Loss of Faith
Editor’s note: We have been after Sherilyn Allen, VMD, to write for us for years now. Fanciers who have been in the breed for any length of time will recognize her Ironstone kennel as a major player in the breed in the 1980s and ’90s. She always begged off, saying anything she had to say would be “too negative.” Allen finally agreed to share her thoughts on the breed – and why she has effectively left it – and, as promised, the following piece is hardly optimistic. But the message is important: Today’s Neapolitan Mastiff is light years removed from the dogs of three decades ago (such as Enea of Ponzano, above), who embodied the magnificence of the breed without becoming a caricature. Toughen your skin, and read on.
I’ve been asked to write a bit on the evolution of the Neapolitan Mastiff in the United States from the 1980s until now. Thirty years of memories, thoughts, observations and opinions are a lot to retrieve.
Current facts about the players in the breed today are really unknown to me, as I chose to “forget” the Neo about seven years ago, around the time the Neapolitan gained full American Kennel Club recognition. At the time, I felt that recognition for the American-born Neo by the AKC was the only way to promote competition and success with the breed in and by the rest of the FCI-governed dog world. I also thought that bringing the Neo into the AKC would force the attention of Neo breeders toward creating a sounder and healthier dog.
But the AKC judges, who I had originally hoped would bring soundness to the breed, because what wins in the ring is what the competitor breeds for, had been indoctrinated with a different set of standards. In their eyes, massiveness equals obesity; ponderous movement means crippled is OK in this breed; wrinkles on the head mean the more wrinkled the better, even if one can’t find the eyes; being a head breed means that one does not have to judge on anything but the head.
What the AKC judges pick as winners determines the development of the breed. If they pick dogs with skin problems, then no breeder will care about trying to eliminate the reason for skin problems in their breed. If the judges pick the dogs that start coughing and collapse when being gaited around the ring (as I once witnessed at a Neo specialty), then breeders will not care about trying to get cardiomyopathy out of the breed. If judges pick the dogs with the most skin and wrinkles on the face and dewlap, and don’t bother to look at the infected and scarred eyes under all the skin, then breeders won’t care about eye problems that occur because they are breeding for too much skin. If judges continue to place lame dogs and crippled dogs because they think Neos do not need to be sound, then breeders will not care about orthopedic soundness, either.
A trio of Mastini that were typical of the 1980s, from the famous di Ponzano kennel of Mario Querci: Argo, Quintiliana and Rebecca of Ponzano. All three were exhibited at the 1983 World Dog Show in Madrid, with Quintiliana taking Best of Breed.
As a breeder, my goal in the 1980s was to create a typey Neo that was sound and athletic. The Neos that were in the United States at the time did not look like the Neos pictured in Christofer Habig’s Molosser Magazin. The Neos in the U.S. at the time were rather slight of bone compared with the Neos of today. They also did not have much head and wrinkle, and their muzzles were in general too long. They had a tendency to be sharp, but they were fairly intelligent on average. Some Neos were very intelligent, and the bigger, heavier, shorter-legged, more wrinkled ones with more orthopedic problems and more thyroid problems were often downright dull and stupid.
In my search to get breeding stock that was bigger, heavier, capable of reproducing, had head and mass and wrinkle, and still could have decent hips and elbows, I travelled extensively in Italy, France and Germany, went to a lot of shows, spoke to a lot of European breeders and Neo owners, did a ton of research, and purchased a lot of Neos. I learned quite a bit from dealing with the Neo breeders in the U.S. at the time. I bred a lot and did a lot of culling. If a problem appeared in a puppy, I got rid of the mother. If a problem appeared in another puppy from a different bitch, same stud as the first, I got rid of the stud. I got rid of a lot of dogs. I was losing a lot of money. I was making some very nice dogs as well.
Above and below: Aronne, another Mastino from the 1980s who graced the pages of Christofer Habig’s now highly collectible Molosser Magazin. “Type with great soundness,” Habig wrote of him.
A Neapolitan Mastiff breeder is a masochist. That is all there is to it. The energy and money expended, and the care required for the mothers and the puppies, are absolutely extraordinary. The things I did to get these dogs – which humans had reduced to being incapable of reproducing easily, properly and in many cases naturally – was crazy. Once the puppies are on the ground, it is 24 hours per day of intensive care until they are eating on their own at three weeks of age, and even then the mother will lie on them and squash them.
I refused to tube-feed puppies. If they could not suck, then they were deformed (I finally figured out the problem), and I put them down. I would bottle-feed as needed. If a mother Neo was one of those that ate her puppies after giving birth, she was culled. If any demodex appeared in the line – and believe me, in the early days, most everything I got from Italy was demodex prone – then I got rid of both parents. It took a lot of breeding, and tracking of pedigrees, and finally learning what diseases and infirmities were even present in Neos, to figure out how to breed them for soundness and health.
