'I'm a dog trainer – I will never own one breed again for heartbreaking reason'

An expert dog trainer has opened up about a "heartbreaking" breed that he will never own again.

Canine behaviourist Will Atherton has more than 900,000 followers on both TikTok and YouTube. He regularly shares dog training tips as well as advice regarding what breeds might be best suited to different people.

In one of his recent videos on YouTube, Will addressed a series of questions from his fans. One of them asked: "After Eileen passed away, are you going to get another mastiff?"

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Will explained that his English mastiff Eileen passed away earlier this year. "Obviously, whenever you lose a dog, it's absolutely heartbreaking," he said.

Eileen wasn't the first mastiff Will has owned. In fact, he has had several that have sadly passed away due to health issues. He said: "Before Eileen I had a Bullmastiff pass away at four-years-old from cancer, and I had a Cane Corso - an Italian mastiff - pass away at just four-months-old. Now Eileen has passed away at such a young age from what the vets think was a very aggressive cancer as well."

Hence, Will doesn't want to put himself through the heartbreak again. He continued: "I don't think that I can go through having another dog that is riddled with the health problems that most of the mastiff breeds are. Eileen in particular was from literally the best English mastiff breeder on the planet, and they still struggle with health issues. It's just something that comes with the breed."

Will does own a mastiff mix currently, but said that will likely be the last mastiff he has. "It's just too heartbreaking for me and my family to go through that process of losing dogs young, when there are other breeds like Labradors that are just so much more healthy and robust," he said.

According to Canna Pet, the most common cause of death in mastiffs is canine cancer. The second major cause of deaths in mastiffs is gastric dilatation volvulus (GDV), also known as bloat, which causes the animal's stomach to dilate and twist.