HISTORY

To being able to speak about the Dogo Argentino, first we must speak about its creator,  Dr. Antonio Nores Martinez, born in Córdoba City, Province of Cordoba Argentina, in a traditional family, keen on hunting and dog-breeding, above all.  

He was a great Surgeon, distinguished not only because his profession but also for the great charisma towards his patients.

Mixing his childhood passions, with the scientific knowledge, is how he achieved in 1928, to fix a new race, The Dogo Argentino (Argentinian Dogo).

Thus in 1947, he introduces the new race in two different settings, first in Diana Magazine (issue # 89 pages 28-40, October 1947) and then in the practice in the Province of San Luis (Argentina) where he puts a Dogo in combat with a Cougar and a Wild Boar, images that forever remained visible in a videotape.

DR.ANTONIO NORES MARTÍNEZ'S DISCOURSE

"GENTLEMEN:

The Hunter´s Center in the Province of Buenos Aires has given me the undeserved honor of providing me with their hospitality and this , its Prestigious tribune, I accept it pleased with the conviction that the benevolence in judgment has to replace the scarce of personal merit. Logic corollary of cordiality that is paid to me, which I interpret as an index of the spiritual hierarchy of this environment.

To the Honorable Board of Directors, as well as its distinguished President, my profound recognition for the distinction with the gratitude which nobility obliges.

Gentlemen: No species from creation has suffered so much the consequences of the Laws of Evolution as the canine.  Its fidelity to mankind since the prehistory to our days has made it acquire an admirable faculty of adaptation to both environmental and geographical changes, created by the necessity that the struggle for life has imposed to its master, when no for the great geological commotion or in virtue of the own human whim.

¿Who has not observed the enormous morphological difference between a stocky dog of the race Great Dane and the tiny Peking (Beijing)? Between the slim and aristocratic Irish Wolf Hound and the acondroplastic Dachohound, between the beautiful hair of a Setter or a Collie and the nudity of a Pila?

Is not there, perhaps, more difference in the morphology of the races we have just compared than between those existing and distinguishing a Lion from a Tiger, a Llama from a Guanaco, or between an anthropoid and a human being of the primitive race?

Why is it that between specimens of a same specie, and only in this specie of the extensive zoological ladder, there might be differences so big that surpasses those which separates distinct species?

There is ,gentlemen, one answer to this question. It is due to that magnificent faculty of adaptation that has the canine specie, acquired following its master, throughout all ages of history, through all paths of the planet, and being at the mercy of the elements of all climates in the face of the earth, to serve with the same unselfishness to a Master of all races, of all characters and of all cultures.

Because, gentlemen, history teaches that there in the night of centuries, there in the threshold of the prehistory, where the first path appeared and the first human footprint, right there, then as now, together with that footprint was the one from his noble and faithful friend. The companion of always..., in joy and in pain, in misery and in opulence, in illusion and despair, in cradle and in grave, in life and death... was the dog, the only being so noble, that is capable of licking its master’s hand before its own paw and surrender gladly its life, the only capable enough of kissing the hand when caresses as much as the hand which holds a whip at the moment of strike...

I see, gentlemen, in all this, something more than the mere realization of the instincts...,I see it outlined in it psycogenesis the superior feeling , I see it in the fist gesture, some charity and a lot of unselfishness, in the second a lot of gratitude, and in the third... the sublime gesture of forgiveness.

That magnificent adaptability, I was saying, of the canine specie to the environmental or paratypic changes, be it in its psyches or in morphology, following the biological paths of evolution, or well in the opposite of involution, is what has allowed the development of the huge number of canine races and varieties which we know today, some fixed by natural selection, others by Man; be it for practical or decorative purposes and companion, when not due to a whim, and it could even said for some of them an evident aberration of good human taste. But all at the same, always with identical intention, to the master’s service and most tyrant lord known to creation: Man, to whom serve with the same submission the one of aristocratic pedigree as well as the humble son of nobody.

Taking advantage of this easy adaptation of the specie and that ductility to human selection, I made it a point, over twenty years ago, to set up a new race of dogs, that reunited the needed conditions for the useful dog in the big game in our country (Argentina) Because in our impenetrable and virgin woods, the hunting conditions are very different from those in practice in the game preserves in Europe, place from where we imported the selected races for this purpose. Then we hunt in open mounts of immense extension when sometimes one has to go through the paths crawling on your hands and knees, and the pack of Wild boars, be it local or imported, or the cougar or the tapir, once they have heard the proximity of the pack of hounds, if it were not caught in the very moment of encounter with this, would be useless to try and catch it again, where there are thousands of hectares between us. Any attempt of the hunter and dogs is in vein.

So, what quality should the dog have for this kind of hunting? In first place it must be a dog which beats for the game in silence and that makes itself heard only when is on the catch, because at the moment it does what the Fox-Hound does or the others race’s trick, that starts to howl the very moment they find the trail , the hunter who is following it can be very sure that will not get any pieces at all, because the howling of the pack has let the animals know of their presence, thus running away putting many kilometers from the place.

