Volpino Italiano

Lively and attentive, quick to bark at anything unusual.
A Volpino Italiano
Photo: Canarian
Adult male
4.5–7.3 kg
10–16 lb
Adult female
3.6–5.4 kg
8–12 lb
Lifespan
14–16 yrs
Class · Companion
also Lap dog

What it's like

The breed is lively and attentive. It notices anything unusual quickly and tends to bark about it. It becomes closely attached to its household and can be reserved with strangers. Michelangelo is sometimes said to have kept one, but this is a story that is told rather than one that is documented.

Day to day
Activity
A good daily walk and play
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Very vocal
Prey drive
Usually fine with 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 long coat. It sheds through the year rather than in big seasonal moults. Plan on daily brushing. It needs a moderate amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Volpino Italiano is a small dog, about the weight of a grown Yorkshire Terrier. Males end up clearly heavier than females. It is one of the lightest small breeds.

It is a small, compact spitz with a square outline, a wedge-shaped head, small upright triangular ears and a tail carried curled over the back. The coat is long, dense and straight. It stands out from the body rather than lying flat, and it forms a full ruff around the neck. White is the colour seen most often. Solid red is also accepted, and champagne is tolerated.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 3 months, a male Volpino Italiano puppy is already as heavy as a grown Chihuahua. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight7
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
1.5–2.4 kg 3.3–5.3 lb
1.3–1.9 kg 2.9–4.2 lb
3 months
1.8–3.0 kg 4.0–6.6 lb
1.6–2.3 kg 3.5–5.1 lb
4 months
2.4–3.9 kg 5.3–8.6 lb
2.0–3.0 kg 4.4–6.6 lb
5 months
2.8–4.6 kg 6.2–10.1 lb
2.3–3.4 kg 5.1–7.5 lb
6 months
3.2–5.2 kg 7.1–11.5 lb
2.5–3.8 kg 5.5–8.4 lb
7 months
3.5–5.6 kg 7.7–12.3 lb
2.7–4.1 kg 6.0–9.0 lb
8 months
3.7–5.9 kg 8.2–13.0 lb
2.9–4.3 kg 6.4–9.5 lb
9 months
3.8–6.2 kg 8.4–13.7 lb
3.0–4.4 kg 6.6–9.7 lb
10 months
3.9–6.4 kg 8.6–14.1 lb
3.1–4.6 kg 6.8–10.1 lb
11 months
4.0–6.5 kg 8.8–14.3 lb
3.1–4.7 kg 6.8–10.4 lb
12 months
4.1–6.6 kg 9.0–14.6 lb
3.2–4.8 kg 7.1–10.6 lb
15 months
4.3–6.9 kg 9.5–15.2 lb
3.4–5.1 kg 7.5–11.2 lb
18 months
4.4–7.2 kg 9.7–15.9 lb
3.5–5.3 kg 7.7–11.7 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Volpino Italianos live yet. The 14–16 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The Volpino Italiano is an old Italian spitz, a relative of the German Spitz rather than a descendant, kept as a pet in palaces and a watchdog in poor homes. Carters in Tuscany and Latium took it on the road in the 18th century, and it barked at every stranger. Standardised in 1913, it later vanished; registration resumed in 1972, after a few white dogs reappeared in 19684.

The Volpino Italiano takes its name from the Italian for 'little fox', presumably for its pointed muzzle and sharp expression. Since its revival in the late twentieth century it has been kept mainly as a companion, and it remains uncommon outside Italy. One of its traditional jobs was to sound the alarm. On farms it is said to have barked at intruders while larger guarding dogs, such as the Maremma Sheepdog, dealt with them.

Breed standard

The Volpino Italiano is judged against standard no. 195, in group 5, Spitz and primitive types4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Volpino 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 small breed is most likely at the early end.

Compare with related

Japanese Spitz
Spitz & primitive · Small
Norwegian Lundehund
Spitz & primitive · Small
Alaskan Klee Kai
Non-sporting · Small
Pomeranian
Spitz & primitive · Toy
Or compare the Volpino Italiano with any breed you choose
Track your own Volpino Italiano
Log a minute a day and watch them sit on these curves. Free.

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 ·