New York City—(reported by Pat Borracci) This past Oct 17th and 18th Empire State Mastiff Fanciers manned the Mastiff booth at AKC’s first Meet the Breeds event at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC. The event welcomed 160 dog breeds, 41 breeds of cat and more than 36,000 attendees over the two days. There was also a competition for booth design with the best booth wining $500. Since the Mastiff is a giant breed we were given a double sized booth. A terrific amount of space for the dogs, but twice as much to decorate! We were undaunted and quickly decided on a medieval castle theme which included castle walls, 6 ft Mastiff knights in armor, pennants and crests. The girls and I dressed as medieval ladies to match our booth. Center stage of our booth was a large banner of a Mastiff crest and a second banner that gave basic mastiff statistics and spoke about them as companions and protectors.

Two days before the event, Joe and I brought our 5 month old male puppy, Celestial Dunkirk The Real McCoy aka “Bones” and his 10yr old grandfather, CH Celestial James Tiberius aka “Kirk” into Times Square to be part of an AKC Street Team. Our job was to attract attention while volunteers handed out flyers about Meet the Breeds. It was a dismal rainy afternoon but stop traffic we did! We had so many people stopping to meet the dogs, take photos and asking for flyers our volunteers were scrambling to replenish their supplies!

My husband Joe, father-in-law Frank, our daughters Veronica and Morgan Rose, myself and of course, Bones and Kirk piled into the Denali for the trek into the city. We spent the next two days busy answering questions, participating in two Working Group demonstrations, several photo shoots and interviews. The girls and I (mostly the girls) did an interview with the AKC that can be found on the AKC YouTube channel at: youtube.com/user/AmericanKennelClub . Our booth was a huge hit with non-stop traffic including some of the faces we had seen in Times Square. We were even visited by Extra! host Mario Lopez and David Frei, one of the commentators for Westminster. Kirk and Bones demonstrated the wonderful capacity Mastiffs have for using just the right amount of strength. The played tuggy with children and adults all the while making it look like they were pulling with all their might. They just as happily rolled over for belly rubs, gave kisses and posed for countless photos. They were very patient with the crowds and all the hustle and bustle.

Saturday afternoon we were joined by fellow ESMF members Bill and Maria Ruoto who made the 2 hour drive from Stroudsburg, PA with their dogs Dunraven's Fantasy Siren Song "Morgan Rose" and Dunraven's Fantasy Dark Knight "Bruce”. Both days Dr Bill Newman came along to check on us and field some questions.

I am sure there were many who fell in love with our big guys, but also quite a few who realized this was not the breed for them. If we said it once, we said it a thousand times “A giant breed is a giant commitment.” We did our best to explain why they shouldn’t buy from pet stores or backyard breeders. We repeated over and over the importance of socializing and positively training your Mastiff. Sometimes our message seemed to fall on deaf ears but most of the time I felt we were getting through.

On Sunday afternoon we found out that the Shih Tzus won the booth decorating competition. Unfortunately, due to a mix-up between the hotel and FedEx, the ribbons never arrived so no Groups placements were announced. Since there is no evidence to the contrary, I am going to believe our booth would have placed! 

As President of Empire State Mastiff Fanciers I consider Breed Education to be very important. Many of us show and breed our dogs and have great websites that extol the virtues of our breed. These events let the public see all sides of the Mastiff and let us discuss what may be considered drawbacks to some but are just another quality of the Mastiff to those that love them. If we talked one person out of getting a Mastiff when it wasn’t the breed for them and ultimately kept a dog out of rescue, then the weekend was a success. Not everyone can foster or physically help out rescue. Not everyone has the means to lend financial support. But we can all spend a few hours sharing our passion and knowledge. After all, who doesn’t like to ‘talk Mastiff’ all day?

Empire State Mastiff Fanciers thanks the AKC and MCOA for giving us this great opportunity. We’re looking forward to the next time and already working on how we can beat those Shih Tzus!