Cane Corso Information & Dog Breed Facts

The Italian Molossian dog's origin goes back to time immemorial that neither history nor archaeology can give univocal certainty but what we know for sure is that when we talk about Italian Cane Corso, at the same time we also mean the Neapolitan Mastiff because (at least this is certain) they share the same genetic heritage. We also know about its word history. They used to call the Cane Corso: massatinus, in Italy that means guardian of the farm; cohors, that means double meaning courtyards dog and cohort dog at the same time. According to some theories, the Italian dog Cane Corso comes from the big Molossian dogs common among middle east populations: Assyrian, Babylonians, Greeks of Epirus, and was imported in Europe by Phoenician people, who used these kinds of dogs as guardian and as a commodity. In addition to these dogs already living in the italic peninsula, other kinds of dogs were added by Romans who brought them after the military campaign in Gallia: so, Romans crossbreed their Molossian dogs and Celtic dogs.

Ancient Romans had a very strong interest in fighting dogs and their breeding, because of two purposes:  Firstly for warfare and hunting, and secondly for the circus, where they did fight against bears, lions, and tiger. In fact, perhaps during the Britain military campaign, they did create the figure of “procurator cynegii”, a special kind of officer who had to choose and to crossbreed different bloodlines so as to “create“ the most suitable dogs for these activities. “Tauromachy” was a common custom of the time, which still exists in Spain. At a Tauromachy there is a group of dogs (made by four dogs) or even of only one dog,  and their aim is/was to immobilize a bull and tackling it by the ear or by the muzzle, two very sensitive points, so as to keep the bull fixed because of the big pain. But the most important purpose of using dogs was the war. Using warfare dogs has lasted for centuries in some different ways: by Spanish conquistadors so as to kill as many South American Indians as possible and, more recently, by the Italian army, during the italic Turkish war (1912), when some subjects of "Dogo Sardo" became involved in the war.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, only a few lords, who were landowners and often cattle farmers, could afford to have these kinds of dogs; in fact, they did need them and were able to keep them. According to needs, these dogs were crossbred with greyhound dog or hunting dog or tough sheepdog "canis pastoralis" in order to obtain a more dreadful shepherd dog.

Among the few people who could afford to keep heavy bloodline dogs, there were butchers, who used to take advantage of dogs so as to keep fixed bulls during the catch and during the killing; this is a custom that has been lasted until the first decades of the 20th century, getting a spectacular appearance, which is the heritage of the ancestral Tauromachy. Another way of using this breed was as a caretaker of pigs, sheep, and sometimes as a shepherd, in any case as guardian and even as "bodyguard dog" so as to dissuade the spiteful persons.

The preservation of this “dog population” (the idea of the breed spread only in the 19th century) has been carried on mostly in the south of Italy by people who used working dogs (farmers, hunters, lords, landowners, soldiers, gangsters) who seemed to be the last keepers of this cynognostic genetic heritage.

In 1949 was officially recognized the breed status; at the beginning, the breed was called “Mastino Napolitano Cane Corso cane da presa” that was changed in “Mastino Napoletano” because of the pressure exerted by Napoli's breeders who claim the right to name the breed saying that only thanks to them the breed could be kept. Sadly, this is a breed artificially kept by now. (In fact, the breeders often rely on artificial insemination, there are often cesarean sections and the breeders choose to bottle feed the puppies or sometimes they use another female dog that wet nurse the puppies on behalf of the mother. In any case, the natural mother of the puppies cannot feed them because after long years of artificial breeding these bitches have no more maternal instinct.) They are usually between 40 and 70 kg and their hair, usually is short, but not shaven and made up of coat and undercoat which is particularly thick during the winter. The range of coloration is larger than that is provided for by the standard and consists of plenty of colors.