The existence of this breed can be traced back to 1975, when Piero Accettella, of the Little Ranch Kennels, in Cepagatti, in the province of Pescara, in Italy, noticed that, in the surrounding Italian regions of Abruzzo, Umbria, Tuscany, Marche and Northern Lazio, there existed mid-sized dogs with wolf-like features used as livestock herders and known locally as Cane Toccatore.