The best piece of advice I can give you when it comes to watching a young Bullmastiff develop and grow to become the extraordinarily and powerful dog he is at an adult age, is to be patient. And I mean it: p-a-t-i-e-n-t!

Bullmastiffs are slow growers and should remain so. They ought to grow slowly and a female should not reach her full physical maturity until after 18 or 20 months, just like a male will not reach his full size and weight until he is some 3 to 3,5 and sometimes 4 years old! (or more).

Chris and Strike de Castro-Castalia with Voodoo de Castro-Castalia

How many babies do you see juggling or participating in the Olympics? None, of course. The reasons are quite obvious. Babies too need to grow at their own pace so that their bones, joints, muscular mass, their whole skeleton matures and slowly reaches its utmost. And this is something that takes time. So, why should you want a Bullmastiff to be any different and have it finished too early?

Strike de Castro-Castalia with one hour

It is a fact that dogs do not live to such an old age as we, humans, do, but even though this is true, Bullmastiffs do take their time to grow up well.

50 days

We know today that any departure from what Nature has set as normal will cause important damage to the body of the dog and thus, it makes no sense to deliberately produce changes in the normal pace of growth for a dog of this size and weight. Unfortunately there are too many pseudo-breeders and irresponsible owners who will disregard this advice and administer all sorts of vitamins, growing aids and even hormones to encourage a fast development and growth in order to have a youngster look as an adult at maybe one year of age. I know of one of those pseudo-breeders who think very high of himself and feel he is very fortunate and proud that his show Bullmastiff weighs 60 kilos at the age of nine months! Go figure!

I have been around Bullmastiffs all my life and thus I have learned enough and seen enough and compared enough, to be totally sure that patience is a must and rewards well, because a Bullmastiff puppy that is let to grow at its rhythm, will become an adult full of energy and strength, healthy, that will surely live to a long age, capable of performing anything you ask of it in due time, such as running wild, jumping, playing for hours, showing happy and strong that will follow you to the end of the world if that is what you ask it to do and even complete a full agility course set up with all the obstacles – jumps, tunnels, dog walk, see-saw, A-frame and weave pole, plus any thing else you want to ask for! Take my word.

3 years

3,5 Years

4 years

5 years

(Texto original, escrito por Christina de Lima-Netto y Federico Baudin específicamente para esta página Web y protegido con Copyright. No puede ser reproducido ni total ni parcialmente por ningún medio, sin el expreso consentimiento de Castro-Castalia por escrito).