History of the Italian Griffon Hunting Dog

The Spinone Italiano is an Italian hunting dog breed that is considered to be one of, if not the oldest purebred hunting breed in existence. The name of the breed is pronounced spin-own-ay (singular) and spin-own-ee for plural. The Spinone is a loyal, friendly and alert dog with a close lying, tough, wiry coat that is stiff to the touch. It is an very old breed that can be traced back to approximately 500 BC. Since the Spinone is such a very very old breed (it is believed to be one of the oldest gundogs in existence), it is not known accurately what the origins of the breed are but there are many diverse theories. Several of these claim that the Spinone could have originated in Italy, Russia, Greece, France, Spain or Celtic Ireland. Some people familiar with the history of the breed say that the Spinone descended from the now-extinct Spanish Pointer, but others declare that it was the ancient Russian Setter that is the ancestor of the breed we know today. An even more popular theory is that Greek merchants brought wire-haired setters to Italy during the pinnacle of the Roman Empire, where the dogs were then crossed with a range of others and the modern Spinone finally emerged. While almost any one of these theories could be true; in all likelihood it is possible that several of them are accurate. During the Second World War, the Spinone came close to disappearance. Both the war and the fact that Italian hunters had begun using other breeds (such as setters, pointers, and spaniels) in the hunt, while before it was principally the Spinone. Because of this fact many breeders had to resort to crossing the Spinone with other wire-haired breeds, such as the Boulet, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon and German Wirehair.