Looking for a schutz capable working mastiff breeder in the UK

Hi everyone,

Its been a year since my gsd passed on. Now I'm ready for a new working dog. The only catch is I want to try something different to gsd. I am trying to find others in the UK who have been doing schutz with uk bred working mastiffs. Ideally to level 2 minimum.

The breeds which have caught my eye are Cane Corso and boerboel but I am open to alternative suggestions.

Any advice on which uk breeders to look into will be greatly appreciated.

thank you
gary

Hi Gary

Julie has a stunning Boerboel Puppy Marvel, boerboel and from what I've seen of her dog's breeder they seem good, they health test and have a good guarantee on their website.

As you are probably aware many of the bull breeds seem to attract bybs who don't do any testing or pay much thought to breeding, so it can be a bit of a minefield.

Have you thought about importing a CC from Italy? Or a Presa from the Canary Islands?

I think the Germans have taken to using mastiff types in PP so might be worth looking there too.

obviously not a mastiff but my boys dad is Sch 3 and his offspring are doing well at it too?

I love the Boerboel. They make great working dogs. My Grandfather used to keep them in South Africa. They can be a handful though so make sure you're up for a challenge if you take on one of those.

There are plenty of breeds (mastiff breeds included) that would do well at SchH.

I'd suggest you speak directly with people who have the specific mastiff breed you're interested in adn find out from there if any have excelled at Wt, SchH, etc.

Good luck.

Laura xx

Hi, Ive not heard of any in my time in working trials, which is about 15 yrs.Smokey bear will go back further I would think and takes an interest in different breeds.

Dave.

Hi Gary, I've got the boerboel mentioned earlier. He is 8 months now and a good handful . He is extremely athletic and light footed. He learns fast too but he is not trained enough (by me and my partner) because I struggle to find the motivation on my own and haven't found "proper" groups/people to train with in my area.

I've only been in the breed environment for about a year so obviously there is lots of stuff I don't know yet.
I've only heard about one person competing and doing really well with her dogs and she competes in tracking competitions at high level.

I would recommend emailing my breeder (linked to by Azz) and asking too. Another sensible BB breeder in the UK is QuoVadis. She lived in South Africa with her bb's but moved back to the UK some years ago.
http://quovadisboerboels.com/QuoVadi...rboels_UK.html

One girl I know with Presa Canario works her ones, but not to a high competitive level. I would believe this is possible.
Another woman I know trains her BB in obedience in Norway and is in the second highest level. He will never have the speed of a border collie but he does what is asked of him.

When that being said, I think there are reasons that you see pretty much "standard" breeds in schutz training. Loads of the mastiffs and SPECIALLY the boerboel have strong guarding instincts and will be naturally sceptic of strangers (which I'm sure you already know!) often as adults.
If it's important to you to get to the highest levels and succeed I would get a different breed. If you are a good dog trainer and happy to get to however far you can with the dog (willing to risk maybe not being THE best), then look into the breeds more . I'm not saying it's impossible but there probably are reasons why you don't see these breeds placed as number 1 too often, and why people choose the "standard" breeds for this type of training.