Norwegian Lundehund

Kayota

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#1
I LOVE Lundehunds and have always wanted one, and I was wondering whether you all know of any breeders. I would consider making that breed my second or third dog if I had the money for a pup. I understand they all have digestive issues to some degree but I think I would be okay with that and I have always been interested in this breed and would like to hear from first hand experiences and meet a breeder or two. I emailed a breeder the other day and never heard back, it was very disappointing. Any ideas?
 

Kilter

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#2
Be patient - breeders have other things to do too, and with it being a long weekend there's a lot of out of town dog shows they may be at.

Also, did you tell them a bit about yourself and what you're looking for? Or just say 'do you have puppies?'. I know a lot of breeders that will hit 'delete' on emails like that, some even say so on their website. If you are so busy emailing every breeder online you find and can't write a little blurb, they don't want to bother (because quite often they find a byb that has a pup they can go pick up the same day). Just food for thought.

You may also want to look at breed clubs and see what breeders are listed and contact any that you like or even sorta like and see what they say. And doesn't hurt to look up conformation shows in your area and go in person to talk to them.
 

Kat09Tails

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#3
I have a good friend who lives with a small tribe of lundehunds. To put it lightly... they're weird dogs. Their gait is weird, their temperament is weird and not in a way I would enjoy but I guess different strokes for different folks. Make sure you spend a good deal of time around them before you decide for sure they're for you. IMO there are darn good reasons they're uncommon and continue to be uncommon.
 
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#4
Sorry, I don't have contact info for the one breeder I know, I don't think they breed very often, but they show their dogs at a lot. I like them, don't think I would want to own one but it isn't a personality/temperament thing, nor their digestive disorder, but they are a far smaller dog than I thought they were when I first met them! So not really in my preferred size range, but really cool little dogs! Pretty much for their digestive disorder, they need a MEAT ONLY diet, period! The owner was telling me how they use to feed them canned Pedigree, till the company changed the formula so it now contains grain proteins, and they were having a difficult time finding something else. Pretty much, if they get into grains at all, it causes a severe inflammation of the intestinal tract which can be fatal. I keep forgetting to ask if veggie and fruit are the same or are okay. Weird, but really cool dogs though.
 

BostonBanker

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#5
I went through a long period of wanting one really badly. I love the size and the look. I even have the advantage of a father that traveled to Norway and the surrounding countries regularly, and I figured he could just pick one up for me! He liked asking the Norwegian athletes about them, because they were always shocked he'd even heard of the breed.

The health issues honestly terrify me. The breed was revived from something like 7 individual dogs, and not that long ago.

I've only gotten to meet one. There is a breeder in New Hampshire, I believe. I met the one very briefly in the vet waiting room. The owners were mostly full of praise for the dog, but said the digestive issues made him mostly un-house-trainable. I didn't talk long enough to get an idea of how much they had tried to adjust his diet or treat it in any way.
 
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#6
I think the breeder I've talked to is near Syracuse? Anyway, the digestive issues are a bit scary, in retrospect, EVERYONE wants to feed my dogs treats and cookies while we're out, and many just try to readily dump them into my dogs mouth. When you think about it, nearly all of them are grain filled garbage, heck I have to tell the workers at TSC store that yes they may feed her a treat but NOT the retriever cookies as they give her the sh*ts. I'd almost imagine having to keep a muzzle on a Lundehund to prevent them from accidentally consuming the wrong thing. But I don't find the idea of dealing with the issues that bad, as I sit here with a dog whose butt hole is currently caked with poo, NO idea what it is this time but I'm changing his allergy meds again, ugh.
 

Kayota

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#7
I'm not sure what I told her, I was pretty tired when I sent it so it probably didn't sound that great lol! But I just want more info really, it's hard to find info or breeder websites at all. As far as the diet, well I already feed raw so that shouldn't be hard to manage! I heard through research that the digestive problems vary in severity from dog to dog so I hope if/when I get one I get one of the dogs that has it less badly. I honestly would be more interested in a retired adult dog than a puppy I think, I'm not a huge fan of puppy raising! It will definitely be years before I can get another dog though, but I'm attending a dog show tomorrow and maybe there will be some Lundehunds there ^^
 

Aleron

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#8
They're really cute and interesting dogs but I'd agree with whoever said there is a reason they are uncommon. I thought they sounded really neat when I saw them in the AKC Gazette a couple years ago. A quick visit to their parent club's website made me sure I didn't want one though:

"Lundehunds are very aware of everything that is going on around them and they will bark at almost everything or at nothing - some Lundehunds bark a great deal."

"Training Lundehunds can be a challenge. Lundehunds are incredibly intelligent and can easily understand what you want them to do, but, in the immortal words of Herman Mellville, they prefer not to. A great deal of patience, a large supply of delicious treats, and a sense of humor are all required when training a Lundehund. Lundehunds are more like cats than dogs in their attitude towards their owners and they generally lack the famous canine eagerness to please"

And especially...

"Housebreaking is an area where Lundehunds have proven to be particularly difficult to train reliably. This is a primitive breed, and they mark their territory, which is likely to include the inside of your house. A lunde-dog owner should anticipate that housebreaking will take longer than it does in other breeds and complete reliability is a rarity. ... Anyone considering adding a Lundehund to their life needs to be aware of this issue and consider whether they can live happily with a dog that may never be completely housebroken."

http://www.lundehund.com/behavior.htm
 

Kayota

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#9
I've read a lot about their temperaments, yeah... I'm not -definitely- getting one, I was just interested. Honestly their catlike temperament sounds similar to a Shiba and I already live with a dog who isn't 100% house trained (more like 95% lol) so those things aren't that big of a deal. Neither is the barking if I'm not in an apartment if/when I get one. But I have a long list of breeds I'm interested in and I doubt if I'll really ever have a lundehund at all. Just find them interesting.
 

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