Picking Bullmastiff Puppies

"It doesn’t matter what you breed if you can't pick 'em!"
Selecting a Bullmastiff puppy

For many people – myself included – the longer one has been breeding Bullmastiffs, the more difficult it is to pick Bullmastiff puppies. It seems logical that things would go just the opposite way – that after my 20 years' experience with the Bullmastiff breed, picking would be a snap. Not so! What I’ve decided about why, is that in my first litters the things I was selecting for were the obvious: four legs, a dark mask, some wrinkle and cuteness. The pup either met that standard or it didn’t. I was an instant expert at picking! Of course the cutest typically meant the smallest puppy. As you might imagine – or might have experienced – other mistakes were made along the way too!

For me, picking a Bullmastiff is vastly different now. My current, personal, amplified version of the Bullmastiff breed standard covers several single-spaced pages. I keep a long list of "must haves" and another list of what is to be accomplished with each breeding. At the prompting of Mary Roslin Williams, author of Reaching for the Stars (Doral Publishing), at Andalusian Bullmastiffs we have continued to elaborate our vision of the ideal breed specimen Pat Trotter urges establishing in Born to Win (Doral Publishing). With the help of these two thoughtful judge/breeders we’ve become clearer not just about the goals for each Bullmastiff litter but about the fine points of the ultimate Bullmastiff we desire – of course within the flexibility permitted by the breed standard. The consequence of knowing more about what one is doing of course is a consequence of learning how complex what first seemed so simple really is. Kind of like the old saying, “the more I know the more there is to know. ” Then there’s that other old saying, “if you don’t know where you’re going, how can you tell how to get there or know when you’ve arrived?"

In April of 2004 we whelped a litter of 13 Bullmastiff puppies – all live, healthy, black-masked fawns. It was a watershed litter for us. After years of maintaining several bitch lines, importing stud dogs and working through Bullmastiff generations to achieve genetic diversity and our vision of the breed – in each generation struggling to maintain the virtues we’d achieved and eliminate new and old faults and failings – we believed we were finally in a position to focus on maintaining only one of our bitch lines. The line we chose – not surprisingly –- is the soundest, healthiest and has the greatest longevity. It also is the line with the best mothers: dams who produce lots of milk, clean their babies and enjoy playing with them as they mature.

We hoped to make the move to one bitch line several years ago. However, for genetic diversity, we believed we needed one last outcross breeding. Unfortunately our consolidation plans were delayed because the Bullmastiff puppy dog we imported turned out to be a disaster, both structurally and from a health standpoint. Devastating as that was, we have survived. By keeping two girls from the litter of thirteen, we believe we can avoid further outcrosses, selecting future studs from dogs we’ve bred, currently own or whose pedigrees in substantial degree trace to our stock.

With the no-more-outcrosses goal firmly in mind, we approached selection of our 2004 Bullmastiff litter sire with great fear and trepidation… as well as considerable study. I first saw puppies from Cheryl and Charlie Kistler’s Leatherneck breeding of CH Leatherneck Anthracite Zoe to CH Leatherneck Ishanas Shadoboxer, “Ty”, when the pups were a few months old. I had gone over Ty at Old Dominion a couple of years earlier and had seen Zoe both in the ring and at the Kistler’s. It was exciting to find the straight shoulders sometimes seen on Leatherneck dogs replaced by Ty’s more correct angles. As I had hoped, the shoulders were still good when I next saw the Kistler’s pick pup, CH Anthracite’s Peanut Butter, as a yearling. Charlie and I agreed then that when CH Andalusian's A Blithe Spirit, Jokie, next came into heat, we would breed her to Peanut Butter.

Following Roslyn Williams' advice "to have a fixed and clear idea of what you yourself want and then stick to it through thick and thin," our goals for the litter were not to lose anything we already had established and to produce Bullmastiff puppies with tidier flews and better tail sets than Jokie’s.

The task of sorting the new Bullmastiff pups was daunting. The job was to recognize the puppies’ virtues and balance them against any possible failings, then make the best matches to their new owners and our breeding goals. Priorities in hand, I was clear we wouldn’t personally keep a puppy with faults – structural problems affecting the work the breed is designed to do. Secondarily, for our own kennel and for potential future studs and show puppies, I wanted to eliminate as many failings as possible – “cosmetics” such as light nails, thin or slightly shortened tails, less than very dark eyes, large or thick ears, large white chest markings or splayed feet. I was determined to select for show or keep a pup with failings only if the grace and loveliness of the puppy was extraordinary enough to offset the cosmetics.

At the time I was blessed in a friendship with Nancy Suttfin, a Wire Dachshund/Airedale breeder of thirty years. Because she is a neighbor and generous, she was able to spend time with me and the puppies on a weekly basis. We watched them nurse and looked at the tail sets. We watched them play, in their pen and loose – running among the ferns, up and down hills and through the sand pile. We stood them on a table and checked rear and front angles. We compared progress from one week to the next, sometimes totally reversing the conclusions of the week before. In the process I learned more about length of bone and shoulder angulation. In the process I also saw my first “this is the bitch I’m keeping” become a nice pet.

