Dogo History

To understand the spirit of this breed and to understand what the creator of the Dogo Argentino tried to shape, it is first necessary to know something more about our beautiful country. Argentina (from the Latin for silver, argentum) has been the cradle for immigrants from all over Europe who, for various reasons, have sought refuge or their fortune in this land.

And thus in the year 1873 the Nores family, from Spain, produced the first Argentine generation with the birth of Dr. Antonio Nores in the city of Córdoba. This great surgeon brought up nine children raising them with those great, fundamental principles that emphasise love for the land and traditions.

The second born, Antonio Nores Martines, he, too, a doctor, had the opportunity from childhood to study different breeds of dog and get to know the incredible qualities of each. All this added to the scientific knowledge gained from his medical studies led him to wonder about the possibility of producing a race that was useful for our country. A hunting enthusiast he saw that the main European tracking and hunting breeds were no real match for the courageous puma, the pecari (the native pig) and nor were they able to fight in thick undergrowth with the terrible wild European boar which has spread rapidly, unimpeded, from the time it arrived in Argentina.

In Cordoba, battles involving holding dogs, like those between cocks, were a tradition whose origins undoubtedly lie in the colonial era. Although these spectacles have very pure Iberian origins, England from the Eighteenth century onwards was the country where it really took off as a sport and they began organising fights to the death between dogs and even bulls, the notorious sport of "Bull-baiting". In our city, some supporters of this wild entertainment began to cross the Bull Terrier with the English Bulldog, selecting white dogs not subject to prognathism. The pride and valour of the Bulldog came together with the agility and muscle structure of the Bull Terrier in these animals; sometimes it was possible to produce a better sense of smell than that of the pure Bulldog with the advantage that they were not left gasping for air the moment they got a “hold” because they had a wider jaw with upper and lower jaw that coincided perfectly. The dogs were large and weighed over 30 kg. This animal was called the "VIEJO PERRO DE PELEA CORDOBES (OLD CORDOBAN HOLDING DOG)".

This type of dog was again crossed with the bull terrier, boxer and with the Dogue de Bordeaux, depending on what the different enthusiasts were looking for. In this way a fairly standardised dog was eventually obtained, white in colour with black eyes and nostrils, massive skull and with a muzzle the length of the head, the head was yellowish. Wide and deep chest, short body with sculpturesque muscle structure and an outstanding aptitude for fighting, ready to scrap until the death.

Starting from this basis and working on it for twenty-five years, Dr. Antonio Nores Martines set out to establish a breed that conserved these characteristics of valour and tenacity as well the general inclination to hold and guard and destroy wild animals; as he himself put it "a faithful companion in our house, whether in city or in country, and a faith companion to all big game hunting enthusiasts.” Other breeds had to be used for this purpose that added other qualities without eliminating the ones already obtained.

To increase its size without causing it to lose valour and at the same time give it the hunter instinct, he produced a series of breeds that were crosses between bulldogs, great danes, pyrenees mastiffs, bull terriers and boxers, using the old Cordoban holding dog as the basis each time. The Pyrenees Mastiff used was imported from the United States; this breed gave him the dimensions, the rusticity and the sense of smell; it accentuated the white coat and made it gain strength, resistance and a special adaptation to all climates typical of the mountain breed. The sense of smell for following tracks was obtained with “Diana”, an English Pointer. The Irish Wolf Hound was used to obtain speed without losing rusticity or roughness.

The profession of doctor only gave him time to work with his dogs at the weekend. These dogs grew to reach one hundred and fifty in number; they found in a location very near the capital (Totoral) and in the country he could count on the help of Justo Moyano and Gaitan, who fed the dogs daily and worked with them in the fields for more than eight hours with packs of six to eight.

At the weekend, he went to find his “Whites” at dawn, he worked from two to three hours with different packs, he selected the best and gave them to friends who could devote more time to big game hunting. He had the job of deciding what crosses to make. Before making them he tested the mettle of the mothers with fights to the death against pumas and boars in captivity: if the animal did not meet his requirements he did not go ahead with the cross, he sterilised it and gave it way. By selecting those examples that he believed had the psychosomatic characteristics he was trying to get, generation after generation, and producing various families to avoid consanguinity he managed to produce the DOGO ARGENTINO that he called the best dog of all the holding animals and the best holding animal of all dogs of all breeds."

This creation was supported by scientific bases that were so disturbing for the time that the Italian scientist Alfredo Sachetti (professor of anthropology and ethnology) cited it in his book  "Specie e razze in ordine biologico" (1951)..." In some cases new breeds can be formed that turn out to be stable in relation to the natural harmony of the choice. It gives me satisfaction to cite in this regard the brilliant example of a new breed of dog, the dogo Argentino that brings together two fundamental qualities, biotypological stability and genetic strength. This achievement is due to Dr. Antonio Nores Martínez".

Antonio’s priority, in his crosses, was that of not making the animal lose its courage, a virtue the loss of which in big breed he was already witnessing, with great alarm, caused by considerations fashion and the loss of the focal point that he considered the key evolutionary law of a species: "father x mother plus functional evolution". His dogs were therefore selected for their morphological characteristics, they were subjected to very stiff tests of strength, smell and also fighting with the various animals that populated the Argentine countryside (pumas, boars, pecaris, jaguars etc.). He also gave priority to the dog’s sociability with pets, with its cogeners and, above all, with its masters, in the case of need the dog had to allow the master to sew it up without an anaesthetic in the heart of the mountains after doing battle with wild animals.  

When the great doctor, author of brilliant medical texts and peerless surgeon of the age, decided to introduce the breed, sceptical voices at the time asked him to demonstrate the fruit of his creation so, in 1947, in the province of San Luís, he presented his dogs in a face to face battle with a boar and a puma. During this battle the DOGO ARGENTINO began to write a history from which there was to be no going back, demonstrating the capabilities that went beyond the limits known in its breed, capabilities that we can say, with pride, his creation still exhibits. The conviction that he had obtained what he desired was such that, in a famous article in the magazine Diana in 1947, he apologised for that passion he could not help transmitting: "passion is the engine of ideas and ideas that are born without passion are born dead."

He ended by writing three messages: TO THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND:

I only need to remind you that, in science, the best path is the one that leads to truth for ourselves, the path that allows us to stand aloof from the influence of interests generated be they doctrinal, academic or economic, the path that, in the context of an investigation, allows us to recover our independence of action and the freedom to observe, reason and judge that are essential for scientific truth.

I make the documents available to you that are necessary as proof of the fact that the Dogo Argentino is a problem of Genetics that has already been solved. 

TO THOSE WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND:

I think it is appropriate to reflect as follows: people who talk about something they know nothing about do not demonstrate intelligence nor do they demonstrate discretion but can, on the other hand, fall foul as much of ignorance as of stupidity.

TO THOSE WHO DO NOT WANT TO UNDERSTAND:

I invite you to bring a purebred example of any breed of dog in the World. Whatever its size and weight, so that the Dogo Argentino can beat it in battle and furthermore show me its aptitude for hunting in our country: even the creoles are all considered equal before the law.

Unfortunately, Antonio was killed one day out hunting in 1956, near Totoral, north of Córdoba, in those very mountains where he trained his dogs.

After his death, his brother, Dr. Agustin Nores Martinez, managed to introduce the Dogo Argentino as a breed in the Fédération Cynologique Internationale, and became the greatest defender of the great work his brother had done.

____________________________________________________________________________
Update:

The Dogo is allowed in the U.S. and will be recognized by the American Kennel Club as of January 2011.