We had the pleasure of Ace's company over the weekend, and it was truly a pleasure. Firstly he is a seriously big lad, pictures do not do any justice in showing the absolute grandeur of him, the last time I saw paws the size of his there was a lion attached to the other end. However the words "Gentle giant" absolutely apply to him, he seemed to fall instantly in love with my children (youngest is 12) and on the first night insisted on sleeping on the floor in their room. He loves getting cuddles and will come up to you and rest his huge head on your shoulder so you can hug him.
He doesn't always pick the best of places for this though
He likes to sleep in the car, my son also likes to sleep in the car. On Sunday they discovered that they could share this love of sleep, by laying on each other. My daughter did get a picture of this, which I will upload as soon as I have extracted it from her because it shows just how loving Ace really is.
He is very food orientated and exceptionally eager to please. Although that desire for food can get him into trouble...
He settled really, really well with Coco, we've had lots of puppy play fighting but both of them have displayed great self limiting and have backed off instantly the moment the other has indicated that enough was enough or that a line had been overstepped. Despite being over three times her weight and could easily hurt her if he wanted he never uses his teeth on her, when they are in rough and tumble mode Ace simply uses his size and strength advantages to corral her into a corner. Coco for her part discovered that she fitted underneath him and has engaged in some exceptionally unladylike behaviour. The only time Ace hurt her is when he accidentally sat on her on the sofa, because she leapt over the arm of it to try and beat him into the spot!
I have many bones, chew toys and other fun things for them to play with, however a favourite thing to do is to take what the other one has, neither are vicious and there is no growling involved when this happens, often it will be a case of a quick tug of war.
I need a bigger sofa
This is their favourite way of sharing my lap, it does mean I am pinned to the spot though
He is great to walk, he clearly has the mastiff attitude to life and the world; slow and steady wins the race. He only really has two speeds, "plod" and "slightly faster plod", I'm sure he could move pretty quickly if he wanted to, but that would require much more effort than he is normally prepared to put in on a walk, especially when there is so much to sniff. He doesn't really pull, so much as make constant progress in the direction he has selected, it's more of an inexorable movement like watching sped up continental drift or glaciers moving down a valley.
He responds very well to voice commands, luckily given his size, and praise and encouragement are 100% the way to go with him. He is wearing a slightly wibbly-wobbly harness in this video because he managed to break the one that Lynne gave me and this was the only one I had that fitted and was rated for a dog his size...
He greets dogs politely, although he is interested in them, he has that almost aloof dignity that Mastiffs have to new encounters, he will have a sniff and let them sniff him, but he isn't going to try and play. He greets humans with the same attitude, although once he receives a fuss and some love he can be inclined to jump up a little if they get too enthusiastic about it, he just wants a hug from them. He is so striking that everyone we have met on the couple of walks we did have stopped us and asked about him.
To meet Ace in the flesh is a truly wonderful thing, we have all fallen in love with the big guy and I would imagine anyone who loves big dogs will feel the same, his forever home can't be very far off at all.
Jagger (Ace) Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Hook Hants
Re: Ace Belguim Shepx Eng Mastiff DofB 8months Partridge Gre
What a lovely update....Ace looks gorgeous
Hopefully his home won 't be too far away
Hopefully his home won 't be too far away
Re: Ace Belguim Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 8months Gatwick Kenn
Rob that is the best write-up I’ve ever read. I laughed AND fell in love with Ace!
Re: Ace Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Partridge Green S
Great update, what a cool character. He's so gorgeous.
Re: Ace Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Partridge Green S
Ace meeting Coco for the first time
Re: Ace Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Partridge Green S
Ace vs Coco the epic battle of the raggy
Re: Ace Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Partridge Green S
He is a gentle giant ...coco looks so tiny ...Ace is so gentlexxx
Re: Ace Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Partridge Green S
He is gentle! Those huge paws looks like Coco is enjoying having a playmate and isn't deterred by his size. Lovely to see Ace in this environment
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Re: Ace Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Partridge Green S
Ace the Gentle Giant has been with me and Coco for a few more weeks now and it's still an absolute pleasure to have him around. I'm learning new things about him everyday as his personality continues to grow and develop, it's very easy to forget he is younger than Coco sometimes, while she is screaming around the place at a billion miles an hour full of staffie energy it's clear he would much rather be asleep or eating.
One thing that has become more apparent is his love of sticks, he will select a stick early in the walk and unless a better stick presents itself this is carried all the way on the walk and back to my car, where it is shredded on the back seat. I have no idea what selection criteria he uses for the stick, because some are certainly more suitable
Than others
I've also started to walk him using the extender lead, this is both much nicer for him as he can roam around a bit more but also for me because it means I don't have to keep stopping and starting. It also is much kinder on my back/hips and hands. I've attached the extender lead to a length of bungie cord, which is then attached to the waist strap I use to walk him, this again makes the experience nicer for both of us as it absorbs all the shock of the extender reaching it's full length. I've used the extender before with Coco, but never with a dog his size, and it's taken a bit of getting used to - to begin with I was dragged into a few trees and on one occasion a holly bush.
