Lagotto Romagnolo

[Casandra, "Scampy" & "Smooch"]

Has anyone else heard or seen this breed? I work in a vets office and we saw one the other day...looks almost exactly like my own doodle!! crazy resemblance. I'll attach a pic of one so you can see what I mean.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

We had a discussion on Lagotto's back in September. Here's the link:

http://doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/2065244:Topic:133947

Very rare, only one known breeder in this country, and they have lots of genetic problems.

[IDOGMa]

These are actually region dogs. Areas of countries have pockets of dogs that are similar. That how dog breeds tend to develop. Groups of people in an area have preferences and they tend to develop types of dogs for certain areas and tasks that look similar. The similarity usually has to do with the "shape - structure; physical and mental" that works best for tasks that they are being used for.

A really great book to read that explains this is:
DOGS: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution
By: Dr. Ray Coppinger

I have been studying his work for several years now. For him, "breed" is really funny. They are dogs that tend to look a lot like the neighbors dogs in a region. These dogs happen to be in Italy, in the Ramagna lake region. Some American comes over and says "Hey is that a lagotto ramagnolo dog?" the Italian says "This is Ramagna there is the lake, thats a dog that lives here... so yes it is" Then the American hands the Italian a huge amount of money for his "rare" breed and brings it to America, breeds it, starts a club, and joins AKC and then destroys the health of the dog because they close the breed books.... its pretty funny how he explains this.

[Adina P]

YES! It is gorgeous! one of our members: Shal has a friend with one and a photo with her doodle lying next to the Lagotto...they look like the same breed in diff colors!

[Tante & Jordan & now Annie!]

My question is what is in the mix of dogs to make up one of these AKC Lagotto's?
I wonder how close they are to LD's?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Lagotto's have not been admitted to the AKC yet; they have had AKC "foundation stock" status since 2001, which means breeds that are still being developed and are "in line" to become accepted as an AKC recognized breed. They are water retrievers, closer to Portuguese Water Dogs and Poodles than they are to LD's which are a true mix and not technically a "breed". And I find it interesting that poodles were used in the development of Labrador Retrievers to begin with, don't you?