The breeds · northern
AKC Foundation Stock Service · UKC Northern Breed · FCI standard 195
Volpino Italiano.
FCI 195 utilization: guard and companion dog. FCI history: appreciated in palaces and in the hovels of the common people for his instinct of guard and vigilance; in the 18th century the companion of the carters of Tuscany and Latium, announcing strangers noisily. UKC: appreciated for his guarding instinct. Wikipedia: used as a guard dog by carters and shepherds..
Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.
The body
What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.
Height at the shoulder
As for males: the sex-split figures (UKC 9.5 to 11, FCI 9.8 to 11.0) are spanned together with the breed-wide Vetstreet range 9.5 to 12 and the AKC page's 10.5 to 12. Center blank.
Weight
Females: low 8 (AKC page), high 14 (the breed-wide Vetstreet range). Center blank.
Coat
The FCI 2023 standard and the UKC standard disagree on black and other colours; both stand.
Shedding
Registry and editorial statements; no study opened.
Heat tolerance
Derived from coat: a long dense double coat sits at 2. The dog is small, which keeps it from 1. No heat-illness study was opened.
The dog at home
What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.
Exercise need
No source gives minutes, so exercise_need_min is left out. Vetstreet calls him a barker while the AKC band reads barking level 1; the disagreement stands.
Energy
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Grooming load
Mapped by the library scale (weekly brush = 2). The AKC band reads lower; the disagreement stands in the text. No Royal Kennel Club band exists for the breed.
The work
What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.
Role
A companion and watchdog today.
Field trial standard
No field test applies.
How common the problems are
Evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock; the numbers are still the best there are.
Most common disorders
Editorial only; no breed health survey or VetCompass study was read.
More
akc bands
Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.
What to ask a breeder for
The health clearances the breed’s own club and registry name. Reference only: what to ask for, never a statement about any dog’s health.
- USEye examination by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist; primary lens luxation DNA test; patellar luxation examination registered with the OFAAs listed by Vetstreet (no parent club statement read) · Vetstreet, Volpino Italiano (editorial)
How to read this page
Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.
Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 4 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.
- Also called
- Italian Volpino, Volpino, Florentine Spitz
Every breed, read the same way.
The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.
All published breedsYour volpino italiano, on the record.
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