- [Narrator] Hey guys, this
video's being sponsored by thefluffyland.com. Right now, they're giving away, free, rechargeable LED dog collars. You only have to pay the shipping cost to redeem your collar. And there's a link in the
description of this video that will take you to this amazing offer. - Dogumentary TV, producing
the best breed documentaries on YouTube (dog barks). (soft guitar music) - Original Cane Corso is one of many names for the working, Neapolitan Mastiff. Cane Corso, Cane Depressa,
and Neapolitan Mastiff were just three different names of the same traditional Cane Corso's. My name's Jimmy Monugian Jr. I am a Cane Corso breeder, enthusiast, owner, and I just breed traditional Cane Corso's. About 13 years ago, I met guy named Jeremy Valdez, and I picked up a dog from him, fell in love with the dog. I was a 13-year-old kid. You know, my father owned a tow company. My parents were going through
some problems at the time. I was living with my dad
and I just wanted a dog. You know, and I was telling my
dad how much I wanted a dog, I wanted a dog. The same time, my dad
was looking for a painter to paint his tow trucks. Turns out he found himself a
painter named Jeremy Valdez. He ended up, you know, talking to Jeremy and telling him, "You
know, my son wants a dog." I wanted a puppy. Unfortunately, Jeremy didn't
have any puppies at the time. So I ended getting my first Cane Corso that was a year and a half old. And his name was Psycho,
and I had him 10 years. 10 years. He just passed away about three years ago. But I mean, within those 10 years, me and Jeremy, I don't
even call him my breeder, I don't even call him my friend. Jeremy's like a brother to me. Before Jeremy, I didn't
know what a Cane Corso was. I was getting familiar
with what a Mastiff was. So when I met Jeremy, it was just, to me, he knew everything. And like I said, him working for my pops, he ended up moving real close to our shop where the dogs were kept,
and anything I needed, any questions, I mean,
it wasn't a phone call. I'd ride my bike to his house and, "Hey, the dog's doing this. "Hey, the dog's done this. "Hey, what do I do-". You know, Jeremy was
just always there for me, you know, when it came to
the dog, on a personal. You know, it was more
than just a phone call. Me and Jeremy, we've just
always bee tight like that. My other mentors, Mike Sottile Jr., Salahudeen Salaam Derek Matson. He's a big Cane Corso breeder. Don Masjetti, he's a
big Cane Corso breeder. Mostly Mike Sottile though. Mike Sotille is really
become a friend of mine. You know, I started posting
my dogs on Facebook. Pictures, videos. And my likes on Facebook
just started going up. People started seeing my
dogs, asking questions, and then finally a guy named
Salahudeen seen my dogs, and he reached out to me and
you know, basically just, he told me more of the history of my dogs and he asked me if I knew
who Mike Sottile was. At the time, I had no idea. And then he told me that I
needed to speak to Mike Sottile. And when he told me that, and
after he tell me the history of who he was, and you
know, I was just like, "I can't talk to this guy. "I'm just some kid, you
know, that has dogs." And he's like, "No man,
you have more than that." So I worked up the courage. And he had already talked to Mike about me so when I reached out to Mike,
he was waiting for my call, and waiting for me to contact him. And when I contacted him, he had already looked at all my dogs and all that. And he basically just told
me, "You got it, kid." You know? "You still got the old blood." So yeah, Mike Sottile. We talked on the phone quite a bit and you know, it started with dogs. And it started with pictures of the dogs, sending videos of the dogs and he told me that this dog reminded
him of his past dog. And this dog looked like
another one of his past dogs and you know, then pedigrees got involved. Once the pedigrees got
involved, for my male, Tank, I only had a four generation
pedigree at the time. And Mike was telling me about, of course, we'd go to
the fourth generation and he'd tell me the names. I'm looking at the
pedigree in front of me, Mike's on the other end of the phone, and you know, he's telling me, "Okay, so go to your fourth generation. "Here's this dog and this name
and this registry number." He's like, "Now, I owned his parents. "And I owned his parent's parents." And he was able to tell me the names of those dogs, registry numbers. And I'm listening to everything. But later on, I was able to go online and go to the Cane Corso pedigree database and sure enough, every dog
that Mike said that he owned and Mike said their
numbers and their names, it all matched up. After that conversation that
day, I was just kind of like, "Wow, this is real right here." Jeremy's been doing it for 20 years, man. He's been involved with the
old Corso's, original Corso's. He actually was fortunate enough to hook up with a breeder that directly got their dog
from the Sotille family. He was just a good dog breeder, regardless of the breed,
he was just a good breeder. He was able to keep the same bloodline. And here we are, 23 years later and we still have that same bloodline. And now we know it goes back
to the original Sotille family. The history of the breed,
it's the Italian Mastiff. The Italian Mastiff is
capable of anything. You know, they were hunting dogs, they were farming dogs,
they were herding dogs, they were guard dogs,
they were protectors. At the end of the day,
they were family dogs. You know, these dogs came inside and interacted with the
family and the kids. To me, these dogs did it all. Well, in 1948, Naples, Italy. They wanted their own name of
the own dogs in their town. And they chose the name
Neapolitan Mastiff, and when they chose that name,
that left the Cane Depressa and Cane Corso everywhere else, basically. Still the same dogs, it's
still the Italian Mastiff. It's three different
names of the same dog. Now, over time, they've been
bred in different directions so now they really are different breeds. So yeah, these dogs,
they're always working dogs. As far as hunting, they hunted wild boar. These dogs were known. They'd grab a boar by the
ear, take it down no problem. They were real catch dogs. Working on the farm, you know,
