Whenever we take Lucah anywhere Akiko and I are asked two questions: "what kind of dog is he?" and "how big is he going to get?" Our answers are always the same, "English Mastiff" and "200 lbs. or so". English Mastiffs are what is known in the dog world as a "Giant Breed". Some have said "large breed", but I think we can all agree that 2 spins on the scale can qualify a dog as a giant. The largest dog in the Guinness Book is usually an English Mastiff, the last one I know of was almost 400 lbs. People are quick to point out that Great Danes or Irish Wolfhounds are bigger, but these two breeds are just taller and longer, they do not have much meat on there bones. If you look at their weights they usually only get into the 150 lbs. range.
So why would people who live in an apartment get something that will out weigh most women?
After 2 years of research I found that Mastiffs don't need a lot of space. They are lazy dogs and their past times include sleeping, dozing, and snoozing. They are actually ideal apartment dogs since they love to be inside with their owners. There loyalty really shows, many times if I am downstairs in the kitchen I will turn around to see Lucah laying quietly on the floor watching me do the dishes or something. Half the time I don't even realize he is there and almost trip over him.
I am not saying if you live in a bachelor apartment and you have a 2 foot by 2 foot space to go out and by a giant dog. We have an interesting set up here. We live in an attic. A major drawback of this is our ceilings are pitched and get very low near the walls. One good thing is that this gives us empty floor space where most people would put furniture. Since we had the available floor space we were able to build Lucah a little room. Since he may be only 30 inches at the shoulder it will be a perfect height for him. It is very important that a dog gets a place they can call their own. Nothing fancy, just a little den so they can get some privacy. With some PVC piping, chicken wire, and violations to me lease agreement I was able to give Lucah a room with a view of everything, but still some privacy for himself.
We don't plan to stay here forever either and hopefully we are out of here before he is "full grown". Mastiffs grow pretty big, but it takes them over 2 years to get there. We hope to have bought a home by then and he can have more yard to play in. He will still sleep inside, of course, but we imagine with a house he will have more roaming and playing room. We have noticed when he chases his toys now he runs out of room real quick.
As for his size we aren't really concerned about him being "too big". Mastiffs are a gentle breed if raised properly, so he is likely to be a big moving couch rather than this giant animal. We make sure we feed him food made specifically for large breed puppies. Large breed puppy food has less protein and fat than regular puppy food so it doesn't push growth too much. Some irresponsible people might get the idea that they will try and grow the largest dog they can and feed supplements to boost growth. Unfortunately the only thing this does is cause the muscles to grow faster than bone and tendons which lead to very crippling injuries.
A dog will only grow what it's genetics will dictate. Lucah's mom is 160 lbs. and his dad was (he died due to a rattle snake bite) around 200 lbs. That will probably put Lucah in the range of 180 to 210 lbs. I will still out weigh him (damn Pop Tarts) so if he gets out of line we can take it outside. But really we just want him to be healthy and happy and don't really care what size he is.
It would be nice to be able to strap a saddle to him to save on gas though.
