BOLOGCOS AT SUWANNEE

Our Bichon Bolognese Male Named Guido

The Bichon Bolognese belongs to the same toy grouping of dogs as the Bichon Frise, the Maltese, the Lowchen, the Coton du Tulear, and the Havanese, but it is probably more reserved than any of its cousins. And although the breed is thought to have originally developed on the Southern part of the peninsula of Italy--perhaps in the 11th and 12th centuries, both in Southern Italy and in Malta--it is named after the Northern Italian town of Bologna, where it became very popular during the Renaissance era.

At that time in Bologna ladies from the upper levels of society, and even the nobility, were breeding these little dogs and then shipping them all over Europe, and both the House of Gonzaga, who ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708, and the more famous Medicis, bred them. The breed was beloved because even ten-year-old dogs played like puppies, and they were quite fearless and loved people, plus they have excellent hearing and eyesight and they make excellent little watchdogs. Thus having such an alert little dog sleeping in your bed when you were rich, famous, and even royal, and prone to attacks from rivals, was considered a good thing.

And we can attest to all of these qualities--fearlessness and acute hearing and eyesight--in the Bolognese, and we have to be very careful and keep our Guido away from our much larger Cocker males, as he always wants to challenge them. And he is always the first to bark when anything unusual is happening around here, although he is not generally a "barky" dog. The Bolognese have a tremendous coat, and in the warmer months we do keep our Guido in a modified puppy clip, with only his ears and his tail left long, as this is the easiest way to keep his coat clean and free of debris from our dog yards.

Thus Bichon Bolognese are a very old breed, and their origins are intertangled with those of the Maltese, because both breeds' very distant ancestors are the same little dogs mentioned in Latin by Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) and called "Canes Melitenses". This ancient little white dog was kept on ships to hunt rats and other rodents, and in this way this type of dog was spread all over the Mediterranean, and even out onto the Canary Islands, where the Bichon Frise was developed. And it is thought that the little white dog of the Greeks and Romans was originally developed from small, white, Spitz type dogs that were brought down from Northern Europe, as many of these dogs depicted up through the Renaissance do have upright ears.

Bichon Frise is French for "curly lap dog," and the Bichon Frise is also partly descended from the Barbet (Water Spaniel), giving the name "Barbichon", which was later shortened to "Bichon". The Bichons were further divided into four categories: the Bichon Maltais, the Bichon Bolognais, the Bichon Havanais and the Bichon Tenerife (the original name for the Bichon Frise), all originating in the Mediterranean area. But some dog researchers believe that the Bichon Bolognese as a separate breed go even further back in time than the 11th century, and that the breed was already known in Southern Italy during the Roman era, around the time of Christ.

But their history is certainly known from the 1400's, when the Bichon Bolognese, as it is now spelled in English, appears among the lists of gifts which were exchanged among the nobility of Europe of that time. A gift of eight Bolognese was made by Cosimo de Medici (1389 - 1464) to certain noblemen of Brussels, and to this day there is a strong bloodline of Bichon Bolognese in Belgium.

The Bichon Bolgnese type of small dogs are depicted in many paintings of the Renaissance period, as the breed was very popular with the nobility, who could afford to have paintings made of themselves, their children, and even their pets. The painting of the woman in a white lace dress is of the Spanish Dutchess of Alba, painted by Goya (Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes) in 1795, and it is currently being displayed in The Alba Collection in Madrid, Spain.

And the painting of the little girl, just below, is of Maria Teresa de Borbon y Vallabriga, later the Condesa de Chinchon, and the daughter of King Carlos II's younger brother, and was also painted by Goya, in 1783. She is shown standing on the terrace of her family's country palace in Avila, in the mountains West of Madrid. This painting is presently in the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Other famous historical owners of Bichon Bolognese were Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589), Catherine I of Russia (1684-1727), Catherine the Great of Russia (1729-1796), Madame de Pompadour of France (1721-1764), and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780). The Empress loved her little Bolognese so much that when it died she had it preserved by a well known taxidermist, so that it would be with her always, and its little body can still be seen today at the Natural Museum of History in Vienna. And depictions of Bolognese can be seen in Flemish tapestry work going as far back as the 17th century.

