Cirneco dell’Etna Information & Dog Breed Facts

The Cirneco dell'Etna is a very old breed that has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The breed was created in an era before dog breeding records were preserved in writing, thus nothing is known about its ancestors. It is obvious that the Cirneco dell'Etna is an ancient breed and that has been in Sicily for long a time as coins made long ago as 500 B.C. from Segesta depict dogs that resemble the modern breed.

Moreover, the name "Cirneco" comes from a Greek word, "Kyrenakios", which means "of Cyrene", the ancient name of the Libyan city of Shahhat. Kyrenaikos was the oldest and most important of five Greek colonies in Eastern Libya, and it was so important that the region is still known as Cyrenaica, after Cyrene, the city's Roman name. It is generally believed that the Cirneco dell'Etna was originally called the Cane Cirenaico, or "dog from Cyrenaica". Some experts say that this strongly suggests that these dogs arrived in Sicily from North Africa, being brought by Greek traders operating between Cyrene and Syracuse. The second part of the breed's name, "dell'Etna", comes from Mount Etna on the island of Sicily.

Although experts are not sure how the breed arrived in Sicily, it is sure that it became highly valued by the people on the island. As I already mentioned before, the dog was regularly depicted on coins minted by a number of local powers from the 5th to 3rd centuries B.C. The dog is most commonly found on coins minted in Segesta, but it also appears on those from Erice, Piakos, Motia, Palermo, and Messina. These coins frequently depicted the Sicilian God Adranos, the personification of the volcano Etna, on one side and a Cirneco dell'Etna on the other. This suggests that the breed was associated with the Volcane that gives its modern name as early as 2500 years ago. These coins and their positions imply that the Cirneco dell'Etna had religious significance for the ancient Sicilians, which can also be found in the mythology of the region. According to the legend, Dionysus, the Greco-Roman God of wine and revelry, founded a temple on the side of Mount Etna around 400 B.C. The temple was supposedly responsible for breeding many of these dogs, who served the temple in many ways. The Cirneco acted as temple guardian and had the ability to identify thieves and non-believers, who would be attacked immediately.

Furthermore, local hunters have kept the breed in nearly the same shape for millennia, even long after the breed's religious significance had been eliminated due to the spread of Christianity. These dogs can be found on a number of Roman Era artifacts, most notably the mosaics of the Roman Villa Imperiale at Piazza Amerina. The Cirneco dell'Etna came to be found across Sicily, but it was always common in the area immediately surrounding Mount Etna. The breed has traditionally been a hunting dog, and rabbits have been its major prey for ages. Rabbit hunting was highly beneficial to Sicilian farmers are they were considered agricultural pests who consume crops. However, in most of Europe, hunting dogs were primarily kept by the nobility, but the Cirneco dell'Etna was usually owned by poor farmers. The breed remained a highly valued part of Sicilian life for millennia but fell on hard times at the beginning of the 20th century.

As a result of modern technology and social change, fewer people kept these dogs, and the quality of their breeding began to deteriorate. In 1932, Dr. Mauriyio Migneco, a veterinarian from Andrano, wrote an article for an Italian hunting journal that covered the breed's declining numbers. This motivated a group of highly influential Sicilians who decided to work together to save the much-treasured dog. These efforts were led by the Baroness Agata Paterno Castello of the Dukes of Carcaci, better known to her friends as Donna Agata.  Donna Agata dedicated the next 26 years of her life to the Cirneco dell’Etna, known at the time as the Cirneco. She did her best to learn everything she could about the breed and its history before scouring the island for the best examples. She took these dogs to her kennel, Aetnensis, and began to initiate a breeding program. When she felt that she had successfully recovered the type of dog, she consulted with the renowned zoologist Professor Giuseppe Solaro. Professor Solaro studies the dog's anatomy, behavior, and working methods, and published the first Cirneco standard in 1938. The breed, which is certainly the oldest of Italy's many native dogs, was immediately recognized by the Italian Kennel Club. The first breed club was established in Catania in 1951. The Professor served as its first president. Moreover, in 1952 the first Italian Show Champion was crowned, a female named Aetnesis pupa that had been bred by Baroness herself.

The Cirneco was continued to be bred throughout Sicily, but the breed also spread across mainland in Italy as well. However, the dog was mostly unknown outside of Italy un tilt the 1980s. In 1989 the Federation Cynologique Internationale granted full recognition to the breed.  Interest began to increase outside of Italy, especially in France, Finland, and the United States. The first Cirneco dell’Etna arrived in the United States in the mid-1990s and soon a club was formed, the Cirneco dell’Etna Club of America. In 2006, the United Kennel Club became the first of the two major kennel clubs to grant full recognition to the breed as a member of the Sighthound and Pariah Group. Not much later, the American Kennel Club placed the breed in its Foundation Stock Service Program, which was the first step towards full recognition with the club. Eventually, in 2012, the Cirneco dell’Etna was officially added to the AKC’s Miscellaneous Class, the final step before full recognition. Today, the breed is eligible to compete in almost all official AKC events that a member of the hound group is allowed to participate in.