What’s it like to live with an Italian Spinone? The Italian Spinone is first and foremost a gundog and belongs to the subgroup: Hunt, Point and Retrieve (HPR) and has been around for hundreds of years.

What does HPR mean?  The Spinone, like a lot of continental gundogs, are bred to more or less ‘do the lot’.  They need to hunt for the game, point it, which tells the hunter where the game is, then bring it back once it has been shot by the hunter.  They have very good noses and will follow scent tirelessly.  The Spinoni can work on any terrain: mountains, swamp, thick cover – undergrowth, thorn bushes.

You may not want to work your Spinone but you must remember that ‘instinct will out’.  Just because you have bought one as a pet will not stop the dog doing what comes naturally, this goes for any breed of dog.  So always look into what makes your dog tick.

This was a customarily docked breed until April 2007 when the Government changed the Animal Welfare Act.  The Spinone, along with a lot of working dogs, were docked for a very good reason.  As stated earlier they are bred to work on any terrain, this means that they will go into very thick, coarse cover and with an undocked tail, could cause them to have tail damage and a possible amputation, which in an adult is a full blown procedure.

Ok, we have given you the background of what makes up the Italian Spinone.  So what would it be like to live with?

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