I had met Mike Sottile in 1975 as he was a boxing enthusiast and I was a fighter in the NYC Golden Gloves. Mike had come with a friend of mine, Bob Gilman, to watch the fights. We developed a casual friendship over the years, mostly on our common interest in boxing. Time went on and we lost contact for many years.

Fifteen years later, my girlfriend (who later became my wife) Kristie and I were living in a remote area of New York, on 15 acres and looking to get a guard dog that was both athletic and large. We had gone to the AKC shows but most of the breeders of the dogs we were interested in were backyard breeders and the true working ability of the dogs was bred out. We decided to renew our search at the rare breed shows. On a hot summer day, we went to a show called, the Champion of Champions. To make a long story short, out walks into the ring the most magnificent specimen of a dog I have ever seen, winning the tournament hands down. This was our introduction to the Cane Corso and the famous Ch Cocomo.

Immediately following the show, we searched out the owner, who happened to have pups out of Cocomo with him and we bought our first Cane Corso right then and there, August 1991, CH Rocco. It wasn't until I got the paperwork on Rocco that I figured out the man I bought the pup from was Mike Sottile's son, what a small world!

 This renewed our friendship and he told me that he was the first person to bring back Cane Corso's and Neopolitan Mastiffs to the United States. He invited Kristie and I to his new home in Alabama, we packed up and spent a week with him. I was able to watch the Cane Corso at work first hand, they gave me a sleeve (I had NO idea what to do!) and I started taking bites from their Cane Corso's. I remember when Cocomo took a bite, he was dragging Mike's son all around the yard and it definitely got me nervous since this was my first introduction to a sleeve. When they wanted me to take another bite from him, I said, "Your going to have to tie him to a tree if you want me to do it again." And they did.

We were impressed with the temperament of these dogs and fell quickly in love with them. We ended up buying two 10 month old females while there, from the third line of dogs that were brought here in 1991. Midnight and Lucretia, were two jet black sisters that we quickly championed. Another dog we bought was a Cane named Juka, who was out of the first litter in America.  

I'd like to share how Mike became involved with the Cane Corso as told to me personally by him. He was in Sicily, attending a family member's wedding and driving down the road he saw a farmer with his cows in the field and with the farmer was a very impressive dog. They stopped the car and talked to the farmer, he told Mike that the dog was called Branchiero Siciliano, but they were also known in different areas in southern Italy as Mastino Corso and Corso di Puglia. This was Mike's first introduction to the breed and sparked an insatiable desire to learn everything about them and bring them to the US shores. 

In 1988, Mike brought back his first litter  

from Italy. He was met that night by a friend, Linda Sannino, from Diamond Kennels and later she became one of the original breeders of the Cane Corso's. She got her first pup from that litter, the famous Ch Malocchia. In the first litter, the dogs were extremely consistent in type, temperament and the movement was something to behold. They were tough dogs, definitely not for everyone and below is a history of the first three litters brought into the states by Mike Sottile.

 

First Litter Born-Aug 1988 

Sire: Turiddu

Dam: Saracena

• CH Cocomo
• CH Duro
• CH Ballo Orso
• CH Bruno
• CH Malocchia
• CH Tori
• Bedduza

  

The first three litters born in America were:

Santino X Bedduza- Born

Aug 1990, bred by Linda Valentine

Santino X CH Malocchia- Born Jan 1991 bred by Linda Sannino

CH Cocomo X Ariella- Born Jun 1991 bred by Mike Sottile

The first two lines that came to America were very similar in structure and head type, producing very consistent pups.  

In fact, I was so impressed with Juka that when Linda Valentine bred Bedduza again, we ended up buying a bitch named Gold and later on an older female (sister to Gold) named CH Coura both of these females were very typey and Gold went on to follow her sister and achieve championship.