CHARACTER FACTORS IN THE EVOLUTION OF
CANE CORSO:
Difficulties in defining its current
attitudes
Mario Perricone
President of ENCI Committee of Judges
Defining the character profile of a pure
dog race, describing its attitudes, surveying its cultural store is never
simple or easy. In fact, the analysis of its behaviors must involve a study of
its morphological and character evolution as a basis through an evaluation of
environmental and human selective pressure. Its evolution is subjected to this
pressure.
Difficulties increase out of all
proportion if the study subject is not a pure, well-defined race; instead, the
Corso is a dog, despite its age-long history, which is not capable to tell us
today, neither by its aspect not its attitudes, which its evolutionary lines
were to reach our times.
Unfortunately, cinology, i.e., the study
on dogs on scientific and cultural aspects, does not have ancient traditions
in Italy, differently from Great Britain and France; therefore, we only have
ancient but occasional evidence of Cane Corso. We know that it has been a dog
for herd, a hunter, a guardian, sometimes a defender; we also know it had
characteristics of a molossoid dog, but its iconography is very rare and as a
consequence, it is extremely difficult for us to define the transformation of
these characteristics in the course of time and their adjustment to uses
sometimes antithetic.
What are the basic characteristics of a
molossoid dog? The successful and almost unanimously accepted classification
drawn up by the French Pierre Mιgnin at the end of last century explains: the
Molossoid has a massive, roundish or cube-shaped head, a rather short snout
with lateral parallel sides, fleshy (lit. transl. = thick) lips and abundant
volute, marked stop, parallel or converging cranio-facial axes, a bull neck or
the like, a massive trunk with important transverse diameters if compared to
the longitudinal ones, vaulted limbs with short forearms in proportion to the
height to the withers, mild angulations, and a thick integument, i.e., rich in
connective tissue.
A large number of races have
characteristics of molossoid dogs with a very differentiated physical
development. They also have such different behaviors that the various races
appear in some cases to be absolutely in contrast among themselves. In fact,
the numerous family of molossoids counts gigantic dogs such as: mountain dogs
with a rich fur, the Pyrenean, the Leonberger, the Caucasian Shepherd, the
Tibetan Mastiff, with watch attitudes; the St. Bernard and the Newfoundland
dog, respectively used for rescuing in Alpine valleys and in the sea. Others,
less gigantic but also big dogs with short hair, such as the Mastiff, the
Bullmastiff, the Dogue from Bordeaux, the Neapolitan Mastiff, are watchdogs
too. The Boxer and the Rottweiler, medium sized dogs with short hair, are
instead for defense. The so called Bull type Terriers, almost medium sized,
e.g., the English and American Staffordshires and the Bullterrier descending
from old fighting dogs, have to be considered exclusively for company today,
as the smallest Molossoids are, after all, like the French Bouledogue and the
English Carlino.
Two American biologists, Raymond and
Lorna Coppinger, who are well-known in the Abruzzi region for their analysis
on the Abruzzi Shepherd or Mastiff, advanced a very interesting theory on the
behavioral evolution of a pure dog. I feel like fully supporting their theory,
since their studies strengthened my surveys during a differentiated character
analysis of the various dog races. Within the limits of a project, the
Coppingers came to the conclusion that behavior is determined and conditioned
by physical structure. This project was intended to provide American farms for
sheep farming with dogs which would oppose wild predators responsible for a
damage of fifty million Dollars a year to American flocks. The genes, the
Coppingers add, control behavior indirectly. Instead, direct responsible for
behavior is the anatomical form inherited from a generation to the other and
therefore under genetic control. In short, through the preservation of
well-defined anatomical forms, behaviors are also protected, so that acquire
themselves a genetic basis. This basis (the history of various races where the
dog species is subdivided confirms it) has been object of study among
biologists and selection, at least on an intuitive level, among farmers for a
very long time, even before characteristics of the main races had been defined
in the last century.
Today, if we could describe, by looking
with an analytical eye at a Cane Corso, its morphological characteristics with
the absolute certainty that these were the characteristics of its parents and
its other ancestors; if we were also certain that, through its coupling with
another very similar Cane Corso, these physical characteristics could be
handed down to its offspring and future generations; in these cases, we would
be in a position to easily draw a behavioral map of the race because we would
have a pure dog already well set with no doubt in front of us. Therefore this
analysis, together with suitable character tests, would allow us to establish
which behaviors are more and which are less marked, and how they go together
to finally come to the point to define its attitudes.
