This dog is a monstrosity.
End of story.
This is not an argument about aesthetics.
This is an argument about welfare.
This dog’s eyes are constantly exposed to the elements. It can’t close and lubricate its eyes properly. If you had eyelids like that, you’d be bitching about the how much pain and discomfort you were experiencing.
“But they’re supposed to look like that!”
No. They aren’t.
I don’t care what wins prizes at a dog show.
It is wrong to breed a dog that has these defects.
And what about its lips?
There is no way that having such pendulous flews is comfortable.
Further, dogs communicate with their faces, but this poor dog can’t fully express itself.
This breed has been designed for the vanity of man. It is not the ancient molosser dog of the Romans. That romantic fantasy hasn’t been confirmed in any genetic literature, and the real origin of this dog is with the farm guardian mastiffs of southern Italy.
Everything about this dog is mythological.
And too many of their fancier have very little grounding in reality.
They don’t care that the conformation standards of this breed require breeding for such a monstrosity.
Just so long as their egos are puffed up with their fantasy Roman war dogs.
I don’t believe in animal rights at all.
But this is a dog.
This is a creature that has emotions and instincts.
It has evolved to bond intensely with humans, so much so that it becomes part of our families.
An animal that is capable of having such a deep and intimate relationship with us deserves so much more.
We need sane breed standards.
Not standards that reward such unbelievable stupidity.
That is shocking. And it looks not very handsome, either, so I don’t understand why breeders would want it to look like this.
Really sad, dogs are so much more civilized than many humans.
This makes me sad. As a certified vet tech for the past 12 years I have seen a lot of suffering, and I can only imagine all the health problems these poor dogs must suffer. Eye issues, skin issues, joint issues, bone disease, drastically shortened life span, and the list goes on. It is too bad that dogs bred with a useful purpose often have excruciating health issues without breeding one that will ultimately have them all at the same time.
The AKC standard page is…interesting:
http://www.akc.org/judges/guides/neapolitan_mastiff/standard.cfm
It would be interesting if they could explain WHY these dogs must look that way.
“The essence of the Neapolitan is his bestial appearance, astounding head and imposing size and attitude.” That really pisses me off! Everything I’ve seen indicates that these are gentle and affectionate animals. Another victim of anthropmorph-centric SOBs.
The comments (in italic) accompanying the Standard do indicate that “it is not a case of ‘more is better'” regarding wrinkles/folds, and several of the photos used appear to be much more moderate than the dog at the top of this article (although still a bit much!). Unfortunately, it seems to be human nature to seek the extreme, regardless of other considerations.
Found this site. makes an interesting comparison. http://oldworkingneos.yolasite.com/
Now that’s more like it. Still a bit too much sclera showing (about as much as my Sammie) but a vast improvement over the others we seen.
Now those are nice looking dogs.
Is this another dog from that breeder in India?
No. This one is American.
My word, that is far from right, and to think people find my Estrelas double dewclaws odd, weird, etc. but yet, that, is supposed to be normal?
You are right of course, they do deserve much more, far better than, that.
what really gets me about these dogs and the rubbish spouted about them is the fact that these dogs where supposed to go to war with the roman army. REALLY i mean come on. could you see this dog running into battle with all that protective armour they think was put on them, and do they really thing it could manage to walk and run the miles and miles and miles day after day that roman armies did. I can just imagine what a celt would make of that great jowly drooling beast, the poor neo wouldnt even see the sword coming down on him for all the slobber and flesh.
And from what i understand and i may be wrong here didnt a lot of the large dogs that the romans so admired originally come from britain, im sure ive read how they loved the dogs we bred. Im darned sure we didnt and dont have slobbering jowly creatures like this our war dogs could run for miles day after day and where something to be feared on the battlefield, or maybe im wrong and the ancient celts didnt have large war dogs. they certainly didnt have any like this.
