Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I am new to this forum and website....love it so far!
We have Bergamascos.....does anyone else here have any of these great dogs? Or other corded-type dogs? I see many Komondor posts on here.
Link

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www.alpangelbergamascos.com

Hi and welcome to the DogHobbyist! I had to go to Google to see what a Bergamasco looked like and they do resemble Komodors with the corded coat. What can you tell us about them? What region are they native to?
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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

Hello,
Bergamascos are very related to the Komondor like you said. They are originally from the Himylayans, travelled with nomads over to Persia and then over time dispersed throughout the Alps. The Komondor was part of the original dogs from Asia, but settled in Hungary and evolved there. The Bergamasco is thought to be atleast 2000 years old. They settled more along the Italian Alps, and were very protected by their Shepherds. They were selectively and exclusively bred by them for centuries. After WWII some of the Bergamasos that had been in towns in Northen Italy (Bergamo area, where the dog was named), mongrelized. Of the pure ones that the Shepherds still had working with them, a woman in Italy, Dr. Maria Andreoli, had taken a facination to. She was a genetic scientist also, and she wanted to work to preserve these original dogs from the Shepherds. She did so for 40 years until she died in 2005. Our dogs are the grandchildren of some of her dogs. They were first imported to the U.S. in 1994 directly from Maria and we are working with them to continue those lines. The Bergamasco has a heavy coat of multiple tufts and locks....we don't call them cords. The Komondor has cords, the Komondor has two types of hair,and the Bergamasco has three. So the Bergamascos's coat develops differently and the coat grows wide, flatter "dreadlocks" which they call "flocks" or "maps", but not cords. They are a breed with unbelieveable temperament. They can be very guarding and are wonderful guardians to sheep. They remain very very rare and primitive in that they have not yet been fully domesticated to the point where they are considered companion dogs. They are very independent, but will do anything for their Shepherd!
Hope that was enough info lol.

You can see our dogs and read more at:

www.alpangelbergamascos.com
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www.alpangelbergamascos.com