Molosser Moment #8
Basir, the prototypical Cane Corso.
The Cane Corso is a breed that only recently emerged from what cynologists call its “recovery”: With so few breed representatives left, a rigid system of cross-breeding and then back-crossing was employed in the 1990s to expand the gene pool and then solidify type. But even today, fanciers are faced with the “drag of the breed,” atypical traits associated with different breeds introduced during the restoration – Boxers, Bullmastiffs and Rottweilers among them.
Born in 1980, Basir represented the first truly modern Cane Corso. His type was so iconic, in fact, that he was used as the model for the male Corso in the breed standard. If anything, he is a reminder that true and correct Cane Corso type is, indeed, attainable, though the road to get there is not always easy.