Big, shaggy, and friendly, the Spinone Italiano has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer; it’s a quality the gun dog needs and exhibits as it plunges into the prickly spino, an Italian thorn bush which is a favorite hiding place for small game, and for which the breed is named. Named by Italians as its most favorite gun dog, the Spinone is also one of its oldest breeds as it traces back to at least the 13th century. Some cynologists suspect it may be even older thinking that its ancestors may have been hunting dogs imported from Greece into ancient Rome, and crossed with local mastiffs.

“Patience” by Jeremy Mallard can be purchased at the artist’s websites:
http://www.cachetuk.com/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/JeremyMallardsArtAchive/