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The Cane Corso The Cane Corso is an ancient Italian breed. It was not officially recognized in Italy till 1994. This was the case, because the Cane Corso is a working dog and therefore was not bred for his looks, but for his uses. Because of this there are a lot of differences in the look of the Cane Corsos then and now. To have a homogeneity of type, a careful selection has to be made with the dogs used for breeding. With this the health of the dog should be taken into account. This means we have a long way ahead of us. Fortunately, there are a number of breeders who only breed good dogs and do everything to get healthy and typical pups.
The Cane Corso was used in ancient Italy for several things. This made the Cane Corso a very useful dog, and this is also one of the reasons why the breed still exists today. One of the uses was the protection of livestock. In Italy the stock walked free in nature with no fences surrounding the fields. If an animal walked away too far from the rest of the stock, the Cane Corso would take action. This way the entire stock was kept together and the farmer had no trouble finding his stock. The Cane Corso also kept the wild animals like wolves away from the stock. If for instance a pig (which were raised in the wild in those days) delivered piglets, the mother pig would hide herself in a place where the farmer couldn't find her. If the farmer was missing a pig, the Cane Corso would locate it and the farmer could take the piglets with him to his farm. The mother pig of course didn't like this and wouldn't allow the farmer to take her piglets without resistance. The Cane Corso kept the mother-pig at a distance, so the farmer could put the piglets in a bag and take them to his farm on a horse. The mother pig would then follow the farmer, so she didn't loose sight of her offspring. Once on the farm the mother and her offspring were reunited. The Cane Corso had done his job. These are only some of the uses of the Cane Corso on a farm. The Cane Corso was (and still is) used as a guard-dog. For guarding in the night the black ones were preferred. This is because a black dog is more difficult to locate in the dark. The Cane Corso was also used for hunting. Especially for large game such as boars. For this purpose the lighter-colored dogs were used, because the hunter could always see his own dog. The Cane Corso would hold the wild boar while the hunter would finish it off with his dagger. The Cane Corso has saved many a hunter from the tusks of a wild boar, often putting his own life in danger. These are just some examples of the varied uses of the Cane Corso, which also show what the Cane Corso character originally was like and still should be like.
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Herman & Petra Boosten | |
There are still some differences in the looks of the Cane Corsos.
The standard is clear on how a Cane Corso is supposed to look. Unfortunately,
not many people know the standard when they are buying a puppy.
