Informations about the Presa Canario - ElPresa.com

Introduction
The Presa Canario is a molosser, coming from the Canary Islands (Spain), whose coat is characterized by a short harsh coat and with a solid and powerful look (23-26 inches for 89-126 pounds) but at the same time agile and dynamic.
It is a dog with a strong temperament, dominant and with a marked guard instict, very loyal with his family and very unstrustful towards strangers.
The Presa Canario, being a dog of a considerable size and firm temperament, should be correctly educated so that his owner can have the control of his own dog at all the time.
Besides, if you already have another dog in your house you should consider that the Presa Canario does not tolerate other dogs of the same sex, and therefore would probably show aggressive behaviours through the time, moreover difficult to control and unpredictable. Gita de Irema Curtò

This is said not to discourage people that are approaching the breed, but because everyone that choose to own a Presa Canario should do it in a conscious and responsible way: too often the reputation of a breed wich is followed by a lot of enthusiasts is irrimediably ruined by the fault of few unresponsible ones. In this sense, it is extremely important that the puppy, in his early months, follow a socialization path that will let him get in contact with dogs and persons.
Tha same concept about responsibility and consciousness is to be hoped for reproduction: in theory everyone is free to do (almost) anything with his own dog, but those who use for the reproduction a specimen without having preliminary checked for hip dysplasia, without having tested his functional skills, without having estimated his typicality against the Standard, is simply damaging the breed.
On the whole, it is a matter of canine culture. The role of the breeders is of great responsibility and their work, more or less aware as far as genetic betterment is concerned, determine the choices that set the path the breed will follow in the future.

The Presa Canario today
It is important to specify that the modern Presa Canario nothing has to do with the ancient Presa Canario, quoted in the municipal ordinances of the Canary Islands since the first years of the XVI century and that were taken on the Islands by the conquerors coming from the Iberian peninsula. Without going into the historical details, it is enough to point out that, in the first decades of the XX century, with the prohibition of dog fightings (from wich we clearly take distance but that undeniably pertains to the history of our breed), the interest towards our breed went falling, bringing it pratically to the extinction.
Luckily, starting from the first years of the Seventies there is a rebirth of the interest for the catch dogs and, thanks to crosses with different breeds, most of them molossers, come to light the (new) Presa Canario we know today. It is opportune to clear up that the genetic basis of the true modern Presa Canario is the Perro de Ganado Majorero, a herd dog original of the Fuerteventura island.
Despite the recent interest towards the Presa Canario, the present situation of the breed is very complicated: the (yet former) Spanish Club of the Presa Canario (C.E.P.C.) ran through many years a wrong politic, using for the selection displastic dogs and without temperament, centering their efforts in ephemeral exhibitions and shows rather than in sound temperament tests or in efforts of genetic betterment, with the only objective to reach the international stage thanks to the breed recognition by the Federation Cinologique Internationale (F.C.I.).
In 2001 the recognition by the F.C.I. of the “Dogo Canario” was the last straw that break the camel’s back: the spanish breed club, just to reach that objective, submitted itself to the wills of the FCI and accepted even the name change of the breed, name with deep historical origins but that the FCI judged “politically uncorrect” for the presence of the word Presa (“catch”). Sure, it would have been enough if the club tried to defend in the proper places the original denomination of the breed, eventually refusing any recognition under any other name, but, evidently, the appeal of the popularity (and most of all of the business involved by the international recognition) was stronger. As this was not enough, a number of modifications to the breed standard were made: first of all the unjustifiable exclusion of the black coat (that as was already demonstrated is an absolutely legitimate coat from an historical point of view) and the elimination of a maximum weight, error that the Dogo Canario will pay (or more precisely, is already paying..) with gigantism phenonema, wich is an element that has undeniably affected in a serious manner other molosser breeds, converting functional animals in showcase freaks, moreover prone with higher frequencies to a number of serious pathologies (cardiac and respiratory problems, etc.).
The discrimination of the white markings is the umpteenth modification of the breed standard, as originally and traditionally they were accepted without any problem till the 30% of the coat, and that now someone was trying to repudiate, describing them in Standard of the Dogo Canario as “not desirable”.
Sancho de Espinoza

This was enough to start a little revolution: at this point a group of enthusiasts of the Presa Canario decide to work outside the officiality and to go on with the selection of the original Presa Canario, as it was described in the standard of the Real Sociedad Canina Espanola till 1999. We can state therefore that a real split from the breeds “Dogo Canario” and “Presa Canario” took place, just like it is already happened with the American Staffordshire and the Pit Bull. From our point of view it was necessary in order to preserve the original Presa Canario, in his historical, temperamental and morphological characteristics.
The reference standard for the original Presa Canario is therefore the one that was approved by the Real Sociedad Canina Espanola, that included the black coat and did not discriminate in any way the white markings (till the 30%).
The standard of the Presa Canario, in comparison with the one recognized by the FCI as “Dogo Canario”, is a better answer to the needs of a functional breed. This because it let preserve the genetic asset of a greater number of good specimens as far as temperament is concerned: a black Presa Canario that reaches very good results on the work field or a dog with a strong temperament and proven functionality but with evident white markings, both would be excluded if we would use such a narrow and unjustifiable standard like the one of the Dogo Canario.
Summing up, the Dogo Canario, it is clear, is going to become specialized in what is called “aestethics conformation” (just the thing that has caused serious problems other molosser breeds). On the contrary, we want that the Presa Canario remains first of all a functional breed, and then of course also charcaterized by a certain typicality wich is precisely described in the standard of the RSCE.
The 1st of January 2003, the Presa Canario enthusiast movement reach an important goal, that is the recognition of the breed in the United States of America, by the United Kennel Club, of course with the original denomination and with a standard that is very close to the original one of the RSCE, and therefore that include also the black coat and the white markings till 20%, but that stil has some point to better, first of all the definition of a maximum weight.
Hip x-ray

