| Italian Greyhound | |||||||||||||||||
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TheItalian Greyhound orItalian Sighthound (Italian:piccolo levriero italiano) is an Italianbreed of smallsighthound.[2] It was bred to hunthare andrabbit, but is kept mostly as acompanion dog.
Small dogs of sighthound type have long been popular withnobility androyalty. Among those believed to have kept them areFrederick II, Duke of Swabia; members of theD'Este,Medici andVisconti families; the French kingsLouis XI,Charles VIII,Charles IX,Louis XIII andLouis XIV;[3]Frederick the Great of Prussia;[4]: 519 Anne of Denmark;Catherine the Great; andQueen Victoria.[5] Dogs of this type have often been represented in sculpture – including a second-century Roman statue now in theVatican Museums – and paintings, notably byGiotto,Sassetta andTiepolo.[3][6]
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;[7]: 44 the first volume ofThe Kennel Club Calendar and Stud Book, published in 1874, lists forty of them.[8]: 597 Abreed association, the Italian Greyhound Club, was established in Britain in 1900.[9][10]: 157 Registrations by theAmerican Kennel Club began in 1886.[5]
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 inMilan andNovara, two inTurin in 1902, and one inUdine in 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.[11][6] 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.[11]
The events of theSecond World War brought 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.[11][6] The breed was definitively accepted by theFédération Cynologique Internationale in October 1956,[2] 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.[11]
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.[3]
The Italian Greyhound is the smallest of the sighthounds.[5] It weighs no more than5 kg and stands32 to 38 cm at thewithers.[1] 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.[1] The gait should be high-stepping and well-sprung, with good forward extension in the trot, and a fast gallop.[1] The coat may be solid black, or grey orisabelline in any shade; white markings are accepted on the chest and feet only.[1]
Medianlongevity is about 14 years, compared to an average of 12.5 for all dogs.[12]: 127 [13]: 127 [14]
The dogs may be affected by breed-relatedneurological abnormalities includingcongenital deafness andcervical intervertebral disc disease.[15]: 291 In the United States, theOrtheopedic Foundation for Animals has found the Italian Greyhound to be the least affected byhip dysplasia of 157 breeds studied, with an incidence of 0.[16]
The original function of the Piccolo Levriero was to hunthare andrabbit; it is capable of bursts of speed up to 60 km/h (35 mph).[17] Although assigned to the sighthound or hare-coursing groups by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale and the Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana,[2][3] the Italian Sighthound is – as it was in the past – kept mostly as acompanion dog.[18] It is classified as atoy breed by the American Kennel Club and theKennel Club of the United Kingdom.[5][19]
