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THE BIRD-DOGS OF ITALY
By David Hancock

  The stiff-haired pointing griffons and the smooth-coated braque family of gundogs are either late-comers to our sporting scene or hardly known to us at all. In Victorian times, our gundog breeders had such a high reputation that our breeds ruled the sporting world, both the new world and the old. It is surely for each nation to conserve its own native breeds but gundogs from afar have a role, not only introducing new blood into inbred lines but bringing in too wider-ranging hunting skills. Like every good pointing breed - they provide ‘backing’! It's easy to spot the influence of the superlative French hound breeds in the make-up of the braques of France, their ear-length and general conformation gives them a more hound-like look than the English Pointer. Although the popularity of the latter in France in the late 19th century was demonstrated both at their field trials and their dog shows, as did the Italian pointing griffon, the Spinone. But the Italian braque had its admirers too.

The great English Pointer man, Arkwright, himself wrote that: "...the French were the chief admirers of the Italian braque...And after a time, though the heavier type of their own and the Navarrese braque still survived, it was quite eclipsed by the beautiful and racing-like Italian dogs with which Louis XIV and Louis XV filled their kennels." This ability of the domestic dog to indicate unseen game by standing in a frozen posture staring hard at it has been utilised since ancient times. The Greeks identified a breed of dog in Italy, called the Tuscan, which was covered with shaggy hair and would actually point to where the hare lay hidden, perhaps the ancestor of the Spinone. Wolves have been known to display the same capability however and many non-sporting breeds of dog have also demonstrated this instinctive trait.

  To many, the griffon is a composite mythological creature, the fabulous beast of heraldry and architectural decoration, the oldest and most common of outlandish monsters. But to gundog men, the griffon is an old and much respected continental pointing dog of infinite variety, a composite sporting creation. Varieties of the canine griffon are found from Italy in the west to Hungary in the east, and within central Europe too. All were developed in pursuit of function by knowledgeable hunters, not for cosmetic appeal but much more hard-headedly to the level of field excellence demanded by their owners. Some authorities, not all Italian, claim that the coarse-haired pointing griffon of Italy, the Spinone, not the prettiest gundog breed, is the oldest form of this type of dog. Certainly the Spinone type was known throughout the Piedmont, in Venetia, Istria, Dalmatia and as far as the Danube, leading some to suppose that the type came from further east.

 The researches of Tale tell us well over a century ago, roan-coloured Spinoni were well known in Lombardy and Venetia, usually with longer and noticeably silkier, almost setter-like hair. The researches of Tschudy suggested that all pointing breeds originated in the Roman Empire, when Greek traders and others from the western Adriatic coast brought coarse-haired quail-dogs to be developed consequently by sporting fanciers in what became southern Italy. What ever its origins, the Spinone has distinct similarities with the Czech coarse-haired griffon, the Cesky Fousek, the Stichelhaar and the Drahthaar or wire-haired German pointer and the Slovakian dog. The Hungarian rough-haired variety of Vizsla may have a quite separate origin in hunting dogs from western Turkey.

     The Italian Spinone is now very much part of the British gundog scene. Well over two feet high, weighing nearly 80lbs and strongly built without coarseness. The heavier build now seen is not exemplified in the 1900 specimens in Continental show rings. Breed historians have related the breed to the Bresse Griffon and developed more specifically in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. Over 550 were newly registered in Britain in 2016, as many as our own Pointer. I see a very mixed bag in our show rings, with a wide disparity in quality; I hope only the sound ones, and not the over-boned ones, were bred from. It was disturbing however to read a show critique in 2012 in which the judge comments: “After nearly 30 years judging the breed this was my most challenging and frustrating appointment. The KC’s commitment (quite rightly) to a ‘fit for purpose, fit for life’ policy and its directive to judges not to award prizes to dogs unsound in mind and body caused me much head scratching and must have confused many at the ringside, as many top winning exhibits left the ring cardless because their movement was not up to the standard expected of the breed and that of a working gundog…Hind movement is appalling and must be addressed urgently. I found many close hocks, hocks crossing over and general weakness in the hock area, as well as stilted and general lameness in the hind movement.” These are alarming criticisms from such an experienced judge and ones which must give all in the breed here a great deal to put right and soon. The faults listed are crippling in a working gundog.

   The Bracco Italiano, the most hound-like of the gundog breeds, is making slower progress in Britain with around 140 being newly-registered in 2016 and again in 2017. The smooth-coat can be quite handsome, ranging across chestnut and white or chestnut roan (from the old larger heavier Lombardy dog), orange and white (from the old lighter and smaller Piedmontese Pointer, used in the more mountainous areas) or orange roan, with a fine but dense glossy coat. A fairly large dog weighing from 55 to 90lbs and standing around two feet at the withers, it has a distinctive head, with a shallow stop, a Roman nose and a throaty heavy-flewed neck. Developed to work on small game, with quail and woodcock its traditional quarry, but used also on hares and even wild boar, although not to the extent the German pointers are utilized. In Italy they have more field trial entries than any other breed. Here they are being used as picking-up dogs, excelling on runners. It’s good to read of the Breed Society’s working efforts, with Gunstrux Rosa Caro at Ardenstorm, handled by John Abraham, graded ‘Good’ at the 2012 spring grouse pointing test held at Burncastle.

   But I was disappointed to read the show judge’s critique on the entry at the Birmingham National Championship Show of 2011: “The first that comes to my mind after looking at the breed, both in the UK and in the northern parts of Europe, is that many dogs tend to get bigger in size. They are usually heavier all over than what we are used to see here in Italy. Some almost remind me more of Bloodhounds in the body than of a stylish pointing dog. Many dogs have wide heavy skulls without the correct profile. We also often see dogs with too straight toplines, short flat croups and very high tail sets. The topline of the Bracco must never look anything like a Pointer or a Setter.” The whole point of a breed is that it looks like itself - these exhibits clearly did not.  We owe it to the inspired Italian breeder Fernindando Delor, who by his efforts in the 1880s established a fresh breeding programme to rebuild this distinctive gundog breed.

  These two very different Italian bird-dog breeds are distinctive and well put-together. They make a welcome diversity of appearance in the pointer family and deserve to be perpetuated as the highly individual gundog breeds passed down to us. May they prosper and grace our gundog lists for many years to come. They, as do so many native gundog breeds in western countries, rely on their country of origin to safeguard their best interests; both nearly died out because local sportsmen preferred breeds from abroad to their own. Now, where have we heard that before!