Stories about Neapolitans and Bandogs.

"The Neapolitan Mastiff "by Mario Zacchi (English Edition, revised 1987 John Twinham. Jersey Great Britain ) First published in 1983 by Calderini.

I have been lucky enough to borrow a copy of this now almost unobtainable book, and would like to share some of Mr. Zacchi's stories with you.

He had a great knowledge of these dogs and their ways, and even so long ago expressed his concern that they were in danger of becoming "Like a hot-house flower" due to the breeding practices already becoming common .

Even though he was right to be concerned regarding the general health of the breed, one thing which has not changed is their ability to think and act with an almost human understanding of any situation.

It is this quality which makes them one of the best natural guards to be found in the world today.

The Neapolitan Mastiff is not inclined to be more violent than any situation calls for, though he may be made that way by ill-treatment or training.

His devotion to the loving owner is almost unbelievable.

I feel a couple of anecdotes related by Mr. Zacchi illustrate this very well .

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Maya Di Ponzano, an Italian and Swiss champion, always very hostile towards strangers, was with her owner Mr. Senaurd when he was gravely wounded in a road accident. The bitch welcomed the rescuers mute and trembling- under ordinary circumstances she would have chased them away.

She stayed unmoving by the side of her owner until his wife came. Only on her arrival did Maya allow herself to burst into desperate howls, but seeing the owners wife was frightened and crying suddenly put aside her own pain and devoted herself to encouraging the woman just as a best friend would do.

Mrs. Bindini would send Darma, another Neapolitan Mastiff bitch to check whether her husband was at the bar: Coming back home Darma could perfectly recount the outcome of her trip: by her attitude- downcast and disappointed when the search had been in vain, calm and reassuring if she had seen her owner.

This good bitch, already old, had a deep affection for Mrs. Bindini who had reared her and who cared lovingly for her when ill even allowing her to sleep in her own bed and feeding her treats.

However, when Darma felt the end coming, she got out of the bed and went looking for the master-the Mastino has only one. But he was out and she was too weak to follow his footsteps. Darma tracked down a pair of his shoes in a corner: on them she rested her head in testimony of her last thought and there quietly passed away.

Near Parma a Mastino saved his lady owner who had fallen to the ground in a faint from the fumes of a fire which had broken out in the kitchen. Heedless of the flames and asphyxiating smoke, the dog pulled the seemingly lifeless body across the paving and outside into the garden where the lady came to, marked by the rescuing teeth, her faithful friend anxiously by her side.

Lotar, belonging to Mr. Bruni was a perfect baby-sitter for his owner's young children. He could be seen unfailingly placed between them and any steep edge during country walks, keeping them well away from dangerous agricultural implements, badly balanced objects like the motorbicycle left on it's gantry. He was more expeditious and uncompromising than a German nurse in bringing their games to an end when he saw they were becoming too violent.

Nor is it always true that the Mastino is a cat exterminator. When the cat belongs to his master and the animals are acquainted with each other from childhood, he often takes to being its defender against other dogs. Nor is it rare either to see domestic puss trustingly dozing on his protectors flank.

When they believe an object under their care is particularly defenceless (a child, a lady, an unoccupied house), many normal watchful Mastini become implacably cantankerous, going through the most inexorable paroxysms. No longer on duty the same dog may well appear quite meek and mild to you. A Mastino on a walk with his owner may look at you rather indifferently and put up with your caresses, a pet on the cheek, a gentle tug of his dewlap (still better to ask in advance if he is tolerant). But when he is alone on house guard, you will find him quite different, uncompromising, on the alert and menacing. In the exercise of his functions he will decline all transient familiarities which have previously occurred.

Those are just a few of Mr. Zacchi's marvelous anecdotes about Neapolitan Mastiffs, to those who have never owned such a dog they may seem too good to be true, to me they ring very true indeed, and are very indicative of the character of the Neapolitan Mastiff. 

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This desctipion sent to me by the proud owner of JD suits the Australian Bandog to a T.

