We are situated at Rylstone, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 3 hours west of Sydney. Our 40 hectare, or 100 acre, property is located in the Capertee Valley, the second largest Canyon formation in the world, after the Grand Canyon in USA. Sandstone cliffs form a spectacular background and native animals and birds abound.
Previously we lived at Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains, but with the City encroaching, the Mountains becoming more suburban, and our kennel numbers increasing, we moved in February 2004 to the Country to enable our dogs to have a freer lifestyle.
We obtained our first Neapolitan Mastiff in 1995. Having recently lost our beloved Rottweiler, a different breed was called for. Nancy had been reading and studying the breed for a long time, and following a 6 week campaign of photos, brochures and other information wherever he turned, Klaus finally agreed to at least look at some.
We visited a kennel at Morriset. On arrival, 5 Neapolitan Mastiffs greeted us at the gate on which hung a sign saying, “Do not enter unless accompanied by owner”. Heads hung over the gate, skin draped, and Klaus turned to Nancy and said “OK, we’ll have one.” One. In November 1995 Rocco, (Magnufi Lucchese) came to live with us, swiftly followed by (Magnufi) Arielle.
Since then we have added several quality imports to our kennel and have developed lines unique in Australia. We have gained a reputation for producing healthy, happy dogs with correct conformation, exhibiting all the hallmarks of the breed. A lot of kilometers have been travelled attending shows throughout the East Coast of Australia. Many weekends see us in the Show Ring with at least 4 Mastino.
Our kennel is not large – at this stage we have (only) 11 Mastino, and breed at most once or twice a year. They are a special breed and need quite a lot of human companionship and interaction.
Each dog has its own “house”, a cedar child’s cubby complete with door, windows, skylight and being in Australia, of course a Verandah. Night pens are 5 metres x 5 metres and day runs 10metres x 10 metres. All take turns spending the day in the house yard of 1 acre. Daily explorations of the property are a “must do”, often with a swim in the dam. All spend time in the house with us and we believe, live a quality lifestyle.
We perform extensive health checking on our dogs before breeding and feed a quality diet. Together, these things produce dogs that are sound and healthy.
We attend on average three shows a month. This enables us to spend more fun time with our dogs and still leave time to pursue other interests.
These other interests include Sailing, Photography, Rotary Club activities, Reading and a myriad of other things. Our other animals include 2 Siamese Cats – for rodent control in our farm sheds and just for the “aggravation” of owning very talkative, active & highly intelligent cats – as if 11 Neapolitan Mastiffs were not enough. Guinea fowl, Bantams and two breeds of Heritage Turkeys, who are cared for by our Maremma Sheepdog Blanco, are also part of the extended family.