Development Of The Cane Corso Italiano Breed Standard

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This is a compilation on development of the breed standard of Cane Corso Italiano. The main source being “IL Cane Corso: Origini e Prospettiv del molosso italico” by Prof. F. Casolino and Dott. S. Gandolfi, published 1996 by Mursia.

 

As it was put to me during one of our conversations by Dott. Gandolfi: “The Cane Corso Breed Standard was based on the description of the best dogs found in the cane corso population at that time, from a deep knowledge of the breed, of the tradition, of the history, of the socio-economic contest and of the country related to the breed. This knowledge is the result of long and deep research during the years and across the country that only people who live in Italy, speak Italian and know the country, its people and its history could have ”.

 

I like to record the considerations that had been in the development of and the effort and the research that was put into facilitating the development of the Cane Corso breed standard.

 

Any mistake and misrepresentation in this compilation is mine and mine alone. The copy right of this compilation remains with Hu Song and the Cane Corso Pages. Permission in writing is required for reproduction of the whole or part of this compilation.

 

Hu Song. Sunday, May 31, 2000, revised December 01, 2001 and March 25, 2003.

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Concise Oxford Dictionary sates: “standard: n., 1. Distinctive flag, rallying principle.  2. Weight or measures to which others conform or by which the accuracy of others is judged; things serving the basis of comparison.  3. Degree of excellence etc. required for particular purpose; thing recognised as model for limitation.  4. Average quality”.

 

A breed standard is for defining the breed, to distinguish from other breeds. It is the description of the ethnic characteristics, both physical and psychological, of the breed that will serve as guidance for the breeders and reference for the judges. It is the description of the ideal specimen representing the concept of the breed. The more defined is the standard, the clearer is the target for the breeders and the guide for the judges.

 

But unfortunately few breed standards have attained such degree of exactness in giving an accurate portrait of the breed involved. This is due to the considerations given to the important factors that matter and which influence the development of the breed standard. They are:

- details and exactness of the content,

- process of developing the breed standard and

- data and information based on which the breed standard is developed.

 

There are breed standards that are “loosely knit”. Such breed standard is usually vague. It uses terms of approximation and may have imprecision with some qualities and faults not in the breed standard, but are traditionally known. For examples, terms like “of good length”, “long”, “short”, “neither short nor long” have been used. It will depend on the judges from the respective country of the origin of the breed to take such traditionally known but never-stated qualities and faults into account. Trouble arises when the judges are not from the country of origin of the breed. In attempting to fill in these holes in the breed standard there may be contradicting interpretations.

 

There are standards that are more precise and accurate. However some of these breed standards suffered from the use of archaic, empiric terms in horse breeding and are technically unacceptable.

 

There are breed standards that are not only much more precise and accurate, but are meticulous in representing the “type portrait” of the breed, describing with maximum accuracy of every region of the dog and every relationship of the architectural parts. These breed standards are “tightly knit”. The negative from the seemingly rigid details may make the breed standard seems a static entity no longer in evolution, but “these are venial sins compared with the richness of their content” (quoting Dott. Antonio Morsiani).

 

The Cane Corso breed standard as developed by Dott. Morsiani in 1987, and subsequently approved by ENCI Judges Committee and ENCI Board of Directors, contains the details and accuracy representing the “type portrait” of the Cane Corso Italiano meticulously.

 

Generally 3 methods are used to derived the standard of a breed:

-   The description of the one very best dog of the population that could be very dangerous because of the risk that most subjects in the population do not conform to the standard;

-   The arithmetic average of the population that could be a good method for a very homogeneous population; and

-   The description of the best dogs of the population that has no inherent weakness of the 2 methods above.

 

As a criterion, the breed standard is not just qualitative or quantitative averages, but rather an acknowledged measure of qualitative and quantitative values to which dogs of the breed would like to conform to and by which the accuracy of such conformation is judged. It is a model defining the qualitative and quantitative excellence of the breed rather than defining the normal, familiar, or usual.

 

A breed standard describing the breed as “what the average dog is actually about in here and now” would be just like a Polaroid picture, having no significance at all. Wouldn’t it be hardly of any use for breeders, owners, and judges? Why should anyone aim for and prefer the average?

 

Only when there is a HOMOGENEOUS population of the breed, then averages of the population have meaning. It is then and only then that the usual, average dog of the breed would be representative of the breed.

 

None of the breed standards developed for the many molossoid breeds have used this method: measures of qualitative and quantitative values made up of arithmetical averages.  This is because the population of the respective molossoid breed in question is NEVER HOMOGENEOUS. It is CERTAINLY NOT THE CASE in Corso. Nor it is the case in breeds like: American Bulldog, Fila Brasiliero, Mastino Napoletano, Rottweiler and many others.

 

In order to achieve zoological and technical details with the desired accuracy, for a breed standard, there must be measurements and biometric profiles taken from as many dogs as possible, and amongst them the best dogs. There must also be gathering of information on how the dogs are used at that time and in the past, and their temperament, their training, their breeding etc. from those owned, bred, trained and used dogs of the breed and those who had experiences with the breed.

 

The Cane Corso Breed Standard developed by Dott. Morsiani in 1987 was based on the bio-metric profiles of the best dogs found in the cane corso italiano population at that time and information from Corso owners and those rich in Corso experience regarding how Corsos are and were used, bred, trained and their temperament.

 

The Corso recovery project was initiated in late 1979. On 18th October 1983 a small group of Corso lovers with their dogs gathered for an inspection of the situation. They founded Societa Amatori Cane Corso (SACC). 12 adult subjects present were accurately examined and measured by Dott. Giovanni Ventura, ENCI judge, Corso passionate and supporter of the Corso recovery project. And the Cane Corso breed standard was developed.

