Norwegian Lundehund

Puffins nest in burrows and cliff cracks along the Norwegian coast, and for centuries they were an important food and feather crop. Written references to dogs used for taking them date back to 1591, and on islands such as Vaeroy and Rost in the Lofoten archipelago the lundehund was a working asset valuable enough that households were taxed on the dogs they kept.

The job disappeared quickly. Cheaper netting methods arrived in the nineteenth century, and puffin hunting was eventually restricted and then protected, leaving the dogs with nothing to do. Populations shrank to a few isolated villages.

Two catastrophes almost finished the breed. Canine distemper swept the islands around the Second World War and left roughly half a dozen dogs; a further outbreak in 1963 reduced the survivors again, and every Lundehund alive today descends from a very small number of animals rescued at that point, largely through the efforts of Eleanor Christie and local breeders.

Careful breeding has brought the world population back to somewhere near 1,500 dogs, most of them in Norway. A formal cross-breeding project with other Nordic breeds, run with the Norwegian Kennel Club and Norwegian veterinary researchers, is now working to widen the gene pool and reduce inherited disease.

This is a small rectangular spitz, about 12 to 15 inches at the shoulder and weighing roughly 13 to 20 pounds, with females lighter than males. It is light-boned and agile rather than sturdy, built to move on wet rock.

The cliff adaptations are the defining feature. The breed is polydactyl, normally carrying six toes on each foot with extra pads for grip; the forelegs can extend out to the side almost at right angles to the body, letting a dog brace in a crevice; the neck is exceptionally supple; and the upright ears can be folded and closed to keep out water and grit.

The coat is a dense, harsh double coat, short on the head and legs and longer as a ruff at the neck and on the back of the thighs and tail. Colours run from fallow and reddish-brown to tan, usually with black hair tips and white markings, or white with dark patches. Shedding is substantial, especially in spring.

Lundehunds are lively, curious and affectionate with their own people, with a mischievous streak that owners find endearing and occasionally exhausting. They are agile climbers and determined problem solvers, so latches, gates and worktops all need to be Lundehund-proof.

The breed is typically reserved and watchful with strangers, and will bark to announce them, but it is not aggressive. Early and generous socialisation makes a considerable difference to how confident an adult dog becomes.

They can be genuinely difficult to house-train. Many take much longer than other breeds, and some never become entirely reliable, which is something to weigh honestly before buying. Patience, a strict routine and crate work help.

With children who are gentle they are usually playful and good-natured, and they generally get on with other dogs. Small pets are less safe, given the breed's hunting history.

The original work has gone: puffins are protected and no one hunts them with dogs. What remains is a set of physical talents with no modern equivalent, and a dog that needs an alternative outlet.

Owners channel that energy into agility, where the flexibility and light frame are an advantage, and into tracking, scent work and trick training. The breed also holds real scientific interest, both as an unusually well-documented case of population bottleneck and for the intestinal disorder that carries its name.