Does anyone own an English Mastiff?

I own an English MAstiff and run a group of 125 with all mastiffs with many people having rescued or fostering. The thing to remember about mastiffs is that they really are very tenderhearted so be as gentle and slow with them as possible to gain their trust. They are big on companionship and if you establish yourself as a loving companion for them they will respect you. Simple things like entering dorrs in front of them, eating before them, not letting them on couch or where you sleep establishes this too. I practice NILF ( nothing in life is free) and so anything he wants even if it is as simple as more water in the bowl means he needs to do a very simple trick like sitting on command. If he wants a stuffed animal I put up or a treat or to go check out a squirrel or greet someone on the street, same thing. I am also very loving and sweet with him while I am enforcing this - nothing military like. I have foudn that even a slight stern voice with him freezes him up rather than making him respond better.

As for food, we feed Timberwolf which is great and available online. The higher quality foods like Timberwolf have smaller portion sizes per pound of dog because they are such dense packed with great ingredients filling foods. My mastiff is 160 lbs and he eats 4-5 cups a day and doesnt eat a lot of treats - maybe one dog biscuit or greenie , etc a day - thats it. He just fills up on the good food faster and I know it is staying in him and being put to good use because his weight is good and he has very little stool.

I think also that these foods taste a whole lot better so there is more incentive to eat so maybe that would help your guy put on weight. I know if I had to help a mastiff gain weight I would go with the higher priced food because then you know you are feeding them great stuff and honestly the price difference isnt that much considering on bad or just moderately bad food you will be feeding 9 cups or more - its just a case of doing the math.

Hope this helps and bless you for helping this big guy out!

The issue is that dogs are poor generalizers - it's not that the dog is "sneaky, greedy" etc, but that they have no intrinsic sense of morality or "rightness" and so only think something is "bad" if it has bad consequences. If it has never had bad consequences except with a human in the room, then how on earth are they to know that the rules still apply with the human out of the room? You need to train in such a way that corrections and rewards occur when the dog does not think you are present - i.e. hiding around the corner. Read here https://tr.im/05juU

I personally owned a Labrador Retriever (read: chow hound) that could be left 6" from a hot dog in a sit-stay for half an hour and not touch it - the word was "mine" and it meant that you don't touch that, even if I am not in the room, even if whatever, you DO NOT touch that. You could leave a plate of food on the floor for hours and not only would she not touch it, she would also keep the other animals (dogs and cats) from touching it.

In all probability, these dogs studied were just not properly trained/proofed before the experiment. With "proofing" to set them up and catch them in the act to give

Try this food to put weight on him- http://www.dogbehavioronline.com/store/index.php?c...

It's great stuff and it comes delivered to you.

For some good dog training tips about how to establish yourself as the leader go to this website-

http://www.dogbehavioronline.com/

they are my DREAM dog...i want one...my friend that used to live down the road from me she had one named Abby...she was gorgeous...weighed 282 lbs.

hugeeeeee dog!

feed him some puppy food for a while...that got my dog right back to health when she had gotten some parasites

yes i do if in question email me at melanielimegreen@hotmail.com

theyre huge.