Toledo Santa Sophina CGC, TDI
"Sofie"
We brought Sofie home at 9 weeks from her breeder Becky in Alavarado Texas. And she went right to work stealing our hearts, and continues to hold our hearts to this day. Sadly, Sofie has PRA (progressive retinal atrophy) and is losing her eyesight and rather than take the chance of her passing it on to her puppies we made the hard decision to spay her. She now resides back with Becky in a secure, safe, fenced environment where we don't have to worry about whether she will fall in the lake or find an unfriendly snake.
Sofie was our first mastiff and the first dog we had, had in a long time, so we decided to enroll her and us in Puppy Kindergarten at PetsMart and what a great time we had with that. We drove every Saturday 70 miles for 8 weeks to learn things we had forgotten and she never knew because we don't have a PetsMart any closer. She was the smartest mastiff we had seen to that point, learned things very quickly and had such fun doing it. She was a pure joy to train. She even learned to ring the bell on the door to go outside. Which grandma loved to tell everyone who came to visit when she hung a bell on her back door in Houston.
Sofie has been a runner from the get go. We always teased her that she might be a Lab instead of a Mastiff. We don't think she got the joke as she just kept running, and built up great muscles. Even when her eyes starting getting bad she kept running. As long as furniture or trees did not move from one location she could dodge them on a fairly constant basis. She could retrieve with the best of them as well. She is one of those all round mastiffs that can do anything and love doing it.
In a way we are blessed to have her first, because we now know what it means to have a dog with PRA, consequently we now test them if the parents have not been tested. Her mama, Zoe, has been tested and is PRA DNA free. She is also our first and so far our only apricot, which somehow turned out to be our favorite of the mastiff colors, although we do love them all.
We did show Sofie. You could say she was our quinea pig for the show ring. We had never showed before so it was learning a experience for all of us. We had a great time and learned alot, and still are in the learning process. We took Sofie out of the ring for good when we learned of her PRA and let her have fun just at home.
She is excellent with puppies and kids alike. A kind heart and soft touch are her trade marks.
So we dedicate this page to a wonderful girl who stole our hearts and gave a Mastiff ideal to strive for. Thank you for letting us share her with you.
