Dog’s Best Friend: Hound of the Baskervilles? Story updated

Telluride Inside… and Out’s expert dog trainer, Ted Hoff, of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, has lots of stories to tell after 20 years more or less in the business. This is a tale about a dog named Gypsy, a Corsican mastiff.

The infamous hound in Arthur Conan Doyle’s  “Hound of the Baskervilles,” is often thought to be a mastiff like Gypsy. Truth is the animal belonged to no known breed. Rather, the creature was meant to be the embodiment of an ancient myth about  Death’s dog. When Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick, Watson recalled the moment he could check out the animal’s corpse closely, however, he describes the creature as half-mastiff, half-bloodhound.

The real world Cane Corso, a large guard dog native to Southern Italy, is blessed with a stable temperament and powerful body that makes the breed central casting for protection work. Scaring the bejesus out of people is a whole other story. Ted Hoff’s story.