F/P-PI)
*Patellas: Normal (MF-PA2282/16F/P-PI)
*Thyroid: Normal (MF-TH1302/16F-VPI)
*CERF: Clear (MF-364503 - 2.18.2012)
*PRA: Clear (MF-PRA1246/16F-PI)
*DNA Cystinuria: Clear (1:1)
*CMR: Clear (MF-CMR12/15F-PI)
*von Willebrand's: Normal 140% (20199-12)
*Deg. Melopathy:Clear (MF-DM38/17F-VPI)
*Fluffy Gene: Clear N/N (Case# 37687)