Breed Standards
The Cirneco Dell'Etna is governed by two primary standards — the AKC standard used in the United States, and the FCI standard which reflects the original Italian standard from the breed's country of origin.
AKC Official Breed Standard — revised 2020FCI Standard No. 199 — ENCI / Italy
Breed Clubs
Cirneco Dell'Etna Club of America (CdECA)AKC Breed Information Page
Health & Registries
Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA)AKC Breeder of Merit Program
Pedigree & Research
The Breed Archive — Cirneco dell'Etna pedigrees, COI & test mating researchEvents & Performance
AKC Conformation Event SearchAKC Lure Coursing
AKC Scent Work
References & Further Reading
The sources behind our breed, fun facts and myths & legends pages, gathered here so anyone can check the claims for themselves. Where Italian and English-language accounts differ, we give weight to the Italian sources and the ENCI standard.
The Italian Kennel Club's own breed entry. Classifies the Cirneco in Group 5, primitive-type hunting dogs — a cane da cerca, a searching dog, not a sighthound.
The breed's own history of itself: ancient origins, the Sicilian hunting tradition, the culture of secrecy around the best dogs, and the recovery of the 1930s.
The archaeological and documentary trail in Sicily: skeletal finds, the coinage, the decree of 1533, and the breed's appearances in Sicilian writing.
Biographical account of Agata Paternò Castello and the rescue of the breed, drawing on her daughter's recollections.
Genome-wide study of the Italian breeds. Places the Cirneco's closest relatives among the other Mediterranean island hounds, and dates the DNA it shares with the Pharaoh Hound to around 1950.
A study devoted to this breed alone: its genetic diversity, the gene behind white markings (MITF), and the two accepted coat types.
Seven Mediterranean hound breeds compared. Finds none to be a direct descendant of the ancient Egyptian dogs, while confirming that they resemble the dogs of Egyptian art, preserve ancient maternal lineages, and share real genetic links with Egypt's dogs today. Free full text.
The only substantial ancient account of the thousand temple hounds, quoting the lost Sicilian historian Nymphodorus of Syracuse.
The sanctuary at Adranòs, and the omen of 344 BC: the temple doors opening of themselves, the trembling spear, the sweating statue.
The god of the temple: his cult at Adranòs, the dog and spear as his emblems, and his fathering of the Palici.
The founding myth of Segesta, its variant tellings, and the chronology of the hound as it changes pose on the city's coins between about 475 and 390 BC.
The dog of the tomb walls that so closely resembles the Cirneco — the pictorial evidence at the heart of the Egyptian question.
The widely read English-language account of the Egyptian connection. Useful for the pictorial evidence; note that the AKC's "sighthound" framing differs from the ENCI classification above.