My name is Yvonne Kowalski, I was born in Dortmund on September 30, 1985, I have four children and live with my family in the middle of Dortmund, in our own little paradise. Our first Cane Corso Italiano moved in with us on September 26th, 2019 - our Lana, born on June 11th, 2019. AlmostWe waited two years for a baby from the breeder of our choice. For me it was clear from the first moment that it would be a purebred Cane Corso Italiano from official breeding and it was very important to me that it would be a Cane Corso Italiano that was typical of the breed both visually and in terms of character. I don't identify with the increasingly narrow Cane Corso Italiano, which are visually similar to Labradors or greyhounds! I consciously chose a waking Molosser who not only belongs to the Molossians, but also looks like one and loves, protects and guards his family and his home.

 

A short character description in the FCI standard says,The Cane Corso Italiano is the guardian of the house and farm, the family and the herd. In the past it was used to guard cattle herds and also to hunt big game. A brief historical summary from the FCI standard also says,The Corso dog is a direct descendant of the Roman Molossians. Previously present everywhere in Italy, in recent years it has only been present in Puglia and the neighboring southern Italian provinces. Its name comes from the Latin Cohors, meaning guardian/defender of house and farm. The reason why I add this short description from the FCI standard is because it is very important to me that you don't choose a dog based on how it looks, but rather look at the task or use of the dog, what it was bred for/ becomes.

Far too often you come across people who think a breed looks “great” because it is or is currently in fashion, but no one has informed themselves about the character of the breed because, unfortunately, it is common in far too many people's minds to be a puppy yes, a baby and you can shape it however you like. The character traits typical of the breed are not taken into account or are preferred to be refined or suppressed because the dog looks good. The reason why I'm going so far is that this is exactly the reason why, thanks to our dog, I "got more and more lost" in the topic of a breed and I became more and more aware that I myself have something for this wonderful breed, the Cane Corso Italiano. Over the last 4 years and also years before our Lana moved in with us, I have become more and more intensively involved with our beloved breed, so I would also like to do my part to educate people and support them about the Cane Corso gets into the right hands. Our Lana is such a sensitive dog, for me she is such a special representative of the Cane Corso Italiano. Of course she lives with us in the house, in the middle of our family. We don't have a cage or kennel, that's very important to us. Lana is not pushy, she is reserved, basically just needs her family and our house to guard. It is also important to mention that our children learned to have respect from the first moment Lana moved in. When the dog lies in his place, he is left alone and his peace is respected, this is how our children grew up with Lana and Lana loves her family. Respect is the cornerstone in a relationship between humans and animals. With us, our dogs are raised with love and consistency, because it is also important that, despite characteristics typical of the breed, there are different characters within a litter - the submissive, but also the more dominant puppies and my goal as a breeder is to match the exact right puppy for each one and to find.

 

Now I've digressed a bit, because I think you can tell that the Cane Corso Italiano has now developed into a real passion for me. Now I would like to briefly explain how I came to become an official breeder. Our Lana got older and we noticed more and more what a great, unique character Lana has. Unfortunately, in her first two years of life, Lana was often attacked by small dogs even though she was on a leash and she never made any attempt to defend herself. It's hard to imagine what could have happened if she had wanted to defend herself. (However, since she is about three years old, I would now assume that she would at least defend herself. Molossians need a certain amount of time to grow up mentally.) I became more and more aware that she is my soul dog , my shadow, the guardian of the house and our family. When Lana was two years old, the desire to visit exhibitions with Lana grew in me; I wanted to show her. Show how much she means to me and show how wonderful she is. Sporty, elegant, powerful, with a heart of gold, but also reserved towards strangers as is typical of the breed. She is the perfect dog for me. On June 20, 2021, we joined the only Cane Corso Italiano breeding club under the VDH, because this is a prerequisite for being allowed to officially breed in the FCI / VDH in Germany. On August 29th, 2021 the time had come, Lana and I had our first exhibition and, although we were completely inexperienced, but went into the ring together, we took second place with an excellent, with reserve eligibility for the German champion VDH. At this point a big thank you to judge Torsten Lemmer for the wonderful words for our Lana. This exhibition encouraged us and left us wanting more. Further exhibitions followed, including in the Netherlands and even Hungary, where Lana received great reviews and we received further form scores that we needed for breeding. On January 27, 2022, we had a DNA profile created at Laboklin and Lana tested for the hereditary disease DSRA, here too we received the great result, Lana is DSRA-free. Now all that was missing was an official X-ray to be approved for breeding. At that time, only HD x-rays (a hip x-ray) were required, but we decided to have everything x-rayed - HD, ED and OCD. We looked for a veterinarian who is authorized to take these special recordings. These were finally submitted to the official appraiser and then sent to us on January 30, 2022. The result was noteworthy. So it was clear that our Lana now has all the requirements to be approved for breeding. Eventually many more exhibitions followed. I wrote the new breeder knowledge test on April 29, 2023 and on August 27, 2023 our Lana passed her breeding license and also achieved 6 out of 6 possible points in the behavior test.

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"Your puppies are my signature"

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