Unfortunately, it is not like that
because the Cane Corso cannot be considered a set race but a race in course of
restoration for the passionate efforts and sacrifices of a not numerous group
of breeders who set themselves an ambitious and difficult goal. For this
reason, they deserve respect and every assistance.
Then, we have to try to intuit the
fundamental behaviors of this dog, and which morphological characteristics
these behaviors match in order to address the reconstruction of the race
towards precise aims. These aims should be the result of a very reasonable,
aware choice and not a result of more or less lucky attempts.
First of all, it is necessary to reach
an understanding on the meaning of "behavior" by generally defining
its content and effects.
The domestic dog, as on the other hand
every animal included man, was born with an instinct from where impulses
derive and which rule their behaviors. Also its wild cousins have impulses but
with a difference. While in wild animals impulses evolve to assure survival in
a completely natural habitat, impulses in the domestic dog will become more
refined after birth but for a limited time because it lives in symbiosis with
man who provides for all its necessities. Therefore, behaviors among wild dogs
are influenced by the fellow dogs of the pack and territory. Behaviors of
domestic dogs are influenced by men and their social organization.
The instinct transmitted from a
generation to the other is complex so to have two interfaces: affectivity,
which rules relations with other blood related fellows or relatives by
coupling, as men living together with the dog; territoriality, which presides
over relations with the external environment. Responsible impulses of various
behaviors grow from instinct. These behaviors are, as for the rest, defined by
experience, i.e., through maternal and environmental learning and imprinting.
Human selection was able to choose these
behaviors also through the anatomic shape, by rendering behaviors more or less
accentuated in order to be able to obtain a well defined character profile and
therefore utilitarian to a familiar and individual level. Therefore, the whole
of all behaviors, their combination, the more or less accentuated influence of
one behavior rather than the other; all this allows us to define the character
of a race and understand its attitudes.
We can determine, at least on the basis
of my research, ten behaviors in a dog. They have to be all present, since the
absence of one of them would originate real psychological handicaps in the
individual missing it.
These behaviors, defined with words
which often have a different meaning in the human language are:
DOCILITY It indicates the dogs
natural tendency of accepting man as its hierarchical superior. This does not
mean that it has to be a mans slave, but it simply accepts his guide
without having to use repressive manners. Docility does not have to be
confused with shyness or fear.
SOCIABILITY A sociable dog fits in
any environment without any problem with naturalness and spontaneity, and it
is capable of communicating without hesitation. Absence of sociability shows
up with fears and scares and with anxious and worried attitudes.
TEMPERAMENT It corresponds to the
intensity and quickness of the dogs reaction to external stimuli of every
nature.
CURIOSITY It corresponds to the dogs
will, pleasure, and capability of being interested in everything that
surrounds it in a very natural way. Exploring new territories and environments
is at the basis of its attitude. Associated with docility and sociability,
curiosity sometimes can be at the origin of individual mimetic capabilities.
WATCHFULNESS It represents the dogs
particular sensitivity in perceiving an external danger capable of menacing
itself and its pack which, in a domestic situation, is represented by the
human family. Sometimes, watchfulness bound to its peculiar olfactory and
auditory sensitivity allows the dog to feel a natural event like a
thunderstorm or an earthquake in advance.
FIBER It gives the measure of an
individuals attitude in resisting to every external action of unpleasant
nature. Fiber is inversely proportional to docility.
POSSESSIVENESS A possessive dog is
predisposed to become the owner of something or someone. It derives from its
predatory behavior, which is still present in wild dogs but absent in the
domestic ones. Possessiveness shows up in puppies as an expression of their
competitiveness.
COMBATIVENESS It corresponds to the
capability of fighting vigorously against an unpleasant external stimulus. It
is often associated to possessiveness particularly in the puppy.
AGGRESSIVENESS It is equivalent to a
physical reaction against a danger menacing the integrity of the dogs
territory, its own safety, or its fellow dogs safety. Consequently, it is
always motivated. In wild dogs, this behavior is also useful for providing
food and therefore, it is bound to a predatory behavior no longer present in
domestic dogs.
COURAGE A courageous dog is willing
to confront unknown situations it could avoid in the interest of its own
integrity. Courage is directly proportional to sociability and temperament
without being in contrast to docility or being necessarily bound to
aggressiveness.
Each of these behaviors is more or less
accentuated; it goes together with the others according to different schemes
in relation to the utilization of various races up to forming a real identity
card of their special attitudes. Since physical structure controls the dogs
behavioral map, the most various uses are influenced by morphology and
behaviors in close connection with each other. For these uses, various
families first and then races were formed throughout many centuries thanks to
the environment and man.
