When Harvey Came Home
We first got Harvey 10 months ago when he was eight weeks old. Even at that young age he was difficult to lift up and cuddle. Compared to a regular 8 week old pup, he was enormous. In fact, he was the same size as our small dog Sasha, a yorkie and shitzu mix. She wasn’t impressed by her new companion. Our boxer, Bailey was quite the opposite and loved the idea of a new puppy in the house.
Harvey’s mother had a big litter, 12 pups in all. Having no experience of English Mastiff pupsl, when we went to choose our newest family member, we knew only that we wanted a female. That soon changed.
All of the pups were lazy. They slept on, moved arount a little, collapsed, often on top of each other and slept some more. Looking at the females we soon changed our minds and chose Harvey, the biggest male in the bunch. I don’t know if this was a good or bad thing. He has grown at an amazing pace. At just 6 months old he was 9 stone! Now at 11 months, he must be 11 stone or more! He is difficult to weigh.
Pic : Harvey At 10 weeks
Where Harvey Sleeps
English Mastiffs are big lazy dogs. In fact, they are so lazy there are recommended as apartment dogs! Harvey sleeps for hours everyday. He stretches across one three seater sofa. Much of time, and always at night, he sleeps on a large cushion in the kitchen. Because English Mastiffs are such heavy dogs, it is important that they have cushioned bedding. Resting on a hard surface does a great deal of damage to the English Mastiff’s bones over time. A “trampoline bed”, one that is raised off the ground is on Harvey’s Christmas list.
What Harvey Eats
Pic: Harvey at 5 months
When Harvery was younger he was fed three times a day. Now he eats twice a day. Because of the English Mastiffs weight and bulk you could be fooled into thinking they need a lot more food than they do. But they are lazy and don’t use up enough energy to require very large meals. Most feeds will have instruction on how much to feed according to the dogs weight. Harvey is fed a special large dog feed that makes sure his bones develop well and he’ll mature healthily.
English Mastiff’s are prone to “twisted gut”, a problem that come when they eat too quickly, drink a lot and exercise immediately after. He can be fatal.
Harvery is an extremely greedy dog, which is a new experience for us. He’ll make a dive for anything he can get and will eat everything, even hot and spicy curries! He is improving but it is taking a lot of effort. Are all English Mastiffs greedy?
How Harvey Exercises
Harvey has a forest walk every morning. Because of the animal scents in the woods, he tends to be excited about this and keeps active for more than a hour. If he is walked in a less exciting area, as he was for the first few months he was exercised, he tends to be lazy and disinterested. His evening walk, which is a lead walk in our village, is a whole different story. In the evening, he will sometimes refuse to walk, lying down when he pleases. It takes a lot of coaxing to get him to start again. When he sense he is within reach of home on the way back, he shows he can move when he wants to!
Some Stuff To Think About If You Considering Buying An English Mastiff Pup?
From the time he was brought home, Harvey was never left on his own at home. We are lucky in that we have a large family and many people in our house. We never had a time when he was left alone. Now that he is older, he may be left alone for a few hours at most. This meant that we could watch him, so had no problems with him chewing up furniture or causing damage.
When he is bored he does start to chew the corner of the table (he’s that tall!) or other objects so it’s very likely that left alone for long periods of time, being an English Mastiff, he could cause significant damage.
He has dozen of toys and improvised toys, such as old wellies, that he chews on.
While English Mastiffs do sleep a lot, we have found that with Harvey, when he is awake and full of energy he can be a handful. He sees everything as a play object, including or boxer’s legs.
Keeping an English Mastiff can be expensive. They need good quality food suited to their big size.
To sum up …
English Mastiff are gentle giants. As big as Harvey has grown, he is gentle in play. If you place your nose close to his face he nibbles it. If he takes your hand in his mouth, he never closes down tightly. English Mastiff make great companions but they do need an owner with the time and committment to love them.
Written by AaronMeagher
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