On second place it has to be a dog with good nose but that sniffs upwards as the Pointer, and not on the trail, because during the cougarhunt, for example, this in order to fool the dogs makes circles when running away and goes back on its own trace; sometimes it climbs a tree, the “molle” in general and jumps into freedom, or jumps a cliff, leaving the dogs that are following it by its trace all confused; but when the dog follows the animal and sniffs, there is no chance that it be fooled, and the peccaries known trick of leaving the pack, staying hidden in the bushes, while the dogs chase those which are still in the running, is useless if the dog sniffs the animal. This is the reason why is common to hear people in the countryside, where there are cougars that the best lion-hunting dog is the Pointer or its crossbred, because it finds it quickly and rattles it stoops it, permitting thus the hunter to give the Coup the Grace, and killing the beast.

On third place, it has to be an agile dog more in fight than in speed, because the Wild Boar, the Cougar or the Pecarí is reached by any dog that is not too heavy.  

And finally it must be brave above all things. When encountering with the cougar or the mount pig, must seize even if the dog is hurt and must be able to hold it alone, until the other dogs or the hunter arrives, and in the event that the latter does not arrive, it has to be able to kill the prey on its own, because it is not possible to travel hundreds of kilometers carrying packs of 20 to 50 dogs. This is neither practical nor comfortable for us.

This quality of courage I consider it to be fundamental because here, where the mounts are not cultivated, it is not able to follow the pack with the horse because one can barely get in on foot, there is no use that the dogs rattle the animals for us, if it is impossible to finish the prey off. The practical thing is that when encountering the prey they “stretch” it as we provincials say, that is to say they catch it immediately.

As for the size of the dog, as the paths in our mounts are shallow, the medium size dogs are the best, but in the selection of races one has to choose the strongest specimens, it is convenient for breeding to choose those with a bigger size and height, because raised in the country side and due to the excess of work and bad feeding they always reduce their size; this is the reason for the local saying “ Size comes in through the mouth”

The quality of Courage is also essential for the Guardian Dog which is the other purpose of the Dogo Argentino. There is a general belief that a guardian dog is that which barks or is capable of biting a stranger´s hand. According to this concept dogs of all races make good guardian dogs. But to my judgement the guardian dog ought o be something more than all that: they must be capable of getting killed while seizing the prey, defending its master´s or its house. It is useless as guardian a dog which attacks an intruder, if at the first blown with a club or the first wound stab releases its catch while it cries; such animal does not present any security to its owner nor deserves, in my opinion, the honor of being called guardian dog.  

I have traced the general lines of what I have attempted to achieve in the Dogo Argentino, and that you know through the prestigious magazine Diana, of this center, whether I have achieved it or not belongs now to the judgment of those with the taste for the manly sport of hunting, and the canine experts because I , as a part , am included in the generals of the law.

In this same adaptability of the canine specie to the environmental means to which I have referred, resides the mutability of the characters of the different races, for what it is essential to keep in mind in the offspring, together with the somatic characters of a fixed standard, the goal oriented education, that is, keep in mind the key formula for canine race improvement: F multiply by M plus E, which stands for : Father multiply by Mother plus Education, which in genetic language is translated as Inheritance plus Education and Environment, or Genotype plus Paratype.

This watch, gentlemen, is essential in all the races for reasons of general biology, because in biology dynamism is life; passivity is death. Species and races that do not improve, worsen; Those that do not progress, regress; but to regress is to retrogress to go back the way one has gone throughout generations, is synonym with degenerate, because it is to loose the acquired qualities which were proposed in the beginning.

And to finish ,I apologize, gentlemen, if I put a bit of passion in my words, but as a way of explanation I want to remind you that the promoter of an idea can be tolerated that he be wrapped in it , because passion is the engine, is the propellant energy of ideas, ideas that are born without passion are born death. That is why the History of mankind, is the history of human passion, the biography of its greatest figures is also the eulogy of its greatest passions.

I have finished."  

FOR THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND:

Let me remind you that in science the best path, is the one which leads ourselves to the final truth, that which allows us to withdraw from the influence of vested interests, be it from doctrine, from schools or money that recovers the field of research, the autonomy and liberty of aberration, reason and judgment, essential to scientific truth.

And that I put at your service the needed documentation, where you shall corroborate that the Dogo Argentino is a genetic problem solved already..

TO THOSE WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND:

I believe appropriate to make the following remark: those who speak of what they ignore do not show intelligence nor discretion and can incur as much in nonsense as in stupidity instead.

TO THOSE WHO DO NOT WANT TO UNDERSTAND:

I invite you to bring a pure specimen, of any given breed in the world. Be it at whatever its size and weight has, that defeats in combat a Dogo that shows, in addition, its condition for the game in the mount in our country ( Argentina) as we Creole say :” in the field the cocky is seen”

TO THE READERS:

I ask you forgiveness if I have put a bit of passion in these but as a way of explanation I want to remind you that Passion, is the engine, is the propellant the force of ideas, that ideas that are born without passion are ideas born death, and that that is why the history of mankind is not other than the history of human passions and the biography of its greatest passions.

 It is important to highlight, that the Dogo Argentino would not be among us, if it were not because of the great diffusion made by the brother of the creator of the race: Dr. Agustín Nores Martinez, who after Antonio´s tragic and treacherous death ( murdered in cold blood and treacherously to steal from, when he was out hunting with a friend) took what had been created perpetuating it and made it recognizable all over the world, until its acceptance as a race by the F.C.I.

Para información:/For information:

dogoantonio@argentina.com

dogoantonio@hotmail.com

Última actualización: Agosto 2006 / Last Update: August 2006

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