Other & Specialty Breeds

Attached is our Old English Mastiff. Sage is a rescue in got for my wife last year

She was 180 pounds when I got her in mid August 2025 foe my wife’s birthday. Chance our big boy Mastiff died when he was 13 years old and my wife was mourning his passing over a year. Chance was a malnourished abused Old English Mastiff where I adopted him from Springfield Missouri when he was 18 months old. He was nothing but bones and only weighed 70 pounds, which was less than half of what the normal weight Attached are pictures of Sage. I will post more pictures of Sage and I will post pictures of Chance.

I raised dogs of all kinds all my life. I had from little Tiny Teacup Poodles, to Yorkies, German Shorthair Pointers, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Labrador Retrievers, Shitzu, Chihuahuas, Toy Poodles, Pit Bulls, Standard Poodle, mixed breeds of all sizes, French Bulldog, and last but not least, the Old English Bull Mastiff. In this post, I will discuss Old English Bull Mastiffs.

The first Old English Mastiff I adopted was a six-month-old light blond female named Blondie. I was shopping at PetSmart in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and a lady had a larger Old English Mastiff on a leash with her. She asked me if I liked her dog, and I said, Of course. She told me her dog was for sale for $1,500 firm. I told her I would buy her. Besides Blondie, I also purchased two Maine Coon kittens for my kids. Blondie was a sweetheart and a gentle giant. Large boned and clumsy.

After having Blondie for a year with us, I purchased her a brother from Oklahoma. I paid $3,000 for a 10-week-old Old English Mastiff. We named the brown six-month-old light blond le Old English Mastiff Dagwood. Eventually, they bonded together and were inseparable. Unfortunately, Dagwood died when he was no more than three years old on the way to the animal hospital. He passed due to respiratory issues or infection. Blondie passed away when she was about six years old due to a brain tumor.

After about a year or so, I discovered a guy in Boca Raton, Florida, had a one-year-old Mastiff and could no longer keep him. I saw pictures of the Mastiff, and he was a giant for a 12-month-old Old English Mastiff. The dog was Bentley, and he eventually reached approximately 275 pounds. Bentley was a gentle giant who passed away when he was six. Do not know the cause of death. My family and I, including all our dogs, were in Central Wisconsin because my father-in-law was dying. Bentley passed in Central Wisconsin and had him cremated at an animal hospital in Adams County, Wisconsin.

Right around the time I adopted Bentley, I adopted another Old English Mastiff, Chance. Chance was close to two years old and an abused, malnourished Mastiff. I arranged transportation for Chance to be delivered to my house in Wisconsin from Springfield, Missouri. I could not believe how Chance’s physical shape was when he arrived at my home around 8 pm. Chance must have weighed no more than 75 pounds; you can see every rib on both sides due to being starved by these cruel, evil so-called dog owners. The owners got charged and arrested for animal cruelty, and Chance was placed in a foster home. Chance’s foster parent told my wife and me that if we think Chance looks bad now, we should have seen him two months ago. He told us you cannot recognize that Chance was a dog, just bones with loose skin. Chance was a godsend, a great older brother to all our other dogs, loyal, well-behaved, super smart, and grateful to have a home with loving parents and many brothers and sisters. Chance turned out to live to be 13 years old. My wife’s favorite dog was the one she was devastated by when he passed away. If it were most folks, they would have put Chance to sleep when he was 11 years old because he lost the strength in his rear legs and needed to be carried through a back harness to go potty or move about. He then got sick multiple times in the last year he was alive, so we took him to the animal emergency. After Chance passed, my wife Laurie prayed daily that she missed Chance and that one day God would connect her with another Mastiff just like Chance in her life. This was going on for over two years, where she prayed, and not a day went by that she did not think of Chance. Laurie’s birthday was August 14th, so she has pretty much everything she needs and wants, and it wasn’t easy to find her a gift she would remember, cherish, and appreciate as a special once-in-a-lifetime birthday gift. Since she mentioned Chance daily and prayed, I was looking for a similar dog to Chance. An Old English Mastiff, around two years old, with similar characteristics to Chance. I turned to Facebook Marketplace, and one ad stuck out. A two-year-old female Old English Mastiff needed a new home because their young children had severe allergies. A great family, and the gentleman, Mike, was a true animal lover who was teary-eyed and never had to rehome a dog. His wife, Mike, and his children really loved the dog, and unlike Chance, Zoey was very well cared for. I drove two hours to Kankakee, Illinois, from Salem, Wisconsin, to pick Zoey up I met Mike, a gentleman and scholar, and Zoey. Zoey is a big girl. 160 pounds. Extremely intelligent. Picked Mike as her person and was super attached to Mike.

When I arrived at their home, I saw Mike sitting in a chair in the front yard, the garage overhead door open, and Zoey nearby, without a leash. This was Monday, August 25, 2025. Zoey is a dog who is hardly ever leashed. When Mike walked to the park four blocks away, Zoey heeled by him and walked alongside him without a leash. Mike picked Zoey up and put her in the rear of my SUV. She is extremely skittish. She was well-behaved on the two-hour drive back home. When I got home, my wife met me outside and greeted Zoey. I have never seen a dog so terrified once I opened the hatch of my SUV, where she made a run to get loose. Luckily, I had a leash on her. We had to calm her down and have her believe that we were not out to hurt her, and we love her and protect her.

It was a good 30 minutes before I got a choker and a different, stronger leash, and I escorted her towards the garage service door leading to the house. She did not want to go. Little by little, we made progress with baby steps. As we entered the house, something from the garage fell off a shelf and made a noise, which alarmed Zoey. My wife comforted her, and I wanted her in the house. She was so nervous and scared that she pooped. Eventually, I took her to the main bedroom and closed the door so no other dogs could commingle with her until she got to know her surroundings. Poor girl eventually walked around the house and got to know every room on the first floor. That evening, she slept in the main bedroom away from our other dogs. The next morning, I took her out again solo, and she did fine peeing and pooping.

The next morning was yesterday. She ate dog food and drank for the first time since she came home. Zoey is still skittish, but is beginning to trust my wife, where she will go to her when called and follow her around. I will let you all know how we are doing. It would be a week before Zoey lets her guard loose and maybe 30 days or more before she realizes this will be her new home. We will see, but so far, so good.

• This discussion was modified 6 months, 1 week ago by  Gustan Cho.