English Mastiff Dog

The following description of a perfect Mastiff, taken from the Old English Mastiff Club's _Points of a Mastiff_, is admirable as a standard to which future breeders should aim to attain.

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POINTS OF THE MASTIFF: GENERAL CHARACTER AND SYMMETRY--Large, massive, powerful, symmetrical and well-knit frame. A combination of grandeur and good nature, courage and docility.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF HEAD--In general outline, giving a square appearance when viewed from any point. Breadth greatly to be desired, and should be in ratio to length of the whole head and face as 2 to 3.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BODY--Massive, broad, deep, long, powerfully built, on legs wide apart, and squarely set. Muscles sharply defined. Size a great desideratum, if combined with quality. Height and substance important if both points are proportionately combined.

SKULL--Broad between the ears, forehead flat, but wrinkled when attention is excited. Brows (superciliary ridges) slightly raised. Muscles of the temples and cheeks (temporal and masseter) well developed. Arch across the skull of a rounded, flattened curve, with a depression up the centre of the forehead from the medium line between the eyes, to half way up the sagittal suture.

FACE OR MUZZLE--Short, broad under the eyes, and keeping nearly parallel in width to the end of the nose; truncated, _i.e._ blunt and cut off square, thus forming a right angle with the upper line of the face, of great depth from the point of the nose to under jaw. Under jaw broad to the end; canine teeth healthy, powerful, and wide apart; incisors level, or the lower projecting beyond the upper, but never sufficiently so as to become visible when the mouth is closed. Nose broad, with widely spreading nostrils when viewed from the front; flat (not pointed or turned up) in profile. Lips diverging at obtuse angles with the septum, and slightly pendulous so as to show a square profile. Length of muzzle to whole head and face as 1 to 3. Circumference of muzzle (measured midway between the eyes and nose) to that of the head (measured before the ears) as 3 to 5.

EARS--Small, thin to the touch, wide apart, set on at the highest points of the sides of the skull, so as to continue the outline across the summit, and lying flat and close to the cheeks when in repose. EYES--Small, wide apart, divided by at least the space of two eyes. The stop between the eyes well marked, but not too abrupt. Colour hazel-brown, the darker the better, showing no haw.

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