| This colossal Mastiff is a recreation of the ancient Roman arena dogs, developed in 1996 by Stan DeMarco from Old English Mastiffs, Neapolitan Mastiffs, Bullmastiffs, French Mastiffs and Swinford Bandogges. Following his lifelong dream of creating a breed that had the size and intimidating power of the Roman Guards, as well as the training and calm temperament of the modern English Mastiff, DeMarco decided to launch a serious and well-calculated breeding program, using his Neapolitan Mastiff as the base female for his creation. He found a male dog resulting from a cross between a Bullmastiff and an English Mastiff, possessing all the physical and personality traits DeMarco was looking for. So he arranged for his female Neo to mate with him. From the resulting litter, he selected the healthiest and strongest specimens. The following year, DeMarco acquired a Dogue de Bordeaux and introduced it to his program. Over the years, more English Mastiff blood was added for size and Neo blood for temperament. Although he was pleased with the physical appearance of his massive dogs, Stan DeMarco felt that the breed was not territorial or agile enough to be a good property guardian. So he added the Swinford Bandogge to his line. After a few generations, the Dogo Romano began to look uniform, and DeMarco decided to stop cross-breeding in 2003, in the hope of establishing a pure, consistent line of healthy, resilient Mastiffs in the USA. |
English (United Kingdom)