History

The Swedish Vallhund or Vastgotaspets is an ancient spitz breed dating back to the 8^th century. Also known as the Viking Cattle Dog (Vikinggarnas dog). They are similar in size and structure to the Welsh Corgi and it has often been considered that these two breeds must be related. However this is a chicken and egg type question – which came first – did the Viking raiders taken Corgi’s back to Sweden or did those Vikings that settled in south Wales take their cattle dogs with them?

The Vallhund survived the centuries with little change as a general all purpose farm dog, mainly found in the south of Sweden. They were used not only to drive cattle but also to work on the farm as yard dogs, being competent at dispatching vermin and able to give a warning bark when necessary.

The breed suffered greatly at the start of the 20^th century and in 1942 Count von Rose realized that the breed was on the verge of extinction. With the help of Herr K G Zettersten he set about rebuilding the breed. This proved extremely difficult as after searching for good specimens of the breed he could only come up with three bitches and one monorchid dog.

One of these bitches, Topsy, is still thought of as being the “ideal” Vallhund and it is her measurements that form the basis of the breed standard today.

Although other vallhunds were located and added to this initial breeding stock the genetic pool is still extremely small and at present the Swedish Vallhund Club of Sweden are asking the European Union to place the Vallhund on the endangered/protected register of animals.

The first Swedish Vallhund to come into the UK was in 1973, an in whelp bitch. This bitch was followed by one dog and two other bitches. From these four the foundation stock in the UK is based as the next imports did not come until 1979 and 1980. Today nearly all vallhunds in the UK can trace their ancestry to these first four imports.

The versatile Vallhund

Standing between 31 and 35 cm (bitches smaller than dogs) and weighing between 11 and 16 kg these dogs are deceptively solid, although they may appear to be a small dog they are very substantial.

Mentally the Vallhund is extremely intelligent and wouldn’t think of itself as a small dog.

A typical spitz breed they have a wolf or fox time expression. They are intelligent, alert and eager to please, but do have a stubborn streak that makes early training essential. Like all spitz breeds they have a tendency to bark if left unchecked.

Vallhunds are natural herders and unsuspecting owners may find that they sometimes get the odd nip on their legs if their Vallhund does not think you are moving fast enough.

Ideally suited to an active lifestyle vallhunds will take whatever exercise you throw at them. However, a bored Vallhund may be both noisy and distractive. As they are eager to please they do enjoy agility, herding and obedience work. They will also retrieve and at least one has been trained to the gun.

General appearance.

A Vallhund should have a blunt wedge shaped head with an almost flat skull and well defined stop. The eyes should be very dark brown, medium sized and oval shaped. The teeth should form a scissor bite.

Generally the ratio of height at withers to body length is 2:3. They should be well boned all over with a good covering of toned muscle, which gives the impression of a strong little dog. They should have a fairly deep chest which viewed from the front is oval shaped and from the side elliptical.

Vallhunds should move freely with drive. This is a working dog and should be capable of running all day after cattle.

The coat is double layered with a harsh course waterproof topcoat which covers tightly an abundant soft undercoat. Whilst most Vallhunds are gray sable you can get other colours including red, cream or brown sables. White markings are permissible but should never cover more than 30% of the body. The coat should have distinct harness markings on the shoulders and back. The face should also have well defined markings, including a black mask and paler hair on the throat and cheeks.

Vallhunds do also come in white, blue or white with brown patches. However, these are not considered acceptable. Whilst Vallhunds should have a tight topcoat there are also some born with long coats, again this is unacceptable, in this case because they lack the waterproofing a Vallhund out in the field all day would require.

Tails

Vallhunds are one of several breeds which carry the tail-less gene. Providing the tail set is correct, ie that it comes off a sloping croup, then any tail type should be acceptable. These range from a complete no tail (inverted) through to a full spitz curl. There are commonly five types of tail, in addition to the two mentioned above you can also have a bob tail, a short stump (approximately 4 inches off the back) and an open spitz tail (C shaped).

At present in the UK many Vallhunds are docked though with the ban on docking in Sweden some breeders are taking a lead from the mother club and leaving the tails on.

There has been research undertaken in the UK into genetic linkage to determine the no tail gene. However, no link could be established. By putting two full tails or two natural tails together you will still get a mix of tails in any litter. Whilst there have been no reported genetic problems from mating tail-less to tail-less it is not recommended that two inverted tails are mated as in some other breeds this has resulted in spina bifida.

Hereditary diseases

The Vallhund is an extremely healthy breed, particularly considering the small gene pools both initially in Sweden and then again in the UK. Vallhunds on average live to around 14 years though some have been recorded as living to 18 or 19.

Some breeders have had stock hip scored and the average score at present is 13.5, however, only around 60 have been scored so the result is not statistically accurate.

A handful of Vallhunds have also been eye tests, all coming through with negative results.

There have been some instances of cleft pallets in the breed, however, research carried out on behalf of the Swedish Vallhund Society has shown that that this is of no significance statistically and is no worse than in any other breed where the problem will occur from time to time.

And finally

With only around 40 Vallhunds registered with the Kennel Club each year this is not a popular breed. However, if you are looking for a loyal, intelligent eager to please dog which is good with children and other animals, has few health problems and will have a good length of life the Vallhund is certainly worth considering.

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