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In the preceding articles we have highlighted the cooperation between these international Cane Corso associations: the American ICCF (the biggest Cane Corso assoc. in the world), the Dutch CCCN (the only official pedigree club in the FCI) and our own AICC – (Association Italiana Cane Corso). In this context I was sent to the States to hold a technical seminar on the Cane Corso on behalf of the ICCF and to judge at the Regional Speciality organized by the A.R.B.A. in New Jersey. The first thing I found curious is that the A.R.B.A. defines those shows, which involve a single state as regional. If you think that most of the states that make up the U.S.A. are several times bigger than Italy itself, then you begin to understand that North America is enormous and in the future the Cane Corso population will grow to be impressive.
With this in mind the AICC has brought to the attention of the Enci, the problem of registering newborn pups of Italian breeds born in those countries that don't belong to the FCI. Further to this, the AICC proposed a meeting on the 28th of September 2000 with the director of the Enci Dr. Giani and the president of the ICCF Michael Ertaskiran.Returning to the more technical aspects of my stay in the U.S.A., I must say that my three hour seminar was followed with great attention by the participants, including some of the top breeders in the States, a dozen judges from the A.R.B.A. (American Rare Breed Association) and the director of the A.K.C. (American Kennel Club).
As well as the understandable satisfaction of having such a qualified audience, I was particularly pleased to note the interest and commitment focused on our breed. Without spending too much time on the subject, on Saturday I was involved in judging the working group breeds (without the Cane Corso). I must mention that the Best in Show was won by an excellent example of the "Dogue de Bordeaux" that combined great morphological characteristics and incredible movement. Second was an Argentine Dogo which was typical in terms of size and bone structure and that must have made more than one breeder think seriously about using it for breeding purposes. On the Sunday, I was called to judge the Corsos. There were more than thirty. Another ten that arrived in the afternoon had to be content with a "non-competitive" appraisal.
The morphological inspection was interesting because the American Corsos have different builds (definitely more interesting) from Italian Corsos and all the defects typical of that type of breeding. After my visits to Washington in June and October and after reflecting carefully I have managed to come up with a logical explanation for some of the characteristics that turn up in American dogs with a certain consistency. President Ertaskiran was in agreement with these observations. They are part of an interesting study on the race, conducted by the AICC which now also takes a much-appreciated role in the supervision of the breed overseas.
Just like in Italy, even considering the differences, the subjects in the United States continue to demonstrate inconsistencies. However it is possible to find good "typical" subjects in the different classes that have allowed continuity in the choice of the best in each class. Despite the presence of several champions, the best of the breed were two examples that, in my opinion, could make a notable contribution to American breeding. If we wanted to make a very general comparison, we could say that the Italian breeding program in its spasmodic search for the further refinement of the type, has completely lost sight of build and the volume of the head, flowing over into hyper-types with regard to prognatism, to produce a dog which, rather than a Corso looks more like an ugly Boxer. American breeding, on the other hand, gives emphasis to structure (with some excellent examples) and has not yet fixed, from a numerically consistent point of view, a clear type as far as the head is concerned.
If we had to draw some conclusions, the Americans, within their limits, offer a starting point for the breeding of the race which, may not be more precise, but is certainly more interesting. Personally speaking, as someone who considers the race as a common heritage for enthusiasts all over the world, this statement doesn't create any problem at all. However, those who for years have claimed exclusive right to the Cane Corso both in Italy and abroad, will have problems finding places to hide. All those who were present at the recent World exhibition in Milan or have seen the photos from it will be able to make a concrete evaluation of the Italian selection of over two hundred subjects and see just how impressive the photos of the thirty-plus American Corsos are.
Renzo Carosio
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