Norwegian Lundehund
Six toes on each foot, ears it can fold shut, and a neck that bends back to the spine. All of it was for pulling puffins out of cliff crevices.
Photo by Andrva, CC BY-SA 3.0
Overview
The Lundehund is the strangest dog on this shelf anatomically. It has at least six fully functional toes on each foot, shoulder joints that let the front legs extend flat out to the side, a neck that bends back until the head touches the spine, and ears it can fold closed. Every one of those is an adaptation to pulling puffins out of vertical cliff crevices.
The breed came within about six dogs of extinction twice in the twentieth century, and every living Lundehund descends from those.
Temperament
Alert, quirky and independent. Lundehunds are affectionate with their families and reserved with strangers, and they are notably difficult to house train, which is a well recognised breed trait.
They are escape artists and climbers, using those flexible joints, and they are intelligent in a way that mostly serves their own purposes. They are primitive in temperament and they are not conventionally obedient.
Care and grooming
A dense double coat that needs weekly brushing and daily attention during the moults. Straightforward.
Lundehund syndrome, a set of gastrointestinal disorders including protein losing enteropathy, affects a large proportion of the breed and can be fatal. It is a direct consequence of the extreme genetic bottleneck, and a cross breeding programme with other Nordic breeds has been running to widen the gene pool.
Living and exercise
An hour a day plus mental work, and a genuinely escape proof enclosure.
Anyone considering one should understand the health situation properly, because Lundehund syndrome is common rather than rare, and should ask what outcross programme the breeder participates in.
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