The Presa Canario Dog: It's true origin
   Manuel Curtó Gracia
La Laguna - Tenerife
1991

FOREWARD

To talk about the work that Manuel Curtó has carried out about the Presa Canario dog is not something that can be done in a moment.  The task he has undertaken in investigating, breeding, selecting and recovering this ancient canine breed has been the main work carried throughout the life of this Lerida-born man based in the Canaries since 1970.  Surrounded by Presa Canario dogs, Majorero dogs, Canarian Podencos and a multitude of breeds which he trains and looks after on his property in La Esperanza, he is a man who lives his dedication to dogs with a permanent devotion, twenty-four hours a day.  His vast cynophile experience has made him a popular character in this world and an unquestionable authority on this subject.  He is sometimes controversial and at other times surprising, but he is always up to date with the current developments in the subject. Curtó represents the eternal inquisitiveness into our history, taking part and identifying himself with it, by his contact with the people of this land and by letting our traditions take root on him.  A profound expert in his profession and in the canine world, his independent and specialised opinion has been acknowledged repeatedly with as many criticisms as there have been praises, standing out from the beginning as an outstanding and objective chronicler who has always been straightforward when calling things by their name, regardless of how crude they may sound.

Time has proved many of his hypothesis to be right, which had been dismissed irresponsibly by certain so-called Canarian enthusiasts. 

The long history of dogs in the Canaries, which had been badly looked after and forgotten for a very long time, has been rediscovered little by little by Manuel Curtó who, throughout his countless journalistic collaborations as well as in chronicles, articles, reports and a long etcetera in parallel activities.  His well-documented contributions about the origin of the endemic Canarian breeds have proved wrong many of the preconceived theories which lacked scientific accuracy and which had remained unchanged in some Canine circles of the islands. 

A pioneer in this recovery and guilty to a great extent of the popularity and later recovery of these dogs, he has led many Canarians to be acquainted to the existence of the Presa Canario dog through his publications, including certain “authorities” on this breed who arrived later to this world and who do not recognise it today.

 His main contribution on the upbringing of the Presa Canario dog has been, without a doubt, his intense work in breeding and selecting this Canarian breed.  Numerous bitches and sires have been to his kennels; dozens of litters have seen the light there and his specimens have been the base for further breeding in Tenerife, easily verified by simply looking at the family tree of any current dog.  Untiring in his selection work and gifted with an enormous will to excels, he has never been entirely satisfied by a specimen, which is something that has earn him a reputation as an nonconformist; a necessary quality for the continuous improvement of the breed.

 His present work, the first monograph about an endemic Canarian breed, immerses us in the complex world that surrounds the Presa Canario dog in its recreation in the last decades. The interest triggered by Curtó´s work also contains another aspect to it; it invites breeders, amateurs or followers of the Presa Canario dog to carry on with the fight to improve this valuable endemic breed whose journey has only begun.  Without an exact knowledge of its past it would be very difficult to form a real view of its present, and it would be even harder to try to envisage what the future might hold for it.

The people who have been actively involved in the recovery of the Presa Canario must be pleased about the publishing of this work which, without a doubt, will contribute positively in the enrichment of our canine culture.  For those who are entering the universe of the Presa Canario for the first time, it will provide them with historical knowledge that will help understand the difficulties which this breed has had to face in its evolution.

 Nevertheless, the value of this work, which is currently quite a novelty, will increase with time as it will become another historical reference about the cultural wealth of our land.

 Clemente Reyes Santana

17^th August, 1991.

Copyright © Manuel Curtó Gracia- Legal registry deposit: TF 2100/91

 

 

Chio de Irema Curtó" is no ordinary or common "presa", his physical strength, his incomparable bone, his pshychological equilibrium and unequal security in attack converts him in the best "presa canario" of the moment. His descendants will give much to talk about. 1991.