King Philip II--the king of Spain from 1556 to 1598--received two Bolognese as a gift from the Duke d'Este (1533-1597) and he thanked the donor in writing, saying "that these two little dogs are the most royal gifts one can make to an Emperor." Bolognese are shown in the paintings of the Venetian painter Titian (1484-1586), the Flemish painter Pierre Breughel (1525-1569), the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio (1450-1526), Francisco Goya (1746-1848), and the Flemish painter Bosch (1450-1516)--pronounced "Boss" in Dutch, and called "El Bosco" in Spain. Philip II of Spain bought many of Bosch's paintings after the painter's death, and thus the Prado Museum in Madrid now owns several of Bosch's works.

And we have recently discovered a Bichon Frise website that has many pictures of art works featuring the Bichon/Maltese type of dog, going back all the way to ancient Greek vases, and a perusal of all of the different picture galleries on this website shows many little dogs that look very much like Bichon Bolognese dogs. And we especially love the "lion cut" of the little white dog pictured here in a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, in the early 1500's. This little dog is of the Bichon/Maltese type, but it's upright ears may reflect some white Spitz origin.

But the Bolognese breed almost became extinct in the horrors and aftermath of World War II, which devastated all of Europe, and only the dedicated efforts of several breeders, both in Italy and Belgium, saved the breed, including the Italian kennel Del Leone Fiammingo. But there are now dozens of Bolognese kennels in Europe, and they are especially concentrated in both Germany and Russia.

But we are not the first breeder to use the Bolognese in a mix, and in Russia the Bolognese was instrumental as foundation stock in developing the new breed called Tsvetnaya Bolonka--meaning "colored Bichon." The Bolonka breed was created by a small group of breeders in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and according to our research the breed evolved into its present form in the late 1960's from mixes of Lhasa Apsos, toy Poodles, Shih Tzu, Bichon Bolognese from France, and Pekingese dogs, as well as small Russian fluffy mongrel dogs. Bolonkas are known for their wonderful temperaments and as great little family dogs, and you may see pictures of this cute little new breed at a Bolonka page, and just closing the window will bring you back to this point on this page.

And we can see the resemblance of the Bolonkas to some of the colored and/or parti Bichon/Maltese types of small dogs of the past, such as the cute little dog pictured to the right, who belonged to the Medici family of Bologna, Italy, and was painted by the court painter named Sustermans in the 1600's. And we have to admit that we got the idea of mixing our smaller Cocker girls with the Bolognese after reading about the development of the Bolonkas, and we were looking for a "Bolonka look" with our mix, except that we prefer longer ears, like the little dog pictured here. And notice the "lion" cut on this adorable little parti colored dog, and we are keeping our Guido in a similar type of cut, only shorter due to his much curlier coat. But we think that our Bologco pups would look great in a lion cut like this little dog. And we have to admit that we got the idea of how to clip their muzzles and around their eyes from this picture too, as why reinvent the wheel?

But we first became interested in mixing our Cockers after being around Roxie, a Cavachon, which is part Bichon Frise and part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, that belongs to some friends of ours who also have three of our Cockers, down in the Sarosata, Florida area, but we wanted a slightly larger mix. The Cavachons have been a popular mix for quite some time now, but we felt that a Bichon Frise was too small a dog to mix with our small Cocker girls. But we think that Roxie's "teddy bear" look mixed with her longer Spaniel ears is just adorable.

But there is no doubt as to the antiquity of the Bichon Bolognese as a breed, and that the Bolognese was once known to sometimes have color in its coat. And both the antique figurine--which seems to be a sable parti dog--and the small painting of a small black and white parti dog, shown below, were labeled as portrayals of Bolognese on internet art websites. But no colors or markings but the solid white are accepted by the various new Bolognese breed clubs and registries, although in looking at pictures on the internet we occasionally see one with pale tan spots, mainly on the ears. But we ourselves prefer a more colorful dog than all white.

And when mixed with our Cockers, we get all sorts of colors from Guido, including black and dark sable, and below is a picture of our first Bologco litter, from a 15 pound black and white Cocker girl, shown at nine days old, and this litter was the first Bologco litter registered with the American Canine Hybrid Club. We believe that the other three puppies are saddle backed, diluted red clear Sables, with white feet and a partial white blaze, and the lighter puppies eventually all turned out to be various shades of what can be called an "apricot" color.

