The book was presented to the public for the first time on the evening of Friday, April 6th, in Ravenna. A series of memories and images, retracing the Spinone 's journey from Italy to the world, accompanied this interesting new book, which adds a modern twist to the cultural landscape of the breed. Paolo Amadori's elegant book, with his choice of elegant black and white images, is intelligent, thanks to its bilingual Italian-English pages, designed to communicate current events. It is a book of memories, experiences, friendships, observations, and opinions. It is a standard "according to Amadori," vaguely echoing, in a modern, personal, and emotional way, the atmosphere of the pages of Adriano Ceresoli's "De le Cacce co' lo Spinone," considered by Amadori to be the most reliable historical author on the breed. Long personal experiences in breeding, in the ring, and on the hunting ground, the great work of the specialized society (CISP – Italian Spinoni Club) for the recovery and improvement of the breed, the Spinone's roots abroad, even on different continents, all harmoniously intertwined in this gently technical and sentimental book on this beautiful and ancient Italian breed capable of looking to the future.
It's likely that a good half of all hunters no longer young have at least one Spinone in their past. In particular, until well into the last century, in areas originally swampy and marshy, and where rice paddies and water meadows were present, the Spinone was almost the dog of choice. The small glimpse of the "restone" in " Il matto delle giuncaie " (The Madman of the Junks) is emblematic. For the record, the term "restone" was later used as an affix for the Spinone breeding farm ("del Restone") by Dr. Ezio Caraffini (who passed away in 2017 at the age of ninety-five), a kennel founded in 1949 and operated for over sixty years. Despite its past, the Spinone was also the basis of the "classic" crossbreeding practiced among local hunters. Those who had nothing else made do, supported by the commandments of a village culture according to which crossbreeding "grew stronger." The Spinone-Pointer and Spinone-Kurzhaar were the most common crossbreeds, some with a certain pretension to refinement. Fortunately, the Spinone has long since recovered its former glory. The credit goes to the breed club (CISP – Italian Spinoni Club) and to those dedicated and passionate breeders who have significantly boosted Italian breeding, combining work with type.
Romagna, Paolo Amadori's homeland and home, has always remained sentimentally linked to this Italian dog, with the caveat that today we should more precisely speak of the international Spinone Romagna. This leap in dog breeding and "geography" was promoted and then brought to fruition by Paolo Amadori, born in 1931, with passion, experience in the rings and testing fields, and a keen eye for breeding details. Calm, with a lean physique, passion, experience in the rings and testing fields, and a keen eye for breeding details, Paolo Amadori, born in 1931, is a breeder of Spinones that have been making a name for themselves both domestically and abroad for years. His love for the Spinone was love at first sight, instinctively. And perhaps it was from that first love that the name of his affix was born, "Epithelium" (skin), which also captures a specific physical characteristic of the Spinone: epithelial tissue. Amadori summarizes his Spinone debut as follows: " At the age of thirteen, I happened to meet a strange dog, powerful, with shaggy, honey-white fur, and a sweet, good-natured look. It was an Italian Spinone. He seemed lost, so I brought him home and kept him for about a fortnight. Then a hunter from a nearby town turned out to be the rightful owner and was very happy to have him back. But since you never forget your first love, from the time I got my first hunting license, at eighteen, I began hunting with a dog that resembled a griffon, and which proved to be a good helper." > Then other breeds also passed through Amadori's house, an English blue-belton setter, " Miro ", who in the 60s gained access to a national final of the Federcaccia Championship, and also " York ", a Kurzhaar who was good on the ground and who earned some CACs in work: < I have always liked to promote subjects that demonstrated they had qualities. Love for the dog knows no breed boundaries. >
There was also a parallel parenthesis in breeding, which creates a well-rounded canine profile: < With bull terriers, that was also an important experience. With all experiences you bring home something, to mature and progress in breeding. That dog attracted me almost as much as the spinone. I obtained the first specimen thanks to a friend, he was a dog of type, and in fact I soon took him to the beauty championship. With bull terriers I had a lot of satisfaction, about fifteen specimens reached the championship, and one in particular, “Excalibur”, had the privilege of being the only bull terrier born outside the United Kingdom to appear in some English publications. > But let's get back to the spinones. Today the Epithelium affix produces only specimens of this breed: < Yes, the majority of my canine activity has developed with the spinone. My son Roberto, an attentive and meticulous dog lover, is also in the breeding business, and he actively supports me >.
Amadori's Spinone career took shape in the 80s (a fateful coincidence?) when another " York " appeared, this time a brown-roan Spinone, who established himself with several CACs at shows and a CAC in a working dog show. At the same time, Amadori continued to oversee the breed's organizational work. In March 1988, he founded the CISP Emilia-Romagna Delegation. Later, in April 2000, the CISP National Council appointed Amadori "Councilor in Charge of Foreign Relations." Capitalizing on his previous experience with bull terriers, Amadori expanded abroad, particularly to England and the USA, earning respect and spreading the word for the breed. As an expert, he was called upon to judge the breed specials in England in 1990 and 1991, and the specials in the USA in 1992 and 1994. The Spinone has become particularly well established in England, so much so that it now has a higher number of registrations than the Italian Stud Book. How do you explain the English interest in this non-Anglo-Saxon dog? " It won over the English with its gentleness and docility. The English have a closer daily relationship with animals than we do; dogs are kept indoors more often than in kennels. Americans have also become interested, especially for work. Even in Nordic countries, the breed has become known for its hardiness. Dutch, Belgian, and Swedish dog lovers have come and returned to Italy to breed their females. Even in a country as unique from a hunting perspective as Russia, the Spinone has made its mark. It is important to underline, in addition to all this, that foreign dog lovers, regardless of nationality, maintain contact with us and participate in large numbers and with enthusiasm in the main international breed events that the club organizes in Italy >.
As for a snapshot of experience abroad, what remains the strongest memory? < A day of hunting in England, with two spinoni and hunting falcons, unforgettable. The relationship of the English dresser with the dogs is absolutely unique. He cannot imagine a van packed with dogs, he brings two or three at most. His dogs, however, "talk" and collaborate almost at human levels. As for the United States, it is interesting to observe the scoring criteria for the tests: the pointing subjects first perform a test on natural game, generally colini, for a full fifteen minutes even if they make mistakes, then they perform a cold water retrieve, with a dummy, finally a morphological exam is carried out only for those classified in the work. The ranking is drawn up by adding up the points >. Instead, a sentimental snapshot of Epithelium breeding? < The same spot on the tail in the "chain" of the "big" ones: Full, AfterFull, Icaro, Briccone. These are just breeding anecdotes, of course, technique has nothing to do with it, but it's nice to think about it. > A recipe for the future of the breed? < Typicality in morphology and work together, and a lot of passion. Considering the types of terrain we have to move on in Italy, already today there are quite a few hunters who happily return to the Spinone as an auxiliary . > Epithelium, a bond... instinctively! Memories, passions, experiences, opinions, all told in a book that today enriches knowledge of the breed (for anyone interested in the book, please contact: [email protected] ).
You May Also Like ..
