THE HISTORY OF THE BERGAMASCO
Photo supplied by Luigi Guidobono Cavalchini and published in his book "il Bergamasco, da cane dei pastori a cane dei signori"
History of the Cane Da Pastore Bergamasco
It is generally-accepted lore that the Bergamasco is an ancient breed of dog that is at least 2000 years old. The narrative goes that the breed originated in central Asia and, along with companion human shepherds, gradually migrated across Persia, Anatolia and the Balkans via the foothills of mountain ranges to Europe, settling in the Bergamasque Alps (or Orobie). There they remained and, isolated, stayed hidden away and unknown until the late-20th Century when modern breeders and breed conservators brought them to the attention of the wider world.
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Recent DNA analyses perhaps unsurprisingly, however, provide evidence of a slightly more complex breed development story. Whilst not denying the basic migration premise, study shows that the breed’s strongest genetic links are with an antecedent to the modern German Shepherd Dog with later admixture of the Bernese Mountain Dog and the Briard (although these additions occurred at least 200 years ago). This data refutes the previous “common knowledge” that the Bergamasco’s closest relations are similar-appearing breeds such as the Komondor, the Hungarian Puli and the Pyrenean Sheepdog and instead shows them to be some other minority Italian breeds along with the aforementioned GSD and the Berger Picard.
Photo supplied by Luigi Guidobono Cavalchini and published in his book "il Bergamasco, da cane dei pastori a cane dei signori"
What records do show is that for at least a millennium, shepherds whose homes and families were in the valleys of the Orobie exercised the practice of transhumance (the seasonal migration of sheep) between the Piedmont plains in winter and the Swiss and northern Italian Alps in summer. Working in close-knit family groups, living extremely frugally whilst away from home even though many were very comfortably off, these Bergamascan shepherds (and their dogs) earned great renown for their skill at tending sheep - so much so that the 1950s and ‘60s, seventy years after the Swiss borders had been closed to foreign animals in order to control disease, descendents of those same shepherds were still being employed by local farmers to herd Swiss sheep on their own seasonal migrations. Transhumance was a common practise across northern Italy long into the 20th century and, in many cases this work was carried out by the famed Bergamasco Shepherds (or “Bergamini”) and their dogs.
This in many ways helps to explain how unknown the breed is/was: the Bergamini were noted to be insular and entirely self-sufficient; their dogs, whose reputation was widely known, were the tools of their trade and were jealously guarded as a result; they had no interest in the official pedigree system because the animal’s value was solely in its supreme abilities in the field and so, although geographically widespread throughout the Alpine and northern Italian regions, the insularity of their owners made the dogs inaccessible to any other interested parties. Post-war industrialisation of the region and globalisation of the wool market led largely to the demise of this way of life, and it was realised by some Italian culturalists that this breed was consequently on the verge of extinction - the reaction to this was the timely intervention of some Italian breeders who essentially saved the breed for the rest of us to love and enjoy.
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Photo supplied by Luigi Guidobono Cavalchini and published in his book "il Bergamasco, da cane dei pastori a cane dei signori"
The first registration of a Cane da Pastore Bergamasco with ENCI (the Italian Kennel Club) was in 1898. Thereafter, however, probably for the reasons outlined above, no others were registered for several decades. The “di Valle Imagna” kennel was the first to systematically register puppies during the early 1940s. Its owner was Milanese businessman Pietro Rota, who had reputedly been given his puppy, “Alpino,” in payment for allowing the pregnant bitch of a passing Bergamini to whelp on his land. From this locus grew the history of the recorded purebred Bergamasco, first by the introduction of other Italian kennels and out into the wider world (the first Bergamasco registered with SHSB - Swiss Kennel Club - for example was in 1952). The first Bergamasco imported to the UK was Donna in 1989, followed by the second, Ammone dell’Albera, in 1991 and these two parented the first UK litter, Donna fortuitously being ready to mate on the day of Ammone’s release from quarantine..! In the following twenty years, UK Bergamasco ownership has grown to around 75 dogs, with imports from Scandinavia, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands and the United States adding to the gene pool of UK-born puppies. In the grand scheme of things, this is a tiny number but reflects the rarity of the breed around the world, even in its country of origin.
Further reading on the history of the Bergamasco
Luigi Guidobono Cavalchini kindly provided me with the photographs used on this page which have been published in his book "il Bergamasco, da cane dei pastori a cane dei signori" (published 2020). His book is currently being translated into English and will become available shortly. Luigi is the President of S.A.B. - Società amanti del Pastore Bergamasco.
