The ISCGB GWT date for 2022 is confirmed as September 3rd 2022 at Dene Farm, Wisdom Lane, Nether Wallop, Hampshire SO20 8ER. More details to follow.
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Thinking of owing a Spinone, we can offer you advice and support to decide if they are the breed for you. Remember they are a working gundog and need plenty of mental and physical exercise. Things to consider before you take the plunge.

About The Breed

Taken the plunge? You now have your bundle of joy at home. What next. We can help you care for your dog throughout what we hope will be a happy and healthy long life. Grooming, feeding, exercise, first aid, teething, insurance, heights and weights, to neuter or not, you name it, we will have experience of it.

Caring for your Spinone

The Italian Spinone is an intelligent, tireless, and thorough gundog. As a member of the Hunt, Point, Retrieve group he is best suited to rough shooting but can adapt to beating or picking up. His training will be long and require patience! However, a working Spinoni is a much happier and fulfilled dog. Fostering this natural instinct will give you a keen, eager-to-please gundog, and a calm and content companion in the family home.

Working Your Spinone

Join the Club, here you will find the official stuff. How to become a member, our rules & regs, code of ethics, judges lists, club events, who's on the committees, how we operate.

Why not join our Spinone Club

We are very pro-active about Spinone health and work closely with the Animal Health Trust clinical and genetics teams to provide information for breeders and owners. We have a comprehensive database containing pedigrees and health information about Spinoni worldwide.

Health & Welfare

There are lots of things you can do with your Spinone, an active dog is a happy dog and a more healthy you. They love to be with you doing what you are doing. Work, show, agility, pets as therapy, reading, cani cross, guide dog, hearing dog, assistance for the disabled, obedience, heelwork to music, companion, the list is endless.

Spinone Activities

What's going on in the Spinone world, here you will find all the latest news, announcements and reminders. Browse our Spinone gifts and photo gallery. Here you will also find links to our Google Events calendar and other sites of interest.

What's Going On

ISCGB Rehome & Rescue is a totally voluntary service offering assistance and support for pure bred Spinoni nationwide who, for whatever reason, cannot stay in their current home. We are a not for profit operation and rely on donations and fund raising.

Adoption and Rehome

We have been working hard to enable Cerebellar Ataxia (CA) testing is available worldwide and we have some great news to share with you.

UK Only As you are aware Canine Genetics Testing (the Kennel Club Genetics Centre at the University of Cambridge) will be processing all the UK CA Swabs.

To order swabs for UK testing go to: UK CA SWAB TEST ORDER

Outside the UK Labogen is the EU laboratory that will process all swabs from countries outside the UK.

The Kennel Club Genetics Centre at the University of Cambridge have partnered with Laboklin whose European Laboratory will process the swabs.

To order your swabs for Worldwide testing go to: WORLDWIDE CA SWAB TEST ORDER

PLEASE email a copy of your results certificate to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and your dog's CA Status will be added to the ISCGB website and health database.

NISA's Open show is on SATURDAY July 2nd 2022. Venue: CANADA FIELDS CARAVAN PARK Moor Lane, Yafforth, Northallerton DL7 0QA 

ENTRIES: will be available online through Fosse Data Postal Entries close on Friday 10th June and online entries close Sunday 9th June.

JUDGE : Tracey Mayou (Trussardi). Judging starts at 10.30am

The ISCGB GWT date for 2022 is confirmed as September 3rd 2022 at Dene Farm, Wisdom Lane, Nether Wallop, Hampshire SO20 8ER.

More details to follow.

Here are the Championship Show judges for 2022 that we know of so far.

Whilst we have made every effort to ensure they are accurate, things change so please check the show details, especially dates, with the relevant Schedule before entering or attending.

The Epilepsy study swab pathway is shown below.
Please choose which pathway you would like to take either:
PATHWAY 1 Affected dogs
or
PATHWAY 2 Unaffected dogs
Please also Note: If you sent any previous Epilepsy study swabs to the AHT you will not need to repeat them
Please click on Read More to view the full pathway.

