Vicki
Administrator
The Terceira Mastiff was developed in Azores within the Terceira Isles and had many ancestors from local dogs in that area. These ancestors are dogs such as the Bulldog, Dogue de Bordeaux, Bloodhound, and both the English and Spanish Bulldog. Pirates were quite fond of the Terceira Mastiff and they soon became popular as a fighting dog. In the 1880’s there were attempts by Dr. Jose Leite Pacheco to make the Terceira Mastiff a standard within the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale which means World Canine Organisation) using Rabo Torto as the official breed name which means “twisted tail” or “curled tail”, but it was never approved because this dog breed was already endangered by this time. This dog was on the edge of extinction all the way through the 1900’s until in 1960 the Portuguese government made attempts at saving the breed. Unfortunately, there were misunderstandings between the breeders of the Terceira Mastiff and the government so this plan was not a success. By the 1970’s the only people with this breed were farmers and high end dog breeders local to the Terceira Isles. It is said that the last people left with this dog breed attempted to recreate the breed themselves, but nothing was confirmed.