This is where I have to speak in favour of the British Kennel Club: firstly in rewriting the breed standards to exclude unhealthy descriptions and now enforcing these reforms via veterinary inspections at major shows. They have a fight on their hands against the entrenched interests which resist reformation, but since a large majority within the dog showing fraternity support the KC actions my guess is that the worst deformities will gradually diminish and some hopeless breed designs will disappear altogether.
A bigger problem may be how to deal with inner weakness. One example is the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which has two virtually endemic horrendous conditions: syringomyelia, where the skull is too small for the brain and a conditiuon where the mitral heart valve leaks. Sadly there seem to be hundreds of owne who accept mitral valve disease as part of the price to be paid for the pleasure of owning such a pleasant dog. We had a cavalier back in the sixties, when I suspect the disease was not yet very prevalent, but since then too many dogs carrying it have evidently been widely used at stud and really the breed is now effectively ruined I’m afraid.
On one of Tracey’s points up there, the Romans are recorded as getting their dogs of war from our ancient British tribes who were among the first commercial dog breeders it seems. Unfortunately the Romans did not leave it at buying our dogs, they also had an unfortunate trendency to take some of us back to Rome as slaves!
fat fingers – tendency not trendency, although that’s a good new word.
Quite likely the war dogs taken back to Rome from here were among the ancestors of that that neapolitan monster above and who knows, maybe the roman legion which disappeared when ambushed in the bavarian forest may have had with it one or two of those compact travelling companions the dachshund. LOL
Couldn’t agree more and can’t understand what these breeders are thinking when they breed for a look that is obviously not at all functional or humane.
A human with ectropion. This is a mild case yet it’s excruciatingly uncomfortable & often leads to long term damage of the unprotected eye. Why do we do this to our “best friends”?
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQFPXaIL9quooLEEj61QqRMeWQ5LaK858ZosiV698uGj5M8m474
Just looking at the photos of humans affected by this deformity of the eyelids is painful. It is not a minor problem at all!
couldn’t take the true statements about my dog? You are simply full of shit. Go shove your head in the ground, like all your stupid little terriers.
I don’t own any terriers.
Wrong blog.
This is the one you want. Go over and show him your level erudition and see what happens: terriermandotcom.blogspot.com
Your dogs look like they’re melting. Do you get off on the fact your dogs suffer untold amounts of pain; all for the sake of your ideal of “beauty”?
Anne Goetz doesn’t even know the historical type of her own breed. Someone that ignorant and dismissive of anything other than slavish adherence to show-ring fashions for personal gain is a waste of time talking to.
She also apparently has less-than stellar breeding ethics (Google is forever, doesn’t that suck for you):
http://www.centurionmastini.com/
http://spanishmastiff.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-dog-and-phony-show-anne-latimer.html
Also, Anne Goetz, tell your husband Bill not to post stuff under his real name that will immortalize his lack of class for the entire world to see:
https://plus.google.com/101872331029131682294/posts
You sir have obviously. .. never met a Neo. “Can’t express themselves?” Wth… they giant goofballs… full of expression. I assume by the title of your blog that you deal mainly in retrievers… well, I can tell you as a person who has owned both a Golden Retriever and a Neo. .. my Neo’s were healthier than my Golden ever was…. so you see its a matter of perspective. My Golden was diagnosed with epilepsy at 6 months, hip dysplasia a little later on down the road, cataracts shortly after that , and cancer a short time later. So please tell me how you think any one breed of dog is so much better than the other? As a matter of fact the only two dogs that I have owned that didn’t have a single hereditary defect was my two rescued Pitbulls. My Neo was healthier than my Retriever though. .. and so many things you say are just completely uneducated… they couldn’t trek with an Army??? Mine had no problem keeping up with me on several miles of hiking trails… hell he would go out with me on horseback sometimes. He was a tank, extremely athletic for dog of that size. Your uneducated opinion of the breed is just that…. uneducated and opinion and the only true sadness is you will never know the love of a Neo because of it.
