The Lagotto Romagnolo is now especially used to hunt for truffles.
The Lagotto Romagnolo originated in the marshes and lagoons of Italy’s Po Delta, particularly around Comacchio and Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region. Its traditional job was as a water retriever, collecting shot game from wetlands and bringing it back to hunters or boats.
Large areas of the breed’s wetland habitat were drained during the 19th and 20th centuries. As water-retrieving work declined, the Lagotto’s keen nose and trainability made it particularly valuable for locating truffles underground. Handlers direct the dogs through woodland, where the dogs detect the distinctive scent of mature truffles.
The breed is not simply a generic “truffle dog”: its name and working history are closely tied to Romagna. It is also recognizable by its small-to-medium build and dense, woolly, tightly curled coat. The breed nearly went extinct in the 1970s, but Italian breeders organized a recovery, with formal recognition following in the 1990s and full FCI acceptance in 2005.