Friday, August 8, 2014

Kuvasz "cousin" - Maremmano/d'Abruzzo in Italy

Barune a Campo Imperatore....ritorno alle origini!!!
Barune at Campo Imperatore .... it back-to-basics!!!
 (Translated by Bing)

This photo is shared by Guardiani Bianchi d'Abruzzo in Italy.

The Maremma Sheepdog, in Italian Cane da pastore Maremmano-Abruzzese, usually referred to as just Maremmano, is a breed of livestock guardian dog indigenous to central Italy, particularly to Abruzzo and the Maremma region of Tuscany and Lazio. It has been used for centuries by Italian shepherds to guard sheep from wolves. 

The literal English translation of the name is "The dog of the shepherds of the Maremma and Abruzzese region". The English name of the breed derives from that of the Maremma marshlands, where until recently shepherds, dogs and hundreds of thousands of sheep over-wintered, and where the breed is today abundant although sheep-farming has decreased substantially. 

The breed is widely employed in Abruzzo, where sheep herding remains vital to the rural economy and the wolf remains an active and protected predator. 

Similar breeds include the Pyrenean Mountain Dog, the Kuvasz of Hungary, the Tatra of Poland, the Cuvac of Slovakia and the Šarplaninac (although not white), with all of which it may share a common ancestor; and the Akbash Dog of Turkey.

The information is from Wikipedia.

Also see whats-in-name? the-maremma


About the family of Livestock Guardian Dogs...

“To this day flocks are guarded in the hills of Asia, Europe and Africa* by powerful, robust dogs that are neither clumsy nor pacific. Despite the distances that separate them these breeds have much in common, and the Kuvasz is a member of this extended sheepdog family.”

From: Dr. Buzády Tibor, Dogs of Hungary, trans. Bernard Adams, Budapest, Hungary: Nóra Kiadó, 2002, p. 90.


*nowadays also in Australia, North America and South America.


Click here to see the Kuvasz History Klips blog!