It is not hyperbole to say that this breed is not for everyone. Although one can learn to deal with large, strong willed dogs, for the most part, you either have the skills and attitude for it, or you don't. The responsibility of owning a Neapolitan must be taken seriously. Behind all of the cute wrinkles and droopy eyes of the puppy is a tenacity and fire that has traveled down the blood line from a far away time when these dogs were not just eye candy for the passer by. The Neapolitan Mastiff is not a toy or a tool for ego enrichment. Neapolitans are high maintenance and expensive to properly maintain. They are not simply big, cool looking dogs. The Neapolitan mastiff is something much deeper and much more meaningful.
Neapolitans possess a spirit that is powerful and wrapped in mystic, which to the delight of true fanciers, always seems to be just out of reach. To the Neapolitans master, it gives its heart without reservation and will love as intense as it protects. With the Neapolitan ,however, even the closest companion, seems to have something that can never be truly known or made familiar. When watching the Neapolitan lying on guard, surveying its surroundings or perhaps gazing into the distance, one gets the feeling that it is strattled between two worlds, ours and another visible only to it. It seems to have a knowledge and understanding that we cannot comprehend, one that can only come with an ancient spirit. Intangible and trapped in time is its deepest being, revealed only in part when its family is threatened. As regarded as the canine is, It seems somehow cheap to call the Neapolitan mastiff a dog, although its dna confirms it, the true fancier knows better. When I look in the eyes of my dogs, searching for that which cannot be found, I am always left wondering... what does it know?
When I pick a dog for my selection, It is never for conformation only. The animal must possess that mystic. It must speak to me with its presence. Something must tell me "this is the one".
Brent Lankford
|
