Norwegian Lundehund History

The Lundehund originates from the Lofoten Islands from the fishing village Måstad on the Værøy Island. No one is really sure when the breed first appeared. There are many theories about the origin of this dog and this breed, but the most common theory is that Lundies survived the ice age and are one of the original breeds of dog.

Lundies were very important for the economy in the north coast areas of Norway. They were able to climb the cliffs and get the Puffin birds out of thier nests giving a meal for the hunters and the feathers were a luxury item for pillows and other down filled objects. Since the feathers were so soft and unique, hunters were paid very well to harvest them, thus supporting the island villagers economy. Because the pillows were highly fashionable, villagers increased the harvest of the Puffin, and thus increased the number of dogs that they owned. Households were documented to have anywhere from two to twelve Lundehunds and established Puffin feather businesses had even more than that. Lundies were highly valued and one Lundie is known to cost as much as a cow.

There are several reasons that the Lundehund lost it's importance. Taxes began costing the villagers a fortune. The government began taxing the villagers for each dog they owned, many could not afford this tax and stopped breeding the dogs. Another reason was nets, when nets began being used to catch the birds, it was found that they could get just as many birds but not have the expense of taking care of the dogs, thus breeding slowed to a trickle. Finally, the Puffin became endangered, thus the Lundie was out of a job, they were not legally allowed to hunt the bird any longer so the breed no longer served a purpose to the villagers. By this time the dog had dissappeared in several areas. If it had not been for such a secluded location, this purebred dog would have long disappeared.

The Christie family got their first Lundehund in 1939 from Mr. Monrad Mikalsen from Måstad. A few years earlier the family had read an article about the Lundehund, written in 1925 by Mr. Sigurd Skaun. The Christie's were experienced breeders of English Setters and after reading the article they became interested in the Lundehund and decided to try to re-establish the breed which had dwindled to very few in number. Their work resulted (with the breeding stock from the north) to prosper to about 60 - 70 dogs.

The next threat to the life of the Lundie was the lack of vaccine against distemper during the second world war. First the disease annihalated all the dogs on Måstad - later on probably all the dogs in the south and east regions of Norway. Before the epidemic wiped out the entire breed, the Christie's, witht he help from the author Carl Shöyen sent new breeding stock back to Måstad to reestablish the breed. These dogs became a new breeding stock.

After Eleanor Christie's husband died, she was inspired to once again breed Lundehunds, she was nearly 70 years old when she decided this and it proved to be a very critical decision in the history of the Lundehund. On Værøy Island there were only a few Lundehunds left, they were not propogating well and would have faced definite extinction had it not been for deciding to breed once more. In 1960 puppies were sent from Måstad to Mrs. Christie. Thanks primarily to Mrs. Christie who started all over again with 5 Lundehunds the breed was saved once again. All living Lundehunds can be traced back to these five dogs that Ms. Christie decided to breed once more.

Now there are some very enthusiastic breeders around the world and the number of Lundehund is growing steadily. They are a difficult breed to increase numbers in because their litters are historically small, two or three is the average. Occasionally there are litters of six, but this is extremely rare. Now there are nearly 1000 Lundehund's in the world but this is still a very small number so managed breeding programs are in place to assist in diversifying the gene pool and increasing quality in the breed. They are a very special, rare breed of dog but perhaps someday there will be enough of them that the fear of extinction will be history.


BACK  MAIN  NEXT