Hello Maria, That was great to hear back from you....I am still in a rush...but the answers are all positive....I'd be delighted if you would like to put his picture on your site...would you like me to send you up a print?   He is a good guard dog as long as he is not asleep!!  JD is actually quite unique in that from day one he will respond to people based on what they think of him....if you don't like him or think he is ugly  (how could you!!) he won't have anything to do with you.  He is a bit of a mix really...overall his guarding is great.....he has kept a number of truly undesirables down at the gate and not even let them put their hand on the fence.....he also will go off his nut at people we know who do not really like him....however once they are in the yard with us he then looks thoroughly disgusted....puts his tail between his legs, turns his back and disappears....but as soon as they go to get in the car he will re-emerge and is very happy. I named him after my oldest brother....they both have big feet!....and John is a King with animals...snakes, lizards, every crawling thing will lay in his hand like he is God....however when he met JD, John thought he was a bit of a woos....remember I asked you if he had been traumatised?...and JD would not have anything to do with John.....interestingly enough when John had a baby, JD would not have anything to do with her until her own feet were on the ground...so long as she was too little to walk and carried by John or his wife....JD would not come near...but as soon as Georgia was big enough to be independent, JD absolutely loved her and used to babysit if she was outside. There are two children now and they both come out quite a lot....David 2 yrs...has suddenly become scared of our dogs....but JD has always been magic with them....problem is that he is so big and I suppose to a wee one he looks like a giant!!   I must tell you one of my favourite things with JD is his refined taste!!  He loves to eat rice crackers...like you do if you sit down with a Gin and Tonic in the evening!!!  He will come and sit like a giant toy and gaze longingly at you...when you offer him one tiny little cracker he lifts his huge snout into the air and purses his lips like a dandy gent and you 'post' this tiny little morsel into this astoundingly dainty mouth that he 'creates'...quite hysterical if you ever compare it to the vision of him mutilating a bone in the most Neanderthal manner!    Sorry Maria...but I could wax lyrical about him forever...you really have given me an extraordinary experience by breeding this boy....I am not someone who goes all out of whack, putting animals above the rest of humanity and so forth...but I just adore this dog...he fascinates me...I truly fell in love with him....he is so funny. He stretches like a cat, he is regal like a lion, he watches you like a crocodile, he curls up like a mouse, he cries like a baby, snores like a man, (I actually love his snoring!!), loves luxury like a woman, and cleans his feet like a dandy!  (he doesn't like wet weather..not that we have any!, because he hates getting his feet wet.  He also growls and barks like thunder and if you try (we never bother now!) to shut him in a run or tie him up...he goes completely berserk!

JD. Australian Bandog.

If you want to know more about the nature of a good Bandog read this email sent to me about the Bandog Sarge.

(edited a little to make it shorter)

Hi

The reason for this note is I am sure my parents have one of your bandogs he is so similar to Kylie and Rat Pack, his name is Sarge and was purchased from the Townsville pound after being surrendered by some guy that could no longer afford him.

But the little history we have on him is he came from 'out west' and was a a cross between 2 pure breds thought to be G/dane and Neo but thats what we were told (thats kinda what he looks like too) but he is everything you talk about with the Band. He has a head like Rat but the colouring and shape of Kylie, black as the night with the bit of white on the chest.

Now this guy has the look and everything you say about the breed. proud, gentle, smoochy, fearful & fearless, loves children and enjoys watching ants. My father had a stroke while out walking and fell to the ground Sarge lay on the traffic side of him so cars would have hit him before Dad, allowed a passerby to check on him and when the ambulance screamed to a halt allowed first aid but put his big foot on his wallet and didnt want them to touch it, luckily the other walker knew both my father and Sarge and was able to calm things.

There  too is another case regarding cats...a neighbours cat is permited to stray and comes into my parents yard and attacks their burmese which Sarge hates, he loves his Berny but none other as they are all threats to his cat. While living at home for 6 months I took my young Ragdoll kitten for the period I was there, Sarge stared at her through the screen door and never once attempted to to attack her, she would go up and smack him through the door and shadowbox as kittens do, she was wary of his size though.

There was never a problem until Tooly went downstairs by herself. Sarge was there too and Mum didnt trust him with cats other than his own, she yelled and screamed at him to get away and more or less stirred up the situation, Tooly jumped up with a fright, hissed and fluffed out whereby Sarge grabbed her, she screamed and so did my stupid mother, I camly walked over opened Sarges mouth and extracted the cat from beteewn his canines, took her to the vet due to the amount of blood on her and felt for sure she would have had serious internal injuries, I picked her up from the vet the next day... the blood was NOT hers it was Sarge's, he did not come out of his bedroom until Tooly came home he actually sulked and looked remorceful, I felt so sorry for him as I am sure he acted on impulse and wanted to give her a bit of a shaking for scratching the inside of his mouth and tongue and particularly the tip of his nose - he was in so much more pain than she was both physically aand mentally, and the very sad thing of all was he stayed upset for some time I am sure he couldnt get over it, she forgave him but he coulnt forgive himself.

Another time I got out of my daughters car and said to my 4 year old grandson - be careful of the  'dog' - his indignant reply as he pushed past me to get to the 'dog' was Sarge isnt a dog nanna he's a Sarge. This child honestly believes that Sarge is NOt a dog and will argue the point he also isnt an elephant, a hippo or a black panther, he is a Sarge an animal just like horses, cows, cats etc are animals and then there are Sarges.

You have created a new animal species as far as my grandson is concerned.  He is right as Sarge is not a normal dog.. he is so very very much like the animals you describe on your site and I am falling in love with this breed, I have always had a soft spot for neo's but your site gives me a further look into the breed and though it may be a while before I get one the pups often I am now aafter the 'LOOK' and I have seen this in a couple of the pups in the pics you have shown.

thanx for letting me ramble but it is so good to see some one breed true dogs, what true dog lovers want, a saviour a protector a best friend

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Honey is a Bandog.

This one is sure she is not a dog at all, for was she not reared in our bed from a tiny puppy?

