The Brussels Griffon is a dog that originated in Brussels, Belgium in the early 1800s. They are also known as the Brussels Bruxellois. At that time they were referred to as the griffons d’ecurie or wire-coated stable dogs. Their start was as rough and tumble rate dogs but it didn’t take long for them to become stylish lap dogs for the wealthy. There is a portrait that was done in 1434 of a dog that some consider a Brussels Griffon but due to the breed not being recognized until 1880 it is considered an ancestor possibly a Smous which was a common stable dog at that time. There is also a life sized statue of a Smous that indicated the Smous was larger than the modern Griffon and had a more well-defined muzzle. The Brussel Griffon’s original rise to popularity was thanks to Henrietta Maria, Queen of the Belgians, in the 1870s. Thanks to her liking of the breed they became all the rage and kennel keepers of the upper class further refined the breed with a smaller body and a more human like face. Originally it is thought that the Brussels Griffon was a cross between an Affenpinscher and Yorkshire Terrier but DNA testing has put those thoughts to rest. Such a crossing did exist at one point in the early 1900s thanks to a farmer in Flanders but became entirely extinct during WWI. Instead the modern Brussels Griffon is confirmed to be a cross between Pugs and English Toy Spaniels. This information is documented in a trunk full of papers that was owned by Lady Muriel Handley Spicer who is among the early influential breeders of the Brussels Griffon. The papers were Spicer’s original breeding records and charts not just for her own breeding kennel but also the Belgian kennel club, Société Royale Saint-Hubert. Much like other breeds we have covered, WWI and WWII effected their numbers greatly and efforts had to be taken to keep the breed alive. The Brussels Griffon after WWI they struggled to gain numbers as a result of breeders being particular about undesirable things such as webbed toes.

The Dachshund is yet another German breed (my goodness Germany thank you but also chill lol) that has been around for centuries with their first “official” appearance around 1700. The word dachshund means “badger dog” in German and this described what a dog did versus what a dog looked like. Prior to the year 1700 there were apparently images of dogs that were described as “badger dogs” but they did not look like the Dachshund we know today. The dogs described as badger dogs starting in 1700 were depicted as “low in stature with long slender bodies and somewhat bent front feet.” The Dachshund comes in a variety of coats, colors and sizes with the smooth coated standard being the original ones. The coats are smooth, longhair and wirehair and their colors range from brown, black, brindle and dapple and sizes are standard and mini. I do know that for those of us in the United States the Miniature Dachshund is more commonly seen than the standard variety. With Dachshunds being the last breed standing to keep their descriptive breed’s name in they are known by other names in Germany itself and that is either Dackel or Teckel depending on where in Germany you are. It does appear that in English speaking countries like the US, England, Australia and Canada the name Dachshund stayed and are nicknamed “wiener dog” or “sausage dog”. Now on to what they were bred to do. These oddly shaped little dogs needed to have quite the personality and physical capabilities to be able to handle fighting badgers head on in underground tunnels so they were bred with that task in mind. Everything about the Dachshund had to fit the bill for the task starting with their legs needing to be short so they could fit into the tunnels including the curvature of how their legs fit around their ribcage, the shape of the ribcage itself to protect internal organs from possible debris puncture and their mandibular jaw being well hinged and overall remarkably large teeth so they could “give back as good as it got”. Given the nature of their work environment they also needed to be “independent, bold and not a little bit combative” with them being described as “courageous to the point of rashness”.

This week I wanted to talk about GPS trackers for dogs (and cats). There are many brands out there: Halo, PetLink, Garmin, SpotOn, Fi and Tractive just to name a few. I personally use the Tractive brand and just updated my vizslas to their new Dog 6XL due to it being smaller than their Adventure tracker. It was a bit chunky for my vizslas but I loved the battery life which the Dog 6XL has but at a smaller size. Now this isn’t an advertisement for one particular brand over another but for the concept in general. For transparency I used to have a Whistle GoExplore for Lucas up until Tractive bought them (the vizslas had Tractive prior to this happening) and I was overall happy with it and it did come in handy a time or two. I am very pro GPS tracker on our dogs even if you decide that the only time they wear it is while training or working. That, ideally, is the only time you will need them as well but I do have it on my dogs 24/7 due to constantly being worried about them because you just never know. I am glad that I have taken this approach because my male vizsla had learned how to escape from my yard either through parts of the fence or just jumping over it. The fence/yard has since been updated and so far has been successful in keeping him in. I found out he escaped due to his GPS tracker alerting me that his tracker had left the boundary. Understand that GPS devices are not always 100% and the occasional false alarm can happen (but that is better than no alarm) but for Káosz it unfortunately wasn’t but fortunately I was on property for 2 of them, @Paul Bunker r was present for one and so was a neighbor and he was returned safe and sound. Had I not had a tracker on him who knows what kind of trouble he could have found himself in to. Not all neighbors are nice and not all dogs are nice so if he were to chase something and get lost…I don’t even want to think about it. Do you use a GPS Tracker or have you thought about one? Let’s talk about it and help each other out!

