Pretty much everyone views us as tough and vicious, but that’s not completely our fault. After all, we were originally bred to protect people and land from everything – even lions! Seriously, legend has it that nearly 1,000 years ago, we used to fight lions in the Tibetan Highlands in order to protect ancient monasteries. I don’t think any of us would fight a lion today, but sometimes our growls sound a lot like theirs!

Our history can be traced back to Ancient Greece – opa! We belong to a subcategory of working breeds called molossian dogs, which comes from the name of an ancient Greek tribe, Molossi. They were famous for breeding Mastiff-type dogs like us! Our name translates to “guardian dog,” so you know we were built to protect. When the Roman Empire was at its most powerful, armies that took over Greek islands brought us back to Italy to breed us with native Italian breeds. That’s how our closest ancestors were born, and we actually share this ancestor with Neopolitan Mastiffs – no wonder we both have such good looks! Our fearlessness and ferocity made us the pawfect sidekicks for explorers trying to take over more land. Ancient tales say that our ancestors were even bigger and scarier looking than us! Our owners used to strap buckets of flaming oil onto our backs and send us out to charge enemy lines – backs ablaze! When the Western Empire dissolved in the fifth century, our Italian breed was