Chimera Kennels

Just picked up an "old style" Neapolitan, by that I mean he is not one of the modern "typey" Neos. He is 2 1/2 years old and put together very well. Fit type, great confirmation, good muscle tone, clean skin...not all that slop, good feet, and probably one of the finest Neapolitans I have seen structurally. This is the first Neapolitan that has been impressive enough for ME PERSONALLY to invest more time with. Most Neapolitans turn me away in 5 seconds, some 5 minutes...but this dog is impressive enough that he earned the right to come home with me for a much closer look, but as of now we don't know for sure if we will keep him or not.

That said, I have heard good reports on his strong protective ability, but I personally take reports with a grain of salt...and don't know for myself yet if he will make the grade for our program or not. We are much more demanding than most people. As of now, all I have tested is "alerting" from a distance with a forward response from the dog, but that is elementary stuff as we didn't push him or test him ourselves beyond that yet. I want to bond with him before we test him ourselves.

And, that said...to be honest, we don't really need him for our program given where we are at this stage of the breed's development, but we picked him up anyway based upon the reports of his abilities and given his excellent physical structure that is vastly superior to what is seen in most Neapolitans today. I will keep you posted...and will post some pictures of him soon too...regardless of if we ourselves keep him or not.

Can't wait to see him.    I hope he works out for you.

chimerakennels at 06:43PM on Dec 29, 2009

Just picked up an "old style" Neapolitan, by that I mean he is not one of the modern "typey" Neos. He is 2 1/2 years old and put together very well. Fit type, great confirmation, good muscle tone, clean skin...not all that slop, good feet, and probably one of the finest Neapolitans I have seen structurally. This is the first Neapolitan that has been impressive enough for ME PERSONALLY to invest more time with. Most Neapolitans turn me away in 5 seconds, some 5 minutes...but this dog is impressive enough that he earned the right to come home with me for a much closer look, but as of now we don't know for sure if we will keep him or not.

 

That said, I have heard good reports on his strong protective ability, but I personally take reports with a grain of salt...and don't know for myself yet if he will make the grade for our program or not. We are much more demanding than most people. As of now, all I have tested is "alerting" from a distance with a forward response from the dog, but that is elementary stuff as we didn't push him or test him ourselves beyond that yet. I want to bond with him before we test him ourselves.

 

And, that said...to be honest, we don't really need him for our program given where we are at this stage of the breed's development, but we picked him up anyway based upon the reports of his abilities and given his excellent physical structure that is vastly superior to what is seen in most Neapolitans today. I will keep you posted...and will post some pictures of him soon too...regardless of if we ourselves keep him or not.

Wow, I am really surprised to hear that you have interest in a Neo. He must REALLY be special since I know in the past you would never had considered bringing Neo into your program. Should this dog turn out to be exactly the way you like a dog to be, and you will decide to use him, how would that fit in with the EM? Wouldn't that change your entire program?

It wouldn't change our program at all. Our program is doing great, but that is because we work hard to find the best foundations that have the traits we require. Our success has been based on selection of traits, not recipes or percentages. And, there is an old saying that states, "A good dog is where you find it." It still remains to be determined if this dog is good enough for us to use or not, but he certainly is much nicer in type than the vast majority of neapolitans I have experience with...and I have looked into the breed many times.

At this stage of our program, if another Mastiff is brought in, even if it was another pure EM, we would clean it up genetically first by breeding it to the right female from our program and then select hard from THOSE offspring before bringing the "diluted" outcross into the primary program...this way, the offspring would contain our blood, reduce the influence of the outcross, and again be selected for working ability just as we have always done. By doing things this way, the outcross doesn't change the existing program, but only adds some traits to a strain that will be tested before becoming PART of the primary program. This way, the influence of the outcross is reduced so it does no damage to the existing program. It is all about performance. And if the offspring don't bring the requirements to the table then they do not become part of the program. The only female I have that could use more "mastiff like" traits would be Chili, so if this Neo is used that would be where I would start. But, at this time such thoughts are putting the cart before the horse so to speak. First we need to see for oursleves how well he can really work and if he is all he is reported to be.

In the past, although I have certainly not been impressed by Neapolitans as a whole given its current state, I don't recall ever TOTALLY dismissing the breed. In fact, I have stated it can be used successfully even though I myself found the breed lacking what I require since the generally lack so many traits that we require. This one is certainly a nice representation of the breed, but I don't know yet he has what it takes either. We will see.who knows...he might be sold in less than a month...but given his "old style" structure, I am going to work him to see if he is worthy of using. And even if he is worthy, there is a good chance we will won't stay on my personal yard.

