Il Cane da Pagliaio

The straw stack dog

translation by Federico

The . Cane Corso was named “Cane da pagliaio” (straw stack dog), when its function was to watch at the straw-stack (in Italian “pagliaio”, from the Latin “palearum”) and to everything there was inside such as wheat, fodder, hay and forage, so “the cane da pagliaio” term is to intended as “watch dog”.

The straw stack was a functional unit of the farm; during winter, it worked as the shelter of all animals, cats and dos included. Straw was not only the food and the bed of the farm’s animals nut it was, also, needed by bakers, by snow-wipers and brick makers.

The snow keeper, men strengthened by the cold weather, used to store the snow picked during the winter in deep circle pits (called “novère”) which thermal seal was improved by the internal straw covering. The snow became ice and in the summer was cut into blocks by the snow keeper and transported on a straw litter in order to delay the ice melting.

In the past, straw and hay stacks were very common, both in villages and in countryside, and they kept precious goods, so that they were attractive to thieves. It was then necessary to have an aggressive and strong dog night and day.

The preferred colour for this dog was straw-like because old people thought that the character of a straw coloured dog was “flammable” like the straw.

When the dogs were injured during fighting, masters used to disinfect their wounds with straw ash or with olive oil and straw ash mixture.