After nearing the point of utter exhaustion from years of trying to breed these things and caring for them, and spending money on them, and even going the Italian way of getting Beagle surrogates to raise the Neo puppies, I made the decision to get rid of every male that would not breed naturally (with human help, of course); to get rid of every bitch that would not get pregnant; to get rid of every bitch that did not whelp by herself (i.e., that needed a C-section), and to get rid of every bitch that would not be a mother and feed her puppies. Pretty soon I hardly had any dogs. The puppies I produced were really healthy. They were good minded. I got a lot of OFA-certified Neos. I did Penn-HIP on all of them, with great scores. The problem was, they no longer had type.
It was sometime in the 1990s that I then went to Italy for the ATIMANA (the Associazione Tecnica Internazionale Mastino Napoletano, the first and only global association for the breed) and gave a speech on health in the Neapolitan Mastiff. I elucidated all the health problems to those Italian mastinari (as if they didn’t already know every one of them – they just weren’t admitting it to anyone, especially American buyers of Neapolitan Mastiffs). And then I made the mistake of telling them that if they were interested in the longevity of the breed, they might think about choosing to breed for either type or for soundness, but that they could not have both. Some of the Naples contingent wanted to run me out of Italy for heresy.
I kept on breeding until 2004 or so, just when the Neo got accepted into the AKC. I eventually got my type back. However, my favorite dogs were the more athletic ones with less type. They were smart. They were working dogs. I did not need to spend money dealing with all their ailments.
Of all the hundreds of Neos I owned and bred, my favorite ones were always named Islero.
Islero del Bonrampino at about seven years of age in 1993. Note very broad head, typical of the 1980s. Relatively tight eyelids. Clear eyes. Enough dewlap and lip, but not too much.
The first Islero was Islero del Bonrampino, born in 1986, imported from Giovanni Maja, a breeder in Italy. He had a son, Ironstone Islero II, who was really pretty, and sound. Finally, in 2004, I bred one of my Orso bitches with frozen semen from Islero del Bonrampino, and got Ironstone Islero, who was the spitting image of his father. An Italian breeder came to my house in 2007. I showed him Ironstone Islero. “Oh,” he said, “he is like the old working Neo of 30 years ago. He is the old cane è presa.” “Yes,” I said, “because his father was a 1986 model.”
Ironstone Islero, in 2008 at four years of age. He is a frozen-semen-produced son of Islero del Bonrampino. He is very athletic, lot of leg, looks very dry in comparison with the Neos being produced for show today. He was good minded, loved people. He ran free on the horse farm of his recent owner, Susan Schramm. He was smart. But when a mare pinned Susan in the corner of a stall and was savaging her leg, Islero ran to his mistress’ aid and unfortunately savaged the horse. The poor horse lived, but it took a year to heal the wounds on her back. This dog, Islero, is the epitome of what I believe the Neapolitan Mastiff should be. He is beautiful, certainly awe inspiring in person, smart, athletic, a companion and a protector. He has the soundness and orthopedic soundness to be an athlete. What good is a dog that can only stand around and pant in the sun and look intriguing in a photo, but that cannot be an athlete?
Here is a Neo bitch I owned at around two years of age in 2007. She is more typey than Islero, more typical of what people want in a Neo today. She is shorter of leg. She has more wrinkle on her body. The bone in her legs is thicker than the bone in Islero’s legs. She has a narrower head than Islero, and hence more wrinkle. She is weaker in the top line because she is heavy for her size. She has a lovely head and constant infection of her dewlap from demodex. Her feet are swollen and infected. She has eye problems. She looks very nice in the picture as far as desirable Neo type goes. She had cardiomyopathy. She was on medication for her eyes, her skin, her heart, constantly. She was very expensive to take care of. She died of bloat. She was a typical Neapolitan Mastiff of the time.
This is Ironstone Grace, female around two years of age. She is very typey and sound. Lot of mass. As is typical with such typey bitches, they are difficult to get pregnant. I do not remember if she ever had any puppies. She is a combination of sound and typey in the Neo, as far as I am concerned. She fits the breed standard. She is not overdone.
I am amused by the 2010 Italian proposal for changing the FCI breed standard again. Interestingly, the changes they propose are an attempt to limit the overindulgences in type, which they recognize as manifestations of the infirmities in the Neapolitan Mastiff breed.
Ramon del Bonrampino, also owned by Sherilyn Allen.
They know that the excessive hanging, loose skin that creates all the wrinkles on the head, dewlap and rest of the body is due to a defect in the connective tissue of the entire organism. It may be akin to Hereditary Equine Regional Dermal Asthenia (HERDA) in quarter horses and Ehler-Danlos syndrome in people, where there is a defect in the elastin matrix of the connective tissue. Hence loose joints, with, eventually, arthritic disease, and weak muscles, including the heart muscle, resistance to healing of wounds, etc. The Italian fix for this: Change the standard to read, “The folds of skin should never compromise the functionality of the eyes.” They eliminate the description, “The elbows are covered with abundant loose skin” and add the description of the skin as “Thick, abundant, and loose all over the body, without exaggeration.” Then they increase the height and weight of the Neo, and substitute for the description of its appearance, the word “large” instead of “large, heavy, and massive.”