Thank you for your patience. I made sure to have this be the first thing, after all of the dogs were walked and taken care of, that I did this morning. @Katrina Aggelopoulos I hope you enjoy what I found. The Leonberger is a German breed that was originally fashioned by a man named Heinrich Essig in the German town of Leonberg. It is believed that the Leonberger was bred to resemble the lion in the town’s coat of arms. At this time large and imposing breeds were common and especially those with light or white coats. Starting in the 1830s Essig began to develop the Leonberger by crossing a Landseer Newfoundland and a Saint Bernard for four generations then crossed that mix with a Pyrenean wolfhound which does not actually exist apparently. It is possible that the Pyrenean wolfhound is in fact either a Great Pyrenees or a Pyrenean mastiff. You can imagine that with all of these mixes of bi colored breeds that the Leonberger of yesterday do not look like the ones of today. They were multicolored dominantly white and with no black mask. One thing that has remained the same is their friendly, loving a great cohabiting temperament whether that be with children or other animals. A breed standard was not established until Essig died in 1889 since he never came up with one himself. It was his nephew that is responsible for breeding Leonberger’s to consistently produce the tawny coats and black masks that defines their look today. I would say that is more lion like than multicolored or white. In 1891 the first Leonberger clubs were founded and an early club president by the name of Albert Kull wrote the first standard for the breed. Kull’s effort established much credibility for the breed and with that the Leonberger thrived. Much like some of the other breeds we have discussed WWI and WWII took a massive toll on the Leonberger numbers and they almost went extinct. For WWI it is thanks to two men, Karl Stadelmann and Otto Josenhans, that the Leonberger did not become a memory. After the war the two men swept Germany in search of any Leonbergers left and found 25. Out of these 25 only 5 were suitable to breed. Due to financial and food hardships supporting a breeding program was not likely at this time. Thankfully a group of seven people came together to form a breeding cooperative. This proved to be successful because within four years their organized breeding programs selectively bred 350 Leonbergers. This brought about the official establishment of the Breed Registry and they also provided foundation stock to other kennels.

This week we are going to talk about one of the rarest, but apparently least popular on the AKC list of official breeds, the Norwegian Lundehund. This Norway native is also considered one the oldest and most primitive of the dog breeds in the world. There are various statements on how old the Norwegian Lundehund is as one source says there is archaeological evidence of skeletal remains that go back to the Viking Age and a lineage that goes back thousands. Another source states that the furthest back is mentions of a dog with such skill being written down as far back as the 1400s or the year 1591. Regardless of which one is correct it is clear that this dog has been around for a while. These dogs have quite the fun and unique job which caused them to evolve to have some fun and unique physical features. The Norwegian Lundehund can literally be translated to “Puffin Dog” as their job was to hunt puffins in Norway all along the steep cliffs. In order to adapt well to their job they were selectively bred to have 6 functioning toes on EACH paw, be able to have their legs fan out at 90º like an airplane, fold their ears shut forward or backward to protect against water and debris and be able to flex their head back onto their spine for quick about face maneuvers in small caves. They not only were responsible for finding and retrieving puffins but also they were watchdogs and helped herd small livestock where their unique capable stability comes into play again on the rocky terrain. Much like with other types of jobs the Norwegian Lundehund became obsolete once nets and other methods were introduced plus the Norwegian authorities had a dog tax which made having a dog made life more expensive and families often had multiple Norwegian Lundehund at this time. In the 1960s the Norwegian Lundehund had barely survived a wave of distemper only for another wave of distemper to come through and almost wipe out the breed again. This left the Norwegian Lundehund with 6 that were purebred where only 4 were used to repopulate the breed and those 4 were related. This “genetic bottleneck” as it is called in the sources was and is a concern for Norwegian Lundehund enthusiasts. This level of inbreeding has caused some health issues as one might imagine and this includes low fertility and something called intestinal lymphangiectasia which basically is a digestive disorder that does not allow your body to absorb the nutrients one needs from food. Essentially a dog with this disorder can starve to death no matter how much they eat.