Breed profile
Segugio dell'Appennino: the newest FCI breed of 2026, and the one Google has no questions about
A 42 to 50 cm Apennine hare hound of 10 to 18 kg, admitted to the FCI on a provisional basis on 11 February 2026, whose standard states outright that its two coat varieties may be mated together.
Quick answer
The Segugio dell'Appennino is the smallest of the four Italian scent hounds, standing 42 to 50 cm and weighing 10 to 18 kg, and it became FCI breed standard 375 on a provisional basis on 11 February 2026. Its standard states outright that its short and rough coat varieties may be mated together. No Indian price for it exists.
This page reports published veterinary literature, registry documents and Indian government instruments. It is not veterinary advice and it cannot diagnose your dog. Nothing at all has been measured in this breed specifically, so the health section is a map of what is unknown, which makes a real examination more important rather than less. Consult your nearby vet before acting on anything you read, treat collapse or a temperature above 40 C as an emergency, and take weight loss with skin lesions over the muzzle or foot pads to a clinic the same week.
Segugio dell'Appennino at a glance
What the Segugio dell'Appennino is, in the words of its own standard
The Segugio dell'Appennino is the smallest Italian scent hound, standing 42 to 50 cm and weighing 10 to 18 kg, registered by the Federation Cynologique Internationale as breed standard 375 on a provisional basis since 11 February 2026, and bred specifically for hunting hare in hill and mountain country.
Three characteristics identify it and each separates it from its cousins. It is small, at 10 to 18 kg against the Segugio Italiano's 18 to 28. Its ears are short, high-set and mobile rather than long and hanging. And its standard makes a claim about temperament that no other Italian hound standard makes.
The general appearance clause is the best-written of the four. It describes an Italian breed of medium size with stiff short hair and qualities inherited from hunting hare in the difficult terrain of hills and mountains, sociable by temperament and very attached to its master, striking for its speed and speed of action, for the ease of its movements and for its pleasantly rustic appearance, with a trunk that just fits inside the perfect symmetry of a rectangle, supported by lean, agile and fine limbs complimented by strong and prominent muscles.
The proportions are ratios. Length of body to height at withers is 11 to 10, so the dog is a tenth longer than it is tall. Depth of chest to height at withers is 1 to 2. Length of muzzle to length of head is 1 to 2, with the head's total length equal to four tenths of the height at the withers and a muzzle to skull ratio of 1 to 1. That rectangular outline it shares with the Segugio Maremmano and not with the two square Segugio Italiano FCI-Standard N 337.
The numbers the standard gives
| Clause | What the standard says |
|---|---|
| Height at withers, males | 44 to 50 cm |
| Height at withers, females | 42 to 48 cm |
| Height tolerance | 2 cm more and less, in excellent subjects |
| Weight | 10 to 18 kg, not split by sex |
| Body length to height | 11 to 10, so rectangular |
| Chest depth to height | 1 to 2 |
| Head length | Four tenths of the height at withers |
| Muzzle to skull length | 1 to 1 |
| Ear length | Nearly half, or a little more, the muzzle length |
| Croup slope | Long, wide, sloping not exceeding 25 degrees |
| Scapulo-humeral angle | 105 to 115 degrees |
| Coxo-femoral angle | 95 to 100 degrees |
| Short coat | Maximum 2 cm, horse-coat texture, dense |
| Rough coat | 2 to 5 cm maximum, dense undercoat, never curled |
The ears are the fastest visual check and they are unlike any cousin's. The standard asks for ears mobile in attention, with a wide insertion at eye-line level or a little above, long with slightly rounded tips, reaching nearly half, or a little more, the muzzle length when drawn out. Compare the Segugio Italiano's requirement of a hanging leather reaching about 70 percent of the length of the head, very wide and drawn forward so it cannot lift. Half a muzzle against seventy percent of a head is a completely different ear.
Colour is where the Apennines show. The admissible colours are fawn in its different shades, black and tan, hare gray, and fawn with black overlay, and white is appreciated on the four limbs from feet to elbow in front and feet to knee behind, on the chest, on the neck or as a collar, on the forehead, on the muzzle and on the tip of the tail. Hare grey is a colour neither Segugio Italiano standard permits, and it is the colour of the animal the breed was made to hunt.
The faults tell you what the breed cares about. Severe faults are height outside the permitted measurements taking the 2 cm tolerance into account, convergent skull-facial axes and undershot bite. Disqualifying faults are only three: aggressive or overly shy dogs, any dog clearly showing physical or behavioural abnormalities, and overshot bite. So an undershot jaw is severely penalised and an overshot one puts the dog out. That asymmetry is deliberate and it is worth checking on any puppy.
A small, light, rectangular hare hound of 42 to 50 cm and 10 to 18 kg, on fine agile limbs, with short high mobile ears, round amber to brown eyes, and a coat that is either two centimetres or five and never curls. It is the smallest and newest of Italy's four Segugi.
Two standards, one breed: where the Italian text and the FCI text disagree
This breed has two written standards. ENCI serves an Italian national standard under the filename 375, and the FCI published its own standard 375 on 11 February 2026. They differ on at least six measurable clauses, and the Italian one is the more permissive on every one of them.
Start with what makes the comparison possible. The FCI standard's header reads TRANSLATION: Prof. Valter Nencetti (Official language: EN), which says two things at once: the document is a translation, and English is the language that governs. What it was translated from is the Italian national standard that ENCI still serves, a six-page document headed STANDARD DEL SEGUGIO DELL'APPENNINO with no FCI number, no FCI header and no translator line, and an extra closing section the FCI document does not have.
The six differences, clause by clause
| Clause | Italian national standard | FCI Standard 375, English |
|---|---|---|
| Body length to height | A range, 1,03 to 1,10 | A fixed ratio, 11/10 |
| Chest depth to height | A range, 0,46 to 0,5 | A fixed ratio, 1/2 |
| Muzzle to head length | A range, 0,45 to 0,49 | A fixed ratio, 1/2 |
| Head length to height | A range, 4 to 4,5 tenths | A fixed value, 4/10 |
| Nose colour | Nero, nero diluito, marrone | Medium size, preferably black |
| Disqualifying faults | Adds monorchidism, cryptorchidism and incomplete testicle development | Only aggression, abnormalities and overshot bite |
| Working standard | A full Standard di lavoro section | Absent entirely |
The pattern in the first four rows is the interesting one. The Italian text describes each proportion as a range, and the FCI text collapses each range to a single value at or near its top: 1,03 to 1,10 becomes 11/10; 0,46 to 0,5 becomes 1/2; 0,45 to 0,49 becomes 1/2; 4 to 4,5 tenths becomes 4/10 FCI-Standard N 375. A judge working from the FCI text is applying a tighter specification than a judge working from the Italian one, and neither document flags the change.
The nose clause is the difference a buyer will actually notice. The Italian standard permits nero, nero diluito, marrone, that is black, diluted black and brown. The FCI standard says only medium size, preferably black FCI-Standard N 375. Brown is expressly permitted nationally and merely not preferred internationally, which is a softer bar than either Segugio Italiano standard, both of which require a nose that is always black and disqualify major depigmentation.
The working standard the FCI document does not carry
The Italian national document ends with a section headed Standard di lavoro, a working standard, which the FCI document omits entirely. It describes a strong, robust, resistant and courageous dog with a sustained, very performant gait; a fine and powerful nose; a scagnatore voice of sharp tone; and behaviour appropriate to a hound hunting with the gun, which may give voice from the first indications of the quarry, amplifying as it nears the form and then staying regular and constant during the chase. It notes a great aptitude for hunting in difficult terrain such as very dense woods and mountain, that the dog searches the night scent on the ground and on branches, and that it returns well.
That last phrase, rientra bene, is the most practically useful thing in either document for a pet owner and it appears only in the national text. A hound that returns well is a hound whose recall is not entirely theoretical, and it sits alongside the FCI text's own claim that this breed's obedience is an innate and atavic talent.
One colour term, three renderings
The fourth permitted colour has been rendered three different ways in three documents. The Italian standard calls it carbonato. The FCI's English calls it fawn with black overlay. English Wikipedia calls it sooty, pale hair with black tips FCI-Standard N 375 English Wikipedia, Segugio dell'Appennino. All three are describing the same coat, and a reader comparing photographs across sources should know that carbonato, sooty and fawn with black overlay are one colour and not three.
For an FCI show, the FCI standard, and its own header names English as the official language. For an Italian national judgement or an ENCI registration, the national text. Where they disagree on a proportion, the Italian one is the wider. Bonbeno publishes both rather than picking, because both are current and both are published by the bodies that made them.
The newest breed in this cluster: recognised on 11 February 2026, and rarest of the four
The FCI admitted this breed on a provisional basis on 11 February 2026, alongside three others on the same day. ENCI had recognised it sixteen years earlier, in 2010, and its annual Italian registrations have run between 205 and 414 a year.
The FCI's provisional register carries four breeds sharing a date of 2/11/2026: the Macedonian Shepherd Dog Karaman at 378, the Sabueso Fino Colombiano at 376, the Segugio dell'Appennino at 375 and the Tatransky Duric at 377. Provisional status is a real category with real limits, which the register states on its own face: provisionally recognised breeds are not eligible for the CACIB until definitive recognition, but are eligible for FCI titles, and pedigrees issued to their dogs must carry the FCI logo.
The date, and why two documents settle it
FCI dates catch almost everyone, because the register writes them month first and most of the world does not. The provisional register prints 2/11/2026 for this breed. The standard document itself prints DATE OF PUBLICATION OF THE OFFICIAL VALID STANDARD: 11.02.2026 in day-first European form. Two FCI documents, two conventions, one date: 11 February 2026.
Look down the date column for a row where one field exceeds twelve. On the provisional register other rows read 9/17/2024, 6/21/2022, 2/26/2020, 3/30/2022, 4/29/2019 and 9/12/2018. Seventeen, twenty-one, twenty-six, thirty, twenty-nine and, in the last, twelve in the second position: no first field exceeds twelve and several second fields do. The first field is the month, for the whole table.
The register and the standard also agree on something less obvious: the standard was published on the day the breed was accepted. Both the date of acceptance on a provisional basis and the date of publication of the official valid standard read 11 February 2026, and the English text of the standard is dated 3 March 2026, three weeks later. The French text followed on 22 May 2026 and the Spanish on 14 August 2026, and the German row on the record is still blank. This is a breed whose paperwork is still being produced.
The Italian numbers, which are small
This is genuinely the rarest of the four Italian Segugi and the figures are not close. Annual registrations in the Italian studbook ran between 205 and 414 a year from 2013 to 2022. Over the same period the Segugio Maremmano registered 5,679 in 2018 alone, the short-coated Segugio Italiano 3,647 in 2015 and the rough-coated one 1,106.
| Body | Status | Date or figure |
|---|---|---|
| FCI | Recognised on a provisional basis, standard 375 | Accepted 11 February 2026 |
| FCI CACIB eligibility | Not eligible until definitive recognition | Stated on the provisional register |
| ENCI, Italy | Full recognition, Codice FCI 375, two varieties | Recognised 2010, standard drawn up 2005 |
| Annual Italian registrations | The smallest of the four Segugi | 205 to 414 a year, 2013 to 2022 |
| First published description | The illustrated journal La Caccia | 2 November 1882 |
| American Kennel Club | No page and no Foundation Stock Service entry | Holds only the Segugio Italiano |
| The Royal Kennel Club | Never held | Its 2020 declassification concerned the Segugio Italiano |
| McMillan 2024 survival analysis | Absent from the supplementary tables entirely | Never considered |
| Kennel Club of India | Publishes no breed list for any breed | Not a finding about this breed |
The Indian row needs its caveat spoken. The Kennel Club of India publishes no breed list at all, so a query there returns nothing for this breed and nothing for a common control either. That is a limit of the instrument, not evidence about the dog. What answers the Indian question is the FCI route: India is a full FCI member represented by the KCI, so FCI nomenclature is the operative framework and a provisionally recognised breed carries an FCI-logo pedigree.
Where it came from
The standard's history is unusually well dated for a working landrace. It records that the breed was described and included among the scenthound breeds existing in Italy in the illustrated journal La caccia, dated 2 November 1882, and that rather than acting as a selective process, Nature with this breed created a uniform kind of dog which is rustic, resistant and elegant, preserved by mountaineers and lovers of the breed.
It then quotes a named man at length. In 1932 the lawyer, farmer and employer of this breed Filippo Zacchini wrote: small-sized hound of great agility and vivacity, all muscles and nerves without any heaviness, of ancient origin and of well-established kind; it has been owned for some time largely by small landowners and strainers where it has found a healthy environment, hardy standard of living and a close attachment to its master, all factors which have favoured its preservation. That is the only named individual in any of the four Italian Segugio standards, and the ENCI national text carries the same quotation in the original Italian.
Segugio dell'Appennino price in India: no listing exists, and the only live offer is in Italy
No published Segugio dell'Appennino price in india exists and no Indian listing for a live animal appears on the search results at all. The only live-animal offer anywhere on that page is an Italian hunting-dog seller, and the rupee bands circulating for related Italian scent hounds are euro figures divided at about 92 to 93.
This breed is too new and too rare to have attracted even the fabricated Indian pricing that its cousins have. A search of the Indian results for the breed returned About 170 results with a genuine on-topic organic set, and the single commercial offer on it was canicaccia.com, an Italian hunting-dog seller stating that it offers Segugio dell'Appennino skilled in hare hunting and that puppies are given to the customer when they are around 60 days old. That is the whole market, and it is in Italy.
The conversion trap, demonstrated on this breed's cousins
Because the query for this breed returns no rupee figure at all, the useful thing to show a reader is how the figure gets manufactured for the breeds that do have one. Google India's AI Mode answer for segugio italiano price in india states a band of 1,00,000 to 2,50,000 rupees, says in the same answer that the breed is exceptionally rare in India and that no standard local commercial prices exist for it, and then prints its own working as a Python block reading `eur_min, eur_max = 1200, 2500` and `rate = 92.5`.
The same engine repeated the pattern on the Segugio Maremmano within the same session. It opened by stating that the breed has no established market price or active commercial breeding lines in India, gave a band of 1,50,000 to 3,00,000 rupees, then disclosed that European puppy prices run 1,500 to 2,500 euro, approximately 1,40,000 to 2,30,000 rupees. Divide 1,40,000 by 1,500 and you get 93.33; divide 2,30,000 by 2,500 and you get 92.00.
When a rupee price for this breed does eventually appear in a search result, check it the same way. Take any euro or dollar figure quoted nearby, divide the rupee band by it, and see whether the quotient lands near an exchange rate. If it does, nothing was observed in India. Bonbeno publishes no rupee conversion of a foreign price for exactly that reason.
The 60-day detail is worth a paragraph
The Italian seller's line that puppies are given to the customer at around 60 days old is a useful benchmark, because it happens to sit just above the Indian legal floor. Rule 8(1)(a) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Dog Breeding and Marketing) Rules, 2017 requires every Indian breeder to ensure that pups less than eight weeks in age are not sold. Sixty days is eight weeks and four days. So the Italian practice for this breed would clear the Indian rule, which is not something one can say of every hunting-dog market.
The Indian import rules are a different matter and they are much harder. The DGFT's own FAQ states that new born puppies of less than 7 months are not to be allowed. A 60-day puppy cannot lawfully enter India regardless of what any seller offers.
| Result | What it is | Price shown |
|---|---|---|
| en.wikipedia.org | An encyclopedia article with registration figures | None |
| enci.it | The Italian studbook record and national standard | None |
| canicaccia.com | An Italian hunting-dog seller offering puppies at 60 days | None shown on the results page |
| academichound.com | A breed description blog | None |
| akc.org | The AKC's Segugio Italiano page, a different breed | None |
| purina.co.uk | Purina's Segugio Italiano page, a different breed | None |
| Any Indian listing for a live animal | Does not exist on this results page | None |
The composition of that table is the evidence, not the result count. Two of the seven rows are pages about a different breed, one is a seller in Italy, and the row an Indian buyer wants is empty. A result count on its own proves nothing about market size, because an exact-phrase Indian query returns only a page or two of results even for a thick commercial breed term.
Why no Indian supply chain can form
Import of dogs sits at ITC(HS) 01061900, Mammals: Other, marked Restricted. Policy Condition 7 permits import only for a pet dog with a valid pet book and records in the importer's own name, for research by an R&D organisation with a CPCSEA recommendation, or for internal security by the Defence and Police Force. Policy Condition 8 states that import of commercial dogs for breeding or any other commercial activity outside those purposes is not permitted, and paragraph 6 of the notice states that applications for trading or breeding purposes shall be duly rejected. Entry is limited to the airports and seaports of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata and, since October 2024, Kochi airport. The full route is set out in how to import a dog to India.
So a person relocating to India after two years abroad may bring their own adult Segugio dell'Appennino. Nobody may lawfully import one to breed from or to sell, and nobody may import a puppy at all.
Monthly cost of ownership for a 15 kg hound in India
Budget roughly Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,500 a month for a 15 kg dog before food quality choices, which makes this the cheapest of the four Italian Segugi to run. Every figure below was read live from the seller's or the corporation's own page on 8 September 2026.
This is a dog cost rather than a breed cost. There is no Indian purchase price for this breed, so any total including one rests on a conversion. What is real is what a lean 10 to 18 kg dog costs to keep healthy in an Indian city, and being the smallest of the four Segugi genuinely shows up here: less food, less medication by weight band, and the same fixed municipal fees.
Parasite control, the biggest fixed line
A 15 kg dog sits at the bottom of the 15 to 30 kg band. NexGard Spectra for that band costs Rs 3,308 for three tablets against an MRP of Rs 3,375, and it is prescription-only. Dosed monthly, that is Rs 1,103 a month, covering the tick and flea role and the roundworm and hookworm role together. Drontal Plus costs Rs 813 for a strip of six against an MRP of Rs 838, which is Rs 135.50 a tablet, dosed one per 10 kg, so Rs 271 per deworming at two tablets for a 15 to 20 kg dog.
Both were tested for a disguised dollar price. Dividing the NexGard pack by 84.38, 80 and 74 gives 39.20, 41.35 and 44.70, none of them a figure a seller would print, so it is rupee-native. Both also move: an earlier Bonbeno reading of the Drontal page recorded Rs 754 where it now reads Rs 813.
| Line | Price | Frequency | Monthly equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| NexGard Spectra 15-30 kg | Rs 3,308 for 3 | Monthly | Rs 1,103 |
| Drontal Plus deworming | Rs 813 for 6 | Quarterly, 2 tablets | Rs 90 |
| Annual vaccination booster | From Rs 3,199 | Yearly | Rs 267 |
| Anti-rabies alone | Rs 699 | Yearly | Rs 58 |
| Bath and basic grooming | From Rs 934 | Every 6 to 8 weeks | Rs 500 to Rs 670 |
| Delhi pet dog registration | Rs 500 new, Rs 500 renewal | Yearly | Rs 42 |
| Chennai pet licence | Rs 50 | Yearly | Rs 4 |
| Food, mid-range dry | Varies by brand | Monthly | Rs 1,400 to Rs 3,000 |
Vaccination, and the route most owners never consider
At Vetic, a chain with clinics across several metros, the puppy course starts at Rs 6,499 against a struck-through Rs 8,111, the annual booster starts at Rs 3,199 against Rs 3,806, anti-rabies alone is Rs 699, the 9-in-1 DHPPiL is Rs 899 and kennel cough is Rs 1,349. Those are promotional floors from one chain, and the same chain quotes different course prices on different city pages on the same day, so read them as one data point.
Greater Chennai Corporation's pet clinics are listed as providing all treatment and anti-rabies vaccination free of cost for pet animals, and the corporation issued 9,115 pet licences during 2024 at Rs 50 each. Delhi charges Rs 500 to register a pet dog and Rs 500 to renew, with a Rs 100 per month late fee and a one-month grace period after the anti-rabies certificate expires, the certificate being valid for a maximum of one year tied to the vaccination date. Municipal fees are the durable figures on this page; retail prices are the perishable ones.
Grooming: the smallest line of any breed in this cluster
Vetic's Delhi list gives bathing from Rs 934, a haircut from Rs 1,359 and a complete bath and styling from Rs 1,869. This breed needs the first only. The short variety is a maximum of 2 cm and the rough variety 2 to 5 cm lying close to the body and never forming curls, so there is nothing to cut or shape. Budget a bath every six to eight weeks in the wet months and a brush at home the rest of the time.
Rs 1,103 a month for parasite cover is the largest fixed cost of keeping this dog in India and the one owners are most tempted to skip, especially on a small dog that looks like it needs less. It is the last line to drop from the budget.
Indian climate: the coldest homeland of the four, and the widest gap to close
This breed comes from the coolest homeland of any Italian Segugio. Camerino in the central Apennines averages 12.11 C over the year, and its hottest month is cooler than Chennai's coolest month. The gap is heat, not humidity, and it is the largest in this cluster.
Bonbeno queried NASA POWER by explicit latitude and longitude and echoed back the elevation the model reports for every cell, because a grid cell is not a town and the error can run either way. Camerino, at 43.1354N 13.0686E in the central Apennines, returns a cell at 669.54 m against a real 661 m, an error of only plus 8.5 metres. That is the cleanest cell anywhere in this research and it means the figures below describe the mountains the breed actually works in.
| Place | Annual mean C | Annual RH percent | Hottest month | Peak wet bulb C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camerino, central Apennines | 12.11 | 75.43 | July, 23.01 | 17.01 |
| Gubbio, Apennines | 12.98 | 76.38 | July, 24.13 | 17.96 |
| Delhi | 25.60 | 45.56 | June, 35.88 | 26.50 |
| Mumbai | 26.77 | 67.39 | May, 31.19 | 25.77 |
| Chennai | 27.95 | 72.39 | May, 31.51 | 26.11 |
| Bengaluru | 23.74 | 67.94 | April, 28.37 | 21.86 |
| Pune | 23.86 | 66.80 | April, 28.93 | 22.97 |
| Kolkata | 25.81 | 73.93 | May, 31.53 | 27.09 |
| Kochi | 27.31 | 78.83 | March, 29.42 | 25.79 |
Read the two extremes of that table together. Camerino's hottest month averages 23.01 C. Chennai's coolest month averages 24.09 C, and Mumbai's coolest averages 23.19 C. An imported Segugio dell'Appennino in either city would spend its entire life above the temperature its homeland reaches at the height of July. That is the single starkest comparison in this whole cluster of breeds, and it is why this page rates heat tolerance low despite the dog being the lightest of the four.
The wet bulb figures say the same thing in the units that matter physiologically. Computed with the Stull approximation from mean temperature and mean relative humidity, Camerino peaks at 17.01 C. Kolkata reaches 27.09, Delhi 26.50 and Chennai 26.11. That is a gap of 9.1 to 10.1 degrees of wet bulb, roughly twice the gap the Maremma faces.
Humidity is not the problem, and the numbers prove it
Camerino runs 75.43 percent annual relative humidity and Gubbio 76.38. Mumbai runs 67.39, Bengaluru 67.94, Pune 66.80 and Delhi 45.56. Four of the nine Indian cities in the table are drier than the central Apennines, and only Kochi at 78.83 percent is meaningfully damper. A mountain hound from a damp range is not going to be undone by Indian air; it is going to be undone by Indian heat, and specifically by the combination of heat and humidity that the wet bulb column measures. The Apennines are already humid; they are simply cold.
One India-specific risk does follow the humid coast rather than the heat, and it belongs here because the wider Italian scent hound literature carries it. Canine leishmaniasis is transmitted by sand flies, and the vector is well documented in Italy: a three-year survey in eastern Sicily captured 9,095 sand flies and found Phlebotomus perniciosus at 77.7 percent of the Mount Etna catch. India has both the parasite and sand fly vectors, so an imported dog is moving into a region where the disease is present.
Bengaluru's peak wet bulb of 21.86 C is 4.85 degrees above Camerino's 17.01 C, and Pune's 22.97 C is 5.96 above. Those are still large gaps, but they are half what the coastal cities present. No Indian plains city is a reasonable home for this breed, and Bonbeno makes no case for a hill station either, because NASA POWER's cells for Indian hill stations are wrong by hundreds to over a thousand metres and cannot support one.
What the dog has going for it
Two things, and one of them is genuinely useful. First, weight: at 10 to 18 kg it is the lightest of the four Segugi, and light dogs shed heat better than heavy ones. Second, coat options: the short variety at a maximum of 2 cm is about as little coat as a working hound carries. The rough variety at 2 to 5 cm with a dense undercoat that the standard says prevents moisture wetting the skin is exactly the wrong specification for an Indian summer, so if this breed ever reaches India in any number, variety B is the one to want.
On body condition, the only transferable finding from the literature is Hall 2020's. Its Scientific Reports analysis of 905,543 UK dogs under primary veterinary care found that dogs at or above the mean bodyweight for their breed and sex carried an odds ratio of 1.42, confidence interval 1.12 to 1.80, for heat-related illness, with an incidence of 0.04 percent and a case fatality of 14.18 percent across 395 events. This breed was not modelled and no breed-specific figure exists for it, so nothing else from that paper transfers.
Indian law addresses the acclimatisation question directly. Second Schedule Part IV paragraph 21(1) of the 2017 Rules bars keeping in outdoor facilities, without the attending veterinary practitioner's written approval, dogs that are not accustomed to the temperatures prevalent in the area or region in question, breeds that cannot tolerate them such as long-haired breeds in high temperature locations, and sick, infirm, aged or young animals. A dog whose homeland peaks at 23 C is the first of those three categories from the day it lands.
Temperament: the one Italian hound standard that promises obedience
FCI standard 375 makes a claim no other Italian Segugio standard makes: that this breed's obedience is an innate and atavic talent, and that it is particularly predisposed not to chase other wildlife. That is the standard's claim rather than a measured finding, and this page treats it as one.
Read the behaviour clause in full, because it is the most distinctive passage in any of the four documents. It gives: a scenthound specialised for hunting, primarily hare but also wild boar, that hunts well and prudently, barking at the prey while standing still; an excellent hunter of other fur animals; a dog that lives in perfect symbiosis with its master, though of strong temperament and with an exaggerated passion for hunting; whose obedience is an innate and atavic talent, keeping it closely linked to its master and to its other hunting mates; particularly predisposed, it does not chase other wildlife; with a voice sharp and clear in sound with pleasant tones which change depending on the different phases of the hunting work; a confident approacher, excellent discoverer and great follower; particularly at ease in the mountain landscape, and always in contact with its master without needing to be accompanied.
Two of those clauses would sell this breed to any Indian household if they held. A hound that does not chase other wildlife is a hound you could conceivably keep with cats or near livestock. A hound whose obedience is innate is a hound whose recall might survive a scent line. The Italian national standard says the same thing in its own words, describing the dog as particolarmente predisposto a rispettare i selvatici che non gli appartengono, particularly predisposed to respect the wild animals that do not belong to it, and its working standard adds that the dog rientra bene, returns well.
Nothing has been measured in this breed. PubMed returns zero on-breed records under every name form tested against passing controls, so there is no study, no survey and no dataset behind the obedience clause. It is what the breed club wrote down about the dog it wants. Manage introductions to cats and poultry exactly as carefully as you would with any hound, and keep the long line.
The ideal owner, stated plainly
- Households with a securely fenced space, because a claim in a standard is not a substitute for a fence
- Households that can give two hours a day of walking, running and scent work, split around the Indian heat
- Households in the coolest part of India they can manage, given a homeland that peaks at 23 C
- Households with neighbours who will accept a hound voice the standard grades by hunting phase
- Households that want a small dog with a large engine, since 10 to 18 kg does not mean 10 to 18 kg of effort
- Coastal Indian cities, where the wet bulb gap to the homeland runs past nine degrees
- Apartments with no safe fenced access, because free casting is the half of the exercise that cannot be improvised
- Households wanting a quiet dog, since the voice is a selection criterion in both standards
- Households out for ten hours, because the standard describes a dog living in perfect symbiosis with its master
- Anyone relying on the wildlife clause to keep a cat safe without management
Sociability and the family question
The standard's general appearance clause calls the breed sociable by temperament and very attached to its master, and the ENCI text renders the same idea as di natura socievole, molto affezionato al canettiere, sociable by nature and very attached to its handler. Note the Italian word: canettiere is the hound handler, not the family. This is a standard written by and for people who hunt with these dogs, and its picture of the human relationship is a working one.
Space requirements for this breed are modest indoors and large outdoors, which is an awkward combination in urban India. A medium-sized dog of 10 to 18 kg takes up very little room in a flat, so the floor area is not the constraint; the constraint is safe fenced ground to run on, and the fact that this is a vocal breed whose voice the standard grades by hunting phase means a shared stairwell counts against you.
For an Indian household that translates into something practical. The dog will bond hard, will want to be with its people, and will be poor at being left. Socialise deliberately in the puppy months to lifts, horns, two-wheelers, delivery riders, umbrellas, crowds and other dogs, because urban India is denser and louder than an Apennine hillside and the standard says nothing about coping with it.
Training: the one hound in this group whose recall might be worth building
Train the recall properly with this breed, because its own standard claims the raw material is there. FCI 375 states that its obedience is an innate and atavic talent and that it returns well, which is a stronger starting position than any other Italian Segugio standard offers.
The claim is unusual enough to quote twice. The FCI text says the dog's obedience is an innate and atavic talent, keeping it closely linked to its master and to its other hunting mates, and that it feels particularly at ease in the mountain landscape and, while always in contact with its master, does not need to be accompanied. The Italian national text's working standard puts it more bluntly still, in two words: rientra bene, it returns well.
Compare the alternative. The Segugio Maremmano's standard mentions no such thing and describes a strong chaser with high hunting drive. The two Segugio Italiano standards describe a soft expression and a steady temperament but say nothing about obedience FCI-Standard N 198. So this is the only one of the four whose breed club wrote down that the dog comes back.
A claim in a breed standard is a statement of intent by the people who select the dogs, not a measurement. Nothing has been tested in this breed, and a good starting recall that is never trained becomes a bad recall by eighteen months. Treat the clause as encouragement to do the work, not as permission to skip it.
What actually works, in order
- Weeks 8 to 16: build a recall on a long line in a low-scent space, paying every time and never calling the dog off a line you cannot win
- Weeks 12 to 20: socialise deliberately to Indian urban noise, lifts, autos, delivery riders, doorbells, crowds and other dogs
- Months 4 to 8: teach an emergency stop as a second brake, since a stop sometimes catches a dog a recall will not
- Months 6 to 12: introduce tracking and scent games, which for a hare specialist are the only genuinely rewarding work
- Month 12 onward: test the recall honestly in progressively higher distraction, and keep the long line for any unfenced Indian space
That last point is where the standard's promise meets Indian geography. An Apennine hillside has no traffic. A Chennai maidan, a Pune colony road or a Delhi park does, and a dog that returns well to a handler on a mountain has never been asked to make that decision beside a highway. Keep the line until the dog has proved itself in the environment it actually lives in.
The voice, and what training can and cannot do
The standard describes a voice sharp and clear in sound with pleasant tones which change depending on the different phases of the hunting work, and calls the dog a prudent barker that stands still while barking at the prey. The Italian text adds that the voice is emitted con un certo nervosismo, with a certain nervousness. That is a dog selected to announce itself, and training can teach a settle, desensitise corridor noise and stop barking earning attention, but it cannot remove the voice.
Scent work is the highest-value activity for this dog in India, for the same practical reason as its cousins: it works indoors on a cool floor at two in the afternoon, when walking is impossible for much of the year. Snuffle mats, scattered kibble, find-the-toy games and formal tracking all consume the drive that otherwise goes into the corridor.
One legal note binding any Indian breeder rather than any owner. The 2017 Rules permit only out breeding and line breeding, and prohibit in breeding, defined as breeding between relatives of the second to fourth grade in straight or side line within the first four generations, and incest breeding, defined as mating between parents and children or between brother and sister. On a breed registering only 205 to 414 dogs a year, that constraint is not academic.
Exercise: two hours from a 15 kg dog, and the Indian day gives you two windows
Plan two hours a day of walking, running and scent work, split across dawn and after dark for most of the Indian year. The standard describes a breed striking for its speed and speed of action, with an exaggerated passion for hunting, whose gait is a loose, lively, elegant canter.
Small does not mean less. The standard describes a dog striking for its speed and speed of action, for the ease of his movements, with an exaggerated passion for hunting, particularly at ease in the mountain landscape and able to work without being accompanied. Its gait clause gives a canter, loose, lively, elegant, alternated to trot at some stage in the work of hunting. The Italian working standard adds a sustained, very performant gait and great aptitude for hunting in difficult terrain such as very dense woods and mountain.
The Indian timing problem is worse for this breed than for its cousins
Because the homeland is the coolest of the four, the usable window is the narrowest. Camerino's hottest month averages 23.01 C; Chennai's coolest averages 24.09 C and Mumbai's 23.19 C. In a coastal Indian city there is no month in which the ambient average falls to what this dog's homeland calls summer. The practical answer is the same as for every hound here, applied more strictly.
| City type | Morning | Evening | Midday substitute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chennai, Mumbai, Kochi, Kolkata | 60 min before sunrise, no later | 60 min well after dark | Indoor scent games, 30 min |
| Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad | 60 min before sunrise | 60 min well after dark | Indoor work plus a cool floor |
| Bengaluru, Pune | 60 to 75 min, wider window | 60 min | Shaded garden roaming |
| Any city, monsoon weeks | Shortened, dry the coat after | Shortened, dry the coat after | Longer indoor work |
Free running is the hard half, and the standard's own picture of the dog assumes it. A dog described as at ease in mountain landscape, working without being accompanied, is being described casting freely over ground. A dog park, a fenced terrace, a society lawn whose gate closes, or a rented plot are the realistic Indian substitutes. A long line on an open maidan is a compromise and a reasonable one.
What under-exercise looks like
It looks like the standard's selection criteria pointed at your flat. A dog with an exaggerated passion for hunting and a voice that changes with the phase of the work will find something to announce. Pacing, chewing, digging at the door and an inability to settle in the evening are the symptoms, and they are not behaviour problems so much as a working animal with no work.
On heat and intensity, keep the dog lean, which on a 10 to 18 kg frame means noticing two kilos. Hall 2020 found that dogs at or above the mean bodyweight for their breed and sex carried an odds ratio of 1.42 for heat-related illness, with a case fatality of 14.18 percent across 395 events in 905,543 dogs under primary veterinary care. The breed was not modelled, so that is the only transferable finding, and on a small dog it is the easiest one to act on.
Frantic panting that does not slow when the dog stops, bright red gums, unsteadiness, vomiting or collapse. Move to shade, wet the coat with cool rather than iced water, and get to a vet. In the largest published study of canine heat-related illness the case fatality was 14.18 percent.
Grooming: five minutes a week, and the friendliest ears in this cluster
Groom this breed weekly and check the ears weekly. The short variety is a maximum of 2 cm and the rough variety 2 to 5 cm lying close to the body, and the standard's ear clause asks for a short, high, mobile leather rather than the long sealed one its cousins carry.
Two coat types exist in this breed and each is a coat variety of one registered breed rather than a breed of its own, which is the opposite of how the Segugio Italiano's coats are filed in the same FCI group. ENCI's own Group 6 index lists all four Italian Segugi together as separate breed records under the Cani da Seguita heading, and this breed's record carries the two variety letters A and B Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana. The French text of the standard carries the same coat clause and the same figures as the English, so nothing here rests on a translation.
The coat clause is short and permissive. Short-haired: the coat is short at a maximum of 2 cm, of horse-coat texture, dense, evenly distributed throughout the body, with some rough hairs scattered on the trunk, muzzle or limbs accepted. Rough-haired: the coat is medium coarse to the touch, from 2 to 5 cm maximum, with a dense undercoat preventing moisture to wet the skin, distributed homogeneously, denser but less long on the limbs and head, and possibly less dense or even short on the ears; and the hair must be close to the body without ever forming curls or ringlets.
Nothing there requires clipping, stripping or shaping in either variety. A rubber mitt weekly on variety B and a firm brush weekly on variety A is the whole coat routine. The Italian national text describes the short coat's texture as vitrea, glassy, where the FCI English says horse-coat, which is two ways of describing the same hard flat hair.
The ears, and why they are the best news on this page
This breed carries the shortest and highest ear of the four Italian Segugi, and in an Indian climate that is a real health advantage. The standard asks for ears mobile in attention, with a wide insertion at eye-line level or a little upper, long with slightly rounded tips, reaching nearly half, or a little more, the muzzle length when drawn out. The word mobile is doing work: this is an ear that moves, which means it ventilates.
| Breed | Set | Carriage | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segugio dell'Appennino | Eye-line level or a little above | Mobile in attention | Nearly half the muzzle length |
| Segugio Maremmano | Over the eye line | Flat and well adherent to the cheeks | Long enough to cover the eye |
| Segugio Italiano a Pelo Raso | At the zygomatic arch or slightly lower | Hanging, drawn forward, cannot fold or lift | About 70 percent of head length |
| Segugio Italiano a Pelo Forte | At the zygomatic arches | Hanging, rigid cartilage, drawn forward | 66 to 70 percent of head length |
Read that table before choosing between these breeds for an Indian home. A mobile ear reaching half a muzzle is a different structure from a rigid leather reaching seventy percent of a head and held forward so it cannot lift. In Kochi at 78.83 percent annual relative humidity, Kolkata at 73.93 or Chennai at 72.39, that difference is the difference between weekly housekeeping and recurrent otitis.
It is still an ear worth checking. Lift and hold each leather open for thirty seconds weekly, look for redness, wax, smell or head shaking, and dry the canals after every bath, swim and wet walk with a vet-approved drying solution rather than cotton buds. An ear infection caught in days is treated in days.
- Brush once a week, with a rubber mitt on the short variety and a firm brush on the rough one
- Check both ears weekly by lifting the leather and looking, not by smelling from a distance
- Dry the ear canals after every wet walk from June to September, which is the whole monsoon protocol
- Bathe every six to eight weeks in the wet months and less often otherwise, since neither coat needs frequent washing
- Trim nails as needed and brush the teeth, because Indian law imposes no dental requirement and nobody will remind you
One caution about the rough variety in India. Its dense undercoat is described in the standard as preventing moisture to wet the skin, which is exactly what a hound wants in a wet Apennine winter and exactly the wrong property in a Chennai August, where the job is getting moisture and heat out rather than keeping them off. If a choice between varieties ever arises for an Indian home, take the short one.
Health: nothing has been measured, and this page will not pretend otherwise
There is no published health data of any kind for the Segugio dell'Appennino. PubMed returns zero on-breed records under every name form tested against passing controls, the breed is absent from McMillan 2024's supplementary tables, and no screening scheme covers it anywhere.
The absence here is total, and it is worth stating precisely rather than vaguely. There is no median lifespan, no published life expectancy, no hip or elbow screening scheme, no published OFA statistics row, no breed health survey and no disease prevalence figure. On a breed the FCI admitted seven months before this page was written, that is exactly what you would expect, and treating an absence of data as an absence of disease is the commonest error made about newly recognised breeds.
The literature search, and how it was tested
Every name form was searched with the query translation line read and controls run in the same session. 'Segugio dell Appennino' was rewritten by PubMed into segugio AND dell AND appennino and returned 0. 'Appennine Hound' was rewritten into appennine OR appennines AND hound OR hounds and returned 0. 'Apennine Hound' returned 0 the same way. Controls in the same session gave Labrador Retriever 1,109 and Bracco Italiano 5.
The broadened queries matter more than the narrow ones here. PubMed widened the phrase searches itself, into an OR of two spellings of the mountain range AND an OR of hound and hounds, and still returned nothing. A rewrite that broadens a search and still finds zero is a stronger negative than a strict phrase that finds zero, because the engine has already tried the wider net for you.
| Query | How PubMed translated it | Records | On-breed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Segugio dell Appennino" | segugio AND dell AND appennino | 0 | No records at all |
| "Appennine Hound" | (appennine OR appennines) AND (hound OR hounds) | 0 | No records at all |
| "Apennine Hound" | (apennine OR apennines) AND (hound OR hounds) | 0 | No records at all |
| Appennino[tiab] | "Appennino"[Title/Abstract] | 10 | None; all about the mountain range |
| Segugio[tiab] | "Segugio"[Title/Abstract] | 4 | None names this breed |
| "Labrador Retriever"[tiab], control | "Labrador Retriever"[Title/Abstract] | 1109 | Control passed |
| "Bracco Italiano"[tiab], control | "Bracco Italiano"[Title/Abstract] | 5 | Control passed |
The Appennino[tiab] row is worth a sentence because it shows what the name actually catches. Those ten records are Gentiana species phytochemistry from the central Apennines, Hypericum essential oils, Chianina and Marchigiana cattle genetics and Tuscan ethnobotany. The word is a mountain range, and searching it retrieves the mountains.
What can honestly be said instead
Three things, each labelled for what it is. First, the closest genetic relative has one paper. A 2015 microsatellite analysis found no significant genetic distance between the Segugio dell'Appennino and the Segugio Maremmano, and the Maremmano's entire literature is a 2010 study of spermatozoan morphometry in eleven dogs of three Italian breeds. That is not health data for either dog, but it does mean the two breeds are close enough that anything ever found in one is worth asking about in the other.
Second, the breed-specific inherited disease that does exist in this cluster is not this breed's. In August 2025 the Canine Genetics Centre at Cambridge identified a novel variant causing glaucoma with short limbs, abnormal dentition and patchy coats in the Segugio Italiano, validated it against nearly 2,000 dog genomes and found it in no other breed. Bonbeno does not transfer that finding here, and any page that does is applying one breed's genetics to another because the names look similar.
Third, the risks worth managing in India are general rather than breed-specific, and the largest is heat, covered in the climate section above. The second is canine leishmaniasis, because India has the parasite and the sand fly vectors and because the wider Italian scent hound literature carries it. A 10-year-old Italian Segugio presented with progressive weight loss and dermal lesions over the muzzle, foot pads and tarsal joints, with a positive ELISA while microscopy of a lymph node smear found nothing, and needed eight weeks of pentavalent antimonial and eight months of allopurinol.
One structural clue from the standards themselves
The two standards for this breed disagree about which reproductive faults disqualify, and that disagreement is the closest thing to a health signal either document gives. The Italian national standard lists monorchidismo, criptorchidismo and incomplete development of one or both testicles among its disqualifying faults; the FCI standard lists only aggression, physical or behavioural abnormalities and an overshot bite, relegating the testicle requirement to the standard closing note. A national club that writes cryptorchidism into its disqualifying list is a club that has seen it.
Because nothing has been measured in this breed, an actual examination carries more weight here than on any popular breed, not less. There is no breed-specific answer to look up. If your dog is losing condition, has crusty lesions on the muzzle or foot pads, or shakes its head repeatedly, take it to a registered veterinarian this week.
Feeding and nutrition: the smallest of the four, fed for the mountain it is not on
Feed this breed to hold it lean at 10 to 18 kg. It is the lightest of the four Italian Segugi, its standard describes lean, agile and fine limbs with strong and prominent muscles, and bodyweight is the only heat-illness risk factor from the literature that transfers to it.
The standard's picture of condition is in its general appearance clause rather than a dedicated one: a trunk that just fits inside the perfect symmetry of a rectangle, supported by lean, agile and fine limbs, complimented by strong and prominent muscles. The Italian text says the same, arti asciutti, agili e fini, guarniti da muscoli robusti e salienti. Fine limbs carrying prominent muscle is a description that stops working the moment the dog carries fat.
Why body condition is a heat decision
Hall 2020's Scientific Reports analysis of 905,543 UK dogs under primary veterinary care found that a bodyweight at or above the mean for the breed and sex carried an odds ratio of 1.42, confidence interval 1.12 to 1.80, for heat-related illness, against an incidence of 0.04 percent and a case fatality of 14.18 percent across 395 events. This breed was not modelled and no breed-specific odds ratio exists for it. On a 10 to 18 kg dog, two extra kilos is between a ninth and a fifth of its bodyweight, which is why the margin for error here is smaller than on a large breed.
| Stage | Target condition | Meals a day | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 to 16 weeks | Growing, ribs easily felt | 4 | Steady growth, never rapid |
| 4 to 8 months | Waist visible from above | 3 | Joint-safe growth rate |
| 8 to 14 months | Approaching 10 to 18 kg | 2 | Muscle on fine bone, not fat |
| Adult, active | 10 to 18 kg per the standard | 2 | Limbs must still read as lean and fine |
| Adult, Indian summer | Same, fed away from the heat | 2, early and late | Water and timing over quantity |
| Senior, 8 years plus | Slightly lighter | 2 | Protein maintained, calories reduced |
Practical Indian notes
Feed away from the heat of the day. A meal just before or just after the coolest walk sits better than an afternoon one, and it keeps the dog from working on a full stomach. Water should be constantly available and refreshed rather than topped up, because a bowl standing in Indian warmth all day is a culture medium.
Do not use food to fix a boredom problem. A hound barking because it got forty minutes instead of two hours does not need a bigger dinner. Scatter feeding and snuffle mats convert the same calories into nose work, which is what a hare specialist was selected for, and they can be done indoors when walking is impossible.
The one genuine budgetary advantage of this breed shows up here. At 10 to 18 kg it eats meaningfully less than a Segugio Italiano at 18 to 28, and less than a Segugio Maremmano at 13 to 23 FCI-Standard N 337 FCI-Standard N 361, SEGUGIO MAREMMANO. Bonbeno publishes no monthly kibble figure, because Indian retail food prices move within weeks and a monthly total is arithmetic from a grams-per-day figure that depends entirely on the food you pick. Price the bag you intend to buy, divide by its own feeding guide, and treat the parasite and vaccination lines in the cost section as the stable part of the budget Vetic Pet Clinic, dog vaccination page.
The first year, month by month, with the Indian dates that bind
Plan the first year around three fixed points: the eight-week floor Indian law sets on any sale, the socialisation window that closes near four months, and the growth period during which a fine-boned mountain hound must not be over-exercised on hard ground.
Indian law sets the earliest date. Rule 8(1)(a) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Dog Breeding and Marketing) Rules, 2017 requires every breeder to ensure that pups less than eight weeks in age are not sold, and Second Schedule Part III paragraph 8(9) states that all pups shall be vaccinated starting at seven to eight weeks and usually completed at eighteen weeks. The Italian seller ranking on this breed's query gives puppies to customers at around 60 days, which is eight weeks and four days, so it clears the Indian floor by four days.
| Age | What is happening | What you do about it in India |
|---|---|---|
| Under 8 weeks | Legally unsaleable in India | Refuse the puppy and report the breeder |
| 8 to 10 weeks | Home, vaccination course begins | Book the puppy course, budget from Rs 6,499 |
| 10 to 14 weeks | Socialisation window open | Lifts, autos, doorbells, crowds, other dogs, on purpose |
| 14 to 16 weeks | Window closing, course completing | Anti-rabies, then municipal registration |
| 4 to 6 months | Nose switches on, recall tested for the first time | Long line, and start proving the standard's obedience claim |
| 4 to 8 months | Adult coat texture declares itself | You will now know whether it is variety A or B |
| 6 to 9 months | Growth plates still open on fine bone | No forced running, no stair work, no jumping |
| 9 to 12 months | Adult height nearly reached | Build stamina gradually in cool hours only |
| 12 to 18 months | Filling out to 10 to 18 kg | Hold the limbs reading lean and fine, ribs easily felt |
Register the dog once the anti-rabies certificate exists, because the registration hangs on it. Delhi charges Rs 500 for a new pet dog registration and Rs 500 to renew, with a Rs 100 per month late fee and a one-month grace period after that certificate expires, and the certificate is valid for a maximum of one year tied to the vaccination date. Chennai charges Rs 50 for a pet licence and issued 9,115 of them in 2024.
The bite, checked at the first viewing
This is the breed where the mouth matters most, because its standard splits the two malocclusions across two different severity bands. An undershot bite is a severe fault; an overshot bite is disqualifying. The Italian national standard says the same in its own terms, listing prognatismo among the severe faults and enognatismo among the disqualifying ones. Check the bite at the first viewing and again at six months, because a puppy mouth changes.
The Indian angle on that is worth knowing too. Second Schedule Part III paragraph 8(10) of the 2017 Rules requires that dogs used for breeding shall have been tested for genetic defects including hip dysplasia, progressive retinal atrophy, night blindness, hypothyroidism, entropion, ectropion, overshot, undershot jaw when incisors do not touch or mesh, wry mouth, two or more missing teeth and cryptorchidism. The word including makes that list illustrative rather than closed, and it names both of the malocclusions this breed's standard cares about.
Growth on fine bone
The standard's phrase is lean, agile and fine limbs, and the Italian text's is arti asciutti, agili e fini Ente Nazionale della Cinofilia Italiana. Fine bone under a growing hound is a reason to be conservative between six and nine months: no forced running on concrete, no stair repetitions, no jumping in and out of vehicles, and no long walks on tarmac in the heat. Free play on grass is fine; structured endurance work is not, until the growth plates close.
Weeks 10 to 14. Everything you expose the puppy to in that window is free and everything you skip costs years. For a breed whose standard says it lives in perfect symbiosis with its master, the exposure that matters most in India is being calmly alone for short periods, alongside the traffic, crowds and other dogs.
Head to head: the smallest Segugio against its family and against India
Against the Segugio Maremmano this is the smaller, cooler-adapted, hare-specialist half of a genetically indistinguishable pair. Against the two Segugio Italiano it is ten centimetres shorter, rectangular rather than square, and the only one whose standard promises obedience.
| Breed | FCI no. | Status | Males, cm | Weight, kg | Outline | Coats | Primary quarry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Segugio dell'Appennino | 375 | Provisional 2026 | 44 to 50 | 10 to 18 | Rectangular 11/10 | Two, one breed | Hare |
| Segugio Maremmano | 361 | Provisional 2018 | 48 to 54 | 16 to 23 males | Rectangular 11/10 | Two, one breed | Wild boar |
| Segugio Italiano a Pelo Raso | 337 | Definitive 1993 | 52 to 58 | 18 to 28 | Square | One breed each | Hare and wild boar |
| Segugio Italiano a Pelo Forte | 198 | Definitive 1956 | 52 to 60 | 20 to 28 males | Square | One breed each | Hare and wild boar |
Two structural facts sit in that table. The two provisional breeds are rectangular and keep their coats inside one standard as varieties; the two definitive breeds are square and each is a single coat FCI-Standard N 337 FCI-Standard N 198. And English Wikipedia's disambiguation page for the bare name Segugio Italiano lists all four as separate breeds, which is the correct reading of the register.
Against the Segugio Maremmano, which is the hard one
These two are the closest pair in the group, and the genetics says so. A 2015 analysis of microsatellite data found no significant genetic distance between the Segugio dell'Appennino and the Segugio Maremmano. Both are rectangular at 11/10, both keep two coat varieties in one standard, and ENCI gives both the same Varieta A and B structure.
| Clause | Appennino, 375 | Maremmano, 361 |
|---|---|---|
| FCI provisional acceptance | 11 February 2026 | 1 March 2018 |
| Height, males | 44 to 50 cm | 48 to 54 cm |
| Height, females | 42 to 48 cm | 46 to 52 cm |
| Weight | 10 to 18 kg, not split by sex | 16 to 23 and 13 to 20 kg |
| Primary quarry | Hare, then wild boar | Wild boar, then hare |
| Ears | Eye-line, mobile, half the muzzle length | Over the eye line, flat against the cheeks |
| Brindle | Not among the admissible colours | Permitted |
| Hare grey | Permitted | Not among the admissible colours |
| Nose | Preferably black | Black or liver |
| Docking | Not mentioned | Permitted where the law allows |
| Obedience | An innate and atavic talent | Not mentioned |
| Annual Italian registrations | 205 to 414 | 5,679 in 2018 |
For an Indian household the Appennino is the better-tempered proposition on paper and the worse-adapted one on climate. Its standard is the only one in the group that claims obedience and says the dog does not chase other wildlife. Its homeland is also the coldest, with Camerino's hottest month at 23.01 C against the Maremma's 25.16 C. Neither breed is available in India, so the comparison is academic, but it is the comparison a reader deciding between them actually needs.
Against the three Sicilian breeds, because Google asks
One of the four questions Google returns for this breed asks what the Sicilian dog breed is called, so it is worth answering properly. There are three on ENCI's list of eighteen Italian breeds: the Cirneco dell'Etna, a small sighthound from the flanks of Etna; the Mastino Siciliano, also called the Cane di Mannara; and the Spino degli Iblei, a flock guardian from the Hyblaean mountains. None of them is a scent hound, and none is this breed.
Against what India can actually supply
| Dog | Available in India | What it gives you | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segugio dell'Appennino | No, import route only | The smallest, coolest-headed Italian hound with an obedience clause | Availability, any Indian price, any health data at all |
| Beagle | Yes, widely | A similar-sized scent hound with a measured median lifespan | The mountain stamina and the hare specialism |
| Mudhol Hound | Yes, in and around Karnataka | An Indian hunting hound already adapted to the climate | The scent-hound working style; it hunts by sight |
| Indian Pariah Dog | Yes, free from any shelter | Heat adaptation nothing imported can match | The pedigree and the specialised hunting style |
| Cirneco dell'Etna | No, import route only | A comparable weight with the strongest Mediterranean heat case | It is a sighthound and hunts by sight and hearing |
The honest recommendation is the Beagle if you want papers and an Indie if you want a dog. The Beagle is one of only seven of the 65 scent-hound rows in McMillan 2024's Table S5 carrying a Y flag and a measured median lifespan, it sits in a similar size bracket, and it is buyable in every Indian metro. This breed has no measured lifespan, no health data, no Indian price, no Indian listing and no lawful route to a puppy here.
Six mistakes Indian readers make with the Segugio dell'Appennino
The commonest mistake is reading a Segugio Italiano page and thinking it describes this dog. The rest follow from a breed so new that most sources have not caught up, and from a standard whose temperament clause is more generous than any evidence behind it.
1. Reading the wrong Segugio
Both the AKC and Purina UK rank on this breed's own query, and both serve Segugio Italiano pages. Those describe a square dog of 52 to 60 cm and 18 to 28 kg with long hanging ears reaching seventy percent of its head length. This breed is rectangular, 42 to 50 cm, 10 to 18 kg, with short mobile ears reaching half a muzzle. The pages are not about the same animal.
2. Trusting the obedience clause without training
FCI 375 states that this breed's obedience is an innate and atavic talent and that it does not chase other wildlife. That is a breed club's stated intent, not a measurement, and nothing has ever been measured in this breed. Build the recall on a long line, prove it in Indian traffic conditions, and manage introductions to cats and poultry as carefully as you would with any hound.
3. Assuming small means less exercise
At 10 to 18 kg this is a small dog with a mountain engine. The standard calls it striking for its speed and speed of action, with an exaggerated passion for hunting and a canter alternating with trot through the working day. Two hours a day of walking, running and scent work is the requirement, and it does not shrink because the dog does.
4. Using the wrong standard's numbers
There are two current standards for this breed and they differ. The Italian national text gives body length, chest depth, muzzle length and head length as ranges; the FCI text collapses each into a single fixed ratio. The Italian text permits a brown nose; the FCI text says preferably black. The Italian text adds monorchidism and cryptorchidism to its disqualifying faults; the FCI text does not. Check a dog against the document the judgement or registration is actually under.
5. Assuming Indian humidity is the problem
It is not. Camerino runs 75.43 percent annual relative humidity and Gubbio 76.38, against Mumbai 67.39, Bengaluru 67.94, Pune 66.80 and Delhi 45.56. The Apennines are wetter than most of urban India. What India adds is heat, and here the gap is the largest in this whole cluster: Camerino's hottest month averages 23.01 C while Chennai's coolest averages 24.09 C and Mumbai's 23.19 C.
6. Expecting health information that does not exist
There is no lifespan, no screening scheme, no health survey and no prevalence figure for this breed, and PubMed returns zero on-breed records under every name form tested against passing controls. The Cambridge GAPO-syndrome finding of August 2025 belongs to the Segugio Italiano and is not transferable here. Anyone quoting you a lifespan or a breed disease list for this dog is quoting a guess.
Trying to import a puppy. The Italian seller ranking on this query offers puppies at around 60 days, and the DGFT FAQ states that new born puppies of less than 7 months are not to be allowed into India. Policy Condition 8 separately bars import of commercial dogs for breeding or any other commercial activity, with applications for trading or breeding to be duly rejected.
Adoption and responsible sourcing: the newest breed here, and the least available
Adopt rather than import, because there is no lawful route into India for a Segugio dell'Appennino puppy, no Indian breeder can lawfully produce one, and the breed registers only 205 to 414 dogs a year in Italy itself.
The law closes the question in the same way it does for every breed in this cluster. Import of dogs sits at ITC(HS) 01061900, Mammals: Other, marked Restricted. Policy Condition 7 permits import only for a pet dog with a valid pet book and records in the importer's own name, for research by an R&D organisation with a CPCSEA recommendation, and for internal security by the Defence and Police Force. Policy Condition 8 states that import of commercial dogs for breeding or any other commercial activity outside those purposes is not permitted, and paragraph 6 of Trade Notice 22/2022-23 states that applications for trading or breeding purposes shall be duly rejected.
Entry is limited to the airports and seaports of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata and, since October 2024, Kochi airport, with quarantine at the government quarantine station of those ports where required Department of Animal Husbandry…. The DGFT's FAQ closes the last gap: dogs for commercial purposes like breeding are not allowed, and new born puppies of less than 7 months are not to be allowed.
Who could lawfully have one in India
- Someone returning to India after two years or more abroad, bringing their own adult dog as passenger baggage with a pet book in their own name
- Someone holding a DGFT import authorisation obtained on documented justification through the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying
- An R&D organisation with a CPCSEA recommendation, which is not a pet-ownership route
- The Defence or Police forces, which is also not a pet-ownership route
Nobody else. And the supply side is thinner than for any other breed in this cluster: the AKC holds no page for it, the Royal Kennel Club has never held it, and Italy itself registers only a few hundred a year The Royal Kennel Club, media centre English Wikipedia, Segugio dell'Appennino. A breed producing 205 to 414 puppies a year across the whole of Italy is not going to have an export surplus.
What to check if a dog is genuinely in front of you
- Ask for the ENCI registration and the Varieta letter, A for the rough coat or B for the short, under Codice FCI 375
- Check the size: 44 to 50 cm for a male, 42 to 48 for a female, and 10 to 18 kg. A 25 kg dog is a different breed
- Check the outline is rectangular rather than square, at roughly 11 to 10 length to height
- Check the ears sit at eye-line level, are mobile rather than relaxed, and reach only about half the muzzle length
- Check the bite: undershot is a severe fault and overshot is disqualifying under this standard
- Check the tail is full length, since docking is illegal in India under Second Schedule Part II paragraph 6(8)
- Ask for the anti-rabies certificate before anything else, because the municipal registration hangs on it
On breeding practice, the 2017 Rules bind any Indian breeder, and on a breed this small the inbreeding constraint is the one that matters. Only out breeding and line breeding are permitted; in breeding, defined as breeding between relatives of the second to fourth grade in straight or side line within the first four generations, with the examples uncle to niece, nephew to aunt, cousin to cousin and grandparent to grandchild, and incest breeding, defined as mating between parents and children or between brother and sister, are both prohibited.
The alternative, said plainly
If what you want is a small, light, hardy, nose-driven dog that can handle an Indian summer, India already has options and they are here now. A Mudhol Hound is climate-adapted and lawful to breed in India. An Indian Pariah Dog costs nothing from a shelter and is adapted in a way nothing from the Apennines will ever be. If you want a registered scent hound of similar size with a measured lifespan behind it, a Beagle is in every Indian metro.
This page exists to describe a breed accurately, not to help anyone acquire one. There is no lawful route to a Segugio dell'Appennino puppy in India, no published Indian price, no Indian rescue population and no published health data of any kind. Adopt an Indie, or choose a breed that is genuinely here.
Segugio dell'Appennino questions, including the four Google asks instead
What is the most popular dog breed in Italy?
Google returns this question first for the Segugio dell'Appennino, which tells you how little it has to say about the breed itself. The useful number for a reader here is the other one: this breed's annual Italian registrations ran between 205 and 414 from 2013 to 2022, against more than 6,600 for the Segugio Maremmano in 2009 alone. Whatever tops the Italian register, it is not this dog.
What is the name of the Sicilian dog breed?
There are three, not one, and all three are on ENCI's list of eighteen Italian breeds. They are the Cirneco dell'Etna, a small sighthound from the flanks of Mount Etna; the Mastino Siciliano, also called the Cane di Mannara; and the Spino degli Iblei, a flock guardian from the Hyblaean mountains of south-eastern Sicily. None of them is this breed, which comes from the Apennines on the mainland.
What is the average size of a Segugio Italiano?
That is a question about two different breeds, and this one is smaller than either. FCI standard 337 gives the short-coated Segugio Italiano males 52 to 58 cm and females 48 to 56 cm; standard 198 gives the rough-coated one males 52 to 60 cm and females 50 to 58 cm. The Segugio dell'Appennino stands 44 to 50 cm for males and 42 to 48 cm for females and weighs 10 to 18 kg, making it the smallest of the four Italian scent hounds.
What are the top 10 Italian dog breeds?
ENCI names eighteen Italian breeds rather than ten, and that list is the useful answer. It runs Bolognese, Bracco Italiano, Cane Corso, Cane da Pastore Abruzzese Maremmano, Cane da Pastore Bergamasco, Cirneco dell'Etna, Lagotto Romagnolo, Maltese, Mastino Napoletano, Mastino Siciliano, Piccolo Levriero Italiano, Segugio dell'Appennino, Segugio Italiano a Pelo Forte, Segugio Italiano a Pelo Raso, Segugio Maremmano, Spino degli Iblei, Spinone Italiano and Volpino Italiano. Five of the eighteen are scent hounds or hound-adjacent breeds from this one cluster.
When did the Segugio dell'Appennino become an FCI breed?
On 11 February 2026, on a provisional basis, as standard 375. It was one of four breeds admitted on that same date, alongside the Macedonian Shepherd Dog Karaman at 378, the Sabueso Fino Colombiano at 376 and the Tatransky Duric at 377. The FCI register writes that date as 2/11/2026 in month-day form, and the standard itself writes it as 11.02.2026, so the two documents confirm each other.
Does the Segugio dell'Appennino come in two coats?
Yes, and this standard is the most explicit of the four on the point. Its coat clause opens: in relation to hair texture, there are two varieties, and mating is possible between them. The short-haired variety is a maximum of 2 cm of horse-coat texture; the rough-haired variety is 2 to 5 cm with a dense undercoat that the standard says prevents moisture wetting the skin. ENCI registers them as Varieta A and Varieta B under one breed record.
What is the Segugio dell'Appennino price in India?
No published Indian price exists for this breed, and no Indian listing for a live animal appears anywhere on the search results. The rupee bands Google India prints for related Italian scent hounds are euro figures divided at about 92 to 93 rupees to the euro, and on one of them the engine printed its own conversion code. Bonbeno publishes no rupee conversion of a foreign price.
Is the Segugio dell'Appennino good with cats and other animals?
Its own standard makes an unusual claim about this and Bonbeno reports it as a claim. FCI 375 states that the breed is particularly predisposed and does not chase other wildlife, and that its obedience is an innate and atavic talent keeping it closely linked to its master. No other Italian Segugio standard says anything like it. Nothing has been measured, so treat it as the breed club's stated intent rather than as a guarantee, and manage introductions carefully.
How long does a Segugio dell'Appennino live?
Nobody has measured it and Bonbeno publishes no figure. McMillan 2024, the largest UK companion dog longevity study, does not list this breed anywhere in its supplementary tables, so it was never even considered for the survival analysis. PubMed returns zero on-breed records under every name form tested, against controls returning 1,109 and 5 in the same session.
Can a Segugio dell'Appennino handle Indian heat?
It comes from the coldest homeland of the four Italian Segugi, which is the honest starting point. Camerino in the central Apennines averages 12.11 C over the year and its hottest month, July, averages 23.01 C, which is cooler than Chennai's coolest month at 24.09 C and cooler than Mumbai's coolest at 23.19 C. Its peak wet bulb is 17.01 C against Chennai's 26.11 C, a gap of more than nine degrees.
How much does it cost to keep a 15 kg hound in India each month?
Budget roughly 3,000 to 5,500 rupees a month before food quality choices. Monthly tick, flea and worm cover with NexGard Spectra for a 15 to 30 kg dog costs 1,103 rupees, a deworming with Drontal Plus costs 271 rupees at two tablets, an annual vaccination booster starts at 3,199, Delhi charges 500 rupees to register a pet dog and Chennai charges 50 for a licence.
Is the Segugio dell'Appennino legal to import into India?
An adult pet dog is importable, a puppy is not, and a breeding dog is not. Import falls under ITC(HS) 01061900, Restricted, and Policy Condition 7 permits only a pet dog with a valid pet book in the importer's own name, research imports with a CPCSEA recommendation, and Defence or Police use. Applications for trading or breeding are duly rejected, and puppies under seven months are refused entry.
Compare with similar breeds
Segugio dell'Appennino sits in 1 Bonbeno group. Each one compares it directly against the breeds it is genuinely an alternative to, on the same figures.