Alp Mastiff Dog Breed and Information

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Alp Mastiff

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The Cane Garouf, also know as Patua and Alp Mastiff, is an old working dog from the Italian Alps in north-west Italy, more presicely from the area of Piemonte, near Gran Paradiso Park, close to the French and Swiss border.

Because of the modernisation of agricultural work and farming, most farmers no longer let their livstock graze in the mountains, and therefore the guardian dog is no longer needed to protect the herd from wolves and other predators. As a result of this the breeding of the flock guardian dog in the area are not continued by most of the farmers that earlier always kept some Patua's as working dogs. Without a rescue project or some dedicated breeders the old flock guardian of the Italian Alps will soon face extinction.

As the obervant reader have noticed, the area where the Cane Garouf comes from is not far from the Great St. Bernard Pass, and we can assume that the St. Bernard and the Cane Garouf has some kind of relationship. My guess is that the Cane Garouf was related to the early St. Bernard, before the infusion of the Newfoundland and Pyrenean dogs.
Mr. Richardson wrote in 1851 that the Monastry in St. Bernard imported British Mastiffs in 1660, and they kept them as watchdogs.

After a terrible plague, the number of these dogs were heavy reduced and the monks were forced to cross the remaining dogs with long-haired italian and pyrenean dogs, later also other breeds. Which was these long-haired Ialian dogs that Mr. Richardson talks about? Would it not be the easiest choise to get dogs from right across the border to use in the breeding at the Monastry?

Based on the info I believe that the Cane Garouf was used in the breeding of the early St. Bernard Dog. Another point that support this is that Salvatore Rosa painted, around 1690, two dogs from the Hospice, and they were described as "Küherhunde" (cowherd's dogs). In other words these dogs had the same livstock guardian function as the Cane Garouf, and were not used as "rescue dogs" at that point in time.

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