Dogs of Italy

[Labradorks]

I'm back from my three-week trip to Italy.

First of all, my boys fared well with the house/dog sitter. She was a bit of a slob overall (tried to clean the house, but you can tell, especially on my butcher block counters) and her communication skills were not the best, but the dogs are alive and well and when I came home they were happy to see me but not desperate. They were clearly feeling comfortable in their home and since I've been back (just a day) they aren't additionally needy or anything. It's like I was never gone.

Even though I am not a big pet insurance fan, right before I left I did purchase pet insurance for them. I was worried; OK, paranoid. Not sure if I'll keep it going. I got a deal through my bank so it's only $76 per month total (for both dogs) and both dogs are completely covered for everything except Sam is not covered for skin issues until the end of November (a year after the last time he went to the vet for it). We'll see...

Italy was great but since this is a dog board, I wanted to talk about the doggie culture over there!

I saw several purebred Labs. They were all smaller sized (probably within standard, actually) conformation types. Only saw one yellow and more chocolates than I expected. I saw almost as many Goldens (all looked conformation bred). All or the vast majority (males, anyway) were intact; harder to tell with the females. There were a few Lab mixes, like two or three. I saw a lot of terriers (JRTs) and spaniels. More cocker spaniels (the spotted English, not American) and Brittanys there than I've seen in my part of the world. There weren't a ton of mixed breed dogs. No tail docking is allowed in Europe, so it was interesting seeing tails on Boxers and Aussies and other breeds that have docked tails in the US.

All dogs, regardless of age or size, were on flat buckle collars. A handful of dogs had harnesses. No training collars of any type, not even haltis or martingales. I'm pretty sure that most training collars are illegal there. Dogs would go into gelaterias, cafes, bars to pick something up without an issue, either visiting people or jumping or being rotten. All dogs ignored the people for the most part and I saw just a few dogs lunging at (barking, wanting to play -- typical terriers usually, but no aggression that I could see) other dogs. I saw one dog in a muzzle (a GSD) and one person carrying a muzzle. Basically, if a dog pulled, the owner just didn't go where the dog wanted to go and eventually the dog figured it out and quit trying. I did see this happening now and then with young dogs. All of the Labs, young, old, intact, etc. were really well-behaved as were the Goldens.

There were several dogs off leash, especially in Venice where the vast majority of dogs were not leashed (no cars, bikes, mopeds allowed in the old city) and would play together in the piazzas in the evenings. I was imagining my dogs there and jumping into the canals every five minutes. I did not see any water loving breeds in Venice, probably for good reason. There were dogs at nearly every outdoor cafe and restaurant as well, and dogs in bags in grocery stores or tied up outside. If you've never been to Italy, imagine Disneyland/world crowds pretty much everywhere plus bikes, horns, loud talking in all different languages, sirens, mopeds zooming around, etc. Some areas are quieter than others, but the dogs were everywhere, regardless of how crowded it was.

Potty stuff varied throughout the regions. In Florence, there was lots of poop on the sidewalks of the more residential areas and there was sadly tons of poop on Matera sidewalks in southern Italy where the cave dwellings are located. Venice smelled strongly of pee as the dogs would pee on the walls of buildings in very narrow and closed alleys, but people picked up the poop. I didn't notice anything one way or the other in other regions but in the countryside the dogs just went out in the fields and no one bothered to do anything with it.

In Tuscany we rented a farmhouse that included two farm dogs. They were shelties, I think, but looked like small collies. I am thinking they were farm-shelties. Their names were Paco and Zara. They lived on the property even though the owners did not (they were five minutes away, driving). The dogs chased off the wild boars at night and helped the geese guard the other animals. We saw a dead weasel in a field and not sure if the horses killed it or if it was the dogs. Anyway, the dogs were very sweet and would go on walks with us around the property every day. Paco liked to hunt and eat lizards. If we wandered off the property line (I think) they would stop and cry until we turned around and came back. Serious Lassie moments! At first I felt bad that they were there alone (the owners came twice a day to do chores, which included feeding the dogs) but then I realized they were very content. They slept in the yard and would look in the windows in the mornings, hoping for us to come out and pet them. Paco was a leaner and Zara would get excited and "smile" at us and then when we'd go to pet her she would throw herself on the ground. She was very submissive. We had a hard time saying good-bye to them!

[jtsum13]

Thanks for all the info. This is awesome to hear about the culture in other countries. My wife and I are looking at trying to get orders to either Italy or Spain in a couple years and will end up bringing our lab with us, so it's nice to hear how the dog culture is in those areas.

[POPTOP]

Very interesting about the difference in cultures. How wonderful to have dogs included in the house you rented; helped you feel at home. I'm sure you have pictures, we'd love to see some.

[labsnewfy]

Sounds wonderful and I too would have had a hard time leaving Paco and Zara. Glad your boys got along well and they seem no worse from their vacation either.

[barry581]

During my time living and subsequent visits to the UK, I'd have to say they are much more animal centric than we are. Dogs are allowed pretty much anywhere, so they are much better socialized as puppies. One of Bruce's litter mates went to a young lady is Switzerland, I met her when I was over visiting in 2015. She was telling us all the things she had to go through to get him certified to breed from. Temperment testing. Conformation validation. Clearances. The temperment testing was a full day long. Fail any portion, you can't breed. It's crazy what she had to go through. Thankfully the dog passed all the tests, and clearances.

It sounds like you had a great time and will have many lasting memories from this trip!!

[Java]

Would love to see pics. Because Italy...

Wish we could take our dogs into more places here at home.