Cirneco dell'Etna

Affectionate at home, with a strong hunting instinct.
A Cirneco dell'Etna
Photo: de:Benutzer:Jan Eduard, contrast Pleple2000
Adult male
10–13 kg
22–29 lb
Adult female
8–11 kg
18–24 lb
Lifespan
12–14 yrs
Class · Field
also Companion, Sport

What it's like

At home it is affectionate and gentle with its own people, lively and quick to react, and can be reserved with strangers. It keeps a strong hunting instinct and the independent streak of a dog that works at a distance from the hunter.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Bonded to its family
Independence
Decides for itself
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
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.
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Living with one

It has a coat of medium length. It sheds through the year rather than in big seasonal moults. Plan on brushing a few times a week. It needs a moderate amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Cirneco dell'Etna is a medium dog, heavier than a Pug and lighter than a Cocker Spaniel. Males end up clearly heavier than females. It is one of the lightest medium breeds.

It is a slender, square, lightly built dog with a long, narrow head and upright ears set close together. The short, sleek coat, slightly longer on the body, is usually tan from pale fawn to deeper shades, sometimes with white markings. A distinctive point is that the nose, lips and eye rims are flesh-coloured to match the coat rather than black, and the eyes are amber or ochre.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Cirneco dell'Etna puppy is already as heavy as a grown Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight6
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
0510152m4m6m9m12m18m
0510152m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
2.5–3.3 kg 5.5–7.3 lb
2.3–3.1 kg 5.1–6.8 lb
3 months
3.4–4.5 kg 7.5–9.9 lb
2.9–4.0 kg 6.4–8.8 lb
4 months
4.9–6.3 kg 10.8–13.9 lb
3.9–5.4 kg 8.6–11.9 lb
5 months
6.0–7.8 kg 13.2–17.2 lb
4.7–6.5 kg 10.4–14.3 lb
6 months
6.9–9.0 kg 15.2–19.8 lb
5.4–7.4 kg 11.9–16.3 lb
7 months
7.7–9.9 kg 17.0–21.8 lb
5.9–8.1 kg 13.0–17.9 lb
8 months
8.2–10.6 kg 18.1–23.4 lb
6.3–8.6 kg 13.9–19.0 lb
9 months
8.6–11.2 kg 19.0–24.7 lb
6.6–9.1 kg 14.6–20.1 lb
10 months
8.9–11.5 kg 19.6–25.4 lb
6.9–9.4 kg 15.2–20.7 lb
11 months
9.1–11.9 kg 20.1–26.2 lb
7.1–9.7 kg 15.7–21.4 lb
12 months
9.3–12.1 kg 20.5–26.7 lb
7.2–9.9 kg 15.9–21.8 lb
15 months
9.7–12.6 kg 21.4–27.8 lb
7.6–10.5 kg 16.8–23.1 lb
18 months
10–13 kg 22–29 lb
7.9–10.9 kg 17.4–24.0 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Cirneco dell'Etnas live yet. The 12–14 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The Cirneco dell'Etna hunts wild rabbit on Sicily and the slopes of Etna, mainly by scent and traditionally alongside a ferret. It probably descends from hunting dogs of ancient Egypt that the Phoenicians brought to the island, where dogs like it appear on coins from centuries before Christ. Near oblivion by the early 1930s, it was revived by a Sicilian baroness, Agata Paternò Castello4,7.

The Cirneco dell'Etna owes its modern form to the revival begun in the nineteen-thirties, when Giuseppe Solaro studied the surviving dogs and drew up the first standard. The Italian kennel club recognised the breed at the end of that decade. For much of the twentieth century it stayed mainly a Sicilian working dog, and it has become known outside Italy only fairly recently. It was bred to hunt over rough lava ground in hot weather for long days, using scent and hearing as much as sight to find rabbits in rock and scrub.

Breed standard

The Cirneco dell'Etna is judged against standard no. 199, in group 5, Spitz and primitive types4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Cirneco dell'Etna 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 medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

Pharaoh Hound
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Pomsky
Non-sporting · Small
American Eskimo Dog
Non-sporting · Small
Shiba Inu
Spitz & primitive · Small
Or compare the Cirneco dell'Etna with any breed you choose
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Sources

Uncited on this page: Lifespan — no reviewed source yet, so it is a general reference figure rather than a published one.
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Parts of this page were written by AI ·