About us

Lupavaro: Italian Greyhound breeder
ENCI / FCI recognized 

Lupavaro, Italian Greyhound breeder

About us: We are Luigi e Valeria, we live in province of Avellino. In the beginning, only our passion for the electric Blues guitar united us. We met thanks to music; Luigi, an excellent Blues guitarist, was my idol, as well as being my electric guitar teacher since forever. Luigi, in the beginning, loved cats more than dogs! I, Valeria, was born and raised in Dortmund, from a German mother and a Neapolitan father and I have lived in Germany most of my life. I have always loved dogs, I had my first dog when I was about 12 years old and I will always be grateful to my grandmother Gertrud who passed on to me her immense love for all animals and especially for dogs. I remember my first “encounter” with the Italian Greyhound very well: my grandmother gave me a book with the description and photos of dog breeds, divided by group, and it was there that I saw an “Italienisches Windspiel” for the first time, that is, a Piccolo Levriero Italiano and I was fascinated by it, so much so that that image accompanied me throughout my youth. Too bad, my parents didn't think like me, on the contrary, those "ugly and stunted" dogs in the end liked only me and so they gave me a splendid Boxer, with which I spent all my childhood. Fortunately, we grow up sooner or later. I took my first greyhound in the kennel, it was around the year 1996, she was old and very badly reduced, it must have been a cross between a Whippet and a Dalmatian and as soon as we looked at each other it was love at first sight. 

Lupavaro and Rescue

In 2000 I learned of the tragedy of the dog tracks and their closure. They were the first adoptions of greyhounds in Italy. I decided to adopt Bolero, a huge 11-year-old black and white Greyhound. I am happy to have given him a family and all our love and I will always remember him. Bolero died in my arms after a stroke and I still miss him terribly today. In the meantime Luigi, my children and I decided to move in together and it was thus that Luigi discovered, that our house was full of the ghosts of Cindy, Cora and Bolero whose photos were everywhere scattered around the house. And so it was that Luigi surprised me with a gray-blue bundle .. And it was thus that Luigi also discovered the world of greyhounds and was fascinated by it. Those who are lucky enough to share their life with a greyhound already know how it ends: greyhounds are like cherries, one leads to another and one day you decide to dedicate an entire website to them and a large part of your life ! We also actively take care of saving and looking for a home to less fortunate dogs: In our little one we welcome handicapped, elderly or difficult to adopt dogs. Some of them stay with us for life, others accompany us for a while and then they are adopted. They are almost always mestizos, elderly and / or disabled, in short, "complicated" dogs, which many people would not adopt. We have always said to ourselves, that in our house there will always be room for them too!

Luigi Panico & Valeria Rocco = WOLF-SHIP 

Luigi

Luigi is the owner of our breeding of  Piccolo Levriero Italiano. We would like to emphasize that Lupavaro does not live on breeding, on the contrary! We have very few litters and breeding is not our "real" job but a great passion. To live, we do something else: Luigi was born as a musician, to be precise Blues guitarist and always retains this great passion for music, as well as having made a job out of it. He is a true artist. Luigi handcrafts collars and accessories for greyhounds. Find his work on www.lupavaroshop.com In addition to his work as a craftsman, Luigi is also a very good professional photographer, specialized in pet photography. The peculiarity of his work is once again his great sensitivity: you can find his photographic works on the site https://www.luigipanico.it/

Valeria

Our breeding of the Italian greyhound is my great passion. I am ENCI trainer, and SVH certified dog educator, specialized in elderly dogs and/or with pathologies, dogs with "stress due" behavioral problems and dogs with disabilities. Together with my husband Luigi, we also offer a Dog Sitting Service and Wedding dogsitting, for owner dogs, when their owners cannot take the dog on vacation. Furthermore, together with my husband Luigi, I have been involved in Rescue since 2002. I started the  IG RESCUE CENTER ITALY, to help less fortunate dogs.

 

The nutrition of our Italian Greyhounds

Our dogs are fed BARF, because I soon realized how much nutrition can also affect the well-being of Rescue dogs, which often come to me weak and poorly cared for. Our dogs have a shiny coat, a nice musculature, they are active and lively but above all they eat with taste and with great pleasure! My curiosity and the desire to learn led me to read many books, researches and studies concerning the diet BARF, however, I felt that it was not enough, as my desire to learn was (and is) still great and I felt that there were still some questions that I could not find an answer to. So I applied to enter the German School for Food Consultants, specialized in Barf by Swanie Simon and I had the honor of being admitted and finally being able to satisfy my thirst for knowledge with 3 exceptional teachers: the same Swanie Simon, I would dare to say “the mother” of the BARF diet in Europe, her disciple Nadine Wolf (author of the book “Das Barf Buch” and the Heilpraktiker Nils Steenbuck to whom I owe a lot! I have successfully completed these studies, obtaining the certificate of “Food consultant for dogs and cats with specialization in BARF according to Swanie Simon”. My training also includes naturopathy and many courses on wild herbs in nutrition, dogs with different problems etc etc. Find my training path on mine dog education site.

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