I never thought of doing this with a mastiff. Does anyone know how an EM would do at hunting? My girlfriend's Uncle has a few ranches that have an abundance of hogs we are fortunate enough to hunt all the time. Was it difficult training your Corso? Also, congrats to both of you on the catch and enjoy all that great sausage you should get from it!
Mastiffs were actually intended to do these kinds of things. As far as the English Mastiff, as awesome as they are, most of them do not have the stamina to chase and outrun a pig spotted 50-100yds away and to begin a chase with that much of a head start for the pig, to end up in a battle at the end of the chase...with an animal known to be able to bury most dogs. However, the right strain of Corso can devour a hog that 3 pitbulls can barely keep in place for the hunter. I grew up using pits and hounds and can now hunt more successfully with one dog, vs 6. With my Corso I have the nose, the speed, the drive, the stamina, the heart, and the bite. I can actually call him off of a hog as well. Try calling 3 pitbulls out of a fight! It can be a pain when you have to pry 3 dogs off of a dead hog. I'm sure there are exceptions with every breed, and using the English Mastiff in crossbreeding to ad size to other breeds with more speed and stamina is definitely not unheard of. Minus the chase, I'm sure that an EM would be up for it. Great Danes were actually bred in the early days for the same thing....but the Danes and Mastiffs of today still arent the Danes and Mastiffs of only 20yrs ago thanks to conformation competition and mass breeding. The EM of the 60's and 70's would be a great working dog!
---------- Post added at 07:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 AM ----------
As far as training, I didn't start until he was 2. I don't like to invoke aggressiveness in the beginning. At 2, he caught his first 5 pigs on his own outside of our house when we lived on the ranch that we hunt. It grew from there. Not much training.