My oldest daughter has three young daughters, when Honey would see their car approaching she used to jump up and down in the one spot just as a little girl might do on seeing playmates coming, she loved to play with the children, I’m sure she saw them as her own kind of “pup”.

As I have seen other Bandogs do, Honey regurgitates food for her puppies, just as wild dogs do.

On one occasion I had locked a Neapolitan Mastiff bitch in a separate pen to her 7 week old pups, these pups were within an area with a 5 foot fence. Honey, on cruising by must have decided that the pups might need a feed since their mum was not with them, so she jumped the fence regurgitated a heap of food for them and then jumped back out.

Little Zac is a Bandog

When the time came to take Little Zac’s litter away he was ill and so we kept him home, when he was about three months of age he was living in a yard with some younger Bandog pups, he would on occasion bully them and we would yell at him to stop it.

One day we heard a pup squeal and looked out our back door from which we could see into this yard, what did we see but Little Zac going flat out away from the pup which he had obviously just bashed. He skidded to a stop on the furthest point he could get from the squealing pup, lay down crossed his front legs and closed his eyes, to all intents just an innocent little boy, sound asleep.

Grayson

Grayson, a Neapolitan Mastiff had seen his mother, when she was in our house yard open a gate which leads to a paddock.

When Grayson was 3 months old he went to a new home but did not settle in, so several months later we bought him home, we put him in our house yard, within 15 minutes he was out, I thought I must have left the gate open as it has a large barrel bolt which must be first lifted up and then slid across and I did not think he could have leant to do this so quickly, he had only seen his mother do it from a distance of 10 metres, and months ago at that.

I bought him back in and closed the gate, this time he was out even sooner. He DID know how to open that gate, just from watching his mother do it when he was little.

Neapolitan Mastiffs and Bandogs never forget something they have learned to do.

Another time he did a thing which goes totally against the nature of a dog, my partner, Phil had taken a number of Neapolitans for a walk, on the way home all the dogs ran on ahead once inside our boundary, Grayson came running back to Phil then ran toward the house then back to Phil as if to say “HURRY” Phil did hurry and found the other dogs attacking my little Shi Tzu dog who had gotten out of the house yard, if Grayson had reacted as most dogs would and joined in, the little dog would have been killed or at best badly injured. Thanks to Grayson he was fine.

Retro

This story came from people who had bought a Neapolitan Mastiff bitch called Retro from us, Retro was particularly fond of their small child and at times the baby would lie on Retro and go to sleep. Retro would not move until the child awoke.

Gentle as she was with her family Retro would allow no one to enter her yard until her people had invited them in.

Retro was with her family at a park where they were having a BBQ, one chap had walked off from the party and on returning he happened to walk past some swings, he grabbed the chains and clanged them together making a loud noise, Retro flew at him, hitting him in the chest and knocking him to the ground, she did not bite, just stood on him until called off, much to the amusement of all except the poor sod on the ground.

Retro had considered his act as violent and Neapolitan Mastiffs will not tolerate that.

The children’s Neapolitan Guardian

The story of this Neapolitan Mastiff appeared in a Brisbane news paper. This male dog slept in the bedroom of his small charge.

One night the family were woken by screams coming from the child’s room, on entering they found a man on the floor, the dog had the man by the head, he was not savaging the man but nor would he let him go, they left him there and called the police.

It was later established that this man had entered through the child’s window, and that he was a known child molester.

The dog had reacted with only as much force as he needed to, this is a common trait of the Neapolitan Mastiff, they do not react with an all out attack unless they must do so, and they have the presence of mind to determine just how much force they need to use.

Ametrious

Ametrious is a Bandog his owner, Joyce, had a pure Neapolitan Mastiff pup about 6 months old who was somewhat mischievous, Ametrious observed Joyce searching for the pup, she called and called, he did not respond.

Ametrious went and stared into the fenced off veggie patch, looking in there then at Joyce, sure enough the pup was in there, he knew quite well he should not have been as he had been taught from a young puppy not to go there, Joyce was so annoyed that she smacked him, a thing she almost never does to any of her dogs.

Ametrious came over grabbed Joyce gently by the arm and stared at her, she let the pup go, Ametrious then grabbed the pup, shook him, then looked again at Joyce as if to say “that’s how to do it”.

TRUBLUE SMILEY

Smiley at the time of writing is only 8 months old, a gangly pup, always easy going and calm he had never shown any sign of aggression, but had on a few occasions stiffened to attention or barked at something he thought not right.

I took Smiley along with his brother  to our trainer, as he is in the proses of training an older dog of mine, we (and he) thought them a bit young to test for suitability as future protection dogs, however Colin did test them, and both proved their metal, neither pup backed off, and Smiley actually threatened the agitator within seconds of his approach.

This, from such a calm pup is very pleasing proof that my years of culling and breeding for a natural guard are producing just what I have had in mind for so long, a dog with the instinct to guard, yet not be a threat to the innocent.

Trublue Tyson,one

awesome Bandog.

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