A video of the Asian Tibetan Mastiff
Since before the rise of the Mongol Empire the Tibetan Mastiff in Central and West Asia has ruled the mountains. The Mastiff breed has spawned countless other breeds including the famous Georgia Dog and the Bull-Mastiff. The Mastiff of Tibet and Mongolia is one of the first and oldest breeds of dog and can be easily observed today online.
The Asian Dog breeds into the West 1800s
In Britain Englishman Captain George Augustus Graham wrote in 1879 of a study on a breed from Catholic Invasions of Britain, hoping to preserve a rare dog bloodline with his research.
“It has been ascertained beyond all question that there are few specimens of the breed still left in Ireland and England to be considered Irish wolfhounds, though falling short of the requisite dimensions. 💪This blood is now in my possession”
Captain Graham devoted his life to ensuring the survival of the Irish Catholic wolfdog and is credited to also supporting the new breeds of the "English Bull Mastiff". He then supported the breeding of the Borzoi, Great Dane, and Deerhound. The English Bull Mastiffs are an outcross or mixed breed of the original Tibetan Mastiff. Captain Graham then co-founded the Irish Catholic Wolfhound Club and helped formulate the Breed Standard of points.
Another British military man, a Captain William John Gill, published his accounts in 1880 of his journey through China and Eastern Tibet to Burma describing his first encounter with the Asian Tibetan Mastiff.
“The chief had a huge dog kept in a cage on the top of the wall at the entrance. It was a very heavily built black-and-tan, the tan of a very good color, his coat was rather long, but smooth, he had a bushy tail, smooth tan legs, and an enormous head that seemed out of proportion to the body, very much like that of a bloodhound in shape with overhanging lips. His bloodshot eyes were very deep-set, and his ears were flat and drooping. He had tan spots over the eyes and a tan spot on the breast. He measured four feet from the point of the nose to the root of the tail, and two feet ten inches in height at the shoulder 34". He was three years old, and was of the true Tibetan Bloodline" (The mention was of a full Tibetan breed only three years old)
Most of the published work of Captain William John Gill is on regional circumstances in Asia for British studies. The Pit-Bull has since the 1890s become a famous breed in the west for its physical mass and ability to guard residence. The dog retains its bulky features of a Bull-Mastiff, however the Bull-breeds in the west are born with short hair, instead of the original long cold-mountain wooly mane. The Bull-Mastiff mixed with a warm-climate southern dog-breed to receive the Pitt-Bull short hair it has now today in modern times and the Pitt-Bull is one of the most loved breeds in the West.