This is hilarious:
The dog has no interest in bitches. According to the youtube description, he was castrated long ago. Apparently, this happened before he became sexually mature, because he has no interest.
However, the bitch is willing and ready.
But he just wants to chew on his bone.
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Yes. These are lundehund, the polydactyl puffin dogs from Norway.
In addition to being polydactyl, they are also quite flexible. (Another example. Do not try with “normal dogs,” you’ll break their necks.)
For lack of a better word, these dogs were used as puffin terriers. Atlantic puffins are auks that nest throughout the North Atlantic. I know of at least one colony that is found in the state of Maine.
The birds nest in burrows and rock clefts were they are inaccessible to most predators. The reason why the dogs are so flexible is so they can fit into a puffin’s den.
Puffins do not always nest in dens. They sometimes nest on rocky cliffs. It is often suggested that the extra toes on the lundehund gave it a better grip on the rock facings and allowed them better access to these puffin colonies.
They are every bit as fascinating as basenjis are. These dogs are truly unique, and are worth studying for their uniqueness alone.
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As I noted earlier, the Norwegian lundehund has issues with a condition called lundehund gastroenteropathy. All lundehunds have genetics for the disease, but not all of them have symptoms.
They are also suffering from what I think is the most extreme genetic bottleneck in history of purebred dogs. There are roughly 2,000 of these dogs worldwide, but they are all derived from six individuals that survived a distemper outbreak that happened during World War II.
How these dogs have managed to survive such an extreme bottleneck is certainly a good question.
In fact, I have a few questions that I’d like to ask any knowledgeable lundehund person:
- The lundehunde are clearly unique dogs, but there are other breeds like them in Scandinavia and Iceland. Were any of these dogs used to increase the genetic diversity in the breed?
- What percentage of the dogs suffer from lundehund gastroenteropathy that is so bad that the dogs cannot have a good life?
- Because puffins are protected throughout their range, are there any career change positions that have been considered for these puffin terriers?
I would like these questions answered. I’m not trying to pick on anyone here.
I just want to look at unusual dog breeds and the effects of extreme genetic bottlenecks on various species.
I’m just curious. Nothing more.
Evidently seven or eight years is the average lifespan.
http://www.lundehund.com/health.htm
Interesting stuff here.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:7x-6IdSrsV4J:www.dcnh.de/cms/images/stories/Dokumente/lundehundsyndrome-whatweknow2006.pdf+lundehund+percentage+suffer&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShgqOQgYBenZMydYzX0O6bSR2yf8qEG0efDZWrUwJyZ6rvQdGJqqZzboSOV7l_mpGMuacXbscZcWBg55MuIPQjpmeAIXbieb4OnhkMmsBPXl0_pzNAOsNupuczDE7ciMHEdvCTb&sig=AHIEtbQDTmXRyM1l8aLb4inren5nRnzOHg
Do you think this could be the result of an inbreeding depression?
It sounds kind of like it to me.
Go here and read the history page:
http://www.nlaainc.com/
“Some years later, Christen Lang enlisted the help of a Swedish geneticist to devise a strict breeding plan. This plan, which calls for the inclusion of all viable males to produce a restricted number of progeny (this number grows as the population grows), was adopted by the Norsk Lundehund Klubb Breeding Council to help bring the Lundehund population back to greater numbers. Norwegian breeders have now been following these guidelines for more than two decades.”
The gastro problems are more likely due to disease genes in the founder population which then spread throughout the population. These are small dogs and they should be able to reproduce at a young age, before disease hit, it would be relatively simple to maintain a viable population by breeding young.
Inbreeding depression is not, in my book, the same as disease permeating the population. Inbreeding depression would manifest as immune system problems (lowered resistance, allergies), and reproductive problems (lack of fecundity, poor rate of survival for offspring). Most digestive problems are hereditary, there are certain breeds that are rife with them, but I think it’s the result of a small gene pool or founder population, not necessarily inbreeding depression. The digestive system is the gateway to the immune system, however, so a poor digestive system is going to be related to other problems.
There is a point, in a heavily inbred population, where either they die out or turn around. This is how laboratory mouse strains are produced.
Inbreeding depression is very interesting because before the fifties or so dogs had it much harder. No effective vaccination program, no technological care at all, no special neonatal care for pups. The hardy survived, and thus you didn’t get inbreeding depression showing up. The depressed dogs died and didn’t reproduce. Dog breeders also had a more livestock related outlook to breeding, culling was extensive, sometimes for specious reasons, but for the most part, weak dogs didn’t reproduce. Not like now.
At the link above, read the health section. Very mealy-mouthed. PLE, IL, SIBO, and IBD are NOT easy diseases, because you don’t just treat them and they go away, they are ongoing problems, it takes a great deal of commitment on the part of owners to keep these dogs healthy and comfortable, depending on the degree they are affected. I am on a nutrition related mailing list where many of the members have dogs with those very diseases, and just the stuff they go through to keep their dogs ‘healthy’ would make me RUN AWAY from a breed where those diseases are common.
do you have a physical address for the bitch in heat?
Jess’ point about only the hardy dogs surviving in early years has much validity. I remember talking to long-time breeders many years ago; their view was that if a weakly pup didn’t survive, so be it; there was a reason. Any that did survive, but had significant problems, weren’t allowed to propagate.
Quite a different attitude from so many of today. Especially when every pup has dollar signs on it’s back.
I think, too, that there are too many small breeders now. Not that that’s a bad thing, but if you are having three or four litters a year and have space and money to keep and grow out a number of pups, you will have a better ‘field’ to choose from for the next generation. If you keep two bitches, and breed only every three or four years when you want something new to show, keep only one pup from a litter, you are stuck with very few pups to choose from and there is great pressure to NOT just call it a loss if the kept dog doesn’t work out and breed another litter. Too, I have seen a number of breeders say that they are having smaller litters now than twenty years ago, and they don’t mind because that means less puppies to place.
Breeding culture has changed entirely and I don’t think the dogs are necessarily better for it.
I think you are spot on about small breeders.
One way of looking at it is that a small breeder has his dogs more like family members, so it is good for the individual dogs.
BUT, as you stated, if a breeder keeps only one or two pups, she breeds those pups (hopefully taking care to find a mate that compliments) pretty much no matter what.
A larger breeder who has 5 breeding females and keeps 2 pups from each can let 10 dogs reach maturity, select the best one or two, use it to replace an older breeding female, then sell off the 9 different one year old females, giving a better breeding stable, which helps the breed. The flip side of this is people associate a long row of kennels rather than a breeding dog kept in the house with lack of attention. It has been that way in the past, but it doesn’t have to be.
Of course, the best systems were in the past, where someone was landed gentry and got enough income from their estate to have no real job beyond managing their lands and holding. Then they could have a big kennel with 10 dogs and enough free time for quality interaction with each.
Now most breeders work 9 to 5 to support their life, breeding is either a drain on their resources accepted as it is part of an expensive hobby, or seen as a part time job they love to bring in a bit of money. This usually means one or two breeding dogs kept in the home.