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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeavenShallBurn" data-source="post: 3097328" data-attributes="member: 39593">Frank has it pretty much right, shepards are just too small and don't have a broad enough build.  Most of the really big working breeds almost went extinct in the late 1800s and had to be in-bred rather badly to keep the line from going extinct that's where most of the health problems come from.But mix up mastiffs, Bernards, and New Foundlands and you'd get a damned good war dog.  My family always raised mastiffs and Bernards and the average figures are really on the low side.  None of our males ever went under 170lb and most of them hovered around the 200 mark some bigger.  Most people don't realize the difference between a small dog like a shepard or a doberman and one of the really big breeds.  Usually mastiffs and bernards are pretty laid back, but if one decides to get violent its about like being attacked by a small bear.  I once saw our mastiffs literally pull apart a deer that jumped our fence, tore two of its legs clean off and pretty near decapitated it when they pulled it down.  When we had to leave the back fence gates open to get a tractor through or move something big we had to chain them to 8x8 fence posts and more than once they got pulled up or cracked so bad they had to be replaced.  When I was in High School my first car crapped out a miled short of home and with just two of our Bernards harnessed I pulled the thing to the driveway a mile down an ungraded dirt road.Personally I think it would be pretty cool to try breeding a dog big enough for a grown man to ride.  Especially now that we have a full genome for domesticated dogs and could apply some engineering where necessary to artificially select for traits that otherwise we couldn't get.</blockquote>

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