Nowadays there is still a lot of work to do, but the thing we more care about are the results that are reachable on a breed betterment point of view, thanks to a serious selection process, based on the sistematic certification of hip displasia free for the dogs used in the reproduction lines and with the continous test of the temperament of both sires and dams.
The genetic science has developed tremendously in the last years, putting into the hands of the professional breeders and of all the dog fanciers a number of tools and knowledges that were not accessible before. However, if the canine culture will not manage to spread proportionately, the real risk we should face is that those awesome tools may remain unused.
As a matter of fact, for what concerns the Presa Canario, there are still too few breeders that test the hips of their specimenrs (and even fewer the ones that are able to provide an official certification of the absence of hip displasia) as still too few are the breeders that provide the customers with an official certificate of the kinship for the pups, that is easily done with a simple DNA test.
This little steps are really necessary and important. In this sense, the breeders of the Presa Canario are charged with a great responsability: olny with the sharing of the objectives and with the methodical observance of the measures directed to the genetic betterment of the breed it will be possbile to reach new goals.

The functional Presa Canario
The Presa Canario is a poliedric dog from a functional point of view. Even if he is a natural born guardian (and his instinct in this sense leaves no doubts) his powerful physical conformation with the impressive agility wich characterise his structure, make him particularly suited for the defense training, that we suggest to follow to all the owners of a Presa Canario.
However, the functional training presuppose the completion of an obedience or “education” course, that should be attended by each owner with his own dog, ideally when the pup is between the 6 and the 12 months old. Basically this course let the dog (and the owner) learn some simple exercise like “come”, “sit”, “stay” and some more; this both in quiet surroundings and in places with other dogs and persons. This course prepares the field for the next working tests, helping to build and to consolidate the relationship between the dog and the owner and also helping the socialization process of the pup, that is really important in order to prevent disagreeable and dangerous episodes of aggressiveness, that are also extremely harmful for the reputation of the breed.
Nestor de Irema Curtò doing bitework

A full course of guard and defense is the completion of a path and it will let show the phisicals and psychics skills of the Presa Canario: instinct, intelligence, courage, power, trustworthiness.
Not being recognized by the FCI, the Presa Canario is not admitted outside U.S. to official working trials (IPO, Schutzhund and similar) and in order to participate to them the dog should be taken under a registration process under the name “Dogo Canario” (same thing in order to partecipate to conformations shows), thing that we find really awkward because of the reasons above reported as far as the recognition of the “Dogo Canario” by the FCI and the consequent modifications of the breed standard are concerned. Rather than adapt oneself to the unfairness, becoming a party to the plot, we think it is more decent and respectable to work outside the officiality – because it is clear that the official way it is not the only one -, trying to actively change that state of the thing, but never giving up, for any reason, to preserve the original characteristics of the traditional Presa Canario.
In any case, we really suggest every Presa Canario owner to follow a complete training course with his dog: and even if in some countries it is not possible to officially compete it does not prevent oneself to reach great results and satisfactions, besides than verifying if the dog is effectively a specimen that can be taken into consideration for the reproduction (in the case that also the x-rays of the hips gave a satisfactory results).
As said above, the Presa Canario is a complete utility dog, suitable to a number of functional tests. In the United States, for example, some specimen are used with success for the competitions of Weight Pulling (for wich the dogs are trained with a specific athletic training) in wich the dogs pull (without any coercion), wearing a proper harness, a cart charged with weight on a track of 15 feet, in a maximum time of 60 seconds; depending on the surface (snow, asphalt, rails) on wich the competition takes place the results can vary considerably, but in order to have an idea of the strength of these dogs it is enough to know that they pull more than 2000 lbs on asphalt.
Bessie pulling the cart

Another functional discipline in wich the Presa Canario is used with very good results (moreover in different countries, from Germany to United States) it is the wild board hunt. To be more precise, there are two different types of this discipline: the first one is a real hunt wich takes place in the natural habitat of the wild boar, therefore through the hills and the shrubs and for wich are generally used a number of dogs with the task of immobilizing the wild animal so that the hunter can kill him (in the traditional version of this hunt the wild boar should be killed with a knife, but often it is replaced by fire-arms). It is a very rough discipline, and the dog must be at the same time equilibrated in order to hunt with other dogs around and very tough and resistant from a physical point of view.
The second wild-boar functional discipline, and that is more popular in the rural areas of the United States of America, is the so called “Wild Hog Catching” and it consists in a chronometric competition that measures the time from when a dog is introduced in a pen with a wild hog and when the dog manage to catch and immobilize the wild animal: in this case the skills required are explosive speed and a decise catch.
Summing all up, the Presa Canario thanks to his morphological and phyisical charasteristics can, without any doubt, obtain excellent results in a lot of functional disciplines like search and rescue operatins, agility, bomb and drugs detection, pet therapy and much more. This is all we wish to see in the next future.
In order to transform these opportunities into objective results it will be necessary, however, a systematic work, responsible and shared by both enthusiasts and breeders, that must be conscious of the extreme importance of the methodical use of hip x-rays, kinship exams (DNA) and temperament tests. Without these 3 points it will be difficult to progress, both for the breed and for our community on the whole.