Skip to content
Yellow Labrador retriever sitting in autumn woodland

Italian Spinone breeders

The Italian Spinone is a large, rough-coated gundog from Italy in The Royal Kennel Club’s Gundog group.

{"hide_search_input":false,"hide_near_input":false,"input_size":"","bar_flex_wrap":"","bar_flex_wrap_md":"","bar_flex_wrap_lg":"","input_border":"","input_border_opacity":"","input_rounded_size":"","btn_bg":"","btn_rounded_size":"","btn_rounded_size_md":"","btn_rounded_size_lg":"","bg":"","mt":"","mr":"","mb":"3","ml":"","pt":"","pr":"","pb":"","pl":"","border":"","rounded":"","rounded_size":"","rounded_size_md":"","rounded_size_lg":"","shadow":"","css_class":""}

Advertise your Italian Spinone puppies, litters and stud dogs

Do you breed Italian Spinoni? List your kennel on caninebreeder.co.uk so buyers searching for Italian Spinone puppies for sale, and bitch owners looking for an Italian Spinone stud dog, can find you. Advertise planned litters and proven stud dogs, and show the CA, hip, elbow and eye results behind every pairing. A basic listing shows your kennel name, location, website, social media and categories, and paid plans unlock more showcase features. Add your listing or see pricing.

No breeders are listed here yet, so the first profiles get the page to themselves.

  • Free basic profile: your breeder or company name, website, social media, location, breeds and industries.
  • Litters and stud dogs advertised in their own sections, never mixed with puppies for sale.
  • Premium showcase for your services and prices, previous customers, awards, video, gallery and health certificates, with your phone and email shown to buyers.
  • Sponsored articles about your breed or industry, written and published by our team.
  • Featured placement at the top of this page, labelled as sponsored.

Create your free breeder profile Advertise a litter Advertise a stud dog

Is it free to advertise here?

Yes. A breeder profile and your litter and stud dog adverts are free. Premium profiles, featured placement and sponsored articles are optional paid extras; see pricing.

Do I need a licence to advertise puppies?

In England you need a dog breeding licence from your council if you breed three or more litters in 12 months or breed and sell dogs as a business, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes. Licensed breeders show their licence number and issuing council on every advert. Puppies must be at least eight weeks old before they go to new homes.

Is my listing already here?

We add licensed breeders from councils' public registers. Search for your kennel name; if it is listed you can claim it and edit everything.

About the Italian Spinone

The Italian Spinone is a large, rough-coated gundog from Italy in The Royal Kennel Club's Gundog group. Its breed standard calls it a hunt, point and retrieve breed, and the RKC describes an ancient Italian breed popular in its homeland as an all-purpose gundog, known for its strong head, gentle, almost human expression and unusual topline. Its ancestry is uncertain: the RKC suggests Italian hound, perhaps with coarse-haired Segugio blood and possibly some setter or mastiff. The breed was first seen in the UK at the Game Fair in the early 1980s, and the Italian Spinone Club of Great Britain records four imports in 1981 and Championship status in 1994.

Size and build. The breed standard wants a powerful, square-built dog with sturdy bone and good muscle. Dogs stand 60 to 70 cm (23½ to 27½ in) and weigh 34 to 39 kg; bitches stand 58 to 65 cm (22¾ to 25½ in) and weigh 29 to 34 kg. The RKC says its pounding trot gives stamina rather than speed, and the standard wants a hardy dog at home on any terrain, water included. The standard describes both docked and undocked tails; in England docking is now lawful only for medical treatment or for certified working dogs of permitted types, which include HPR breeds.

Coat and grooming. The coat is coarse and dense, lying fairly flat, 4 to 6 cm long and without a real undercoat; thicker hair forms the eyebrows, moustache and beard. Accepted colours are white, white and orange, orange roan, white and brown, and brown roan. The RKC suggests grooming more than once a week and notes that the breed sheds. The club's grooming advice says most coats need hand-stripping and the beard should be washed after meals.

Exercise and home. The RKC suggests more than two hours of exercise a day and a large house with a large garden, in town or country. The club advises against over-exercising puppies, with no long, demanding walks in the first year.

