"Beauty in repose and action, intelligence, dignity, natural guarding instincts are all very positive qualities, but there is something more to our big white fellows that is unusual to the species; a vein of the wild and a natural habit of treating man as an equal and a friend, not as God and Master. If you want obedience and submission, keep away from our breed, but if you appreciate friendship given and received, a trace of humour, and much teaching of the lore of the wild, a typical Maremmano is the best you can have."

Don Tommaso Corsini

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Cane da pastore Maremmano-Abruzzese, better known as The Maremma Sheepdog, is a breed unlike any other.

 

It is an Italian flock guardian breed with a history that can be traced back over 2000 years.

His function has been to guard the flocks and property of the shepherd, originally from bears and wolves, and more recently from thieves and packs of feral dogs. The Maremma has strong guarding instincts and responsibility for making his own decisions and these instincts remain in the breed as we know it today.

 

His independence and initiative give him a very special temperament, quite unlike most other breeds. The Maremma is not for everyone but it has something which, when you know and understand it, it traps you and it is very hard to leave it.

 

The Maremma have a strong love for their master but are never subservient or submissive. With strangers they are unsociable and reserved.They are endowed with a marked sense of responsibility towards the animals or whatever they are entrusted with. They are proud, dignified, watchful and intuitive with an inborn sense of responsibility for what they have to do, which is the guarding and defence of their property be this a herd, territory, a home or domestic animals, virtually anything that needs protection.