Italian Breeder Ezio Pagliarini Del Subasio Spinone

The C.I.S.P., besides organizing shows of a high level, all of which are dedicated to the evaluation of the Hunting and Morphological aspects of the Breed, puts much effort into the preparation of the Spinone Yearbook in which, besides greetings to the President and reporting the results of all the shows that have taken place throughout the year, also reports the association rules and (Morphological and Work) Standards of the Spinone.
Reading the morphological Standard, one is immediately aware of the differences between some of the descriptions concerning the typical features of the Spinone with regard to the Official Standard of the E.N.C.I. (available on line at the address):
http://www.enci.it/razze/spinone/spi2.html
This difference, unfortunately, gives rise to embarrassment and confusion among the Spinone enthusiasts. It is to be said immediately that the exact Standard to be referred to, is that reported by the E.N.C.I ., and the discrepancies are easily identified as follows:
Official E.N.C.I. STANDARD. 
Page. 2 of 7, paragraph 

1. Skull and Head.Oval-shaped skull- its lateral walls gently sloping like a roof, with very well developed occipital protuberance and parietal crest very pronounced. The bulge of the forehead is not very developed, not towards the front or in height; the supercilious arches are not  too prominent, the stop is barely marked, whereas the medial frontal furrow is very pronounced.
Page. 3 of 7 Eyes
They are large, well open and set well apart, the eye is round; the lids closely fitting the eye which is neither protruding or deep set. They tend to be on the same frontal plane.
The iris is of an ocher color, more or less dark according to the color of the coat.
STANDARD C.I.S.P. Yearbook. 1999 Page. 11. and 

http://www.spinone-italiano.com/standard.html
Page 4 Head:
Dolichocephaic-long-headed. The direction of the longitudinal superior axes of the skull and muzzle are diverging, the stop is absent.
4.1 Cranial region:
Oval-shaped skull-its lateral walls gently sloping like a roof, with very well developed occipital protuberance and parietal crest barely marked. The cheeks are lean.
The bulge of the forehead is very developed, towards the front and in height; the supercilious arches are not too prominent, the stop is barely marked,whereas the medial frontal furrow is less pronounced.
4.2 Facial region:
Eyes: they are big, well open and set well apart, they are round. The eye is neither protruding or deep set, the eyelids closely fitting in a semi lateral position.The color of the iris must be ocher, more or less dark according to the color of the coat. 
It is clear that in the underlined words there are differences that create confusion and need to be verified. Because those reported by the Club have been modified deliberately, it asks question of typing errors, and therefore are not correct as far as breeding planned and aimed at the improvement of the race is concerned.
A head with a very pronounced parietal crest and with eyes on the same frontal plane constitute an unmistakable trait of the Spinone and this particular feature is easily noted even from a distance.
On the contrary, a head like the one described in the the C.I.S.P. Standard will be less typical and very similar to that of the Italian Bracco, which has its eyes in a semi-lateral position, a barely perceptible parietal crest .
I remember that during a C.I.S.P. meeting, at which I was present, a leading judge, whom I esteem greatly, describing the head of a Spinone,expressed himself thus: "I would like to see a touch more parietal crest was meant to say that a more pronounced crest would have given that Spinone a more characteristic trait.
I have attached some photos of Spinone in which it can be observed that the parietal crest is of great importance and, the eyes on the same frontal plane, that are big, well open, round and of the correct color constitute a great part of its unique features for the global evaluation of the Spinone. 

