Spinone Italiano
History
First recognized in the 1900's, this breed is well known and popular in Italy. Though it is unknown what exact bloodlines made up the breed originally, we do know that this breed is incredible with all-things hunting! Most commonly used for a hunting partner and companion in Italy today, at times the Spinone Italiano can be spotted in the USA.
Appearance
The Spinone Italiano is a large breed dog with males and females measuring 22-27 inches in height and weighing 65-85 pounds in weight. This breed has a rectangular shaped head that is long and directly forms into the same width muzzle. Their head is rounded where their pendant shaped ears fall gently alongside of their face. Their two eyes are medium in size, oval in shape and generally a light amber to dark brown in color. Overall, this breed is built very tall, lean and solid in apperance. Their tail is generally cropped to about two inches in height, is thick and is held tightly against their body. When left natural, their tail is long in length and tapers to a point at the end, held downwards and out. Their double coat is close to the skin, wiry and feathers out in certain spots, is semi harsh to the touch and available in white, white and orange, white and brown and these colors with or without markings.
Temperament
The Spinone Italiano is a very active, smart and driven working dog. This breed isn't meant for everyone, due to the activity level required daily. The Spinone Italiano is wonderful for homes with other canines and should be monitored around non-canine pets due to their natural hunting instincts. This breed is known for being excellent with children of all ages, not for just being patient, but for joining in on the fun and silliness. This breed is a wonderful listener, extremely loyal and affectionate. Early socialization and obedience courses are recommended for this breed. The Spinone Italiano requires a firm and confident owner who is able to provide daily mental and physical exercise for their new dog. This breed excels at competitive obedience, hunting, retrieving, watch dog, fly-ball and tricks.
Grooming
This breed does shed. Daily brushing and bathing when needed. Professional grooming recommended twice a year.
Special Notes
Please fully educate yourself about the Spinone Italiano prior to adding one to your family to ensure you are able to provide life long physical and financial care to your new family member. This breed requires a properly fenced in yard or proper fitting harness and leash while outdoors at all times.
All dogs originate from wolves (Canis Lupus). Each breed of dog was originally created by mixing different breeds together in an effort to bring forth certain characteristics. Once a breeder has created acceptable “breed characteristics” within their bloodline and these “breed characteristics” have shown to be reliably reproduced in the offspring for three (3) generations, the bloodline may be upgraded from the category of “foundation stock” to “pure-bred”.
The same “pure-bred” breed standards vary from different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders. Dog DNA testing companies can have accurate results for a specific bloodline of a small colony of dogs. However, there are tens of thousands of different bloodlines in the world which have not yet been tested for marker baseline results by Dog DNA testing companies as of 2017. For this reason Dog DNA testing companies do not guarantee the 100% accuracy of their breed lineage results and will also show different marker results for the same pure-bred breed in different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.