With a highly poetic expression, people
are used to saying that the dog for its love to man adapted itself to his
numerous needs: from a wild predator of the steppe to a leader of flock and
herds, guard, defender, and hunter. It seems the dog has chosen one job rather
than another and has even become specialized in it. The dog has done that
spontaneously and has understood almost immediately what an extraneous being
like man was asking it. However, facts went on a little differently. Even if
no historical evidence exists on the first times of its domestication,
certainly there was not a yearning love in the dog at the beginning of its
encounter with man. It would be nice, but science does not admit that.
On the basis of knowledge of man and his
primitive social organization and the study on morphologic and behavioral
evolution of dog, ethologists, Konrad Lorenz as first, inferred that puppies,
which were born in the villages of our far ancestors, did not completely
evolve. Instead, they preserved their puppyish signs because once they were
adults, they did not need to conquer their territory in order to survive, they
did not need to always have a den available where to take refuge, they did not
need to have to prey upon for providing food. Man was taking care of their
needs. With his protection, he determined, certainly without realizing it, a
decrease in many evolutionary solicitations in the domesticated dog, which it
would have received in its free and wild life.
Therefore, puppies living with man and
no longer on his side as their half-wild ancestors, preserve their puppyish
signs all their lives. In substance, as a consequence of its persistent
condition, the dog transferred its natural inclination into recognizing the
authority of its parents and relatives of the pack inside the human family. In
the meantime, having bred it already for many thousands of years, man fixed
step by step some morphologic modifications capable of influencing its
language, i.e., its specific behaviors.
Preservation of their puppyish traits,
recorded in all domestic animals and scientifically called "neotenia,"
has been put in relation to the morphologic aspect of various dog races, their
behaviors, and uses by two American biologists, Lorna and Raymond Coppinger,
professors at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. The two scholars subdivided
the dogs evolution in five phases pointing out that there are not well
defined boundaries among them.
In the course of the first phase,
"adolescence," the young dog strongly feels the union to the
restricted environment where it conquered its autonomy from its parents, and
it is likewise bound to men who undertook parental care. The evolution of
molossoid dogs both for guard and defense stops at this level.
The hounds, i.e., gun dogs, from those
stopping the animal, like the Setter, to those bringing the prey back, like
the Retriever, and tracking dogs, like the Spaniels, all reach the second
phase called "play with objects."
In the third phase, the dog assumes a
different behavioral model, the ambush. It is waiting for a prey, even an
imaginary one, by lying down with its head stretched out forward and a steady
look. These are wolfish dogs used in sheep farming, particularly those that
repeat the ritual of the ambush by holding the flock together.
Also the fourth phase, called
"close pursuit" [tallonamento] because the dog is tracking the preys
by observing their heels [talloni], groups other wolfish dogs. Among them
there are some dogs for flock capable of retrieving missing animals, and dogs
for defense, like the German Shepherd and the Doberman, the Spitz, for example
Nordic dogs for sledges, and finally the Greyhounds. Also molossoids less
stout than those for watch used as cowherds or rather for hunting big game are
in this phase.
In the fifth phase, the dog has
completely lost its puppyish signs, and it is fully autonomous; therefore, it
does not need man. Only wild dogs, like the wolf, the coyote, and the jackal
reach this phase.
In their long history, ancestors of
those Cane Corsos, from which we retrieve an ancient race today, must have
reached with no doubt many of those phases. In fact, if it is true that they
carried on many tasks, the evolution of their physical structure was such to
allow diversified behaviors in relation to their roles assigned by man.
Without having to enter into a
complicated morpho-functional analysis, which is beyond the object analysis of
my report, I will confine myself to describing the behavioral map of those
dogs in relation to their attitudes expressed in various eras of their history
by hypothesizing their physical constitution. A warning for those who follow
my talk certainly a bit boring: in every character map, behaviors will be
followed by an evaluation index from 2 to 5. Index 1 is not foreseen, since a
behavior at this level can be considered void.
But let us go back to our Cane Corso.
We said that it was a watchdog of rural
type, therefore capable of keeping away human plunderers and wild predators
from farmhouses and farms entrusted to its custody. A dog destined to this
function must possess limited docility and sociability because it is more
bound to its territory than to man. Its reaction capability is always present;
its curiosity is accentuated, but not up to the point to induce the dog to
leave the property on which it exerts a high surveillance. Its temper, as well
as possessiveness and aggressiveness, are very pronounced. Combativeness and
courage are just under the maximum evaluation because dogs as keepers do not
have to be dragged by their same ardor outside the space to protect.
This is their behavioral map:
Docility
Sociability
Temperament
Curiosity
Watchfulness
Fiber
Courage
Aggressiveness
Possessiveness
Combativeness
A rural watchdogs constitution must
be heavy. Its head is brachycephalic with powerful mandibular jaws. Therefore,
lets hypothesize its cranium as not much convex or even flat; its snout is
short if compared to the length of its cranium with a very large nose. Its
trunk, from brachymorphic to mesomorphic, with powerful bones and muscles,
must have a constitution allowing it a movement which is not swift but very
resistant so to allow the dog to keep very wide spaces under its control.
The Corso has also been a defense dog,
therefore characterized by great docility and sociability. In fact, these
dogs, must love man very much to defend him and move among people without any
fear. Reaction times to external stimuli are limited to the moments when they
are together with man. Curiosity is a little more accentuated, while
watchfulness is less, since it only has a protective function towards man and
not towards the entire territory. Fiber is at the same level as watchfulness
and, if it is accentuated, leads to an inadmissible independence for a defense
dog. On the contrary, combativeness is at the highest degree, while
aggressiveness is moderate because man must be able in any case to stop his
own dog when it throws itself on another person to defend its owner. They are
competitive in any circumstance, their courage is proverbial.
This is their character map:
Docility
Sociability
Temperament
Curiosity
Watchfulness
Fiber
Courage
Aggressiveness
Possessiveness
Combativeness
A defense Molossoid is just a
brachycephal with a slightly convex cranium on its front side and quite flat
on the upper side. Its snout is short with broad mandibular jaws and the lower
jaw surpassing the upper jaw (prognathism). Its constitution is very compact
and wide-awake, mesomorphic.
Both for watch and defense, the Cane
Corso is a Molossoid the evolution of which stopped at the stage of
"adolescence." Therefore, they maintain very strong puppyish signs
through all their lives. Anyhow, the two character maps are quite
differentiated, and selectors will have to keep into account this
circumstance. In fact, it does not exist, and it cannot exist, a universal dog
capable of being keeper and defender at the same time. In fact, within the two
skills, behaviors of different levels are present.
Instead, to the third phase, the close
pursuit, belong Corsos used, and some are still used, as dogs for herds or for
hunting big game, for example the wild boar. Docility is rather reduced in
these dogs but in limits which allow a good understanding with man.
Sociability is even more reduced because they do not love going round people
different than those with whom they live in the solitude of pasturelands or
during wild animals shooting parties. Reaction times are quite swift and
intense with one curiosity: watchfulness and fiber are pushed to the extreme.
This means that they have the tendency to extend their territory very much and
to consider everything, which is located in this vast environment as their
propriety. They are endowed with much resistance to cold and bad weather.
Combativeness and aggressiveness are very accentuated but not pushed to the
maximum level, while courage is pushed to the extreme.
This is their character map:
Docility
Sociability
Temperament
Curiosity
Watchfulness
Fiber
Courage
Aggressiveness
Possessiveness
Combativeness
On the morphologic level, these dogs
have molossoid characters but they are not very accentuated. Their
conformation sometimes tends to the mesomorphic one; they remind, both in
their heads and shape, the "Alan gentil" [the graceful Great Dane]
described by Goston Phoebus in the 15th century.
Those who have set their goal to restore
the ancient Cane Corso take the floor now. It is a gigantic enterprise, since
nobody is able to foresee to which results the selective task can lead, they
lead to molossoid dogs with strongly marked puppyish signs, i.e., those in the
first phase hypothesized by the Coppingers, or to dogs from the fourth phase.
There is a circumstance negatively
affecting the commitment of our friends which renders the problem more
complicated. I am referring to the pressure exerted in the past on the Cane
Corso to make it a fighting dog. To this purpose, in the dogs belonging to the
fourth phase called close pursuit, behaviors like possessiveness and
aggressiveness have been even more accentuated, and they were given a
predatory behavior through bastardizing, which is peculiar to wild dogs from
the fifth phase.
Therefore, using violence on the
domestic dog, the familiar dog, to have it take back ancestral behaviors
already blocked and placated, people transformed the Cane Corso in a shameful
and indecorous death machine. Therefore, they had the Corso lose its
morphologic and character features which people want to take back.
I can only conclude, Ladies and
Gentlemen, with a recommendation: go on with very clear ideas fixing well
defined goals with extreme severity.
our applause and our best wishes to you.