Swedish Vallhund

Västgötaspets, Länsigöötanmaanpystykorva, Swedish Cattle Dog, Swedish Shepherd, Vallhund Suédois-Spitz des Wisigoths, Vallhund Sueco - Spitz de los Visigodos, Schwedischer Vallhund, Westgotenspitz, Schwedischer Schäferspitz, Västgøtaspets

A companion dog still used for herding cattle at farms in its county of origin

FCI Group Spitz and Primitive Types

AKC Group Herding

TKC Group Pastoral

Country of Origin SE

Brief Description

The Swedish Vallhund is well suited as a family dog, happy just to be with its ‘pack’. Easy to train, and today shows good results in activities such as obedience, tracking and search work, as well as in the newer disciplines of agility, freestyle, flyball, and others.

Breed Standards

The basis of breed/conformation shows is the judging of pedigree dogs against the 'Breed Standard', which is a picture in words that describes the range of features that are deemed appropriate for the breed.

Three of the major international standards are:

Health Strategies

The Swedish Kennel Club (Breeding strategy, RAS, in Swedish)

The Finnish Kennel Club (Breeding strategy in Finnish)

The Royal Kennel Club, UK

Research Projects

Paroxysmal dyskinesia – international participation needed

The aim of the project is to better understand this condition and to support the long-term health of the breed. Professor Hannes Lohi and his research group have recently made important progress. Their preliminary results suggest a link between dyskinesia and a specific brain gene risk variant. Interestingly, the same gene may also influence personality and behaviour in dogs.

This possible connection between movement disorders and behaviour is still not well understood and requires further investigation with larger and more diverse data. So far, most samples have come from Finland. Only a small number of samples have been received from Sweden and other countries, and awareness of the study is still limited outside Finland. To understand the breed as a whole, participation from multiple countries is essential.

More information about the project here >>.