BASSANA HISTORY. I developed the interest in breeding and training of working gundog in the 1950's when I had the pleasure to know Mr. Giorgi Andrea who got the famous female "Nedda della Rovere" and bred English setter in his hobby kennel named "zara's" in Pegognaga. I bought my first hunting companion in 1956; its name was "Rampa" and it was a "Lingfield Mistic" grand daughter. These hunting dogs fascinated me and I started to breed them in 1959; after 5 years, E.N.C.I (The Italian kennel club) recognized my kennel with "Bassana's" trademark. I have always believed it is possible to breed an English setter which is able to hunt whit speed, keenness, great scent and style in compliance with morphological standard. It takes 35 years to create a bloodline in which excellent hunting quality and excellent loveliness are present at the same time. Obviously, I used different working dogs with different genetic estate; some of these were declared untrainable by professional trainer.
I was determined to take advantage of these gundogs because they were victim of force training; in fact, with my method based on soft exercises and using an important quantity of game available in our terrain I obtained good results. They have been essential for my present setters; all of them transmitted stamina and I improved morphological level in their descendants up to world degrees in dog shows and national/international degrees in field trials. My first important dogs were "Dira della Bassana" and "Lopez della Bassana"; the first one was able to win 15 dog shows (B.I.S.) in 1 year; the second one, besides several degrees (i.e. Bis in dog show of ENCI centennial anniversary in 1981), contributed to fix morphological qualities without neglecting hunting passion. According to this philosophy 42 dual champions(*) are born in my kennel:
Clodo (Lopez's son) in 1979, Lindo (Lopez's son) in 1985, Mark (Lopez's grand son), Mak, Mirco in 1993, Best in 1999, Ciba, Gip, Alì, Stark, Orio, Arry, Tot, Ervin and Raul. I have produced 26 champions in field trials and 68 champions in dog shows too. Another important setter was "Ciba della Bassana" because from this female I obtained 2 dual champions and a working champion. I believe to have reached an excellent game dog for hunters who want a stylish setter with passion, instinctive aptitudes and good morphological level. I'm not interested in winning competitions by default; my results in field trials and dog shows are tests to inform who loves english setter about my breeding and training work. (*) al 31/12/2011