marchegirl

Hi, Were living in le marche and have been looking for a while for an abruzzo shepdog sometimes called a maremma....Does anyone know of any puppies in the area or even where the local dog homes are for us to look around there. Our italian is really bad so any help appreciated...

angeli

Do know of someone who has recently acquired said puppy.....more like a big lamb....!
If you PM me, with your e-mail will forward to them and maybe they can help...

TestaRossa

Are they the big cream dogs that look a bit like retrievers? If so we went to an agricultural show here in Florence back in October and a guy there was selling them for €200 each which sounds pretty cheap to me. They looked to be a good few months old though. If you google Ruralia on the internet you might be able to contact the organisers - they should have a list of exhibitors and might be able to put you in touch.

marchegirl

Just tried to message you, wont let me as i dont have enough posts!!!

TestaRossa

I'd suggest you go over to Al Fresco then and waste a few posts there, then you will be able to!

angeli

Yes, you got it, they are cream coloured and look like big retriever with Curly Wurly tails...... Ohhhhh for one of those or maybe some PB fudge

TestaRossa

More eating on the dog though I suspect....

angeli

Have PM'd you marchegirl.

linseed oil

be verry carful were you buy and from who they are a bread to kil wolves and can be verry vicious depending how they have been treated , several people round here have fingers missing . they look sweet but not all are

angeli

Same goes for most dogs but think if handled well from the start and small puppies they can make lovely companions. Know of quite a few here that have turned out good

marchegirl

Thanks to everyone for the replies, we are still looking though. I agree a lot depends on how a dog is brought up within the family. We are very aware of the breed which is why we want a puppy for us to socialize in the family.

Lorna at Vicenza

Hello Marchegirl and welcome to the forum.

I know nothing about the dog you have in mind but just wanted to welcome you to this forum and to say that now you have 3 posts you should be able to receive and send private messages (commonly known as PMs) without any problems.

marchegirl

Thankyou

Nuvoletta

Be very careful who you buy from. The problem with buying any pup is the conditions that the mother has been kept in will ultimately dictate the kind of pups she produces. Puppy farmed dogs never get the nurture and care shown by the mother, this leads to all sorts of behavior problems later in life.

Without contact with the mother during the weening period a pup will become aggressive with its siblings and this aggression continues into later life, if you have kids the pup will see them as a threat to food and attention and treat them as another pack member that needs to be dominated.

The best advice I can offer is to make sure that you see the mother and see the conditions she's kept in, also make sure the pups are kept with the mother and that she's not stressed or aggressive, all this will carry over to any offspring.

Avoid puppy farms at all costs and if you can make enquires at the local kennels, sometimes they have really good puppies or young dogs that can be re-homed.

Italians have an odd outlook on how to keep dogs.... our neighbours laugh at us for keeping the dogs in the house and walking them everyday. In turn we look at them with their dogs on chains outside the house in all weathers, or kept in cages only let out during the hunting season, just kept as a cheap alarm systems and can't help thinking it's pretty cruel...

We rescued a 5 month old Belgian Shepherd pup last year from a kennel, he's growing into a really beautiful dog, a little crazy at first, but then he didn't even know what stairs were when we got him home! He's super gentle with kids and with time and patience he's settled in nicely.

Good luck with hunt for a pup, but it's worth remembering that there's thousands of really great dogs sitting in kennels waiting to be re-homed, why pay for a dog/puppy when you can get one for nothing.

Sorry to go on but thought I'd throw in my two pennies worth on a subject I feel pretty strongly about..

dondodi

I completely agree with Nuvoletta, I am myself Italian but found my fellow contrymen can be a bit behind with the times when it comes to animals welfare. Only a few weeks back I was talking to this guy with a couple of anglofrench pointers (which I had never heard of), whilst our dogs where playing together. They were mother and son and he had mated them, I was shocked and thought it was an accidental mating, but the guy was a bit surprised and assured me the pups looked beautiful Obviously quite pricey as well!

Maremma sheep dogs are very often kept as guard dogs, very barky, so many of them never leave "the premises", try find a breeder that uses lines kept in the house (although seems like many maremma prefer to live al fresco, but you know what I mean...), they are gorgeous, but would not called them easy. being so large find out about what health issues they can be prone to (hips for sure, eye maybe?) and if any tests have been carried out on the parenting dogs, the bigger the dog the larger the vet bill

Gorgeous dogs though!!!!