As you might have figured out from the name, I am Norwegian breed.
You can be forgiven for not having heard of us before. Norwegian Lundehunds are extremely rare, with only an estimated 1400 to 2000
of us out there. That number that is slowly rising with careful breeding, but we are still one of the rarest breeds in the world.
We are also perhaps the luckiest. Our story is a fascinating one of survival against the odds, thanks to a handful of very special humans.
A Very Ancient Breed
We are are what is known as a “primitive” breed. That means that our lineage goes all the way back to the earliest dogs with very little human intervention. In Scandinavia, dogs like me can be traced all the way back to the last Ice Age.
You can tell primitive breeds as we often are a similar shape to a fox or wolf, with a pointed muzzle, wedge-shaped head, pricked ears, almond eyes and a long, curved tail. I think we can agree that I fit the description perfectly!
It’s all in the name
The name Lunde means “Puffin” in Norse and Hund means ‘’Dog’’. That’s how we got our name: The Puffin-dog.
In ancient Norway, Puffins were an important source of food. We were used to climb the steep cliffs where
our humans couldn’t reach, and wiggle our way into the narrow burrows where the Puffins nest.
We would catch the birds and were so careful that we could also collect their eggs.
In order to do this job, we had to be super-agile. We can move our heads back 180 degrees to touch our spine,
and stretch our legs out 180 degrees until we are completely flat.
(I like to do this to get under the sofa, which mum calls my “starfish” pose).
Our ears can be individually shut to prevent water or dirt entering when we move through the burrows. But our most unique trademark is that we are polydactyl. We have extra toes; a minimum of six on each foot. This helps us to climb those steep cliffs and burrows in search of puffins.
Back in the day, a puffin hunter would usually own around 3 Lundies, and we could catch around 20 birds each per hunt, so we could collect 60-70 birds in one night. The Nordic people wasted nothing; feathers were used for pillows, and the meat was eaten fresh or salted and cured to keep.
Our unique skills made us a valuable working dog. In Viking times a good Lundehund could be worth more than a cow! We are alert and very owner-focused, and a little too clever for our own good. We worked alongside the Vikings, helped on the farm and were even used as bed warmers at times when it was cold (I still like to sneak into bed with my mum and lay under the covers on her feet at night)
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On The Road To Oblivion
At the beginning of the 20th Century men started using nets to capture puffinsso we were no longer needed. Our numbers declined drastically, -so much so that we could only be found on the island of Værøy in theremote Lofoten archipelago.of. Being the only dog breed on the island, our genetic line was preserved , because we were never crossbred with other dogs. We were concentrated in the tiny, isolatedvillage of Mostad, which was both our salvation and the cause of our near extinction.
Sigurd Skaun, a dog admirer and enthusiast is credited with the re-discovering of my breed in the early part of the 20th century. He had read various documents that were written back in the 1500’s and wondered if the breed was still around. His search led him to the isolated island of Værøy, and he was amazed to find us still hunting puffins.
1925 Skaun wrote an article in a hunting and fishing journal about my breed, entitled “A Norwegian breed of bird-dog which is on the road to oblivion’’. Skaun begged the all-breed Norwegian Kennel Club to acknowledge the Lundehund as a breed, but the kennel club declined, mistaking them for their close cousin, the Norwegian Buhund.
Without official recognition, the outlook for the breed was bleak. And perhaps our story would have ended there had it not been for Eleanor Christie, an American who had read Skaun’s article and was intrigued by the breed. .
In 1939 Christie contactedMonrad Mikalsen, a farmer and fisherman living in Mostad. At this time the population of Lundehunds was down to only 50-60 dogs. As there were no other breeds of dog on the island, these Lundies were pure-bred and directly descended from the ancient stock.. Mikalsen gave Christie four pure-bred puppies; three females and one male, , and strict breeding rules were put in place to keep their unique characteristics.
In 1943 the Norwegian kennel club finally recognized Lundehunds as an individual breed. This should have been a huge step in the salvation of the Lundehund, but the road toward extinction was about to head sharply downhill.
When the second world war hit, supplies of distemper vaccine were fatally disrupted. In a devastating blow, Værøy was hit by a epidemic
of distemper, killing all but one dog. Mikalsen reached out to Christie, who generously sent two pregnant Lundehunds and two puppies, to help repopulate the island.
As if one epidemic wasn’t enough, the following year distemper hit Christie’s kennel in the US, again killing all but one of the dogs.
Only one male survived. When he passed at 9 years of age, his body was sent to the Zoological museum in Bergen.
Deciding to wait until after the war, to restart the breeding program, Monrad send Christie two new Lundies in 1950. Unfortunately, they failed to conceive any litters. It was a tough time for Christie; her husband was ill, and thisprevented her from carrying on her kennels until he passed away in 1960.
Mikalsen‘s breeding program had continued in Norway, with the only population of Lundehunds left in the world. When Christie was ready to restart her kennels, he again sent her three puppies. This time, there was a successful litter, and the interest in Lundehunds began to rise.
In 1962 the Norwegian Lundehund club was founded with the aim of popularising and supporting the breed. Breeders could start with full knowledge of each dog’s pedigree, and with such a limited gene pool, it was important to carefully control breeding to avoid health issues.
In 1963 Mikalsen lost his last dog and again, the island was left without Lundehunds. Once again Christie came to the rescue and sent
her dear friend two pure-bred pups. They arrived on his 75th birthday.
By the 1970’s the numbers had increased enough that small numbers of Lundehunds could be exported to several countries.
By the end of the 20th century there were about 350 Lundehunds in Norway and somewhere between 700 and 800 worldwide.
Today there are Lundehunds from Europe to the US and even the Falkland islands!
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Save at last
The Norwegian kennel club is now confident that the Norwegian Lundehund has been saved from extinction.
We thank both Christie & Monrad for their love of the breed, and their dedication in saving us from extinction. And of course we must thank Mr. Skaun who re-discovered the breed and rekindled the flame. Without him, Mrs Christie would never have read about them, and the Lundehund would be forever lost to history.
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* See below rare photo's of what the Lundehund looked like, as you can see the the puppies have more white in them. This colouring is unfortunately lost to us, and officially extinct.
