40 Fun Facts About Dogue De Bordeaux (French Mastiff)

Which actor played the tidy detective stuck with Hooch, a Dogue de Bordeaux, in a 1989 cop comedy?

Tom Hanks called the shoot one of his most demanding, because he had to react on camera to whatever his canine co-star decided to do.

The Dogue de Bordeaux is named after a city on the Garonne famed as a global capital of what?

Wine made the city's fortune, and since 2016 Bordeaux has devoted a whole riverside museum to it, the Cité du Vin.

Which part of the Dogue de Bordeaux is claimed to be the largest of any dog, relative to body size?

Head size is the breed's hallmark: on a male, the skull measures about as much around as the animal stands tall at the shoulder.

Which Barcelona superstar welcomed a Dogue de Bordeaux puppy named Hulk into his family in 2016?

Lionel Messi announced the puppy as a new member of the family in January 2016, and Hulk soon grew big enough to make his owner look small.

What nearly wiped out the Dogue de Bordeaux before breeders gave it a fresh start in the 1960s?

The two world wars left the breed threatened with extinction, until a small group of French breeders set about rebuilding its foundation stock.

Which big cat did Raymond Triquet see in the Dogue de Bordeaux when he set out to revive it?

A lion is what Triquet saw in the rare breed, and he went on to write the modern standard that still defines how it should look.

Which messy habit does the American Kennel Club warn every French Mastiff owner to expect?

Drooling comes with the territory: owners find strings of slobber on furniture, floors and even walls, yet fans insist the breed is worth it.

The French Mastiff's flat face leaves it especially prone to which of these dangers?

Overheating is the risk because dogs shed body warmth mainly by panting, and the same shortened airway makes anaesthesia riskier too.

What happens to Hooch, the Dogue de Bordeaux, at the end of the 1989 comedy Turner & Hooch?

He is fatally shot while tackling the villain, but the closing scene introduces a puppy that looks and acts exactly like him.

The 'mastiff' in French Mastiff comes via Old French 'mastin' from a Latin word meaning what?

Tame is the root sense: Latin 'mansuetus' described an animal accustomed to the hand, quite a contrast with the breed's forbidding looks.

Which Happy Days star was fired as director of the 1989 film Turner & Hooch after thirteen days?

Henry Winkler, the Fonz himself, later joked that he had got along better with the dog than with the film's leading man.

Which streaming service revived Turner & Hooch in 2021 with five French Mastiffs sharing the lead?

Disney+ ordered twelve episodes, with Arnie, Hammer, Obi, Cyd and Mya taking turns as the dog, then cancelled the show after one season.

Besides hunting and fighting, the Dogue de Bordeaux historically served which French tradesmen?

Butchers used the powerful dogs to watch over their cattle, at a time when the type was hardly known beyond its home region.

In which city did the Dogue de Bordeaux make its show debut in 1863, at France's first dog show?

Paris staged the show in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, where the dogues were entered under the very name they still carry today.

The 'dogue' in Dogue de Bordeaux is a French word borrowed in the 14th century from which language?

English supplied it: 'dogue' is simply the word 'dog' in French dress, and it first appeared in France at the end of the 1300s.

Which coat colour, in shades running to deep mahogany, is the only one allowed for a French Mastiff?

Fawn in any shade passes, but a brindle or solid chocolate coat disqualifies a dog from the show ring outright.

Which eye colour is a disqualifying fault in a Dogue de Bordeaux under its international standard?

Blue eyes rule a dog out of the ring, as do bulging ones; the standard asks for oval eyes in hazel to dark brown.

What was the day job of Raymond Triquet, the Frenchman who led the Dogue de Bordeaux revival?

Teacher by trade, Triquet fell for the rare breed, bred influential dogs of his own and helped define the modern standard.

Which American Kennel Club group, home to the Great Dane, includes the Dogue de Bordeaux?

Working Group status arrived in 2008, when the Dogue became the 158th breed the club had recognised.

The standard describes deep, mobile ropes of what on either side of a French Mastiff's brow furrow?

Wrinkles frame the face symmetrically and shift as the dog's attention changes, though heavy bulldog-style folds count as a severe fault.

