History of the Bull Mastiff

The first Bull Mastiffs (originally known as the Gamekeeper’s Night Dog) came into being around 1860, a cross between the Mastiff and the Bulldog. They were bred for a very specific purpose: to help gamekeepers in their job of protecting their employers’ game from poachers.

The landowners needed their game kept safe to enable them to feed their families and the estates’ hundreds of workers, but the poachers were also desperate to eat and their aim was to catch the landowners’ deer and other animals. If challenged, they were as likely to shoot the gamekeeper as to risk being caught, as poaching was a capital offence, and so the gamekeepers needed some serious canine back-up.

This required a large, courageous dog, who was quiet enough to sneak up on the poachers without being heard. Once close enough, the job of the Bull Mastiff was not to attack the poacher but instead to grab him and pull him to the ground, and then to sit on him until the gamekeeper arrived to apprehend him!

Owners of Bull Mastiffs today recognise both the almost silent nature of their beloved breed, and their love of sitting on people and trying to pretend they are a lapdog!

Bullmastiff character