 

CA Testing
The DNA testing service was approved by Cambridge University last week, and the genetics team can now begin the process of recruiting staff to perform this function. The Italian Spinone CA Test will not need development as they already have everything in place to run the assay, but it could take a few months before DNA testing service will be up and running whilst recruitment takes place.

Epilepsy Research
We will shortly be posting the pathway for collection of swabs to continue with our epilepsy research. Once this has been published we will be able to start sending out swab kits and the necessary documentation to those who have kindly volunteered their dog's DNA for this research.

Elaine Kirkham, ISCGB Health Co-ordinator, June 2021.

 

The genetics team from the AHT are settling in at Cambridge and are hoping to get back to normal working very soon.

This will mean recommencing CA testing and also continuing the very important study into "The prevalence if Idiopathic Epilepsy in the Italian Spinone"

🗯Update from the genetics team at Cambridge🗯

Our scientists recently tested some more dogs for the genetic variants that we had identified from our genome scan as being potentially associated with IE, but our results suggest that we still do not have quite enough samples to be sure whether or not we can replicate this finding, and we need to be sure of this before we can take the study further. As such we are in great need of samples from dogs affected with IE and those over the age of 7 years with no report of seizure.

The team work very closely with Hannes Lohi’s group on epilepsy in several breeds and so any samples that go to him should be able to be shared with our KC genetics team, and vice versa. All of our AHT samples and the majority of data have travelled with us to Cambridge, so are still available.

The genetics team from the AHT have secured a laboratory at Cambridge University, contracts are still being negotiated between the University of Cambridge the Kennel club and Kennel Club Charitable Trust. They hope to be able to recommence the CA testing service in 2-3 months assuming things go smoothly with contracts and university appointments for the testing posts.

Since 2020 I have been in continued discussions with several other laboratories. There are now two of the original four laboratories that responded to my request for them to develop a DNA test for CA.
Dr Mellersh has offered her help and support with those two laboratories in the development of the test.

I have forwarded Dr Mellersh's contact details to the laboratories, we are now awaiting their decisions. Both laboratories will require affected, carrier and control samples to properly validate the test and will have to develop the test from scratch which may have a financial implication, even if this is added to the cost of the test once developed.

Once they have consulted with Dr Mellersh we will have a better idea of costs and timescales involved in developing new tests.

Elaine Kirkham
ISCGB Health Co-ordinator
March 2021

ISCGB Interim CA Breeding Protocol

If you are new to the Spinone or are not familiar with Cerebellar Ataxia (CA), please take the time to learn about this FATAL disease in the Italian Spinone. It occurs when 2 dogs who are carriers of CA are bred together. Statistically 1 in 4 puppies will be affected and have to be euthanased around 9 months of age. A further 2 in 4 puppies will themselves be carriers and can pass this on if bred from, so even in a small litter it is highly likely that 1 or more puppies will be impacted.

As many of you will know the ISCGB has a long relationship with the Animal Health Trust. In 2005 the Canine Genetics Team at the AHT, started working to identify the genetic mutation responsible for the devastating inherited neurological disorder Cerebellar Ataxia (CA) that is known to affect the Italian Spinone.

Is there any good reason to cross our wonderful breed, the Spinone?  The answer must be a resounding NO.

An ancient HPR with so much history, highly valued in its country of Origin reduced to the latest fashion accessory by crossing it with whatever breed you have to hand, then adding to the insult by thinking up a ridiculous name and selling these unregistered pups for rather a lot of money.  I find it sad for the breed.

The best of both breeds?  Why would crossing two breeds of dog result in only the best features of each breed?

All breeds have their good features and their bad.  Individual dogs within each breed can display desirable and undesirable traits.  Nature does not take all the good bits from each parent to produce the perfect dog.  Even when breeding 2 dogs of the same breed this doesn't happen, otherwise all pure bred dogs would be perfect!