Lundehund

The Lundehund (or Norwegian Puffin Dog) is a breed of dog originating from Norway. Peculiarity The Lundehund has a total of 24 fingers. He has the ability to do the "split" with the forelimbs. Its elasticity also allows it to contort at the level of the neck, thus allowing its head to pass by the top to almost touch its back. He is able to contract the cartilage of his ears to make them hermetic to water. The last characteristic is the absence of premolars. Health Common dog breeds are fed with meat or even meal scraps. Since the Lundehund has always been fed fish, its stomach is not designed to digest animal fats. On the contrary, it can trigger a series of reactions leading to almost certain death. The ideal is to feed it with fish (100 gr. per day approximately). It can be cooked or raw and accompanied by vegetables, rice or pasta. Some products are poorly tolerated by the dog. For example: the immobilon. This product for narcosis has already caused a few deaths. It is strongly advised to avoid procedures requiring narcosis.

There is a hypothesis that the Lundehund would have survived the last glaciations, and therefore would place them in direct descent with the Canis fereus or primitive Canid and not the Canis familiaris, this would place the birth of this race in the middle of the Paleolithic, which would make the oldest race in the world with 1.5 million years of existence. You have to go back to the 17th century, under the pen of Peter Dass, priest-writer, to hear about it for the first time, it was in the islands of northern Norway (Lofoten). The poor populations of this region, very often fishermen, used the Lundehund to hunt puffins, which brought them meat, eggs and feathers for blankets. The description that is made of it is that of a small dog, with great agility. Each dog could bring back a hundred birds a day. This very prolific activity had the effect of destroying a good number of colonies of puffins. Adding to this the mode of hunting which changed in favor of the net led to the abandonment of the Lundehund at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1939 an enthusiast, Eleanor Christie, embarked on the rescue of the breed, gathering a small herd from Måstad, island of Værøy. During the 2nd war and until the 1950s, most dogs were decimated by distemper. But she did not give up and finally succeeded in restoring interest in the breed to many breeders.