Allevamento d'Egitto

The Bergamo Shepherd Dog breeding "Breeding of Egypt" has its place in the estate Arriga Alta, of Lonato (BS), 2 Km far from the toll-house of Desenzano del Garda (Motorway A4 Milano-Venezia).

OUR ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

Why we love and select Bergamo Shepherd Dogs

• For many centuries, the "Bergamasco" had been selected with great stiffness and severity, exclusively considering its physical strength, endurance to labour and capability of doing well a tiring and difficult work.
  

Why you won't see our dogs at any dog-show

• When we were younger, we enthusiastically participated to dog-shows for some years. We approached the "official" world of dog-lovers in the Eighties, attended its events and, in turn, organized particularly relevant ones too, as, for instance, the Bergamo Shepherd Dogs Meeting; it was held in Bergamo on the 15th of September 1985 in the Lazzaretto, where, for the first time ever, more than a hundred Bergamo Shepherd Dogs were gathered together.
  

We believed, as we do now, in the importance of the toilet of the "Bergamasco", as well as in the opportunity of exposing it nimble and clean -as, besides, tradition requires- but we couldn't convince anyone of the reliability of what we thought.
In return, we received many judgements like the following:
- fur not complete yet;
- bad condition of the fur;
- typical hair, but not in good conditions;
- fur of good quality, but at the moment a bit insufficient;
- well woven fur, but presently scarce and too short, et cetera.
Obviously, the fact that we were always put by didn't give us much satisfaction, but it was because the prizes were mainly given to people who didn't respect the "Bergamasco" and let its hair grow to the ground that we decided to leave the stage.

Why we chose the affix "of Egypt"  

• We are persuaded that making ugly and unnecessarily heavy the Bergamo Shepherd Dog because of an unbearable mass of hair, often dirty and unhealthy, is a serious mistake. We noticed that, unfortunately, this blameworthy custom is widespread. Since we are contrary to this habit, both because it is based on an unjustified belief and because we think it has to be considered like a maltreatment, we chose an affix which could immediately differentiate us. We jocularly mock at the excessive magnificence of the fanciful affixes circulating in the already mentioned "official" world of dog-lovers.  
  

So no relation or geographical reference to Egypt, but, more simply, a "way of saying" capable to immediately make emerge the existence of a gulf between us and the members of that world.