My partners family come from Alberona, which is a mountain village, with most of the farms being on the plains, around places like Foggia and Lucera. There are a number of farms there that are falling apart, so I am not sure how far the problems I saw with farm dogs are connected to this. Most of the farms are being abandonned as the younger generation do not want to take them over and work them, so parents die and the farms are just left (there is no proper housing market in these areas either. We have just bought a two bedroom flat there for 10,000 euros), and houses, farms and flats do tend to be left sometimes for years. There was a huge problem with farm dogs being dumped in the area, roaming the outskirts of the town, and some were shot for aggression towards people, basically because of a lack of socialisation with other people. Also, local rumours started that these dogs were breeding with the wolf population (there has been a reintroduction of wolves in the Gargano, a national park, and these wolves are spreading) and that caused a lot of fear as it seemed to coincide with attacks on sheep, which hadn't happened before, so a cull was ordered by the local mayor of the abandonned farm dogs. The only one who is tolerated is one young male dog who is exceptionally friendly, and visits the village. He is fed on scraps, and played with and people like to see him around. The local breed in this region is referred to as the abbruzzese shepherd dog, and I managed to track down a picture after doing a google search:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/110027826/1140148643052182113mkWxlnThere was a proper breed website i found last year but I can't seem to find it anymore. They certainly aren't naturally aggressive, but they are dogs who like to work.