Bracco Italiano

Docile and affectionate; sensitive to harsh handling.
A Bracco Italiano
Photo: Svenska Mässan from Sweden
Adult weight
25–40 kg
55–88 lb
Lifespan
13.8 yrs
Class · Field
also Companion

What it's like

In temperament the Bracco is gentle, docile and affectionate, and it tends to form a close bond with its family. It is sensitive to harsh handling, yet in the field it works with stamina, patience and a steady, methodical drive.

Day to day
Activity
A good daily walk and play
Intelligence
Easy-going, simple routines
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
A lap or leaning dog
Loyalty
Bonded to its family
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Needs a calm, predictable home
Voice
Quiet
Prey drive
Likely to chase small pets
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is a Bracco Italiano right for you?
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Living with one

It has a short coat. It sheds through the year rather than in big seasonal moults. Plan on a brush once a week. It needs plenty of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Bracco Italiano is a large dog, about the weight of a grown Labrador.

Its working gait is distinctive: a fast, extended trot with the head carried high, rather than the gallop of many pointers. In appearance it is a strong, square, athletic dog with a long head, a slightly arched nose, long ears and loose skin at the throat. The short, dense, glossy coat is white, often with orange or chestnut patches, or flecked in orange or brown roan.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Bracco Italiano puppy is already as heavy as a grown Border Collie. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old. Most males grow into the size large-breed puppy foods are made for.
Fully grown
12 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight8
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
5.2–8.4 kg 11.5–18.5 lb
5.8–9.2 kg 12.8–20.3 lb
3 months
7.9–12.6 kg 17.4–27.8 lb
8.3–13.3 kg 18.3–29.3 lb
4 months
11.7–18.7 kg 25.8–41.2 lb
12.0–19.3 kg 26.5–42.5 lb
5 months
15.0–24.0 kg 33.1–52.9 lb
15.3–24.5 kg 33.7–54.0 lb
6 months
17.9–28.6 kg 39.5–63.1 lb
18.0–28.8 kg 39.7–63.5 lb
7 months
20.2–32.3 kg 44.5–71.2 lb
20.0–32.0 kg 44.1–70.5 lb
8 months
21.9–35.0 kg 48.3–77.2 lb
21.3–34.2 kg 47.0–75.4 lb
9 months
23.0–36.8 kg 50.7–81.1 lb
22.4–35.8 kg 49.4–78.9 lb
10 months
23.7–37.9 kg 52.2–83.6 lb
23.1–36.9 kg 50.9–81.4 lb
11 months
24.1–38.5 kg 53.1–84.9 lb
23.6–37.7 kg 52.0–83.1 lb
12 months
24.3–39.0 kg 53.6–86.0 lb
23.9–38.3 kg 52.7–84.4 lb
15 months
24.7–39.5 kg 54.5–87.1 lb
24.6–39.4 kg 54.2–86.9 lb

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Bracco Italiano lived to about 14 years, longer than the typical large breed. Too few had died yet to pin the figure down, so it may turn out higher.

Where it comes from

The Bracco Italiano is an Italian bird-hunting pointer whose type appears in 14th-century frescoes. It grew up as two northern strains, a lighter mountain dog from Piedmont and a heavier marsh dog from Lombardy. By the end of the 1800s hound crosses and careless breeding had left many dogs too heavy to work and the breed close to dying out, and in the 1920s the two types were merged4,10.

The Bracco Italiano owes its survival to Italian enthusiasts of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ferdinando Delor de Ferrabouc is often credited with much of the revival work, and a breed club, the Società Amatori Bracco Italiano, was founded after the Second World War to guard the standard. The breed reached Britain in the late twentieth century and is now shown and worked there as a hunt, point and retrieve dog. It was bred to quarter ground in front of the gun, find game birds by air scent and hold a firm point.

Breed standard

The Bracco Italiano is judged against standard no. 202, in group 7, Pointing Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Bracco Italiano figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a large breed is most likely at the later end.

Compare with related

German Shorthaired Pointer
Pointing dogs · Medium
Weimaraner
Pointing dogs · Large
Spinone Italiano
Pointing dogs · Large
Irish Setter
Pointing dogs · Large
Or compare the Bracco Italiano with any breed you choose
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Sources

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Parts of this page were written by AI ·