This breed belongs to the Bichon group, thus originated from those small white dogs called "Melitensi" by Aristotle which became widespread in the Mediterranean countries. It was embarked on ships to kill the rats and gave origin to the Maltese dog and the other Bichons. In Italy, as far back as the Roman times, they were considered precious. During the Renaissance the nobility took to the habit of exchanging them as gifts and in this way they reached the court of Catherine II of Russia. This small "lady's dog" never became important in the way of numbers, and even today its population has remained rather small. One of the reasons for this is that it cannot count on an extraneous contribution of blood since the Bolognese is not bred abroad; it is therefore a rare breed. It has the typical character of country dogs, it needs close contact with the human family into which it integrates completely. Vivacious, extremely intelligent, trainable, playful but, at the same time, discreet and not intrusive. Small, mesomorphic, covered with long hair in tufts, which are raised and cover the entire animal.