Assessing shoulders has been difficult for me since beginning my career as a Bullmastiff breeder. The disparities are so small when the pup is young and so obvious later, when I’ve made the wrong choice and kept the wrong puppy. I’ve understood for a long time that "shoulder wrinkle," as opposed to smooth and sleek, indicates incorrectly structured shoulders or short necks. More than one wrinkle probably means more than one difficult-to-eradicate structural problem. However, there are things about structure I can miss or not give appropriate weight to. For example I’m clueless about what wrinkles all the way down a dog’s back – Sharpei-style – mean about structure except acute unacceptability. Despite viewing the Hastings' very helpful video (The Puppy Puzzle), I’ve never been skilled at knowing the proper distance between shoulder blades, assessing short upper arms or evaluating the intricacies of balance – matching shoulder and rear angles. It’s difficult for me to tell on an eight-week-old pup whether the shoulder wrinkle I’m seeing exists because the neck is too short (frequently a Bullmastiff puppy developmental issue) or the shoulder is too steep. Figuring this out is essential, however, because necks can lengthen as the puppy grows but shoulder angulation rarely changes after eight weeks. Since my vision of the ideal Bullmastiff is one with smooth, well-laid-back shoulders, keeping a short-necked pup on the chance that the neck will grow is a risk only to be taken if the pup is otherwise outstanding. Knowing that problems with shoulders might pop up in this breeding, naturally I was particularly anxious not only to learn more myself but also to procure all of the expertise I could amass as puppy-picking day at eight weeks approached.

Since we first worked together many years ago in Virginia, I have had the greatest respect for Jane Yates' (Luck's Kennel) knowledge of the fine points of canine structure. I am very grateful she and her husband Danny drove up to select their puppy when the babies were just at that eight-week-old crucial moment. In the process Jane was generous enough to go over the entire litter. Being a breeder of large breeds, Akitas and Great Danes as well as Bullmastiffs, she likes to evaluate puppies on the ground. Jane points out that not having spent much time, if any, on the table, when put there, Bullmastiff puppies often tense up, making evaluation more difficult. Like Nancy, Jane checks the distance between the shoulder blades and the length and angulation of the scapula and humerus. Then both look for complementary angles of the femur, tibia and fibula.

All three of us of course wanted to observe each puppy's movement. I have a good-sized puppy yard, with lots of angles and play equipment. We watched the pups there and running up hills, through sand piles and around the woodpile. This kind of observation makes it possible, among other things, to see where the pup's center of gravity is. Hopefully the weight is on its rear legs, making it an easy matter to feint and dodge to avoid the poacher.

Running puppies loose in unfamiliar territory is also something of a temperament test. Who is adventurous, who's a homebody? Who sets out alone, who prefers company? Who's a follower, who's a leader? Evaluating temperament is a tricky thing though. Not just a one-time test on a particular day. It’s important to harmonize one-time observations with what people who’ve spent time with the pups have observed about individuals. In this litter I nearly eliminated a puppy from consideration because at five weeks she ran and hid from everything from me to littermates, strangers and weeds waving in the wind. By eight weeks I concluded she was a special-needs puppy and despaired of ever finding her an appropriate home. Suddenly at nine weeks she decided the world was her oyster and became an extravert. So "Giggles" is staying around to become a show Bullmastiff puppy.

A validating thing I realized in listening to my consortium of picking experts was the importance of also listening to myself. Nancy and Jane each picked “best puppies” which I took in, spent extra time with and put back with their littermates because I just couldn’t live with the choice. I concluded, when it comes right down to it, ultimately no one but the breeder ought to be making the final pick. Outside experts are there to call attention to strengths, faults and failings the breeder may not have appreciated sufficiently. This has enormous value and I am so grateful for Jane's and Nancy's input on the litter. But now I understand input should also be filtered through what I know, whether about potential inherited defects of temperament, structure or development or my goals for the litter and my vision of the breed.

One of the important things I learned about breeding and puppy selection from Pat Craige Trotter is the art of prioritization. Along with making my New Year’s resolutions, I’ve written down my breeding goals in the flyleaves of Pat's book each year since I first read it. Prioritizing goals and not backsliding is one of the most important things I’ve done as a breeder. Even though a particular small failing may offend my sensibilities beyond all reason, prioritization requires me to do the big things first and tend to the small failings later. This may seem too obvious to bear mentioning… but we all have our blind spots and every breeder’s priorities are different. For example Nancy prioritizes feet. She would automatically eliminate a puppy without tight, well-arched toes. She has not lived through high-in-the-rear adolescents so would pet out a rangy, sway-backed seven-month old. In this litter my friend Jane was looking for dark pigment, height, and because she loves to show, an "up" personality. It was easy to identify pigment and height; she deferred to my knowledge of the puppies’ personalities and took home a girl I could hardly wait to see the last of – a real in-your-face specimen who was already walking around with a "show Bullmastiff puppy" tag.

Another story I like to tell about priorities is of a breeder who specializes in big red dogs with really weak rears. In searching for a stud dog I watched her eliminate breeding to a dog with multi-generations of excellent rears behind him. Why? Because he had self-colored nails and "I don't want to go backward now that I have dark nails."

Ah! Lost opportunities and lost time!

Bullmastiff puppy picking strategies

Write down in detail your vision of the breed – your very own expanded version of the standard.
Evaluate where you are now – the strengths and weaknesses of your breeding stock.
Learn about individuals you consider adding by purchase or stud service. Research animals in the pedigree in person, by reputation and in publications. Determine whether your choice will harmonize with your goals.
Realistically decide your priorities for the next year and the breeding/purchase.
Sharpen your knowledge of anatomy and movement so that you will be making informed puppy choices.
Take advantage of knowledgeable offers to help evaluate your litter and pick the evaluator's brains while it's happening.
Spend time watching your puppies in different situations throughout their developmental process.
Evaluate the puppies yourself. Articulate why you are choosing a particular puppy, then check it against your detailed amplification of the breed and your goals for the breeding.
Learn from your mistakes!

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