In general, the EM (a good one) is my favorite mastiff type, but we have used Tosa as well, and let's not forget that Levi has Neapolitan in him as well...but all mastiffs (as well as the APBT) must pass our suitability tests...and then we select the offspring for what WE require. Regardless of mastiff type, the pups produced from the first beeding would be half our current stock. Culling from this litter would be done before introducing the new mastiff blood into our line. Doing it this way, the percent of the Neapolitan's influence in our program would not exceed the percents that we aleady have in some of our lines.

Pretty darn good phone message :wink:. Thank you for explaining what your ideas are with this dog. I know you have dedicated a lot of time, studies, and hard work in your program, and the it shows in your great dogs! I also know how important PERFORMANCE is for you, this is why I was surprised to hear about a possible Neo addition. I have not seen many Neo's in my life, perhaps only 6-7 of them, but the ones I saw did not look good at all. Some had a hard time walking up a tiny hill, let alone run. Same thing with the Presa, only once I saw a REALLY nice 95lbs male that was running, and jumping like a 55lbs pit would. I understand temperament is key when it comes to PP work, but if a dog can only perform for about 15 minutes due to physical limitations, than temperament does not help. Anyway, will you be posting pictures of this Neo, or will you wait until you know for sure? Thanks.

I will post pictures of him soon, either way.

I look forward to seeing him.

Introducing the "Sandman"

We renamed "Hootch" to "Sandman." So, here is Sandman. We came up with that name for 2 reason...1. My son was in his Spiderman outfit, and 2. Neapolitan often have that "sleepy" look. So, we felt the name "Sandman" was fitting. He is doing well, bonding with Wendy and the kids. Here are a few photos of him.

Hey Lee:

That is a nice looking Neo if he works out I could see him bringing a lot to the table. It would be interesting to see him bred to an athletic female like Bandit or Reaper. When do you plan on having the next training day? I would love to bring Tucker for his first training session and Misty for evaluation. Thanks for sharing the pics of Sandman!

Very nice!  I've always been partial to a good Neo temperament---It was the other stuff (health, athleticism, etc) that I didnt care for.  It doesnt look like he has those typical Neo problems.   Keep us up on his training and his progress.

Charles

Wow, he's better looking than I expected. I really hope he works well, because he looks great. The top picture is my favorite, but It's squished. I had to right click and use the "view Image" option, but thats a really nice neo.

Much better than, These poor dogs.

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

David,

Those pictures are just sick.

Sorry to hear about the squished images. They are showing up fine on my computer. I wonder if it is the settings of your monitor interferring with the "message forum" width. Anyway, if anyone else is having that problem, here is a link to the images, which should come across without being distorted by the message forum.

http://www.chimerakennels.com/SandmanVsSpiderman.jpg

http://www.chimerakennels.com/SandmanDay2pic2.jpg

http://www.chimerakennels.com/SandmanDay2pic3.jpg

Curious...is the first picture distorted for anyone else? It looks fine to me. I ask because I want to know if I have some settings to adjust with our website hosting company.

Lee all the images look fine on my end.

Great looking boy Lee!!!

Good news. Took Sandman to the vet today. Checked a few things on him. His heart sounds good and his hip x-rays were "good" as well. We also confirmed that he is heart worm negative, just to be sure.

chimerakennels at 11:19PM on Jan 04, 2010

Good news. Took Sandman to the vet today. Checked a few things on him. His heart sounds good and his hip x-rays were "good" as well. We also confirmed that he is heart worm negative, just to be sure.

Thank you for posting the pics, he does look nice. Please let us know how he works out in the future.

Here is a video of Sandman playing with a puppy sleeve...

http://www.chimerakennels.com/Sandman2andhalfyears.wmv

Here is more info on Sandman...

 http://www.chimerakennels.com/sandman.htm

You are working him well Lee....but you do have to work to keep his bite.  He doesn't seem interested in holding the sleeve.  Seems to be very keen to play with the tug but no bite.  Is this common in Mastiffs? (I am used to Dobermanns who want to destroy the sleeve)

Would be very interesting to see this dog's reaction when put in a suspicious/defensive situation.  Have you had an opportunity to test his nerve?  Prey and a hard bite is always easy to get....but nerve is a different story if not there from the beginning.

By far the best looking Neo I have seen though!