herding dogs, herding cattle. They were capable of doing that. Guard dog, protection dogs, any predator, whether it's four-legged or two-legged, they were protection dogs. They did it all. The temperament of the
original Cane Corso, very stable dog, very stable. Also can be very aggressive, you know? Very dog aggressive at times. But also very sharp. You know, these dogs are
very, very sharp dogs. When it comes to aggression
and protection work, the kids can use them for protection and one minute these dogs can be on fire and all they need is that one word, whatever word you decide to use, but the minute they hear that word, these dogs are stable enough to know that it's time to stop. You know, they're that
good at what they do when it comes to their temperament. When the breed became
popular amongst kennel clubs, just like every other breed, they change. They change, and they
basically bred other breeds into this breed for what they wanted. They said the original
Cane Corso was too big. The original Cane Corso
was too aggressive. So to get these dogs in the show, they bred something else
in it, to tone it down, and downsize it, and give it
a different look, basically. No ones really every admitted
to what they've bred into it but any average Joe, anybody
that knows about dogs, you look at today's Cane
Corso, I see a Boxer. Nobody will ever admit to
it but that's what I see. When you add a Boxer into it, you downsize, and you basically soften the dogs. Less aggressive. Better to put in the shows. The breed standard,
there's an Italian standard that everyone pretty
much goes off of today, all the different registries,
FCI, AKC, all of them. They follow this breed standard. Barchier was a dog that was
a template for the standard. When Mike Sotille brought
the dogs to America, he wrote his own standard, and that's the American
standard that I go by today. The differences between the new Corso and the original Corso. The original Corso resembles
more of the Neapolitan, but the old school Neapolitan,
the working Neapolitan. A lot of these new Italian enthusiasts wanted to get away from that look. So like I said, they crossbred
another breed into them. When I breed my dogs, I breed
for the traditional look. Dogs that resemble the old school Neo'. In 1949, the forefather, Guaglione. That's the look I go for, the old working, Neapolitan Cane Corso, Cane Depressa, whatever you want to call it. The look, the temperament,
that's what I breed for. My males usually measure from 26-27 inches tall. My females usually from 24-25 inches tall. Males, anywhere from 110 to 140. Females, anywhere from 100 to 120. I crop my ears and dock my tails because it's a part of
the traditional look. In history, that's what
they did for the dogs. They used it as hunting
dogs and fighting dogs and ears and tails just got in the way. Today, we don't do so much
fighting or anything like that, hunting, yes, but it just all goes along with the traditional look
of the dog, and that's why I crop the ears and dock
the tails on my dogs. My dogs, they're acting
just like the old dogs are. Dog aggressive, yes and no. I have a couple other dogs in my house and they're able to get along with them. But it says that in history,
they're able to get along with other dogs that they're around. Strange dogs, I can't speak for them. As far as, when it comes to
people that I don't know, you can't come into my
home when I'm not around. You can't come around my
kids, you can't touch my kids, nothing like that. My dogs, they're just
like the old dogs are. Tank, man. Tank's only a year and a half old. You know, he's a year and a half, he's already 120 pounds, 27 inches tall, got that big block head, the saggy skin, a lot of people don't like it. I love it. Tank. Tank's my best friend. Tank is really a great
dog, all the way around. He's like a light switch. Turn that light switch on, that dog's ready to kill somebody. You turn it off, the dog
will be your best friend. My best friend, my kids' best friends. And that's all I want from him. Exercise, daily walks. The dogs are great jogging partners. I personally don't jog but
where I live, it's kind of hot, so me and Tank and my wife, my kids, we go for walks later in the afternoon when it starts to get dark. We actually go these really
cool collars that light up and they allow everybody to see us. With these type of dogs, I don't recommend anybody
walking up on them, especially when it's getting dark outside. So these collars really
allow people to see my dog before they're even coming at a distance because this ain't the type of dog you want to accidentally stumble upon. Just daily walks and that's about it. Tank, he swims, he
swims a lot in the pool. He gets his exercise. And then the protection work, that's always a good
workout for him as well. Tank is a house dog. Tank gets in the pool. Tank goes everywhere with me. I take Tank to PetSmart,
take him to Home Depot. Tank's just fine. Training and socialization is everything. With me, sometimes we
train every other day, sometimes we train once a week. Obedience is everything with this breed. Basic obedience is all
it really calls for. Even if it's 5, 15 minutes a day, the dogs needs that attention. (mumbles) Tank! Good boy, Tank! Good boy! As far as protection training, you know, that's not for everybody. Me personally, I like to feel safe, I like to make sure my family is safe, and my dogs make me feel safe and that's why we do the
protection training that we do. Health issues facing the breed today. Epilepsy's running wild. Fortunately for me, never had a problem. Epilepsy isn't a health issue
for the old Mastiff dogs. Epilepsy comes from another breed. Hips problems, joint problems,
very common with the breed. As a breeder, you should
always evaluate your dogs before breeding to make
sure these problems don't keep going on. All I want to say is,
the original Cane Corso, it still lives. There's a lot other breeders out there, there's some great breeders out there. You know, Derek Matson, Don Masjetti. Those guys, they really do it big. And they're actually in the show ring with these traditional dogs. The dogs are still around. They're rare to find. They're hard to find
but they're still there and it's people like me and my
friends and Mike Sottile Jr. We're gonna make sure that
we keep these dogs around for a lot more years.
