Lagotto Romagnolo

Okay, drooling over the traditional style Shar Pei is fun and makes for great research, but I know they are probably not for me. At least not for Next Dog. I can't remember how I first heard of the Lagotto, but they are really neat little dogs. I don't care for the look when they have tons of fur on their heads, but the closer cropped dogs are super nice looking IMO.

They seem to be everything I want - smaller size, good health, long lifespan, nice structure for agility, take well to training, will obviously be great for nosework (they are professional truffle hunters!) and just really great little dogs. Nice drive, working dogs, should be okay with other dogs and cats...

There's one up here in Alaska, and I was able to spend time with her when I was up for the ORT. She had a fantastic temperament. Totally comfortable around strangers, but not going out of her way to meet them/get all over them (I can't handle the over-friendly nature of many Labs and Goldens. I get that it has its place, but it's a turnoff for me.) She was soooo soft. I guess I was expecting coarser fur, but at least this one was like a stuffed teddy bear. I just melted for her big, expressive eyes.

Has anyone met one? Had one? Heard stories about them?

I think of all the dogs on my varied "I like" list, they fit me best.

Pics?

Video that may work, I hope:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hnOY2hioG0[/YOUTUBE]

Some more info: http://www.lagottogeorgia.com/about_breed.html

The traits listed there sound like what the owner of the dog I met was saying. She said her dog was more active than she was used to (Rottweiler and Shiba Inu,) and that she was really cuddly and affectionate with her.

They are apparently the predecessor to water retrievers, and would probably love dock dicing as well. Their build reminds me a bit of poodles. Maybe not the best jumpers because they seem pretty straight in the front end? I don't know, they are pretty small, and seem pretty agile. I don't know enough to say, but I've read they do well in agility.

Specs:

Height: Males 17 - 19 inches (43 - 49 cm) Females 14 - 16 inches (36 - 41cm)
Weight: Males 28 - 35 pounds (13 - 16 kg) Females 24 - 31 pounds (11 - 14 kg)

I've met a few. They can be shy and weird about strangers or strange places. Definitely need a lot of socialization as puppies and make sure the parents have temperaments you enjoy. My impression of them is they are similar to PWDs. I'm not sure how their health compares though. A friend of mine got a PWD from a breeder of Lagottos, she originally was interested in a Lagotto but the breeder felt that PWDs were better suited to agility. I'm not sure what their reason was though.

This one was reserved around a group of strangers, but not nervous of us at all, and once I introduced myself to her she was happy to be my friend. That's pretty much the middle ground I'm looking for, but of course this was just one dog, and her owner has a lot of dog experience. I don't care to have a dog that is outgoing with people it doesn't know, I just don't want any fear or reactivity. Shyness is one of the few problems noted that I read about, and the US club recommends temperament testing breeding dogs.

They have very few health issues, which is one of the biggest attractors to me, along with their lifespan, which I generally see listed as around 16 years. Some HD has shown up, and juvenile epilepsy that they outgrow and the parents can be DNA tested for.

There are a couple PWDs that do agility around here. They seem like nice dogs, though I like the slightly smaller size of the Lagotto, and now that I'm into nosework the whole truffle hunting thing really has me interested. The one I met was also at the nosework trial, and she was used as the dog in white (along with my instructor's American Cocker - that thing has CRAZY drive for nosework, OMG!) to make sure the vehicle hide was fair for the mere mortal dogs.

I'll have to read up and try to compare the two for agility. I wonder if it would be an issue of structure, biddability or what.

I'm also seeing two different listings for height for bitches (14-16 vs. 16-18).