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The Spinone Italiano[a] is an Italian breed of hunting dog, traditionally used for tracking, for pointing and for retrieving game.[1][3][4][5]
| Spinone Italiano | |||||||||||||||||
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The Spinone Italiano[a] is an Italian breed of hunting dog, traditionally used for tracking, for pointing and for retrieving game.[1][3][4][5]
The origins of the Spinone are unknown.[1]: 250 Rough-haired dogs of pointer type have been present in the Italian peninsula at least since the Renaissance. In a fresco painted by Andrea Mantegna in about 1470 in the Camera degli Sposi of the Ducal Palace of Mantua, in Lombardy, in northern Italy, a dog of this kind is shown lying under the chair of the duke, Ludovico III Gonzaga.[1]: 250 Jacques Espée de Sélincourt, in his Le Parfait Chasseur of 1683, says of griffon dogs that "the best come from Italy and from Piedmont".[6][7]: xxviii
The modern Spinone originated in Piedmont, in north-western Italy, in the nineteenth century and was for some time the most important hunting breed of that region.[1]: 250 During the Second World War it was much used by the partisans, both to track enemies and to carry food.[1]: 250 After the War, breed numbers were much reduced; a breed society, the Famiglia dello Spinone, was formed in 1949,[8] and the breed was reconstituted from about 1950 onwards.[9] The Spinone was definitively accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in 1955.[10] A second breed society, the Club Italiano Spinoni, was established in 1973.[8]
In the period from 2010 to 2018, new registrations in Italy varied from about 400 to about 650 per year; in every year, the orange-and-white colouring represented slightly over half of the total.[3]
The Spinone is roughly square in outline when seen from the side – the length of the body is approximately equal to the height at the withers. It is a strong, well-muscled and solidly-built suitable for hunting over any kind of ground. It swims well and enters cold or deep water without hesitation.[9]
The coat is rough, thick and flat, with little undercoat; it is about 4 to 6 cm (1.5 to 2.5 in) long, rather shorter on the head, feet and front of the legs. Hair on the eyebrows and lips is longer and stiffer, thus forming a thick moustache and beard.[6] It may be: solid white; white with orange speckling or markings; white with chestnut brown markings; or brown or orange roan.[6]
A Spinone usually lives for about twelve or thirteen years.[1]: 250 Neurological disorders that have been identified in the breed include cerebellar abiotrophy[11]: 308 and idiopathic epilepsy.[12]
