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| Origin | Italy | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Italian Greyhound or Italian Sighthound (Italian : Piccolo levriero Italiano) is an Italian breed of small sighthound. [2] It was bred to hunt hare and rabbit, but is kept mostly as a companion dog.
Small dogs of sighthound type have long been popular with nobility and royalty. Among those believed to have kept them are Frederick II, Duke of Swabia; members of the D'Este, Medici and Visconti families; the French kings Louis XI, Charles VIII, Charles IX, Louis XIII and Louis XIV; [3] Frederick the Great of Prussia; [4] : 519 Anne of Denmark; Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria. [5] Dogs of this type have often been represented in sculpture – including a second-century Roman statue now in the Vatican Museums – and paintings, notably by Giotto, Sassetta and Tiepolo. [3] [6]
Dogs of this kind were taken in the first half of the nineteenth century to the United Kingdom, where they were known as Italian Greyhounds; [7] : 44 the first volume of The Kennel Club Calendar and Stud Book, published in 1874, lists forty of them. [8] : 597 A breed association, the Italian Greyhound Club, was established in Britain in 1900. [9] [10] : 157 Registrations by the American Kennel Club began in 1886. [5]
The history of the modern Piccolo Levriero goes back to the last years of the nineteenth century. A total of six of the dogs were shown in 1901 in Milan and Novara, two in Turin in 1902, and one in Udine in 1903. Numbers began to increase only after the First World War, partly as a result of the work of two individual breeders, Emilio Cavallini and Giulia Ajò Montecuccoli degli Erri. [11] [6] In this post-War period the Piccolo Levriero was bred principally in Italy, France and Germany, and some Italian breeders imported dogs from outside the country. Of the forty-five of the dogs registered in 1926–1927 by the Kennel Club Italiano (as it was then known), twenty-eight were born in Italy and seventeen were imported. [11]
The events of the Second World War brought the Piccolo Levriero close to extinction, and numbers began to recover only in the 1950s, particularly after 1951, when Maria Luisa Incontri Lotteringhi della Stufa brought the influential bitch Komtesse von Gastuna from Austria. [11] [6] The breed was definitively accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in October 1956, [2] and in November of that year a breed society, the Circolo del Levriero Italiano, was formed under the auspices of the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana; it was later renamed the Circolo del Piccolo Levriero Italiano. [11]
In the nine years from 2011 to 2019, the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana recorded a total of 2557 new registrations of the Piccolo Levriero, with a minimum of 213 and a maximum of 333 per year. [3]
The Italian Greyhound is the smallest of the sighthounds. [5] It weighs no more than 5 kg and stands 32 to 38 cm at the withers. [1]
It is deep in the chest, with a tucked-up abdomen, long slender legs and a long neck. The head is small, elongated and narrow. [1] The gait should be high-stepping and well-sprung, with good forward extension in the trot, and a fast gallop. [1]
The coat may be solid black, grey or isabelline; white markings are accepted on the chest and feet only. [1]
Life expectancy is about 14 years. [12] : 127 [13] : 127 In the United States, the Ortheopedic Foundation for Animals has found the Italian Greyhound to be the least affected by hip dysplasia of 157 breeds studied, with an incidence of 0. [14]
The original function of the Piccolo Levriero was to hunt hare and rabbit; it is capable of bursts of speed up to 60 km/h (37 mph). [15] Although assigned to the sighthound or hare-coursing groups by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale and the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana, [2] [3] the Italian Sighthound is – as it was in the past – kept mostly as a companion dog. [16] It is classified as a toy breed by the American Kennel Club and the Kennel Club of the United Kingdom. [5] [17]
The Borzoi or Russian Hunting Sighthound is a Russian breed of hunting dog of sighthound type. It was formerly used for wolf hunting, and until 1936 was known as the Russian Wolfhound.
Sighthounds are a type of hound dog that hunts primarily by sight and speed, unlike scent hounds, which rely on scent and endurance.
The whippet is a British breed of medium-sized dog, of the sighthound type, related to the larger greyhound and the smaller Italian greyhound. Apart from the differences in height, the whippet closely resembles these two breeds; it has sometimes been described as "the poor man's greyhound". It is kept as a companion dog, for competitive showing, for amateur racing as well as lure coursing. It has the highest running-speed of any breed in its weight and size range, and may have the fastest idle-to-running acceleration of any dog.
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The Maremmano-Abruzzese Sheepdog, also known as the Maremmano, Maremma Sheepdog, or Abruzzese Sheepdog, among other names, is an Italian breed of livestock guardian dog. It is indigenous to Central Italy, especially to the Maremma region of Tuscany and Lazio, and to northern areas of Southern Italy, particularly to Abruzzo. It has been used for centuries by Italian shepherds to guard sheep from wolves. The "Maremmano" name derives from that of the Maremma marshlands where, until recently, shepherds, dogs and hundreds of thousands of sheep over-wintered, and where the dogs are still abundant although sheep-farming has decreased substantially. However, the breed is still widely employed in and closely culturally associated with the nearby region of Abruzzo, where sheep herding remains vital to the rural economy and the wolf remains an active and protected predator.
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The Cirneco dell'Etna is an Italian breed of hunting dog from the Mediterranean island of Sicily. It is named for the Etna volcano in eastern Sicily. It has a keen sense of smell, and is used to hunt small game, particularly rabbits. As with many working dogs, registration is conditional on successful completion of a working trial.
The Bracco Italiano is an Italian breed of pointing dog.
The Segugio Italiano is either of two Italian breeds of dog of scent hound type, the wire-haired Segugio Italiano a Pelo Forte or the short-haired Segugio Italiano a Pelo Raso. Apart from the coat type, they are closely similar, and in some sources may be treated as a single breed; the Fédération Cynologique Internationale and the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana treat them as separate. They are also genetically close to the other two Italian scent hound breeds, the Segugio Maremmano and the Segugio dell'Appennino. They are traditionally used for hunting hare, but may also be used in boar hunts.
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The Neapolitan Mastiff or Mastino Napoletano is an Italian breed of large dog of mastiff type. It descends from the traditional guard dogs of central Italy. It was recognised as a breed by the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana in 1949, and accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in 1956.
The Segugio dell'Appennino or Piccolo Lepraiolo Italiano is an Italian breed of small scenthound, bred specifically to hunt hare. It may be either smooth-haired or wire-haired. It is one of four Italian breeds of scenthound, the others being the Segugio Italiano a Pelo Forte, the Segugio Italiano a Pelo Raso and the Segugio Maremmano. It received full recognition from the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana in 2010; it is not recognised by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale.
The Segugio Maremmano is an Italian breed of scent hound from the coastal plains of the Maremma, in Tuscany. It is mainly used for hunting wild boar, but may also be used to hunt hare and other mammals. They may be either smooth-haired or rough-haired.
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