Well, you’re so full of crap it isn’t even worth responding to.
We have data on how health breeds are, and golden retrievers, though not perfect, aren’t deformed sacks sagging canine flesh that die before they are 7 years old!
You Neo people are like dog fighters. Absolute scum of the earth.
One day, you will be locked up for breeding dogs like that!
Even the AKC page dedicated to Neapolitan Mastiffs admits (actually brags) about how hard it is to create healthy examples of this breed because it’s so inbred and extreme:
http://www.akc.org/breeds/neapolitan_mastiff/history.cfm
I have yet to see any other breed wear such a dismal fact like a badge of honor.
I know. They have no shame.
YOUR ALL CRACKED…LMAO… GETA LIFE. DONT LIKE THE TO STANDARD LOOK OF A NEO DONT ET ONE. THS GUY IS NOT NEARLY AS OVERDONE AS OME AND HE COMES FROM A VERY RESPECTABLE BREEDER WHO IM SURE NONE OF YOU BOTHERED TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT BEFORE POSTING A IC OF ER BABY, HER FAMILY MEMBER AND BASHING A BREED YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT NOR UNDERSTAND… STICK TO YOUR RETRIEVERS THERE RETRIEVERMAN..LOL.. OH, AND FOR THE RECORD, CANCER IS RELAVENT IN YOUR BREED AS WELL. LOL
I didn’t know golden retrievers got cancer?
Wow, thank you for informing me. It’s not like I ever had a dog die of cancer, but wait, it was 13 years old! Not 3!
So Neapolitan mastiff people aren’t all just moronic thugs?
Wow. That explains why you breed dogs with severe health issues and call them beautiful.
It has nothing to do with the looks. It has to do with the welfare of the dog.
Which you don’t give two shits about!
Got it!
I have heard of 17 year old golden retrievers.
Do 17 year old Neapolitan mastiffs exist?
There is more evidence for bigfoot and the Resurrection than that beast!
BTW, you might want to hit that caps lock key. It might be stuck.
Writing in all caps really makes you look deranged and stupid.
I figured it was some sort of accent. You know, leaving off the first letter of every word and shouting; sort of how hicks talk.
Something like that.
Yes, exactly LOL
So he’s not as bad as the very worst, most extreme examples? Kind of like being the highest turd on the pile then?
you really should do some research. My neos live longer that your proclaimed 7 years of age.
And, while we are not perfect, and have never claimed to be, we are actively working on improving the breed.
And you idiots keep talking about loose skin. They are SUPPOSED to have loose skin. That is so that if another animal bites them, such as on their necks, they don’t kill them by grabbing the carotid, for example. And, if another dog grabs another part of their anatomy. They will only get the “thick skin”. Not the muscle underneath. And, they can move within that layer of thick skin and attack back. And, they are very stoic dogs.
I’m sure you won’t have the balls to post this. ..
YOU KNOW NOTHING,
****
NB. This is Anne Goetz. She is the scum mentioned in the post.
She will no longer be given space on this blog to comment, though she keeps trying incessantly. She might want to stop.
Again, I don’t think she understands how Google works.
She might want to check out the Streisand Effect before she tries this again.
I generally make it a policy to remove photos from posts if asked nicely. She did not ask nicely, so I am not.
I’m posting this last one because I want my readers to know what an absolutely evil bitch you are.
I know more than you do. I know that osteosarcoma isn’t cause by concrete or vaccines. It’s GENETIC!
You have spent your life destroying what was once a useful dog.
This is your last comment, baby, enjoy it. You are a piece of shit, a homophobe, a bigot, a dog dealer, an unscrupulous dog dealer.
Your kind will one day be washed away in the great wave of history that is waking up to the “dog fancy’s.”
So thank you for exposing yourself and your entire kind to a broader audience.
You now have a Google problem from hell.