Roan brown female Spinone ,eyes in position decidedly on same frontal plane,Sarah of Subasio at 3 months.Owner Ezio Pagliarini Besides the discussion on the important parts of the head there are also two proposals to bring to the attention of the E.N.C.I. Technical Committee and naturally to that of the C.I.S.P., the first concerning size, the second the color of the coat.
With regard to size I would like the proposed reduction to be discussed of the maximum limit for the males from 70 to 65 cm considering that with the 2cm tolerance margin it would still reach 67 cm, leaving the minimum limit unchanged at 60 cm. For the female the reduction from 65  to 60 cm for the maximum and the minimum from 58 to 55 cm.
My proposal is not entirely new, in fact, many before me have proposed and adopted these measures, suffice it to read the book (or rather great work) by Ceresoli "The Italian Spinone and the similar races" from which I report some passages knowing that many people don't have this book, which today is out of print, but perhaps the E.N.C.I. could soon surprise us!
We can see from these passages, that already in the 1897 the Braccofila Society while proposing a light and heavy stature establishes these measures:
Stature and weight of the body.
Males: from 54-56 cm. and 24-25 Kg. to 64-66 cm. and 34-36 Kg.
Females: from 52-54 cm. and 22-23 Kg. to 62-64 cm. and 32- 34 Kg.
Admitted, but not preferred, statures up to 63cm.
I have reported these measurements to show that today, in the current Standard, while not speaking about light or heavy stature, it gives the possibility however of attaining the same result, Spinoni from 60 to 70 cm, that is with 10 cm gap, as recently seen in the show ring.
In 1926 proposes only one size range from 60 to 65 cm. In 1928  Bosisio, Brunetti and Rezza give these measurements:
60 cm for the male and 55 for the female; adding their preferences for the larger sizes, but not beyond the 65 and 60 cm respectively, these ethnic data will be adopted by the Italian Kennel Club.
In 1933 also Brianzi and Ullio after the constitution of the Society Friends of the Spinone give measurements of 55-66 cm for the male and 52-62 for the female, in 1936 these measurements are proposed to the K.C.I., still in 1936 also Fiorone proposes the measurements 52 to 66 cm.
In 1939 we can refer to the Ethnic Data by Solaro, they are certainly the most complete and they are approved of by the E.N.C.I., the measurements are the current ones, but looking at his drawings, one  does not have the impression of top-sized Spinoni, I believe that, on close observation of the drawing of the roan brown Spinone on page 159 of the book, it does not even reach 65 cm.
If this proposal is accepted Spinoni will be more homogeneous and not the giants of 70/72 cm that have certainly deterred many hunters from Spinone, either due to the space it would take up in the car or for those who live in flats where space is fundamental, it is in any case counter-productive for the breed to see Spinoni of maximum and minimum size in the same Ring, as has happened at recent meetings where there has been the impression that not only one breed of Spinone exists. I hope that this situation is discussed as soon as possible.
As far as color is concerned, debate centers only around the roan brown variety, it is written that the best shade is the have always added that it is right to specify that as the "mendicant  friar". In fact the order of the Franciscan monks is divided into more groups and this is the one that must be chosen. The mendicant friar is the person who, for many years, with a wheelbarrow and "mule" traveled around the countryside and collected the donations from the farmers: wheat, must and olive oil for the convent. He said he would pray for them and sometimes to those who smoked he would give some tobacco: this is the monk with the warm colored habit that is the right shade of roan brown for our Spinone.
Unfortunately now there is the proposal to return to the origins of Francis when the habits were dark grey and so we wouldn't the brown anymore but dark grey instead. For this reason I thought I would  present a new and definitive interpretation of the color of the coat of the roan brown Spinone.
Today  PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM is used to define a color that is the same all over the world, which is a revolutionary method that prevents errors, a system which identifies each color by its an own number that is identical in Italy, America or elsewhere. For the roan brown Spinone  PANTONE CVC (see example attached) is perfect and will be the same all over the world; whoever has a computer that could draw a square and will fill it with this color, anybody that doesn't have a computer will only have to drop by a graphics store and ask for a sample taken from the catalogue of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, as we will all have all the same reference. Pantone  469 CVC, color a tinta calda come la tonaca di Frate Cercatore.
Pantone  Colour 469 CVC, warm shade like that of the Mendicant friarà.
In the show ring, anyone will be able to observe a brown roan Spinone and compare the color to their  own sample of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM and the result will always be the same: PANTONE 469 CVC and so putting an end to any possible dispute.
We hope that the roan brown Spinone coat will become  more and more  homogeneous and nearer to this color. Currently there are too many Spinoni with a very dark coat, which doesn't yes "human" eye of the Spinone. 

 In the color photo the difference between the  mendicant friar habit color or PANTONE  469 CVC and the very dark color of the Spinone in the background can be seen (Dr. Luca Massimino, "neo-graduate"  is observing this detail, further back, a University Professor is pointing out the same thing with his right arm).  
I really hope that this can be discussed, as it would unite the ideas and objectives of  Spinone enthusiasts, who believe in this breed and, now with the accessibility of Internet and e-mail, people from all over the world are able to communicate. In fact our Spinone is not restricted to one nation, nowadays it is known internationally, it is its moment of glory, the Americans adore it, there are requests from every continent: we must then try to forget the bad publicity in the years immediately the after war, when as Giulio Colombo writes in his book Trailer writes: "The Spinone suffered the insult of crossbreeding with other races, Kortals and Boulet, Bracco that descend down from him and  didn't boast his specific assets."
Today the Spinone has freed itself from this insult and with the increase of requests, (also in Japan they want the Spinone) the increasingly greater interest on the part of hunters to take part in trials with their own Spinone, the precious contribution that the E.N.C.I.  gives to the Italian breeds and the great commitment of the C.I.S.P. towards ever increasing improvements, all make for a hopefully very important future for the Spinone.
The above is meant to be above all an opening towards a discussion group nominated by the E.N.C.I. and by the C.I.S.P.. that really deals with the establishment of rules all aimed at the global amelioration of the race, given that today, this breed has made a successful entry into many Countries of the World.
Ezio Pagliarini