Temperament and suitability. The standard describes a sociable, docile, affectionate and patient dog, and the RKC gives a lifespan of over 10 years. A Spinone suits active owners with room for a big dog, time for regular grooming and tolerance of a wet beard. Read our working gundogs guide, compare other Gundog group breeders such as the Bracco Italiano, or browse the breed directory.

Italian Spinone health tests

The RKC lists three Good Practice checks for the Italian Spinone, which it strongly recommends as the minimum before breeding: a DNA linkage test for cerebellar ataxia (CA), hip scoring and elbow grading. Eye examination is on its Best Practice list. In CA, cells in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that coordinates movement, deteriorate; the RKC's CA test page says signs usually appear in the first weeks or months and affected puppies are often put to sleep before they reach one. It is autosomal recessive, so two carrier parents can produce affected puppies. A linkage test reads DNA markers almost always inherited with the faulty gene rather than the mutation itself, so it is highly accurate but slightly less precise than a direct test.

Since 6 January 2025 the RKC registers imported Spinoni, and litters by overseas sires, only if the dog is proven clear or a carrier of CA or has hereditary clear status, and carriers may only be mated to a DNA-tested clear or hereditarily clear Spinone. The breed club also has information on bloat, cancer, epilepsy, hip dysplasia and osteochondritis, and asks owners to submit every hip X-ray so the published breed average stays accurate. The breed is in Breed Watch Category 1. No test result can guarantee a puppy's future health.

Choosing an Italian Spinone breeder

A good Italian Spinone breeder tests both parents before mating and shows you the paperwork: each parent's CA DNA result or hereditary clear status, BVA hip scores and elbow grades, and ideally a recent eye certificate. The breed club's CA control scheme asks that a carrier is only mated to a DNA-tested clear dog, that every puppy from such a mating is tested before it leaves the breeder, and that new owners of carriers are told what that status means. Check results yourself on the RKC Health Test Results Finder and ask for the litter's figure from the inbreeding coefficient calculator. Expect frank talk about the size, the beard, the stripping and the exercise a working gundog needs, and questions about your home in return. Puppies must be microchipped and registered by eight weeks, and in England anyone breeding three or more litters in 12 months and selling puppies needs a council licence. The RKC's Find a Club search lists three breed clubs for the Spinone, and our buyer safety guide covers deposits and scams.

  • What are both parents' CA results, and if either is a carrier, has each puppy been tested?
  • What are the parents' hip scores and elbow grades, and when were their eyes last examined?
  • What is the inbreeding coefficient for this mating?
  • Do the parents come from working, show or mixed lines, and what do they do day to day?
  • Can I meet the mother with her litter, and what help do you offer after collection?

Italian Spinone questions

How big does an Italian Spinone grow?

The RKC breed standard gives dogs a height of 60 to 70 cm (23u00bd to 27u00bd in) and a weight of 34 to 39 kg, and bitches 58 to 65 cm (22u00be to 25u00bd in) and 29 to 34 kg. The RKC classes it as a large breed suited to a large house and garden.

Does an Italian Spinone need clipping or stripping?

The Italian Spinone Club of Great Britain says coats vary but most need hand-stripping, which means pulling out dead hair rather than clipping, and it suggests grooming a couple of times a week. The RKC suggests grooming more than once a week. The club also advises washing the beard after meals, keeping the hair on the outer ears short for ventilation and checking between the pads for dirt and grass seeds.

What is cerebellar ataxia and how do I avoid it?

Cerebellar ataxia (CA) is an inherited condition affecting balance and coordination that appears in the first weeks or months of life; the RKC says affected puppies are often put to sleep before the age of one. It is recessive, so a puppy is only affected if it inherits the faulty gene from both parents. Ask for both parents' CA DNA results: under RKC rules a carrier may only be mated to a clear or hereditarily clear dog, and the breed club expects every puppy from a carrier mating to be tested before it leaves the breeder.

Is the Italian Spinone a working gundog?

Yes. The RKC describes it as an all-purpose gundog, and its breed standard calls it a hunt, point and retrieve breed. The Italian Spinone Club of Great Britain has a working section and reports field trial results on its website. Many Spinoni live as companions, but they keep the stamina and hunting instinct of a working dog.

More for Italian Spinone owners and breeders

Official sources