Structure and characteristics of the breed

Maremmas are fast and as agile as any cat, and even as a puppy learn to distinguish between familiar and suspect noises. Talking about agility, I would however like to emphasise one point, they are strong dogs and strongly built, but they must maintain agility to be typical of the breed. They must never become heavy overweight dogs. I wish to underline this fact as some breeders seem to see as their aim, when addressing themselves to choosing subjects, to choose dogs which are growing and growing in size and which are becoming too heavy, with too much skin and therefore losing the agility of their movement. If it is true that today on average, the breed is definitely of greater size to what it was years ago, when there was less attention and less knowledge given to the selection and feeding of the dogs, then this must not alter the duplicity of a breed that has been maintained in so pure a way for centuries on any count. Otherwise we will run the real risk of losing a very rich patrimony that surely many other breeds envy. If we loose the physical characteristics we also risk losing the psychological ones as well, which are so particular and so beautiful in our breed.

Another of the characteristics of the breed is the ability for bitches to rear large litters, giving everything of themselves to the rearing of puppies, so much so that it can take a bitch up to six months to recover her condition. The puppies are much more precocious than in other breeds opening their eyes at around ten days as opposed to fourteen to eighteen days in other breeds, and as soon as they can move around they will look for a corner to relieve themselves. At one month of age the puppies will follow their mothers around and have great adventures exploring as a group. They are very curious of any angle or corner that they can reach, always however being able to return to the nest without ever getting lost. Puppies are very brave, possessing strong instincts of the sheepdog, going off in groups, and not being afraid of dogs and animals coming into their territory. regardless of the size of the intruder.

This article has been broken down into sections for your convenience

History and origin	The history and origins of the maremma sheepdog
Temperament	Description of the maremma temperament
Breed characteristics	Description of the characteristics of the maremma sheepdog
Breed structure	Structure of the maremma physically and temperamentally
Protection	Protective behaviour of the maremma sheepdog