Rare Dog Breeds - Information on Bergamascos

Welcome to the Bergamasco website - the premier site for information on one of very few rare dog breeds!

The Bergamasco sheepdog is a very ancient Italian breed. For
many centuries it was commonly found in the Alpine valleys, thanks to its exceptional skills as a flock guide, when sheepraising was the main economic resource in this area.

However, after World War 2, industrial expansion and the
development of tourism brought about profound economic
changes in the lifestyle of these valleys.

The flocks with their dogs were inevitably affected by this process of modernisation.
.
No longer jealously protected by their
shepherd masters, the dogs have gradually
disappeared or mongrelized,since greater
communication facilities favored the infiltration
of new breeds in the previously isolated regions
where the only dogs with the right of existence
were the ones useful for the shepherd’s work.

It is only thanks to the efforts of a few
enthusiastic breeders that it has been possible,
after a long period of decline, to restore
consistency and homogeneity to this Italian breed.