Introducing Ares, a five month old Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff).
We said goodbye to Ronin, the Great Dane, a few months ago. Ronin lived to be 11 years old, which is a ripe old age for a Dane. After doing some research, Erin wanted his new puppy to be a Cane Corso – a breed whose ancestors were used by the Romans in warfare. We found a breeder outside Houston.
Ares was half the size of his litter-mates and the breeder was not going to sell him since he could not get Ares to catch up in weight and was concerned about the dog not meeting the breed standard — putting the breeder’s reputation at risk.
You can imagine what the fate is for an un-sellable puppy in a purebred breeding program. In Texas.
Ares was really curious about us and his litter-mates looked to him for leadership and followed him around. We fell in love with him because of his temperament and “underdog” status. We offered full price and promised the breeder that Ares would not be bred. We probably saved his life.
He wags his tail so violently that we joke about him lifting off the ground from the propellor action of his tail. He has a super sweet disposition and is much more gentle than Huck (a Dobbie who loves to play rough).
We don’t know if Ares will reach the full physical potential of the breed (135 pounds and powerful enough to pull 2,000 pounds on a pallet) but could not be happier with his social and confident temperament.
He’s also quite the protector and will attempt to defend me from Huck when Huck and I are roughhousing.
We just need to make sure he does not achieve lift-off and hurts himself from that wagging tail action!