Bracco Italiano breed guide

Tough and suited to all types of hunting, the Bracco Italiano is reliable, intelligent, docile and easy to train. It needs a calm, patient trainer who is gentle but firm, since it may be slightly independent but is mostly eager to please.

It suits a home that uses its hunting ability and gives it a job to do.

Bracchi Italiani live 10 to 14 years. AKC calls them an overall healthy breed. Breeders screen for hip and elbow dysplasia, eye anomalies such as entropion, ectropion and cataracts and kidney disorders such as renal amyloidosis.

To avoid orthopedic stress on fast-growing bodies, young Bracchi Italiani should be fed a balanced food and kept off hard surfaces such as concrete and repeated high-impact exercise until at least one year of age.

Bracchi Italiani are easy to groom: the short coat needs minimal care, the long ears need routine cleaning to cut the risk of ear infections and an occasional bath does the rest. Nails need regular trimming with a clipper or grinder.

A moderate- to high-energy breed, the Bracco Italiano needs daily exercise and mental stimulation, at least 30 minutes a day and preferably more, either running free in a safe enclosed space or on scheduled jogs.

The Bracco has been called the oldest European pointer, with a history reaching back to the fourth or fifth century B.C. The exact ancestry is unknown, but AKC says it was first a cross between the Segugio Italiano and the now-extinct Asiatic Mastiff.

The breed developed in northern Italy in two varieties, white-and-orange from Piedmont and roan-and-brown from Lombardy and by the medieval period the Italian aristocracy was exporting it.