Having lived with
dogs for most of my life I sadly lost both my girls - Sophie,
a Doberman and Yaila, a Great Dane within a few months of each
other during 1995.
Not feeling able
to look into a smooth faced dog at that time I researched various
breeds and decided that maybe an Italian Spinone would be the
dog for me. I contacted a breeder, Liz Shaw of the Sentling
kennel and subsequently took a Spinone bitch – Sentling
Bel Paese or Zeta as we called her.
Whilst making visits
to Zeta prior to her being old enough to leave her mother I
met this large white and orange dog the likes of which I had
never seen before. He was so gentle but solid and huggable.
The sort of dog for a child to grow up with and share secrets
and troubles with. It was love at first sight – as many
people who met this gentle chap will tell you because he had
the same affect on them too. It was of course Tango the Bracco
Italiano that Jonathan and Liz Shaw worked.
Liz & Jonathan imported the first Bracco Italiano into this
country during the 80’s having been spellbound by the
grace, movement & ability of the breed while visiting Italy.
Anyway that was
it for me, I just had to have a Bracco and luckily was offered
a dog puppy a year later from the Sentling kennel and Elmo (Sentling
Orvieto) joined Zeta and Arnold (Min W/H Dax) in our home.
Elmo did well in
the show ring (although in those days we hade to travel as far
as Malvern for even an open show in Import Register) bearing
in mind we are from Kent, that is no short hop.
Sadly, at 10 months old, Elmo was ‘mugged’ at a
champ show. When he came to the dog was gone but there were
several people around wondering how he was. Elmo had forgotten
the other dog and transferred his fear to the people wanting
to help. This had an ongoing effect and although we tried everything
we could think of to help him he never got over the shock and
eventually just lived out his years quietly at home with the
family.
In 1999, via a very
‘roundabout route’ we took home another Bracco puppy,
Carenage Tuscany del Braccanza a chestnut bitch puppy who became
our beloved Dora.
As a puppy she was
the usual little pickle, getting up to whatever she could encouraged
by our other dogs who just melted into the background when any
human appeared on the scene and left Dora to take the blame!
Dora, along with some others from her litter was very shy and
nervous with strangers. Having dealt with Elmo and his problems
with people we felt we had a good idea of how best to help her
overcome these difficulties and eventually our efforts paid
off.
Dora did well in
the show ring and grew to be a joy to live with, one of the
best dogs we have ever had. After careful consideration we decided
to try for a litter of puppies with Dora. At that time the UK
gene pool was even smaller than it is now and we were very lucky
to be allowed to take her to Holland to be mated with Valentino
Di Ala D’Oro, one of the great continental dogs of his
time and winner of the World Show. We will be forever grateful
to Jaap Muller and Tina Steffens for their help and support,
before, during and after this union. These two people are a
mine of information regarding Bracco Italiano which they share
with others willingly. Jaap and Tina came to the UK in 2005
as speakers at the Bracco Society seminar for that year.
After an uncomplicated
pregnancy Dora produced 8 beautiful puppies, 4 dogs and 4 bitches
the day after Boxing Day in 2002. These puppies all went to
great homes throughout the UK apart from the two which we kept.
Gino (Braccanza Adorazione) and Della (Braccanza Mazzo di Fiore).
The second litter whelped by Dora were sired by Man in the Middle
of Sentling (Franco) who was born in quarantine from parents
on the continent. Franco is a wonderful working dog trained
and living with June Laing in the Scottish borders. This mating
produced 5 dogs and one bitch puppy.
Both Gino and Della
have also had an impact on the breeding of Bracchi in the UK,
Gino having sired puppies to approved bitches and Della having
produced two litters. The first by Homstar Duccio (Lucca) owned
by John and Jan Ingram and the second by Axel del Monte Alago
, also a winner of the World Show. Axel lives in Italy with
Bitte Ahrens and Pierluigi Polcevera at the Sobers kennel, well
known as a long established greyhound kennel. Axel is the son
of the well known Rivanna del Monte Alago owned by Gianpaolo
Poggio.
After driving to Rome in January 2007 for a honeymoon between
Axel & Della we were rewarded with just two puppies! Now
coming up to one year old both Esta (Braccanza Callidora) and
Cosmo (Braccanza Salvadora) have both been doing well in the
show ring.
Esta remains here with us and Cosmo lives happily with his family,
Lucy and Marcus Green.
Dora was awarded
the Top Brood Bitch award by Overhill and Dog World in 2006,
2007 and Yumega Dog World 2008, joint winner of the Lucca Trophy
for best veteran in 2006 and the Braccanza kennel won the Top
Kennel Award in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
At the halfway point of the 2009 UK show year BRACCANZA is currently
both top in the brood bitch competition and also top kennel.
Following the breed being accepted
on the breed register by the UK Kennel Club from January 2008
the Bracchi can at last go forward to challenge at shows both
in the gundog group and from there to the Best in Show ring.
