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50 free English Mastiff trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This English Mastiff trivia quiz covers the heaviest dog alive from its ancient roots to the show ring: Mesopotamian sculptures, Caesar's 55 BC encounter, Strabo's war dogs, the Alaunt of the Alans, the Book of Saint Albans, Bandogs and baiting, and the Agincourt Mastiff that founded the Lyme Hall line. The Victorian rebuild gets close attention: J. W. Thompson and Lukey, Governor and Lion, Crown Prince, the 1885 AKC recognition, the collapse to 24 dogs, meat rationing, Nydia of Frithend and the Dogue de Bordeaux in the gene pool. Questions also cover the standard and genetics: black masks, brindle dominance, 'Fluffies', body proportions and weight, plus Zorba's 343-pound Guinness record, temperament as praised by Sydenham Edwards, health advice on growth plates, meals and whelping, and famous Mastiffs from The Sandlot's Beast and Sherlock Holmes's Carlo to Henry and Mudge. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Dogs and Great Dane quizzes next.
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Q 01The English Mastiff holds what distinction among all living dogs?
It is the largest by mass
It outweighs the wolf by up to 110 pounds on average; the Irish Wolfhound and Great Dane are taller but far less robust.
Q 02The Mastiff is likely descended from the Alaunt and which ancient British war dog?
Pugnax Britanniae
The Roman poet Grattius rated British dogs above the famous Molossians when serious fighting was called for.
Q 03Which colour feature must every English Mastiff display, whatever its coat colour?
A black mask
Coats run apricot, fawn, silver-fawn or striped, but the muzzle, ears, nose and eye rims are always black.
Q 04How many Mastiff births were registered in the UK in 2020, leaving it a vulnerable native breed?
104
The breed has meanwhile grown in popularity worldwide, reaching 28th place in the United States.
Q 05The oldest sculpture of a mastiff-like dog comes from which region, during the Kassite period?
Mesopotamia
It is a ceramic and paint sculpture from the mid-2nd millennium BC.
Q 06The first written accounts of British Mastiff-type dogs date to 55 BC, when who noted them during his invasions?
Julius Caesar
Many were shipped to Italy, where they became fighting dogs in the arena.
Q 07The Greek historian Strabo reported that the Britons' exported hounds were used by the Celts for what?
War
They were also exported for game hunting.
Q 08The Alaunt, a probable Mastiff ancestor, was developed by the Alans and introduced to Britain by whom?
The Normans
The Alans had migrated into Gaul under pressure from the Huns in the early 5th century.
Q 09The OED traces 'mastiff' to Old French mastin, from a Vulgar Latin word meaning what?
Tame
A rival theory derives it from an Anglo-Saxon word 'masty', meaning powerful.
Q 10The first list of dog breed names in English, including 'Mastiff', appeared in which 1465 work?
The Book of Saint Albans
It is attributed to Prioress Juliana Berners and partly translated from a Norman-French hunting treatise.
Q 11Why were the Mastiff-type dogs John Caius described in 1570 called Bandogs?
For being tied (bound) close to houses
They were noted as guard dogs on remote estates.
Q 12In 1415, at which battle did Sir Peers Legh's Mastiff stand guard over its wounded master for hours?
Agincourt
The dog was returned to Legh's home and founded the Lyme Hall Mastiffs, key to the modern breed.
Q 13The Lyme Hall Mastiff strain, descended from Sir Peers Legh's battlefield dog, died out around when?
The beginning of the 20th century
Q 21How many Mastiffs were registered in the United States between 1906 and 1918?
24
After 1910 none were bred in America, and by the end of World War I the breed was extinct outside Britain apart from a few exports.
Q 22The dog Beowulf, registered with the AKC in 1918 and starting the breed's North American revival, was bred where?
Canada
His parents were the British imports Priam of Wingfield and Parkgate Duchess.
Q 23Why did virtually all Mastiff breeding in the British Isles stop during World War II?
Rationing of meat
Post-war puppies then mostly died of distemper, for which no vaccine existed until 1950.
They were bred at the hall and kept separate from other strains.
Q 14What was the family nickname of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, who owned the Chatsworth Mastiffs?
Canis
The Chatsworth dogs were said to be of Alpine Mastiff stock.
Q 15Which 1835 Act of Parliament ended the baiting sports that had employed aggressive Mastiffs?
The Cruelty to Animals Act
Mastiffs carried on as guards for country estates and town businesses.
Q 16Systematic Mastiff breeding began when J. W. Thompson bought a bitch named Dorah from the gamekeeper of which estate?
Kirklees
John Crabtree's dogs were often held in the name of his employer, Sir George Armitage.
Q 17T. V. H. Lukey's 1835 breeding began with an Alpine Mastiff bitch of the Chatsworth line named what?
Old Bob-Tailed Countess
She was mated to Pluto, a large black Mastiff belonging to the Marquis of Hertford, producing Yarrow.
Q 18The dog Governor, source of all existing male Mastiff lines, was sired by Lion, who was born where?
Canada
Captain John Garnier of the Royal Engineers took Lion's parents Adam and Eve to his posting and brought back their puppy.
Q 19Which massive short-headed dog of the 1880s dominated Mastiff breeding and is the ancestor of every all-male line?
Ch. Crown Prince
Soundness was sacrificed for type; he was straight-stifled and chocolate-masked, and owned by psychiatrist L. Forbes Winslow.
Q 20In which year did the American Kennel Club recognise the Mastiff?
1885
Numbers then collapsed: only 24 Mastiffs were registered in the US between 1906 and 1918.
Q 24What was the name of the only bitch puppy from Britain's surviving wartime stock to reach maturity?
Nydia of Frithend
Her sire's parentage was unknown and some thought he was a Bullmastiff, so the Kennel Club had to declare him a Mastiff.
Q 25A dog of which French breed was imported to the US in 1959 and registered as a Mastiff?
Dogue de Bordeaux
Fidelle de Fenelon joined a pool of just 15 dogs: Nydia and 14 North American Mastiffs.
Q 26The English Mastiff is on average slightly heavier than which other giant breed?
The Saint Bernard
Wolfhounds and Danes can be six inches taller but are not nearly as robust.
Q 27Roughly how much does an English Mastiff weigh, though the standard specifies no figure?
80 to 85 kg
Height at the withers is usually about 70 to 77 cm.
Q 28What are long-haired Mastiffs, produced by a recessive gene, called?
Fluffies
The AKC treats the long coat as a fault but not a disqualification.
Q 29In Mastiff coat genetics, which pattern is dominant over solid colour?
Brindle
Apricot is dominant over fawn, though perhaps incompletely, and black is so rare it may no longer exist in the breed.
Q 30The heaviest dog ever recorded, an English Mastiff named Aicama Zorba of La Susa, weighed how much?
343 pounds
In 1989 he stood 37 inches at the shoulder and measured 8 ft 3 in from nose to tail, about the size of a small donkey.