My history

My passion for dogs started a long time ago when I was seven year old and my uncle used to let me walk his hunting dogs: Pointers and  Hounds-dogs half-breeds.

In the Sixties my father gave me as gift  a beautiful hunting dog so I tried to practise this sport but, even if I loved going with my dog and look at his work, I have never become keen on that completely.

It was in the late 60s that I approached the  “truffle world”, which happened thanks to one of my colleagues who invited me to go with him for truffles. He had got a “Lagotto” bitch, a breed that in those days was known as “truffle curly dogs”. She was wonderful and I was very impressed by the passion and joy she used to work with. This is why I decided to take a “truffle curly dog” and devote myself to that hobby. So, after some months I adopted Lilla,

Dr. Antonio Morsiani employed also him to estabilish the standard sizes of the Lagotto Romagnolo breed. Unfortunately, due to a poison bait, he died, without procreating, when he was only five years old.

In 1989 another Rick’s puppy was born: Rudy.

I think that with him I reached the top-level in the field of the “truffle dogs”, even if it’s not easy to compare the different dogs, having times changed deeply: once there was much more truffle and far fewer people going for truffle.

Anyway, all my dogs have been extraordinary both in the wood and at home and for over 40 years they have accompanied me in this marvellous hobby, that is the search of truffle.

This is why I say to all of them: “THANK YOU SO MUCH!” 

 
My passion for dogs started a long time ago when I was seven year old and my uncle used to let me walk his hunting dogs: Pointers and Hounds-dogs half-breeds. In the Sixties my father gave me as gift a beautiful hunting dog so I tried to practise this sport but, even if I loved going with my dog and look at his work, I have never become keen on that completely.

It was in the late 60s that I approached the “truffle world”, which happened thanks to one of my colleagues who invited me to go with him for truffles. He had got a “Lagotto” bitch, a breed that in those days was known as “truffle curly dogs”. She was wonderful and I was very impressed by the passion and joy she used to work with. This is why I decided to take a “truffle curly dog” and devote myself to that hobby. So, after some months I adopted Lilla,

lilla

a young “Lagotto” she-dog with a large curly coat. She was pretty good in searching but the most beautiful gift I got from her were four puppies she gave birth to on the 9th of January 1970. I gave as present to my friends three of them (one female and two males),  while I kept for me a white  male. I named him Lampo

Lampo nel 1977

and with time I realized that he had all the skills to be a great truffle dog. In 1976, motivated by the wish to have one of his puppies. I started to make him reproduce. It was three years later that, among the dogs born on June 2nd, I noticed a white and brown coated one that, just some months old, already had the determination of his father. I named him Rick.

Rick nel 1985

He was extraordinary and became very important for the “Lagotto” breed, both for his skill in searching and from  the morphological point of view. It’s no accidental that Mr. Giovanni Morsiani, President of the “Lagotto Club”, nicknamed him “The Professor”. From Rick descended Dusty (July 1986), a specimen with an excellent morphology that won several exhibitions.

Dasty nel 1989

 
Dr. Antonio Morsiani employed also him to estabilish the standard sizes of the Lagotto Romagnolo breed. Unfortunately, due to a poison bait, he died, without procreating, when he was only five years old.
In 1989 another Rick’s puppy was born: Rudy.

Rudy nel 1994

He, too, was an excellent truffle dog and from him descended several dogs. Particularly two of them were very important for me: Atos (1999)

Atos nel 2008

one of my best working dogs and Tea (1997)

Tea 1

that also was very good in searching but that above all in 2003, as well as Lilla my first doggy,  gave me the gift of a wonderful puppy: York.

York nel 2008

 
I think that with him I reached the top-level in the field of the “truffle dogs”, even if it’s not easy to compare the different dogs, having times changed deeply: once there was much more truffle and far fewer people going for truffle.

Anyway, all my dogs have been extraordinary both in the wood and at home and for over 40 years they have accompanied me in this marvellous hobby, that is the search of truffle.

This is why I say to all of them: “THANK YOU SO MUCH!”

                                                                                                                          Franco Billi