If I know nothing, then why do people read me?
Why am I quoted in book after book?
Why does no one but Neo dittoheads (and not all of them BTW) pay any attention to you and your pathetic white trash, Teabilly rantings?
They have to have loose skin because the Holy Text says so. How many gamebred pits look like Neos? 0.
Case closed.
I took your holy text, and I wiped my ass with it.
I burn your Koran. You declare fatwas. LOL.
I really wish that people could look outside the box. They see the heavily typed Neo and assume they are all that way. That couldnt be farther from the truth. “Over type” is a rarity. Most breeders are not trying to achieve this look. They know what kind of care and responsibility it is to own a dog with such type. It isnt easy. While most arent trying to produce this, it DOES happen, and when it does it must be taken with great care. While it is true that these guys do not have the life span of goldens, we are seeing more and more live to 10-12 years old. Most Giant breeds do not have that long of a life ie:great danes, newfoundlands, saints, etc.. And i must say that we are actively working to improve the health of this breed. And as well, The AKC standard is under review by the USNMC to create a better standard for over all health of the dogs. I, myself, love the breed, their personalities, their passion is next to none. I hope that you guys can research more and understand that those of us who love this breed are putting all resources into improving the breed.
I think you’re going to have to do a lot more to revise the standard.
Even a normal mastiff-type lifespan would be acceptable.
BTW, compared to the pantherine dogs that were collected in southern Italy, these dogs are extremely exaggerated.
Dogs are domesticated wolves. Mastiff-type dogs are breeding a jaguar out of a wolf. These dogs are making jaguar into a joke.
I have to say you all sound like a bunch of pretentious assholes. I rescued my first Neo when he was 4 years old turned out he was closer to 8, and passed away sadly 1 year later at 9 years old (last I checked that was the average Mastiff life span). My current Neo is a very healthy female with fantastic muscle tone and is as athletic as any working dog out there. The loose skin serves a purpose; to protect the dog from injury, and as crazy as my girl is she needs all the protection from injury she can get. They are a rough and tumble breed and are wonderful pets for the right people. I think it is pretty apparent that most of the people on this thread are not the “right type” of people for Neos. I am not really sure why you or anyone on this thread thinks they know about Neos considering most of you likely never actually seen or met a real Neo. Just a thought, but maybe what your blog should be focusing on other issues like the fact that Neos have now made their way into puppy mills. Inexperienced people are buying them and then dumping them in shelters where I get to go rescue and rehab them, or have to put them to sleep because they are not trained and bit a child. There are MUCH more important issues out there in the dog world and they have nothing to do with the amount of wrinkles a dog has… just a thought
LOL.
That old claim.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the dogs are a total fraud.
I’ve met them. Not good dogs.
There are tons of issues facing dogs, but this is one of the BIG ones– torture breeding.
That’s two dogs.
n=2
Not data I can use.
Good luck pretending you have gladiator dogs.
No one is laughing at you…
Why are Neo mastiff people all loutish thugs?
You’re right. I prefer dogs that live a normal, healthy lifespan & that are free from painful defects & that have a body that can keep up with their noble hearts. I could never own a Neo, it would be heartbreaking to love such a weak & fragile dog.
Mastiff breeds were my first love. Everyone who truly loves molossers is horrified at what has happened to the Neo. Instead of an image of canine power and beauty, they have become dribbly, floppy, fungus-infested cripples that die young. They are a sad parody of a war mastiff, and people who defend their deformation into the modern style should be ashamed of themselves. I pity these dogs.
I have no issue with mutations or ‘fancy points’ being perpetuated in dogs, per se (as anyone who sees my website will see). But there is a limit to how much an animal’s body can be shaped before it crosses the line into becoming warped and harmful to the animal, and an aspect of deformity rather than decoration. Neos passed that point decades ago.
http://hoof-and-paw.blogspot.com/2014/02/redefining-responsible-breeder.html