As previously posted, we lost both of our beloved dogs in 2019. After Moose passed, we thought we’d wait a little while to get a puppy. Nope.
We loved our bulldog and mastiff. Chunk was hilarious and had more personality than any other dog I’ve met. Moose was one of a kind – especially in this area. You just don’t see many mastiffs. He was the sweetest dog and wanted nothing more than to make us happy.
I highly recommend both of those breeds, but they do have some challenges – especially if you like to travel. Sidebar: if you’re going to get a purebred dog, do your research and buy one from a highly reputable breeder. It will cost more upfront, but you’ll likely save in the long run in money and heart-ache. You can’t eliminate all risks with a properly bred dog, but there are several risks you can absolutely eliminate through proper breeding.
Both mastiffs and bulldogs are known to have health problems and relatively short life expectancies (8-10 years for both). They’re both pretty much full time inside dogs and each can bring some odor with them…especially the 200# mastiff, whose slobber all over the house was legendary. They both can be loud (snoring, panting, etc.). They both have high general care costs: food, vet bills, medication. Finally, neither one was suited to stay in a kennel, go to friend/family member’s house, or generally do anything easy when we went out of town. Basically, our only option was to have someone come stay at our house.
I don’t say all of that to discourage anyone from getting these breeds…again, we loved them. Alyce is still trying to talk me into another bulldog. But you should be aware of what you’re getting into if you want one of those breeds.
I also highlighted the above to give some background on our next dog choice: a Labrador Retriever. Specifically, a traditionally bred show lab (as opposed to a field lab bred for hunting trials). These labs are commonly called “English Labs.” Compared to field labs, they are shorter, stockier, have a blockier head and an otter tail, and are generally said to be less energetic.

My family had a lab when I was in high school, so I was familiar with the breed and loved them. Alyce was actually the one that read into them and brought up the idea. After doing some reading and thinking myself, I agreed that this would be the ideal breed for this phase of our life.
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