By the time the new FCI standard for the Neapolitan Mastiff is rewritten, it will describe an English Mastiff more than a Neapolitan Mastiff. The resulting dog that would fit the new standard would certainly be healthier than the old Neapolitan Mastiff. Trying to get an eye without upper-lid entropion caused by the heavy, thick wrinkling over the brow, and the ectropion of the lower lids, caused by the heavy wrinkles of the lips and dewlaps pulling the eyelids down, will effectively result in the elimination of the heavy wrinkling of the face – the trademark of the Neo. The only way the tight eye can happen is to remove the heavy wrinkles. (Granted, the English Mastiff has been getting more and more wrinkled lately, with concomitant upper lid-entropion and lower-lid ectropion.) So, the Neapolitan Mastiff will look more and more like the English Mastiff, and the English Mastiff will look more and more like the Neapolitan, until only color will tell the two apart.
Ch. El Gavilan della Alta Fiumara, bred and owned by Antonio di Lorenzo, was the sire of Ramon and Islero del Bonrampino. “Note the tight eyes, because the heads were broader and the wrinkles on top not as heavy,” Allen says.
But maybe it won’t be that simple. How can one change a breed type from wrinkled to less wrinkled if all the ancestors are wrinkled in the head and carry the genes for copious, wrinkled, heavy skin? Does one throw a few English Mastiffs or Great Danes into the mix? Think about it: How are you going to get new traits to show up in a breed when they do not exist? Actually, how did the rather dry Neapolitans of the 1950s end up with all the wrinkles and heavy skin and massive bone they have today? There are people in the Italian countryside who know how this happened. DNA testing was not done until the last decade. Lots of things happened to make the Neapolitan Mastiff what it is today. And lots of things will happen to make it what certain groups want to make it become in the future, so that it can fit into the health standards of the new self-proclaimed breed police.
Times are changing, and as our society becomes more and more tech oriented, it becomes less and less animal savvy. Americans on the East and West coasts are not involved so much in animal husbandry or agricultural endeavors anymore. They do not know how to deal with animals in general, especially giant, messy dogs that need a dominant, albeit benevolent figure in their life. I believe this is why the Neo breeders now tend to be in the Midwest and West now, where Americans still have their rural and animal-oriented roots, rather than on the coasts anymore.
No matter how many times you tell the prospective buyer who wants to purchase “a puppy who will be another family member to us” that Neos are very difficult to housebreak, that they urinate about every half-hour until they are four months old, that they drool when they drink, that they are prone to all sorts of orthopedic developmental diseases, the people do not listen. I have learned that there are animal-people who know how to handle big, assertive and potentially aggressive dogs, and there are people-people who will never be able to handle any dog. They are the ones who make movies about yellow Labs that run rampant through the house destroying everything for years. No, there are very few Americans to whom one can sell a Neapolitan Mastiff anymore.
If the breeders of Neos breed dogs with too many health problems as a result of type, the market will not be there for the puppies. So people will change their criteria for breeding. The Italians are doing it already, because they have seen their market decline.
In the future, I think fewer breeders will show their dogs because of economics. Of those that do show, the majority will be newbies. The long-time breeders will not value the opinion of a judge who knows nothing about the breed anyway. Eventually breeders of Neapolitan Mastiffs will lose interest in showing and hence in breeding for the show ring. Look what has happened to many prominent Neapolitan Mastiff breeders in the past two years. Some have gone bankrupt and given their dogs away. Some disappeared. Some just got out of Neos. When there is no more social networking at shows and dialogue between breeders who are in competition with one another, the industry gradually stops.
The Neos of the 1980s were lean and dry, but not more sound than the Neos of today. The Neos of the 2000s gradually became more and more overdone, and less sound. Recently however, the Neos appearing at the shows seem to be pretty, sound and with adequate, but not overdone type. I do not have any photos of the 2011 USNMC Neapolitan Mastiff Specialty winners. But the previous issue of Modern Molosser does have photos. The dogs pictured are sound, elegant and impressive.
Accompanying the story is a picture of a Neo from Amazing Love Neapolitan Mastiffs (pictured here). I do not know this kennel, but the dog is exquisite. The head proportions and wrinkles are perfect. The dog looks intelligent. The front legs are incredibly straight. The bone is wonderful. That, in my opinion, is a wonderful and perfect Neapolitan Mastiff. Kudos. I hope it was a product of a natural breeding, and not of some surgical insemination. I hope its mother whelped it freely. I hope it can breed naturally. I hope it doesn’t smell. I can’t see any sores on its body in the photo. I hope it stands quietly when examined by the vet, not lunging and tugging on the lead, pulling its owner all over the place, and trying to bite the vet when touched. I hope it is faithful to its owners, and tolerates but rather ignores other people.
Then my faith might be restored for the breed.
About the Author
Sherilyn Allen is a veterinarian who spent about 25 years immersed in the husbandry and study of the Neapolitan Mastiff. Daily, she continues to be presented with some new Neapolitan Mastiff problem that she did not previously know about. It is after you think you know it all that the real learning starts. Now she is immersed in horses.