Maremma Sheepdog
	Beautiful when at rest and in action, intelligence, dignity, natural instinct to guard, we believe that in the the maremmano abbruzzese sheepdog, more than any other canine breed, Mother Nature replicates in the centuries unchanged, the ability to establish a relationship seeing a true friend- collaborator worthy of the most sincere respect and absolute loyalty that a Maremmano puppy already expresses in the first months of life and of which represents a fundamental instinct for him. If you're in search of blinding obedience, unconsious enslavement, and supine submission, then stay away from our breed. But if you value freely offered friendship, an uncompetable attitude towards defence of the territory and of persons, which leads to evensacrificing its own life in order to accomplish his duty, the courage, strength, the resistence to live in a hostile environment and to fight with the wolf, the ability to approach each difficulty, every hardship, every climatic adversity, and many teachings in regards to the rules that govern the wildlife, a Maremmano sheepdog is the best one can find. A good guard never leaves his sheep,neither by day or night, but if for some reason it leaves, then he loses his relentless attitude. Such feature derives from his intransigence in his job which brings him to deal withany kind of threat, engaging without any kind of hesitation to keep away any type of danger. It is exactly for this reason that Jacopone of Todi breeding farm, whilst still keeping to the most modern breeding farm theories, leaves its dogs in liberty to grow and practise their duty, guarding their flocks, in symbiosis with the sheep pastures within the forest that extendsover the 5 hectares in the middle of the breeding farm. Exhibitionists of nature, autonomous, indipendent, strong-willed , not lacking in intelligence, the Maremmano puppy sevelops at an early age an innate sense of initiativein an extrmely rational behavioral complex( we callit almost " human thingking"), such that each action resulta as always being subordinatr, consequential,responsiblr, his work is indeed never foolhardy; if he attacks it is for a just cause, and if it bites it does this rationally without losing its head, insisting or raging. It prefers to avoid this happening, discouraging the agressor, the robber or even still the person who wants to kidnap. The National Agency of the Italian Kennel Club in 1958 officially attributed to this dog the name "Maremmano Sheepdog"when they realised thatthe Maremma and the Abruzzo were the 2 areas where the dog had had its splendid development, and had always, in the last millenium, had always been present. In fact, the Appenines, is the ideal territory for habitability of the maremma and the two sides of it, the east and the west are the habitats easy to transit through the tracks between the Maremmana on the west side and the Tableland on the eadt side., and thanks to these began out historical breeding farm "Jacopone da Todi". In this above mentioned territory the homegrown dog breed in question has spent for centuries the most significant moments of its phylogenetic development. Who owns a Maremmano Abbruzzese must grant it an autonomous psychic entity and must noy consider it as an instrumentor an extension of ones personality, The breed reveals his intelligence not so much in assisting its owners commands passively, but in fully understanding the current situation and acting with perfect reasoning accordingly. This is truely amazing, and if one was to want to teach an exercise to the dog, theywill immediately understand what one wants to teach it, but, on the contrary of other canine breeds, due to its pride, it will not obey its comand requested, but will repeat the exercise in the most logical and rational way, having understood the ratio of what it has been asked to do.And it is also due to this that the Maremmani , in regards to a capable owner, is absolutely faithful even as far as to sacrifice itself, and the relationship between owner and dog is based on this steel bond, which corresponds to our race , once again, to a crucial instinct. Maremmani puppies from the first months of life , adopted in a family, have respect and consideration for the other house pets, towards the cat sleeping on the couch, towards the birds in the aviary and moving towards the fish in the aquarium. It understands that the owner reserves in their regards a privilege and protects them, therfore in their regards becomes protective because it is in his natural instinct. The puppy soon becomes a jealous and affectionate playmate of the children of the family, as long as they are serious and loyal to him and do not make him feel a fool teasing it, which he does not accept. He guards their toys and their things, even the intimate things, which he learns from their smell, and likes to stay close. Maremmano puppies , in their job as work guards, is committed without need of invitationfrom the age of only a few months, and this is what he is made up of by its intrinsic virtues. It is also a staunch defender, we once again repeat, always due to its innate sense of protection which animates it; it carries out its action through instinct and is not in need for this to be taught to it. Thanks to these characteristics and qualities, the Maremmano Abbruzzese sheepdog has been prefered to other dogs ( the "Cd.Studies Coppinger " in 1982 analised and evaluated it the best for three different types of behaviour: "trustworthy" lack of aggressiveness,"vigilance" constancy in work, "protection" ability to prevent an attack) also precisely on defence, and has been chosen as the inseperable guardian of people who live and work in environments atrisk for so-called kidnapping, extortion, robbery,perfect defender of property and family. With regard to the historical-etymological, morphological traits and the development of Ns Phylogenetic doctrines of the race, we will consider with due detailin the section "the race"( or even more in my texts in De Vecchi Editore)analising in such a place the ancient but today more than ever excellent sources of the Latin writersMarco Varrone Terence and Columella that describe to us ( the first focusing mostly on the first appearances, the Columella instead on attitudinal skills) and testify to the existence of the Maremma and Abbruzzese on italian soil twenty centuries ago. Varro (52 BC-35 AD) in his "DE rerum rusticarum" is a broad description of the "canis pastoralis" and recommends its choice on the characteristics of the character that has so far been found, a dog of a rough character, serious,rustic,faithful,incorruptible, describes it thus morphologically:" it must have a beautiful gaze, of big build, with dark or yellowish grey eyes, harmonious nostrils, blackish or reddish lips, with neither a short or pendulous upper lips but covers the pointed teeth; the jaw is prefered to be soft, the sides of the dogs' body go inward and the back is neither humped or saddled, the dog has a thick tail, a deep bark a large mouth opening, the mantle preferably white in order to be able to easily distinguish the general lion apearance".
	At the time of the Emporor Nero, the landowner Columella, in his work " De RE Rustica"descibes an interesting layoutof rural life and agriculture , focusing on the breeding of domestic animals, and even more on the sheepdog (canis pastoralis") decribing in this way: " the shepherd prefers his dog to be white of coat because in that case it is differentto the wild beasts and therefore has no fear in hurting the dog when the shepherd would chase the wolf in the dim light of dusk. It is not of the utmost importance for a livestock guardian dog to be lean and agile like dogs that chase deers and game faster, neither heavy or massive for dogs that need to protect the farmhouse and barn, however the same dog will have to be robust, vigourous, and ready to act, for his job is to battle, fight, and at the same time chase the wolf to dismiss the insidious wolf and chase him to take away his prey.
	We find really surprising to note that in these two written passages written two thousand years ago, we find a faithful illustrationof today's Maremma Abbruzzo sheepdog. This correspondence is not only limited to the physical aspect, which is described here, but extends also to every behavioral aspect of Maremma seen from the point of view of its use during the service of pastoralism in the days of ancient Rome and the traditional one- there is no difference in substance. The detailed standards of the racethat Roman writers have left us , shows how this breed was brought up for a well-defined type, and for that reason we believe that the ancient Romans were the ones to raise and set the physiognomy of our Maremma and Abbruzzese, moved by the importance to them of the breed farming and not only of their passion for dogs.
	Franco Simoni