This dog is a monstrosity.
End of story.
This is not an argument about aesthetics.
This is an argument about welfare.
This dog’s eyes are constantly exposed to the elements. It can’t close and lubricate its eyes properly. If you had eyelids like that, you’d be bitching about the how much pain and discomfort you were experiencing.
“But they’re supposed to look like that!”
No. They aren’t.
I don’t care what wins prizes at a dog show.
It is wrong to breed a dog that has these defects.
And what about its lips?
There is no way that having such pendulous flews is comfortable.
Further, dogs communicate with their faces, but this poor dog can’t fully express itself.
This breed has been designed for the vanity of man. It is not the ancient molosser dog of the Romans. That romantic fantasy hasn’t been confirmed in any genetic literature, and the real origin of this dog is with the farm guardian mastiffs of southern Italy.
Everything about this dog is mythological.
And too many of their fancier have very little grounding in reality.
They don’t care that the conformation standards of this breed require breeding for such a monstrosity.
Just so long as their egos are puffed up with their fantasy Roman war dogs.
I don’t believe in animal rights at all.
But this is a dog.
This is a creature that has emotions and instincts.
It has evolved to bond intensely with humans, so much so that it becomes part of our families.
An animal that is capable of having such a deep and intimate relationship with us deserves so much more.
We need sane breed standards.
Not standards that reward such unbelievable stupidity.
That is shocking. And it looks not very handsome, either, so I don’t understand why breeders would want it to look like this.
Really sad, dogs are so much more civilized than many humans.
This makes me sad. As a certified vet tech for the past 12 years I have seen a lot of suffering, and I can only imagine all the health problems these poor dogs must suffer. Eye issues, skin issues, joint issues, bone disease, drastically shortened life span, and the list goes on. It is too bad that dogs bred with a useful purpose often have excruciating health issues without breeding one that will ultimately have them all at the same time.
The AKC standard page is…interesting:
http://www.akc.org/judges/guides/neapolitan_mastiff/standard.cfm
It would be interesting if they could explain WHY these dogs must look that way.
“The essence of the Neapolitan is his bestial appearance, astounding head and imposing size and attitude.” That really pisses me off! Everything I’ve seen indicates that these are gentle and affectionate animals. Another victim of anthropmorph-centric SOBs.
The comments (in italic) accompanying the Standard do indicate that “it is not a case of ‘more is better’” regarding wrinkles/folds, and several of the photos used appear to be much more moderate than the dog at the top of this article (although still a bit much!). Unfortunately, it seems to be human nature to seek the extreme, regardless of other considerations.
Found this site. makes an interesting comparison. http://oldworkingneos.yolasite.com/
Now that’s more like it. Still a bit too much sclera showing (about as much as my Sammie) but a vast improvement over the others we seen.
Is this another dog from that breeder in India?
No. This one is American.
My word, that is far from right, and to think people find my Estrelas double dewclaws odd, weird, etc. but yet, that, is supposed to be normal?
You are right of course, they do deserve much more, far better than, that.
what really gets me about these dogs and the rubbish spouted about them is the fact that these dogs where supposed to go to war with the roman army. REALLY i mean come on. could you see this dog running into battle with all that protective armour they think was put on them, and do they really thing it could manage to walk and run the miles and miles and miles day after day that roman armies did. I can just imagine what a celt would make of that great jowly drooling beast, the poor neo wouldnt even see the sword coming down on him for all the slobber and flesh.
And from what i understand and i may be wrong here didnt a lot of the large dogs that the romans so admired originally come from britain, im sure ive read how they loved the dogs we bred. Im darned sure we didnt and dont have slobbering jowly creatures like this our war dogs could run for miles day after day and where something to be feared on the battlefield, or maybe im wrong and the ancient celts didnt have large war dogs. they certainly didnt have any like this.
This is where I have to speak in favour of the British Kennel Club: firstly in rewriting the breed standards to exclude unhealthy descriptions and now enforcing these reforms via veterinary inspections at major shows. They have a fight on their hands against the entrenched interests which resist reformation, but since a large majority within the dog showing fraternity support the KC actions my guess is that the worst deformities will gradually diminish and some hopeless breed designs will disappear altogether.
A bigger problem may be how to deal with inner weakness. One example is the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which has two virtually endemic horrendous conditions: syringomyelia, where the skull is too small for the brain and a conditiuon where the mitral heart valve leaks. Sadly there seem to be hundreds of owne who accept mitral valve disease as part of the price to be paid for the pleasure of owning such a pleasant dog. We had a cavalier back in the sixties, when I suspect the disease was not yet very prevalent, but since then too many dogs carrying it have evidently been widely used at stud and really the breed is now effectively ruined I’m afraid.
On one of Tracey’s points up there, the Romans are recorded as getting their dogs of war from our ancient British tribes who were among the first commercial dog breeders it seems. Unfortunately the Romans did not leave it at buying our dogs, they also had an unfortunate trendency to take some of us back to Rome as slaves!
fat fingers – tendency not trendency, although that’s a good new word.
Quite likely the war dogs taken back to Rome from here were among the ancestors of that that neapolitan monster above and who knows, maybe the roman legion which disappeared when ambushed in the bavarian forest may have had with it one or two of those compact travelling companions the dachshund. LOL
Couldn’t agree more and can’t understand what these breeders are thinking when they breed for a look that is obviously not at all functional or humane.