Dogo Romano

This colossal mastiff is yet another attempt of re-creating the ancient Roman arena dogs, developed in 1996 by Stan DeMarco from Old English Mastiffs, Neapolitan Mastiffs, Bullmastiffs, French Mastiffs and Bandogges. By following his lifelong dream of establishing a breed that had the size and intimidating power of Roman wardogs and the trainability and calm temperament of the modern English Mastiff, DeMarco decided to start a serious and well-calculated breeding programme, using his Neapolitan Mastiff female as a foundation bitch for his creation. He found a male dog that was a cross between a Bullmastiff and an English Mastiff, which had all the desired physical and personality traits DeMarco was looking for, so he arranged the mating with his Neo female. From the resulting litter he selected the healthiest and biggest specimens to keep to himself. The following year, DeMarco acquired an adult male Dogue de Bordeaux and introduced it into his programme. Over the years, more English Mastiff blood was added for size and Neo blood for temperament. While he was satisfied with the physical appearance of his massive dogs, Stan DeMarco felt like the breed was not territorial and agile enough to be a good property guardian, so he added a Swinford-style Bandogge into his bloodline. After a few generations, the Dogo Romano started to look uniform and DeMarco decided to stop doing any outcrosses in 2003, hoping to establish a pure and consistent strain of healthy and resilient mastiffs in the United States.

Devoted to its owner and fairly easy to train, the Dogo Romano is said to make a good family companion and protector. This is not an overly aggressive breed, but it will not tolerate unfriendly dogs. Early socialization and responsible handling are very important to ensure proper development and behaviour characteristics of this Moloss. In appearance very close to the English Mastiff, the Dogo Romano is a very large and heavy mastiff, with a masive head and wide chest. Like some of its parent breeds, this creation has loose and moderately wrinkled skin. The ears are hanging low and close to the face. Both the black and red-nosed dogs are allowed.

The coat is short, dense and flat, coming in a wide variety of colourings, such as fawn, yellow, red, brown, black, blue and brindle, with white markings accepted on the chest and paws. Average height is around 30 inches.