 

With painstaking effort, Dr. Gandolfi and his collaborators researched and documented the history of the breed. Prof. Casolino was entrusted with the tasks of contact and communications with ENCI. And Sig. Sereni, Prof. Casolino and Dott. Gandolfi started their search in the South of Italy for the Corsos believed to still living in the masserie which were disappearing into extinction. They covered thousands of kilometers between the Po valley and Puglia, speaking with the folks, gathering and documenting information, folklore, anecdotes and reminiscence of the golden days of masserie and Corsos. They also collected some of the Corsos they found preserved.

 

Giovanni Tumminelli, a Sicilian dog lover, is known for his studies and research on the native breeds of the island: the cane da mannera, the spino degli Iblei, the branchiero and the Cane Corso. From him came further encouragement and more concrete confirmation to the Corso recovery effort. There are still a few Corsos found in Sicily. And Giovanni Tumminelli furnished the Corso recovery team with an ample photographic census of the subjects and their various bloodlines, with historical and iconographical documentation, and with information about the traditional uses of the Corso peculiar to this region.

 

During the mid-1980’s, Dott. Antonio Morsiani, appointed by the Judges Committee of ENCI, had began to measure and examine as many dogs as he could both in the north and in the south with the intention of compiling a breed standard. Corsos from the north are descendants from those given, loaned and bought from Southern Italy. Corsos from the south are those dogs in small but valid numbers still owned and live in rural southern villages of the disappearing masserie, preserved in relative purity.

 

Biometric profiles were taken from about 50 of the 90 subjects examined. And to do this, Dott. Morsiani, together with Dott. Gandolfi’s team, often had to travel to isolated masserie and sift through the countryside with help from Vito Indiveri. The family of Vito Indiveri has been travelling vendor of small wares in the rural South owned and used Corsos. It was mentioned that to measure a black bitch “Gemma” owned by Giovanni Jacobaccio, they had to travel to as far as Colle Sannita (Benevento) where Prof. Casolino, upon Dott. Morsiani’s invitation, had already conducted an exploratory mission.

 

The psychological attributes in the Corso Italiano standard derived from the recordings and documentation of information from the Corso owners of the massarie and villages as well as from those who had and experienced Corsos in that region. These recordings and documentation were collected during the various trips made by Prof. Casolino, Sig. Sereni and Dott. Gandolfi in the south. Recordings and documentation were also made by Dott. Morsiani and Dott. Gandolfi in taking measurements of physical attributes.

 

These people in the masserie are the old time breeders, the farmers, the hunters, the cattlemen, the shepherds, the goat-keepers and the swineherds. They owned, bred, trained and used Corsos in their various activities.

 

Prof. Casolino, a practicing historian now retired, is from Southern Italy, knows the southern Italian dialects and had experience with Corso in his younger days. He considers the late 19th century till 1915 the “Golden Age” of masserie and thus their Corsos. The period of WW I (1915-1918) and few years after that was devastating to the socio-economy of the masserie and hence their Corsos. However, the socio-economy of the masserie bounced back during the period from 1920 to 1940, with 1930s being the best of their times. The masserie recovered and so were their Corsos. But disaster began with WW II and after the war. Industrialization and agricultural mechanization force the masserie towards the path of extinct. And at the time of 1980’s only pockets or very small islets of them had stubbornly survived.

 

The various uses of Corso as described in the compilation “The Masseria (Farm) of The Old South” happened during the “Golden Age” of masserie as well as the 1920 – 1940.

 

(To digress, Dott. Flavio Bruno, a veterinary doctor, had in the 1960’s followed his veterinary mentor to practice in these regions of rural villages. He recently published a book “Fattoria Ad Indirizzo (Cerealico – Zootechnico)”. Half of this book consists of drawings about life in the rural villages (some 30 of them). One can see the hounds, the Maremma-Abruzzese, the smaller dogs like Volpinos and of course the Corsos involving and participating in various activities of the villagers/farmers. I am delighted to see pictures of the Corsos in hunting sometimes with other dogs (otters, wild boars, porcupines and birds). There is a picture of a Corso and a youngster in his teens herding a flock of turkeys and a picture of a dog and a Corso chasing the weasel up the tree, the weasel has a cockerel held firmly in his mouth.)

 

The ENCI Judges Committee and the ENCI Board of Directors approved the Cane Corso breed standard developed by Dott. Morsiani in November 1987.

 

As illustrated above, the Cane Corso breed standard is not just product developed by a single person based on whatever his expertise and research about the breed. Nor is it product developed by committee and resulted from committee meetings based on whatever individual expertise and whatever research about the breed done by individual committee members without any zoological and technical data.

 

The Cane Corso breed standard developed by Dott. Morsiani contains precise details and maximum accuracy for “type portrait” of a total Corso. Its description of Corso is based on the zoological and technical data from bio-metric profiles of best dogs in the population at that time, not just plug from the air, or resulting from a cut and paste job. It resulted from information on how the dogs are and were used, their temperament, their training, their breeding etc., which were gathered from those in the masserie who owned, bred, trained and used Corsi and those who were rich in experiences and grew up with the Corsi.

 

It is a breed standard which not only describes the morphological characteristics of the Corso breed in a technically perfect form, but which catches its truest and most profound essence as well. As Dr. Gandolfi puts it:

 

“The Cane Corso Breed Standard was based on the description of the best dogs found in the cane corso population at that time, from a deep knowledge of the breed, of the tradition, of the history, of the socio-economic contest and of the country related to the breed. This knowledge is the result of long and deep research during the years and across the country that only people who live in Italy, speak Italian and know the country, its people and its history could have. ”

 

 

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