Often called the French Mastiff, the Dogue de Bordeaux is one of France's oldest breeds, long used as a guardian, drover and estate dog around Bordeaux. Its numbers fell to a few hundred by the early 1980s, and many Americans first met one in the 1989 film Turner & Hooch. It has a short fawn-to-mahogany coat, a wrinkled brow and a proportionally enormous head.
Many Dogues are calm, sensitive and deeply attached to their families, yet watchful with strangers and strong enough to need early, gentle, consistent training. In Dallas, that means planning around heat, since the short face makes cooling harder, and around size: 99 to 145 pounds is a lot of dog in a car, on a staircase or on a vet's scale. Expect heavy drool, giant-dog bills and a lifespan often under ten years, though each dog differs.