Me too. Hostas, pets and miniatures are my weaknesses. WOW Frank. You have a houseful. I love dogs. Yours are gorgeous. Do the Mastiff's have skin problems with all those "wrinkles" like Sharpei's? Just curious. The birds are beautiful. I'd love to see pics of the rest of your gang. You must have lots of room to have so many larger dogs. I only have 3 dogs and I thought I had a lot. Wait until I tell my husband that we really do have room for more....haha. Here are pics of my 3:

This is Taco (the chocolate one), male, chihuahua, 7 years old and Princess (the tri-colored one), female, chihuahua x italian greyhound mix, 3 years old:

And this is Bella (with Princess in there too), female, Italian Greyhound, 2 years old:

Because of the size of their dewlaps, they go into the water buckets and get soaked which leaves a huge trail of water all over. This causes their dewlaps to get itchy. The excessive skin on the head can cause eye irritation but other than that they don't have much of a problem because of the skin.

They are all indoor dogs. Neos cannot handle heat very well. They have the run of the backyard and are very rough on trees and shrubs. They use them as back scratchers and chew toys if they can reach them.

Our Pitbull Gauge passed away a few months ago. He was 14. This shows Persephone when she was about 9 weeks old.
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Wow, that is a house full. Persephone is a cutie.

So, I'm not a freak for having 8 cats, 1 dog and 2 ferrets? ;) I'm actually doing good! 6 of the cats are rescues that I "was" going to find good homes for.....and I did! ;)

Frank - I'm SO sorry for the lack of communication. I STILL have NOT received my power supply. I have 4 kids, so it's hard to get to their laptop. We live out in the middle of no where...so we are at the mercy of the suppler and the mail :/

You have a lovely little brood there, btw. :)

Cricket

OHHHH, I love all your furkids~~ A few years back we almost bought a N. Mastiff. I was raised with English Mastiffs and Newfoundlands. We (hubby, my enabler) had 5 Great Danes, and when the last one passed I couldnt bring myself to get another. So we switched breeds completely..now we have our black lab, who we rescued and our 3 standard Poodles. (1 red who stands 22"s, and 2 apricots which stand 24"s and 27"s) We also have a herd of 24 miniature horses, 4 Arabians, 2 Saddlebreds, 4 miniature donkeys, 1 miniature hinny, 1 Zedonk, who is ready to leave for his new home in Canada, a small herd of miniature mytonic (fainting) goats...to add a little bit of spice to our sometimes quiet home we have a Molluccan Cockatoo, a Mealy Amazon, and a Severa MaCaw. What would we do without the love of our furkids..they make life seem so much easier, dont they?

Neapolitan Mastiffs are very different from English Mastiffs. An English only wants to lay around most of the time and be near you while a Neo wants to play constantly all of its life. An English could be considered to be dry mouthed compared to a Neo. They are also extremely stubborn and slow to respond to commands. They require very strict training. Some bloodlines still have the original temperament which is being very dominant over animals and people. Medusa has been that way since she was a couple months old. Many breeders cannot show some of their most beautiful dogs because they have the original temperament. But even when they have a sweet disposition they must still have strict training because of the ammount of damage they can do.

Persephone when she was little.
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Titus.
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Titus as a puppy. Caught eating the steering wheel.
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Yes, that is so true about the English Mastiffs. My Moms one, Kookie..seemed to sleep day and night,and always on your feet..:)but was a sweetheart with everyone in the house except strangers.. Same is true with Danes, and the temperment, even though they are known as the "Gentle Giants" some lines are not so gentle. Especially if it has the built of what was known as the California Dane back in the 80's. (tall and slender, which is what the judges seemed to be considering the best show dogs)Our dogs went back to the german lines..very stocky along with a very good height. Our smallest stood 36"s and our largest was 39"s at the shoulders.and weighed 175- 200#s compared to the California Dane, which had the height but weighed about 130-150#s. Oh gosh..I didnt mean to hyjack your thread..so enough about Danes. Your furkids are BEAUTIFUL. Maybe someday...........guess in comparison our big standard poodles would be considered small for us..LOL.. PLEASE keep posting pic of your dogs, (or send them to me) I LOVE to look at them!

Just a quick add on to my above post..I did not mean to imply that all Danes built with a refined frame have a tendency to not be "a gentle giant", but it does seem to me that the majority of the refined frame Danes,I have known.. also seemed to be more aggressive, over the old style Dane. Thanks for letting me clear that up.

Great looking pets Frank! I especially like the Neopolitan Mastiffs. They sound like a handful, but sure are terrific looking dogs.

Dan

Frank, I saw your pic of Persephone as a pup sniffing the hosta flower over on the forum side and squealed! I am in love with her! That photo should be shared with other Neo lovers, it is SUPERB.
Thank you for making this thread and for all of your pics! Wow! You must be VERY busy!!!
In case you would be interested, I wanted to let you know about an author I read who has Neos, loves Neos, and uses a female Neo "Pansy" in a long series of books he's written. His name is Andrew Vachss. He is also a lawyer and get this, uses the proceeds from his writing to allow him to work as a lawyer for abused children absolutely free. I love his writing, and have great respect for the man. The books, known as the "Burke series", are the ones which feature Pansy. Warning, they are hard and gritty, underground NYC crime/murder stories. Burke is the protagonist, and Pansy is always at his side.
Here is a link to author Andrew Vachss' website, featuring the real "Pansy".
Pansy even has her own Facebook.
http://www.vachss.com/dogs/av_dogs/pansy.html
The Burke series, if anyone is interested, are listed in order at the following link on his site.
http://www.vachss.com/av_novels/index_theburkeseries.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Pansy the Neo Mastiff

One famous Neo is Fang, Hagrid's dog in the Harry Potter movies. I love this breed but they are definately not for everyone. You have to be able to handle the slime that goes flying everywhere and you also have to deal with water on the floor everytime they drink as all of the skin on their neck goes into the water. They have to have their dewlap toweled off after every drink while in the house.
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Here is my other little girl, SueSue all pretty in her handmade dress:) She came into my rescue five years ago as a puppy and... stayed!

My galloping gardeners:

Sadly, Annabelle (part Border Collie, black and white one) is a digger and many of my hosta in the back have succumbed to her need to eradicate any chipmunks and other rodents from the garden. The plants are collateral damage. Her son, Clouseau, loves to play tag team with her through the gardens. Our back yard looks more like a dog park these days, but the front is getting more and more filled with hosta. They are calming down a little as far as the running, trampling, crushing goes, but the digging....not so much, alas. Still, they mostly make me smile, so no worries.

Love all the pictures and stories!