The extender lead has lead to the discovery that he does have two additional speeds, I've come to label these as "trot" and "lollop". Trot is a bit faster than "fast plod", it's used when he has seen an especially interesting stick that might be worthy of replacing the one he is currently carrying, it's still not what you would call quick but it covers the distance quite well. Lollop would appear to be his absolute top speed, he mainly uses this when Coco is trying to steal his stick or if he has got left behind and is trying to catch up. The extension lead is 8m long, so I would estimate that the maximum distance he can cover in lollop is about 10m. When he has got left behind and deploys lollop it's immediately obvious because the extender lead starts winding back in with an audible "zzzzzzzzt" noise and it sounds like the Grand National has suddenly appeared behind you.
He wasn't at all bothered by the snow
His collar says "Adopt me", and it's caused lots of people on our walks to ask about him and RR.
I found him and Coco on my bed, there was no room for me to get into it...
I get a lot of comments about his size. I have roughly normal sized adult man hands.
I also have a normal sized front door
And a normal sized two seater sofa
My parents have a normal sized kitchen, with normal height counters.
At the weekend he met my cousins two small children, aged 2 and 4, the eldest is quite scared of dogs (even soppy ones) while the youngest absolutely loves them. Ace was a star with both of them, although we kept the interactions fully supervised, he allowed the youngest to stroke him and touch his face and didn't show the slightest hint of concern, the elder one overcame his worry enough to come and give him a fuss as well. I think it's fair to say that the most dangerous bit of Ace is the back end, his tail is quite long and when he gets excited his whole hips wag as well as the tail, it hurts when he catches my thigh but it would be very painful for a child to catch it in the face.
He is a stunning dog
who loves a sleep
One thing that has become more apparent is his love of sticks, he will select a stick early in the walk and unless a better stick presents itself this is carried all the way on the walk and back to my car, where it is shredded on the back seat. I have no idea what selection criteria he uses for the stick, because some are certainly more suitable
Than others
I've also started to walk him using the extender lead, this is both much nicer for him as he can roam around a bit more but also for me because it means I don't have to keep stopping and starting. It also is much kinder on my back/hips and hands. I've attached the extender lead to a length of bungie cord, which is then attached to the waist strap I use to walk him, this again makes the experience nicer for both of us as it absorbs all the shock of the extender reaching it's full length. I've used the extender before with Coco, but never with a dog his size, and it's taken a bit of getting used to - to begin with I was dragged into a few trees and on one occasion a holly bush.
The extender lead has lead to the discovery that he does have two additional speeds, I've come to label these as "trot" and "lollop". Trot is a bit faster than "fast plod", it's used when he has seen an especially interesting stick that might be worthy of replacing the one he is currently carrying, it's still not what you would call quick but it covers the distance quite well. Lollop would appear to be his absolute top speed, he mainly uses this when Coco is trying to steal his stick or if he has got left behind and is trying to catch up. The extension lead is 8m long, so I would estimate that the maximum distance he can cover in lollop is about 10m. When he has got left behind and deploys lollop it's immediately obvious because the extender lead starts winding back in with an audible "zzzzzzzzt" noise and it sounds like the Grand National has suddenly appeared behind you.
He wasn't at all bothered by the snow
His collar says "Adopt me", and it's caused lots of people on our walks to ask about him and RR.
I found him and Coco on my bed, there was no room for me to get into it...
I get a lot of comments about his size. I have roughly normal sized adult man hands.
I also have a normal sized front door
And a normal sized two seater sofa
My parents have a normal sized kitchen, with normal height counters.
At the weekend he met my cousins two small children, aged 2 and 4, the eldest is quite scared of dogs (even soppy ones) while the youngest absolutely loves them. Ace was a star with both of them, although we kept the interactions fully supervised, he allowed the youngest to stroke him and touch his face and didn't show the slightest hint of concern, the elder one overcame his worry enough to come and give him a fuss as well. I think it's fair to say that the most dangerous bit of Ace is the back end, his tail is quite long and when he gets excited his whole hips wag as well as the tail, it hurts when he catches my thigh but it would be very painful for a child to catch it in the face.
He is a stunning dog
who loves a sleep
Re: Ace Belg Shep x Eng Mastiff DofB 06.17 Partridge Green S
He is gorgeous and some photos he has a real look of great dane about him....thank you for fostering this gorgeous boy