The Cane Corso is an ancient dog considered to be the prototype for all the European Molosser dogs. It belongs to the Molosser family whose roots can be found in the Roman Empire. There are people who claim that this breed is the most authentic descendant of the Roman empires war dogs from which evolved two breeds that are very different in their form and nature, one very muscular and athletic – the Cane Corso, and the second heavy and clumsy – the Mastino Napoletano.
The source of this very ancient breed is in Italy. Nobody knows exactly when this breed was created, but it is estimated that it was already in existence around the 12th century. During the last years of the 1980s a few dozen dogs were discovered in Italy whose form and shape was very found in ancient drawings from the 13th century, and since then Italian researchers have been studying the past of the Cane Corso breed.