Here's my dog-kids...

[Willy Lee]

Cats and chickens later!





The neos (Dante and Aphrodite) are both rescues and both seniors. I have a huge soft spot for old dogs! And little Cloey is just a sassy newspaper dog.

[ehrnst]

1. Wow!

They are great! They look like Bassett Hounds on steroids - what breed are Dante and Aphrodite? Mastiffs?

[Willy Lee]

2. Bassets on steroids... so funny!

:rofl:

They're Neapolitan Mastiffs... I became involved with them by chance when I adopted Aphrodite 6 years ago. She is the darker colored girl. Had no idea what the breed was but once I saw her I was sold.

We got Dante just last year at 8 years old (their average life span). He had been hgorribly neglected, bred, and abandoned. For all that he is the most gentle and loving dog I've ever known.

They are an AMAZING breed! Extremely loyal, sensitive, mellow, and just a *tad* messy. We find drool on the floor, walls, ceiling, furniture, ourselves (!) you name it. One shake of that massive head and the neo nectar flies!

Still, it is so worth it to live with this noble breed. They literally shadow me everywhere in the house and cry pitifully when I shut the door on them (say to use the bathroom). Big babies!



(edited to add another pic)

[demnan]

4. It was nice of you to buy them a sofa!

Where do you sit down?

I have a similar problem. Your dogs are lovely, btw.

[Willy Lee]

7. We actually DID buy the couch for them!

Well, sort of... we had a cloth couch but DANG it got so stinky and dirty! Leather is really easy to clean and holds up well to their huge feet and toenails. It's worked out great.

I see you have a kitty toy suspended from the middle of your couch! Sweet!

Where do we sit? Well... it takes about 3 minutes to wake them up and persuade them to get down if we want to sit. Unless we wave a banana (or any food morsel), then they are down in a flash!

[BrklynLiberal]

16. I notice the kitty treats in the glass holders!! So it obviously really

is their couch...
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[ET Awful]

13. Nevermind, I hadn't read far enough down the thread :)

Beautiful pooches :0

[erinlough]

14. Beautiful dogs

They could eat my zoey for dinner and need more. I have seen and admired these dogs before and I'm glad to hear they are gentle because they sometimes look pretty scary. What babies they are all cuddled on the couch. Just great!

[kaitykaity]

3. They remind me of Beasley in Turner & Hooch, that

Tom Hanks movie, with the jowls and what you
said about the industrial drool. (I loved that
movie because of that dog.)

Same?

[Willy Lee]

5. Similar- Hooch was a French Mastiff,

or Dogue du Bordeaux (spelling probably wrong there). Neapolitans are Italian Mastiffs.

Remember Fang in Harry Potter, Hargrid's dog? That's a neo.

[kaitykaity]

6. That was a whole lotta dog.

Are neo's that size too?

:wow:

Thanks for the distinction. I had no idea there
were so many different mastiffs.

:)

[Willy Lee]

8. Not the 3-headed dog, silly!

The chicken dog that ran at any chance of danger!!!

[kaitykaity]

9. Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm still thinking about Hooch.

I think I've seen that movie 100 times over the
years. I still laugh at what he did to Scott's
house. "I'm running out of doors."

I didn't remember Hagrid's dog. Wondered if it
was the three-headed thing though.

[Willy Lee]

10. Oh, sorry!

:blush:

Then to answer your question... yeah. Ours aren't as big as they come- Aphrodite weighs in at 140 while The Don (or Dumptruck) averages about 125. It's not uncommon to see them in the 160-175 lb range. However, they still come in under the English Mastiff (tawny with dark face)- they average 200+ pounds.

[kaitykaity]

12. Good thing they're mellow.

Lol.

And it looks like you're rural so they have lots
of room to roam.

We had a chocolate lab puppy in an apartment
once. Didn't know what she was until we de-wormed
her and she started to grow.

She knocked over Mom's 6 foot plant stand and that
was that. We found her a home with a very large
yard.

Thanks for sharing them. Will look for the cats and
other parts of the crew.

:hi:

[Beaverhausen]

11. What great faces!!!

they are so cute!!!

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Wow. It is so nice that their ears are intact. They look so much nicer

that way. I could never understand why people crop dogs' ears anyway.
They both look like happy senior citizens...and lucky to hav found a home with you.
Cloey seems to round out the group perfectly. Your "cottage" looks like something out of a fairy tale. It is just lovely.
Thanks so much for sharing pics of your kids.
How old are they?
Going back to check out the rest of the thread to see if you answered already...

[Willy Lee]

17. Thanks for the kind words...

I, too, love the floppy ears. Dante came to us with a little stub of a tail- cropped WAY too short even for Neo standards. I'd never do that to a dog myself. Still, when he wags that little stub it's pretty darn cute!

The cottage is a shed that was on our property, we first converted it into a place we could roast coffee, once we outgrew that we converted it into a bakery. That will be moving out in a couple of months also as we're opening a retail store. I guess it will be the party shack from then on out!

We bought a great piece of land with a tiny tiny house, but we don't need much space! Took out a second to fence the entire property for the pooches. They have a great time roaming their turf and chasing away those scary squirrels. Well, that's mostly Cloey.

Dante will be 9 in August, Aphrodite turned 8 last Jan, and Lil Cloey is about 4. They're our life!

[China_cat]

18. Ear cropping started in Europe

to distinguish working dogs from pets. Pets were taxed, working dogs weren't. It just became tradition for certain breeds to be cropped until recently in Europe at least.

I have Bouviers and they look good natural eared. However, I do happen to like the cropped better. They look more alert. (Wouldn't bother me though if the practice was discontinued)

The Bouvier natural tail is another matter. That sucker is a lethal weapon.

[American Tragedy]

19. It depends on whether the ears are cut properly

My schnauzer's ears were cropped when she was a baby, and whoever did it really butchered them. It was hard to tell when she was a fluffy little puppy, but as she grew up the discrepancy in size and shape became very obvious. Her ears are quite assymetrical now, and although I now think it looks kind of cute and unique, I would definitely prefer that they had been left natural.

[roguevalley]

20. they are fantastic and so are you. I love old dogs. If these guys

ever kissed you, you are KISSED!