BIG - BIGGER - BIGGEST!
Welcome to a page dedicated to one subject only: SIZE!

The English Mastiff is the heaviest dog breed in the world. "Mighty Murphy" from England weighed 159 kilos! "Normal" weight of a fully grown male Mastiff is between 80-100 kilos (about 180-220 lbs.), but this varies quite a lot within the breed.

Compared to other breeds that often are considered big, the Mastiff is incomparable. Even if taller but less heavy breeds like the Great Dane and the Irish Wolfhound can be impressive, the English Mastiff has a combination of power, size and massiveness that no other dog can beat. The smallest breeds tend to look a bit funny standing beside of a Mastiff. It's like that famous quote: "What the lion is to the cat, the Mastiff is to the dog". It's an interesting thought that you need at least 40 Yorkshire terriers to match the weight of one Mastiff!

Some experiences with the weight of the Mastiff

Have you ever been driving hundreds of miles in a Volkswagen Polo with an English Mastiff in the backseat? I have! Try to imagine Kaiser turning around to find a better position to sleep in. It really makes the car move as he finally decides to "fall" down in some kind of twisted way. After a few drives like that on slippery roads during the winter, you find out that Mastiff-owners and small cars were not made for each other!

We ended up buying a Hyundai H-100 (a rather big van-like car with place for six people, and with a large loading-room in the back). This works a lot better with Kaiser, and for us, too! Kaiser thinks of the car as his own personal apartment, kind of. If a stranger comes to close to the car while Kaiser is in it, he really knows how to tell them to keep a distance. This car is holy property, and he knows how to spread the word, oh yes!

From time to time you simply have to move or carry a dog from one place to another. Some time ago we went to the vet to x-ray Kaiser's hips (they were just fine, by the way!). He had to be drugged in order to be cooperative and relaxed. To lift him from the floor and into the x-ray room was not a one-man job. The vet and I managed by lifting the beast together. A drugged or sleeping Mastiff can not be compared to a sack of potatoes or concrete. Oh, no. Those are easy to move in comparison. We're talking about at least 80 kilos/180 lbs. (most likely more) that are really difficult to balance when you start lifting. Believe me - you are NOT able to lift or move a mature male Mastiff more than a few yards by yourself unless you're Superman! If the dog isn't able to walk by himself I guarantee that you will need assistance to be able to move him!

Experiences like this have made me a little concerned about what will happen if we have an accident while being far away from other people. Let's say Kaiser broke a leg or something like that. If he had been a "normal" dog, I would have been able to get him back home, at least it would be possible! But with an English Mastiff...forget it. I guess the only possibility would be to temporarily leave the dog in order to get help (maybe it would be a good idea to somehow prevent him from running away). The best thing would probably be to find two or three men and something to carry the dog on top of. A 90 kilos/200 lbs. none-cooperative large body is very hard to move...

If the distance back home is more than a little stroll, you need to be more than two persons to take care of this physical challenge! If the problem can't be solved in this manner, I have another idea: Order a helicopter! One of MASTIFF-WEB's readers have suggested using an "Indian-stretcher", which seems like a good idea.