Comment to 'The phenomenon of excessive skin'
  • I found this article on neoowners.com and thought to share it here for your comments.

    With permission to share from~Cacep Mastino Napoletano~This is off of face book and was written by an italian gentlemen. Please share any opinion you might have.
    The phenomenon of excessive skin is more common abroad than in Italy, but this should not make us complacent, as the country of origin of the Neapolitan Mastiff has the duty to direct the breeding with criteria of address and selection. The excessive skin, or pushed lymphatism, are directly related to lack of nevrile behaviour, resulting in the dog drowsiness, apathy, lack of attention to what happens around them.


    For the future of our beloved dog, a more toned and athletic Neapolitan Mastiff should be selected, more lean and muscular, with right ridges and defined wrinkles, but above all with strong character, dominant, with carried high head and scimitar like tail if in position of attention. All this without losing a single gramme of authenticity, on the contrary perhaps restoring it. As you can see from the picture, these goals can be achieved without sacrificing the authenticity. With any other molossus lover you could talk with, from the Bullmastiff Dogue de Bordeaux, the Mastiff, but also and especially with breeders of not mastino-like mastiffs, as Dogo Argentino or Fila, you will always talk about the behaviour of the dog, and it is unclear why only the Neapolitan Mastiff breeders should stop giving importance to this essential aspect. The ancient fathers of the Mastino gave us an intelligent dog, not unnecessarily aggressive and violent, but when gone wild unstoppable and not afraid of anything, a dog that fights against any opponent, be it a buffalo rather than another dog.

    The ancient fathers of the Mastiff are not those who breed from the seventies, but those who had Mastins before the war, in the nineteenth century and even before, and if the Mastin senses, looks reflective to his owner, attacks only if necessary, but when starts turns terrible, it is because this selection was made by people who used the Neapolitan Mastiff for a specific purpose and not in a box waiting for a dog show. Surrending to the virtuality of modern life, to the fact that every equilibrium is gone, and that everything has lost its value and its function, means applying a code for the destruction of everything is beautiful and ancient. In this list of beauties to preserve and defend, the Neapolitan Mastiff, the old "Cane 'e Presa", occupies one of the most important positions, positions that go beyond the dog world, as it is something more: art, culture, tradition. That's why ours is not a dog, like many others, but a monument.