Since the thread is dying, I thought it'd be a good idea to revive it with a discussion geared towards an actual issue in the breed. This post of mine seen below can already be found on a couple of different forums: [color=orange]The desire to produce "beasts" in the Neo and Caucasian (or Hippos and Bears, respectively) has already seriously messed up the first and is starting to mess up the latter breed. People are impressed with large heads, broad shoulders, great mass and the overall look and vibe of Molossers, but many don't realize that such appearance was (as it should be) reserved for dogs that are fully mature, well over 4 years of age. Up until then, these dogs are supposed to look like normal and visibly functional un-exaggerated animals. The Neo, for instance, used to look nicely balanced, "under-typey" even in the past, at least until 4 years of age, when the size of the head and overall body mass would increase and the wrinkles become more pronounced. But since people are in awe of mature Neos of the past and apparently can't wait for a normal dog to simply grow up, the demand for the "over-typey" (or "old out of the box", as I like to call it) look has forced most breeders into producing non-functional, over-sized and hyper-typical mastini, while perfectly normal and correct dogs which are developing at a more natural rate are being ridiculed. Everyone wants a di Ponzano look, but most people only look at photos of fully mature di Ponzano dogs without realizing that those famous dogs (and most other strains) didn't look like that for the first 2 or 3 years of their lives at all. Same crap is happening in the Caucasian Ovcharka breed, where the new wave of "bear"-obsessed breeders are flooding the market with giant pups who look like, you guessed it - [u]bear cubs[/u], and grow to be ridiculously heavy, with super rich coats and enormous heads before even turning a year old! Who cares that their fat legs are getting shorter and shorter (like in the Neo breed) and their health is worsening (like in the Neo breed) and their lifespans getting shorter and shorter (like in the Neo breed)... So you basically have quite a vicious cycle at play, because when breeding dogs that look old before their time, the dogs interestingly enough don't live very long, so the pressure is on the breeders to produce dogs that look friggin' old at an even earlier age. As if that isn't bad enough, both breeds suffer from the same elitist attitude which demands outrageous prices for these dogs who sometimes die after only 2 years of age or get to live out their miserable handicapped lives until dropping dead at 4 or 5 years. And people pay ridiculous amounts of money for them... Now, if that isn't utterly retarded, I don't know what bloody is then.[/color] Perhaps I could've been "nicer" about it, but it is what it is. :wink: