The Sardinian Shepherd Dog or Fonni’s Dog (Sardinian: cane fonnesu or cani sardu antigu; Italian: pastore fonnese) is an ancient landrace breed of Sardinian dog used as a herding, catching, and livestock guardian dog.
Although there are depictions dating back to at least the mid-19th century, it is not recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale. It has gained a recognition of the Alianza Canina Latina.
The breed, which is indigenous to the island, was founded with approximately 170 specimens gathered from rural parts of inner Sardinia. The breed is, therefore, a landrace. Because of the large number of founders and the breed’s genetic variability, the breed should enjoy relative freedom from genetic inbreeding. Most of the dog breeds are derived by a very small number of founders (for example, nine dogs were used as founders of the Siberian Husky) and therefore inbreeding tends to be high, resulting in a high incidence of illness due to gene mutations.
Image credit: Chili The Border Collie, CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinian_Shepherd_Dog