Our Guido has the softest coat immaginable, but his very heavy and flocked coat does require quite a bit of upkeep. These three smaller pictures show him with his coat grown out in the Winter, pictured outdoors in one of our dog yards, as we wanted to see what his coat would look like all grown out. When we bought Guido as a 17 month old from a toy dog breeder, he was totally clipped, almost to the skin. But we had seen pictures of Bolognese on the internet whose coats were so long that they were actually corded, like European sheep dogs, so we had a pretty good idea of what we were getting into with his heavy coat.

But we found that dealing with Guido's coat at this longer length just requires too much upkeep, so we now keep him clipped into a much shorter "puppy" cut--shorter in the Summer than in the Winter--leaving only his head and his beautifully plumed, curled over tail with the longer length hair. And this shorter cut makes keeping him clean much easier, as Guido loves being outside in our dog yards with our Cockers, and he can dig holes in our very sandy Florida ground with the best of them!

But running around outside in our dog yards is good for building Guido's strength and stamina, and he has a rather muscular body underneath all of that hair. And whatever the length of his coat, we just love Guido's very sweet and perky personality, and we especially love the very cute and very sweet little Bologco puppies that he throws.

Guido is a very sturdy and strong boned little dog who is full of life and is a lot of fun to be around, and he is perky, alert and obedient, but not overly active--although he does love to run around our dog yards with our smaller Cocker girls. We keep our dogs in dog yards to protect them from roving wildlife, such as alligators, black bears, and Florida panthers, and it's also easier to keep them free of fleas and ticks if we can keep them in an area that we can keep raked. One of our dog yards is almost 60 feet long, and the other is 44 feet long, so our dogs have plenty of room to roam for dogs of their small size. But all of our dogs are both inside and outside dogs, and they are all house trained.

And here's one of our latest pictures of Guido, taken right after a bath and grooming session, and you can see that although he has very curly hair on his body, the hair on his ears is quite straight.

And above is another picture of Guido right after his bath, and we just love his "teddy bear" look. Guido has the softest dog coat that we have ever touched, and his puppies do inherit this soft coat.

Since the late 1980's the Bichon Bolognese breed has become popular in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, and they finally made their way to the Americas in the 1990's, with the AKC accepting them as foundation stock in 1999. In 1996 a Bolognese club was formed in Great Britain, but by 2004 there were still only 500 Bolognese registered in the United Kingdom, where it is still considered a rare breed.
The Bolognese coat is very wooly, and it is technically flocked, without any undercoat or curl, and it is not trimmed for showing. The Bichon Bolognese is a very sweet natured little dog, and once bonded to a person and/or a family, the breed is bouncy, vivacious and devoted, and it will always be at your heels. It is enterprising, but generally docile, and as its original function was as a mouser and as a companion dog, it is still an excellent companion dog to this day--and it is probably still a very good mouser!

We see some similarity in type in the Bolognese with the older type of toy Spaniels, with the long little snout, with plenty of room for nicely sized teeth to develop. And the older types of Spaniels were also long of body and short of leg, and all of our Bologco puppies have this body type. But the genes of the Bolognese and small Spaniels have probably not been mixed for many hundreds of years, if not longer, thus assuring strong heterosis, or hybrid vigor, in our mixed puppies.

To the right is a painting of a young woman with a toy Spaniel, painted on a wooden jewelry box top, and it is French, dated 1839. This small painting shows a typical toy Spaniel of that time, with the little pointed noise that is also typical of the Bolognese, as the Bolognese has a wedge shaped head underneath all of that fluffy hair.

Everything that we have read about this breed stresses that the Bolognese bonds closely with its family, and that it needs to be in the center of household activities. It does well with other pets and children, but it will probably do best with older children. It can also be a good little watchdog, and its smaller size makes it a good pet in a smaller space, such as an apartment or a condo.

