Fila San Miguel
region Portugal
cut 56 - 62cm
weight 30 - 35kg
hair short
dress brown or has ashen ripples, white markings on the chest and legs are permitted
head heavy conical shaped head
ear the ears are cut round, giving the dog a slight leopard look
behaviour intelligent, handy, wary of strangers
introduction
Care: very easy to care for, brush daily Usefulness: guard and protection dog, good cattle beater Life expectancy: 11 - 13 years
origins
The long isolation of the island of Sao Miguel, the main island of the Azores, has meant that the inhabitants have developed a homogeneous type of dog, adapted to their needs and to the climatic constraints. One of the ancestors of this breed is most likely the Old Spanish Alano. Since native cattle herders cared little for the purebredness of their dogs, the Fila San Miguel was in danger of becoming extinct. If there still exists today a breed of this name recognized by the FCI, we owe it to Antonio José Amaral who identified the few specimens living on the island and made the cattle breeders understand that these dogs represented a heritage worthy of interest. In 1982, the Portuguese Cynological Association recognized the breed.