I can TOTALLY empathize with the desire to breed your dog. I wanna breed mine, too! My American Mastiff has so many qualities that I'm sure others would covet: superior size, perfect health, unbelievable temperment, etc.
Plus, a good portion of the rationale behind neutering/fixing your dog strikes me as prima facia unfair. Why should I mutilate the anatomy of a perfectly healthy animal... just because other people are careless with their dog's breeding habits? Leon didn't do anything wrong. He wasn't even alive when most of that careless breeding took place! Why should he suffer for the negligence of others? Hey, if someone told ME that I shouldn't have any children because the world's population is too high -- or there are already too many unwanted children in orphanages -- I'd tell that person that I'm gonna do whatever I want to do with my reproductive system -- and if they don't like it, well, that's just too bad!
But I fought through those impulses & had Leon neutered anyway.
There's an old legal principle that places MAXIMUM liability/ strict scrutiny on people who introduce a dangerous entity into the general population -- and I believe that not only is this a sound legal principle, but it's also a moral principle. (And what this means is, you may have the *right* to build a careless fire in your backyard for a BBQ -- but if this fire gets out of control & burns down your neighbor's house, YOU are culpable for being willfully negligent towards the handling of a hazardous entity.)
The same principle applies to "dangerous" dogs -- legally, and I believe morally.
Mastiffs are BIG. Leon is only 30-weeks old & already pushing the 120-pound mark. He's expected to weigh about 180 at the end of his first year, and max-out at 220 - 260. A dog with that size can do SO MUCH damage if not well-trained, socialized, and nurtured. If motivated, a dog like that could kill a small child in the blink of an eye -- and kill an adult that lacks the strength or mobility to defend him/herself as well. And while Leon personally doesn't have any history of violence or aggression -- nor is there any history of violence or aggression in his family tree -- I honestly don't know how his DNA would co-mingle with another's. I also don't know how much of his temperment is environment or heredity.
There are lots of good reasons to breed -- and perhaps this poster has all the good reasons in the world. But for me, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that without a more far-reaching rationale than merely hoping to pass along your dog's DNA to others. JMO.
