Lagotto Romagnolo

Affectionate and attentive, with a strong urge to dig.
A Lagotto Romagnolo
Photo: Alberto Ziveri
Adult male
13–16 kg
29–35 lb
Adult female
11–14 kg
24–31 lb
Lifespan
15–17 yrs
Class · Companion
also Family, Field

What it's like

In temperament the breed is affectionate with its household, keen and attentive. It keeps the working nose of a truffle dog and a strong urge to dig, and it is alert enough to announce visitors.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Needs daily brain work
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Bonded to its family
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
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 curly coat. Loose hair stays caught in the coat until it is brushed, stripped or clipped out. Plan on brushing a few times a week, plus clipping every 6–8 weeks. It needs plenty of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Lagotto Romagnolo is a medium dog, about the weight of a grown Cocker Spaniel. Males end up clearly heavier than females. It is one of the lightest medium breeds.

Bred first to retrieve waterfowl and later to find truffles by scent, the Lagotto is a sturdy, compact dog, roughly square in outline, with a broad head, large round eyes and triangular drop ears. Its defining feature is the coat: dense, woolly and water-resistant, lying in tight ringlets over most of the body. Colours include off-white, white with brown or orange patches, brown roan, solid brown and orange. The coat is trimmed to follow the dog's natural shape rather than sculpted.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
Lagotto Romagnolos reach half their adult weight at about 5 months. 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
051015202m4m6m9m12m18m
051015202m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
3.3–4.1 kg 7.3–9.0 lb
3.1–3.9 kg 6.8–8.6 lb
3 months
4.5–5.5 kg 9.9–12.1 lb
4.0–5.1 kg 8.8–11.2 lb
4 months
6.3–7.8 kg 13.9–17.2 lb
5.4–6.9 kg 11.9–15.2 lb
5 months
7.8–9.6 kg 17.2–21.2 lb
6.5–8.3 kg 14.3–18.3 lb
6 months
9.0–11.1 kg 19.8–24.5 lb
7.4–9.4 kg 16.3–20.7 lb
7 months
9.9–12.2 kg 21.8–26.9 lb
8.1–10.3 kg 17.9–22.7 lb
8 months
10.6–13.1 kg 23.4–28.9 lb
8.6–11.0 kg 19.0–24.3 lb
9 months
11.2–13.7 kg 24.7–30.2 lb
9.1–11.5 kg 20.1–25.4 lb
10 months
11.5–14.2 kg 25.4–31.3 lb
9.4–12.0 kg 20.7–26.5 lb
11 months
11.9–14.6 kg 26.2–32.2 lb
9.7–12.4 kg 21.4–27.3 lb
12 months
12.1–14.9 kg 26.7–32.8 lb
9.9–12.7 kg 21.8–28.0 lb
15 months
12.6–15.5 kg 27.8–34.2 lb
10.5–13.3 kg 23.1–29.3 lb
18 months
13–16 kg 29–35 lb
10.9–13.9 kg 24.0–30.6 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Lagotto Romagnolos live yet. The 15–17 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The Lagotto Romagnolo began as a water retriever in the wetlands around Comacchio and Ravenna. Once those marshes had been turned into farmland, it found new work nosing out truffles across Romagna, and the AKC calls it the only purebred recognised as a specialised truffle searcher4,7.

The Lagotto Romagnolo takes its name from the dialect of Romagna, in which 'lagòt' is usually explained as meaning a dog of the water. Truffle hunting became its main work from the nineteenth century; in the twentieth it was often crossed with other dogs, and by the nineteen-seventies the original type had become scarce. Italian enthusiasts then set out to rebuild the breed from the dogs that remained. A national breed club followed in the late nineteen-eighties, and international recognition came in stages after that.

Breed standard

The Lagotto Romagnolo is judged against standard no. 298, in group 8, Retrievers, Flushing Dogs and Water Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Lagotto Romagnolo 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

Portuguese Water Dog
Retrievers & water dogs · Medium
Spanish Water Dog
Retrievers & water dogs · Medium
Poodle (Standard)
Companion & toy · Medium
English Cocker Spaniel
Retrievers & water dogs · Medium
Or compare the Lagotto Romagnolo 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 ·