These guys, although normally working dogs, also make lovely family pets. They do however require a lot of mental and physical stimulation to keep them entertained. They have very high energy and so require a lot of exercise. For this reason, they would best suit a family who already leads an active lifestyle that they can easily slot into! They are very intelligent which makes them fairly easy to train however, this doesn't mean that they are the best choice for first-time owners, as they need to be handled and trained very specifically by owners who understand the breed. They also have a very high prey drive which means they're not the best dogs to have if you have other small pets, such as cats or rabbits. However, they absolutely LOVE water, so if you live nearby to a beach or lake, we really recommend you take advantage of it!

These dogs have been around for many centuries, first bred in Italy as both water dogs and retrievers. They have since been depicted in many paintings and well-documented through time however, we can currently date them back to the early 1400s! It's thought that many of today's more modern Water Dog breeds are probably descendants of the breed as well. The name of these dogs 'Lagotto' is actually Venetian dialect, meaning Duck Dog. As the end of the 19th century approached, ducks started to decrease and the breed was instead used to search for Truffles, a highly sought-after fungus. It's thought that their place of origin may be in the Marshlands of Comacchio and Ravenna, where they were used as both retrieving and gun dogs. Even to this day, they remain a very popular dog in Italy, both as working and companion dogs!