Meet the Cane Corso

Our history can be traced back to Ancient Greece – opa! We belong to a subcategory of working breeds called molossian dogs, which comes from the name of an ancient Greek tribe, Molossi. They were famous for breeding Mastiff-type dogs like us! Our name translates to “guardian dog,” so you know we were built to protect.

When the Roman Empire was at its most powerful, armies that took over Greek islands brought us back to Italy to breed us with native Italian breeds. That’s how our closest ancestors were born, and we actually share this ancestor with Neopolitan Mastiffs – no wonder we both have such good looks!

Our fearlessness and ferocity made us the pawfect sidekicks for explorers trying to take over more land. Ancient tales say that our ancestors were even bigger and scarier looking than us! Our owners used to strap buckets of flaming oil onto our backs and send us out to charge enemy lines – backs ablaze!

When the Western Empire dissolved in the fifth century, our Italian breed was out of work. We found ourselves with regular dog day jobs like hunting wild boar, farming, and guarding livestock and farm houses as watchdogs. We looked pretty good prancing around the Italian countryside until WWI and WWII brought invaders into the peninsula. On top of that, industrialization put us out of work because machines could do our jobs quicker than we could. This led to a decline in our population and we were almost completely extinct by the mid-20th century.

Thankfully, some of us were still thriving in the backcountry of Southern Italy. In the 1970s, a group of Italians came together to revive our breed of big dogs! The Society Amorati Cane Corso was formed in 1983 and by the 1990s, we were being exhibited in European dog shows. We first came to the United States in 1988 and were recognized by the AKC in 2010.