Favorite Images of Bergamasco Shepherd Dogs

A list of my favorite images of Bergamasco Shepherd Dogs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergamasco_Shepherd

The Bergamasco is a breed of dog with its origins in the Italian Alps near Bergamo, where it was originally used in herding and guarding sheep and cattle.

The breed's most distinctive feature is the unusual felted coat which is characterized by three types of hair: a fine, dense, oily undercoat, long harsher hairs similar to a goat's and a top woolly outer-coat. The three types of hair weave together as the dog gets older to form flat mats or flocks. The mats start from the spine and go down the flanks, growing every year to reach the ground.

The color of the coat can be anything from an appearance of gray or silver gray (in fact a merle) to a mixture of black to coal, with brown shades also intermixed. These colors may have served as a camouflage when working in the mountains.

Bergamascos are born with short, smooth fur, which slowly develops the characteristic mats as the dog grows.