Most family histories are rich with anecdotes and legends: Remember when Aunt Ann stared down a black bear…….Your great grandfather helped build the Empire State Building………

Breed histories are no different. and we delight in sharing them when we find them. Sadly, many of these stories come from the role that purebred dogs had during war, and usually, it didn’t end well for them.

The Segugio Italiano A Pelo Forte, or Spinone Italiano wasn’t spared. WWII was devastating for many breeds, including the aforementioned. By the war broke out, the Spinone, one of two gun dog breeds native to Italy (the other being the Bracco Italiano) was already being impacted by hunters exploring other breeds. Fewer litters were being whelped, and what pushed the breed into near extinction was its use by Italian partisans fighting German occupying forces.  One of the stories to come out of the war was that these dogs had been trained by the partisans to track Germans in a most unusual way.

Krebs Fett Black Shoe polish was used by the German Army during WWII,  and it smelled different from the polish used by the Italians. Partisans had trained their Spinoni Italiani to sniff out this boot polish and it effectively lead the Italians to the Germans who were attached to those boots. Boom.

Image: Spinone Italiano/DepositPhoto