Our Bracco Italianos are a marvelous rare Italian pointing breed. They are a tremendously versatile bird hunting dog - being able to hunt, point, retrieve, track and swim. When we first started our search in 1998, we wanted to find and promote a breed of dog that has not been made popular in the U.S; statistics show that a breed's popularity here is often its downfall. After a 2-year quest, we found Jaap Muller and Tina Steffens, well-known Bracco breeders in the Netherlands. Their dogs have won hunting trials and breed shows all over Europe, and the dogs are raised in Tina and Jaap's home, as are all the puppies. Dino, our brown/white male, was born the day before our wedding, in May 2000; (we lost him in 2006.) When we told Tina and Jaap that we wanted to breed really good Braccos, they were so pleased to help us that Jaap went to Italy and selected Alba, the orange/white female, out of 7 litters.

The puppies arrived in the U.S. on July 5, 2000 and have been charming everyone since then. We got our 3rd Bracco, an orange and white female named Mari, from Tina and Jaap and she fit right in - as charming as the other two. We then kept Lovely Flora, a brown and white bitch from our November, 2002 litter. She is a wonderful combination of both Dino's and Alba's attitudes - she was pointing beautifully at an early age. In 2005 we obtained Astor, a white and orange male, from GianPaolo Poggio, a breeder in Italy, through the help of Tina and Jaap, who are his good friends. Astor adds an entirely new bloodline to the United States. Alba and Astor had Giana in October, 2006 . In April, 2007, Dan went to Italy and brought back Dixie and Apollo.