Italian Greyhound

Italian Greyhound
Other names	FCI: Italian Sighthound Italian:Piccolo levriero italiano
Origin	Italy
Traits Height 32 to 38 cm (13 to 15 in) Weight not over 5 kg (11 lb) Colour solid black, grey orisabelline
Kennel club standards Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana standard Fédération Cynologique Internationale standard
Dog(domestic dog)

TheItalian GreyhoundorItalian Sighthound(Italian:Piccolo levriero Italiano) is an Italianbreedof smallsighthound.It was bred to hunthareandrabbit,but is kept mostly as acompanion dog.

History

Marble statue believed to represent dogs of this type, second century AD, discovered atLanuvioin 1774, now in theVatican Museums

Engraving showing two prize-winning Italian Greyhounds in the United Kingdom, fromJohn Henry Walsh,The Dog in Health and Disease,1859

Small dogs of sighthound type have long been popular withnobilityandroyalty.Among those believed to have kept them areFrederick II, Duke of Swabia;members of theD'Este,MediciandViscontifamilies; the French kingsLouis XI,Charles VIII,Charles IX,Louis XIIIandLouis XIV;Frederick the Great of Prussia;Anne of Denmark;Catherine the GreatandQueen Victoria.Dogs of this type have often been represented in sculpture – including a second-century Roman statue now in theVatican Museums– and paintings, notably byGiotto,SassettaandTiepolo.

Dogs of this kind were taken in the first half of the nineteenth century to the United Kingdom, where they were known as Italian Greyhounds;the first volume ofThe Kennel Club Calendar and Stud Book,published in 1874, lists forty of them.Abreed association,the Italian Greyhound Club, was established in Britain in 1900.Registrations by theAmerican Kennel Clubbegan in 1886.

The history of the modern Piccolo Levriero goes back to the last years of the nineteenth century. A total of six of the dogs were shown in 1901 inMilanandNovara,two inTurinin 1902, and one inUdinein 1903. Numbers began to increase only after theFirst World War,partly as a result of the work of two individual breeders, Emilio Cavallini andGiulia Ajò Montecuccoli degli Erri.In this post-War period the Piccolo Levriero was bred principally in Italy, France and Germany, and some Italian breeders imported dogs from outside the country. Of the forty-five of the dogs registered in 1926–1927 by the Kennel Club Italiano (as it was then known), twenty-eight were born in Italy and seventeen were imported.

The events of theSecond World Warbrought the Piccolo Levriero close to extinction, and numbers began to recover only in the 1950s, particularly after 1951, when Maria Luisa Incontri Lotteringhi della Stufa brought the influential bitch Komtesse von Gastuna from Austria.The breed was definitively accepted by theFédération Cynologique Internationalein October 1956,and in November of that year abreed society,theCircolo del Levriero Italiano,was formed under the auspices of theEnte Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana;it was later renamed theCircolo del Piccolo Levriero Italiano.

In the nine years from 2011 to 2019, the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana recorded a total of 2557 new registrations of the Piccolo Levriero, with a minimum of 213 and a maximum of 333 per year.

Characteristics

The coat is short

The Italian Greyhound is the smallest of the sighthounds.It weighs no more than5 kgand stands32 to 38 cmat thewithers.

It is deep in the chest, with a tucked-up abdomen, long slender legs and a long neck. The head is small, elongated and narrow.The gait should be high-stepping and well-sprung, with good forward extension in the trot, and a fast gallop.

The coat may be solid black, grey orisabelline;white markings are accepted on the chest and feet only.

Health

A 2024 UK study found a life expectancy of 14 years for the breed compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 forcrossbreeds.In the United States, theOrtheopedic Foundation for Animalshas found the Italian Greyhound to be the least affected byhip dysplasiaof 157 breeds studied, with an incidence of 0.

Use

The original function of the Piccolo Levriero was to hunthareandrabbit;it is capable of bursts of speed up to 60 km/h (37 mph).Although assigned to the sighthound or hare-coursing groups by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale and the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana,the Italian Sighthound is – as it was in the past – kept mostly as acompanion dog.It is classified as atoybreed by the American Kennel Club and theKennel Clubof the United Kingdom.

Further reading

• Maria Luisa Incontri Della Stufa (1956).Il piccolo levriero italiano nell'arte e nella storia(in Italian).Firenze: Sansoni.
• [s.n.] (2004).Le razze italiane(in Italian).Milano: Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia.