History of the Lagotto Romagnolo
Adapted from Dr. Giovanno Morsiani
The Lagotto Romagnolo is an ancient, medium sized water dog from Italy with a stocky build. They have a soft, tight, curly, non-shedding coat. They have a great personalities, humanistic eyes and are very smart. They are attentive, lively and animated. They bond very strongly to their owners and can make you laugh for hours.
In ancient times, Lagotto were originally bred to be water retrievers within the lakes of Romagna in Italy. They have been depicted in paintings dating back to 1456. From then forward, the curly-coated water retriever has been mentioned in numerous fokelore and legends. Back in the day there were people called the Vallaroli. They were also called "Lagotti". They were the people that hunted the water fowl in the marsh of Comacchio and of Romagna. Additionally, the Vallaroli were truffle hunters. The Vallaroli traveled everywhere with their curly coated water retrievers who not only retrieved the water fowl in the lakes, but guarded the boats and homes of the Vallaroli.
Between 1840 and 1890 the lakes and marshes eventually dried up making this working breed, unemployable as a water retriever. They began to change focus and specialize in truffle hunting. Over time, truffel hunting became almost impossible as the truffles became scarce. The lagotti have a keen sense of smell. This need created the current lagotto romagnolo breed. The Lagotto can find truffles almost anywhere that they grow. Over time, the lagotto was developed into the current loved curly marshmallow of a dog.
The World's Truffle Puppy