Which jaw alignment, a disqualifying fault if absent, does the French Mastiff share with the Boxer?

Undershot jaws set the lower incisors in front of the upper ones, and a Dogue whose mouth lacks the trait cannot win in the show ring.

What are the loose throat folds of a Dogue de Bordeaux called, a feature also seen on zebu cattle?

Dewlap is the term, and the standard wants it well defined from throat to chest without hanging to excess.

The French Mastiff is a molossoid breed, a label taken from the Molossians of which ancient land?

Greece was home to the Molossians of Epirus, whose huge dogs were famous throughout antiquity and even appeared on the tribe's silver coins.

Which large game animal did hunters in 19th-century France pursue with the Dogue de Bordeaux?

Boar was the quarry, a dangerous one: the breed's likely medieval forerunner was praised for holding its bite harder than three sighthounds.

In the mid-19th century, the Dogue de Bordeaux was hardly known outside which French region?

Aquitaine was the breed's stronghold, and its Bordeaux type went on to eclipse rival French dogues bred further afield.

Which term describes flat-faced breeds such as the French Mastiff, the Pug and the Bulldog?

Brachycephalic dogs have skulls shorter than is typical for the species, a look bred on purpose that often brings noisy, laboured breathing.

Small patches of which colour are allowed only on the chest and toes of a French Mastiff?

White is tolerated only on the forechest and feet; on the tip of the tail it becomes a severe fault, and on the body it disqualifies the dog.

Which Jungle Book character shares a name with an influential French Mastiff bred by Raymond Triquet?

Mowgli de la Maison des Arbres, a kennel name meaning 'of the house of the trees', was among the dogs Triquet bred as he rebuilt the breed.

Viewed from above or in front, the French Mastiff's skull and muzzle together form which shape?

Trapezoid is the standard's own word, with the long side running across the top of the skull and the short one along the underjaw.

The tip of a French Mastiff's low-carried tail should reach, but never hang below, which joint?

Hock level is the limit for a tail that starts very thick, hangs at rest and lifts when the dog moves, without ever curling over the back.

Which gait does the standard name as the preferred one for the heavy, low-slung French Mastiff?

Trot is the favoured pace, yet the standard adds that the breed can bolt at great speed over short distances, hugging the ground.

Before the Bordeaux type prevailed, a rival French dogue was named after which southern 'Pink City'?

Toulouse lent its name to one of three recognised types, beside those of Bordeaux and the capital; only the Bordeaux type shaped today's breed.

The French Mastiff was among the breeds crossed to create which South American big-game hunter?

Dogo Argentino creator Antonio Nores Martinez also drew on the Great Dane, the Bull Terrier and the Irish Wolfhound for his new breed.

Bordeaux's team in which sport was long called the Dogues before a successor club became the Boxers?

Ice hockey fans in the city cheered the Dogues until the club folded, and the team founded in 1998 to replace it kept a canine name.

The Dogue de Bordeaux probably descends from medieval hunting dogs credited to which nomadic people?

Alans, Iranian-speaking nomads famed as breeders of horses and dogs, are credited with the alaunt, the big catch dog of medieval hunts.

Which drink gave its name to the burrito-eating French Mastiff in a 1992 CBS cop series with Jack Scalia?

Tequila shared the title with his human partner in Tequila and Bonetti, which CBS dropped within four months; Italian television revived it in 2000.

What was the real name of the Dogue de Bordeaux who played Hooch in the 1989 film Turner & Hooch?

Beasley came from a Wisconsin kennel that sold four dogs to the studio for the film, and more than one of them appeared on screen as Hooch.

Which role tops the official list of uses for the French Mastiff, a one-time fighting dog?

Guarding comes first, followed by defence and dissuasion, and the standard asks for vigilance and courage without aggressiveness.

Which medical sitcom rostered doctors named Turner and Hooch together, a nod to the French Mastiff film?

Scrubs had J.D. and Turk quietly rework the hospital's shift schedule so that both doctors would end up operating as one surgical team.

Which former Nickelodeon star played the marshal who inherits a French Mastiff in the 2021 Turner & Hooch series?

Josh Peck played Scott Turner Jr., a buttoned-down US Marshal and the son of the detective from the original film.