The Cane Corso is a large dog of molossoid type, and is closely related to the Neapolitan Mastiff. It is well muscled^[7] and less bulky than most other mastiff breeds. According to the international standard, dogs should stand some 62–70 cm at the withers and weigh 45–50 kg; females are about 4 cm smaller, and weigh some 5 kg less.^[1]

The head is large, slightly over one third of the height at the withers in length, with a well-defined stop. The top of the cranium is flat and slightly convergent to the muzzle. The eyes are oval in shape, and set well apart. The iris of the eye should be as dark as possible.^[2]

The coat is short, dense and lustrous. It may be black, various shades of grey (lead-grey, light grey or slate-grey) or fawn (dark fawn, light fawn, or stag red), or dark wheaten ('formentino'); it may be brindled. Minor white markings on the chest, the feet or the nose are tolerated.^[1][2]

In 2017 a study of 232 Cane Corso dogs from 25 countries found an average life span of 9.3 years, varying with different coat colours. The longest-lived were black brindle dogs (10.3 years) followed by brindle dogs (10.1 years), grey brindle dogs (9.8 years), fawn dogs (9.0 years), black dogs (9.0 years), grey dogs (9.0 years) and dogs of other colours (8.1 years).^[