My 6th-grade teacher, a male, had a Bull Mastiff. He would bring it to school from time-to-time and it would lie at the side of his desk all day. Mostly disinterested in the class. I remember being impressed how bulky he was.
I’m not a dog expert, though I do have four of my own, but if I remember right that Mastiff’s temperment was completely different of the Pit Bulls I’m familiar with today.
Normal public school. Not a one room school house. I couldn’t imagine anybody doing that today.
“What was it bred to do?”
A Bull Mastiff is an excellent dog to walk to school, lay by your desk as you taught the class, then walk you back home. That sounds like one cool teacher!
It was bred to protect the herd from poachers and their dogs, to subdue and hold down a man.
As such on a walk she is unsure if people and their dogs are neighbors you greet with wagging tail and “hidey ho their neighbor!” or poachers and their dogs who are to be dominated and subdued.
My dog is usually friendly - but I keep her away as much as possible from other dogs because at a hint of aggression she is “all in”.
Luckily when small dogs get too close (off leash out of control) her first impulse is to pin them with her paws!