Bolognese have been described as intelligent, animated, inquisitive, problem solvers, playful, highly trainable, very soft to pet, great lap dogs, affectionate, entertaining, and small but sturdy. These are all wonderful qualities for a mix, and we wanted to develop a smaller designer mix than our Cockers, but still retain bone strength and vigor, for an adorable companion dog who would be up to some outdoor activities with the family, but would not be bouncing off of the walls inside of the home when the family wanted quiet times too. Above is a picture of our Guido trimmed in a Summer "puppy cut," leaving long and natural hair only on his ears and on his tail, and this picture shows how small his head is under all of that hair. But if kept in full coat, the long, fluffy hair of the Bolognese needs to be brushed on a daily basis to avoid matting and frizzing, and monthly professional grooming is highly recommended, including nail trimming, ear cleaning, and bathing.

The breed is also good for people with allergies, as the Bolognese is known to shed little or no hair, and our Guido does not shed at all. Their life span is about 14 years--the same as Cockers--and they are not known to have any major health concerns. These little dogs will take care of most of their exercise needs on their own, but they do love walks, and they especially love to romp out in the open, and our Guido will run up and down our 60 foot long dog yard all day long with our smaller girls, providing that the weather is cool enough.

We looked long and hard in order to find a smaller breed to mix with our line of smaller Cocker girls, as we had spent quite a long time developing our line of smaller, flashily marked Cockers, and we wanted a special little dog to sire our mixes. And some of our Bologco litters are our third generation of puppies. And we were especially concerned about health issues in the various toy breeds that we were researching, as we did not want to mix our Cockers with a breed with similar health concerns.

So after a lot of research, we finally decided on a larger Bolognese male, as we had read on an Italian Bolognese website that the breed can vary widely in size. So we thought that if we looked long enough we could find one large enough to breed to our pretty and small Cocker girls, and we were correct in thinking that. And after living with this wonderfully sturdy and sweet little dog for quite some time now, we can truthfully say that he is one of the nicest dogs that we have ever owned. We call Guido our "Mighty Dog," as he has very sturdy bones for such a small dog, and he has an amazing amount of strength and stamina for his size. And he has an amazing amount of hair, as the picture above shows. This is Guido at his "hairest," with his coat approaching "cording," and this is the longest that we have ever let his coat grow, as it becomes like a sheep's coat at this length. But no matter the length of his coat, we always keep the hair around Guido's eyes clipped short, to keep it from irritating his eyes.

And Guido's Bologco puppies show amazing vigor, even as newborns, as they are able to crawl all over their big crate at six hours old. And we have had asbolutely no problem with his puppies being strong enough to nurse right from birth, even though they are rather small puppies, usually weighting only four to five ounces at birth. So we have no need for incubators, and we do not have to take any extraordinary measures to keep his small puppies alive, and by two weeks old, puppies like the one to the right, are strong and vigorous.

And his puppies gain very rapidly the first few weeks of life. But at about four to five weeks old they slow down in their growth, and at seven to eight weeks old they are generally considerably smaller than a Cocker puppy of the same age. So we think that our Bologcos will probably eventually grow to an average of fifteen pounds, because although Guido is large for a Bolognese, he undoubtedly has genes for more toy sized dogs behind him. But of course given the varied genetics behind our puppies, we cannot make any guarantee as to the eventual size of any particular puppy.

We have looked for more information as to Guido's origins on the internet, and as far as we can tell his immediate ancestors come from the Rumanian, Hungarian, and/or Slovokian area of Eastern Europe--close by to Russia--although we believe that Guido himself was born in a mid-western US kennel. And apparently there are some Bolognese kennels in that area of Eastern Europe, as we found pictures of Slovokian and Hungarian Bolognese champions on the internet with similar sounding names to the dog names on Guido's pedigree. But as we cannot read any language other than English, our research has not gone any further than this.

So we take our little Guido as he is, and we just love him, both as a pet and as a stud dog, and we really love the very cute "teddy bear" looking Bologco mixes that he throws. Just below is a scan that we made of a photocopy of Guido's pedigree that we received when we bought him. And fortunately we were able to name Guido, even though we bought him as a 17 month old young dog, as his previous owner had not done so. But as this scan is not very readable, we have created a much more legible version of Guido's pedigree, and just closing the window will bring you back to this point on this page.

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