Swedish Vallhund
(Västgötaspets)
(Vaestgoetaspets)
(Swedish Vallhund) (Swedish Cattle Dog)
(Länsigöötanmaanpystykorva)
"The Västgötaspets" (SV) is said to be one of the genuine Swedish breeds, even though it is not quite sure how it is related to the type-like Welsh Corgi.
Whether the Vikings brought dogs of this type from Britain to Sweden or the other way is hard to say, but modern cynological research say that this breed originally comes from Sweden.
Where ever it comes from the honour of getting it registered as a Swedish breed should be given to count Björn von Rosen. In the late thirties he remembered that he as a boy had seen specimens of this ancient breed on farms in Västergötland (West Gotia) and with the help of K G Zetterstén, headmaster in Vara, he succeeded in collecting some dogs, four bitches and one dog, who became the base of the breeding. Most of the practical breeding was done by K G Zetterstén and some other enthusiasts. These people managed to save not only the breed, but its good status and instincts as a herding dog.
In 1942 Count Björn von Rosen was engaged in what was called "The Jämthund Fight", some people trying to find evidence that the breed Jämthund was purely Swedish without any Norwegian blood. He then remembered the small herding spitzdogs, that he had seen in his childhood, when he spent the summers in Västergötland. He advertised in the local newspapers and asked if anybody had seen or knew something about these dogs. He then got an answer from the teacher, later headmaster, at Vara Folkhögskola K-G Zetterstén, who engaged some pupils of the school to help him find the dogs. They used their bikes and searched the neighbourhood. They finally found one dog and four bitches, which were of the right type. One of them was a "perfect", grey, bobtailed female, called Topsy, who was already 12 years old.Topsy was used as the model, when Björn von Rosen started to write the first breed standard. He sent it to Swedish Kennel Club with pictures taken during their biking tour around Vara area. This time the Kennel Club took action fast and already the same autumn they arranged an inspection and all the owners of the chosen Vallhunds were invited to a dog show in Göteborg. Six dogs arrived to the inspection. The judges were Colonel Bertil Burén, Count Björn von rosen and Baron Carl Leuhusen. All the three judges came to same conclusion that Topsy was the model dog. Among the six dogs there was only one male, "Mopsen". He was not the best possible quality, and in addition he had only one testicle, but at that time it was no disqualifying thing and so he became the first official father of the breed! The judges also decided that this really was a breed of its own. The Västgötaspets was born...
With this as a background people often say that all our vallhunds come from these five dogs. That´s probably not true; later on more dogs were found, but they were not many, and anyway it´s a good story. You can give some thoughts to the fact, that this 1000-year old breed is in modern terms not older than about 50 years as a breed ...
The first breed standard was written in 1943, and the breed was then called "Svensk Vallhund" (Swedish Vallhund). This name was changed to "Västgötaspets" in 1953, nobody really knows why. Before 1943 the breed hadn´t even got a name. They were just called "hunn" ("dog" in the local dialect), but that didn´t make them less valuable. Nowadays we try to keep to the standard when we breed dogs, which wasn´t easily done in the times when there was none. But nevertheless the farmers exactly knew what kind of dog they wanted to have:
|
* It was supposed
to herd the cattle |
If
the dog didn´t fullfill this, there remained only one thing to do: Let it go to
the God of all dogs. In the old farmer´s society there was no place for
sentimental feelings. The dog was, like everybody else, supposed to do its part of
the job on the farm. This was so near "The survival of the fittest" you could
come, even if the farmer never had heard of Darwin, and this is why we still
have a strong, healthy breed.
At first they only accepted the grey colour, but in the beginning of 50´s Karl-Gustaf Zetterstén managed to change that so that also the different variations of brown, yellow and red-brown became acceptable because a lot of these colours were found among full grey parents puppies. The quality of hair was one very Important thing to the judges. A real Swedish Vallhund should always have half-long coat with undercoat. It shouldn´t be soft or open. This was actually one thing that worried Zettersten later. He saw, that many younger breeders didn´t care so much of the quality of the hair and in his opinion it was together with the working skills one of the most important thing in Swedish Vallhund breeding!
The Västgötaspets, "Swedish Vallhund" has always been, still is and will hopefully continue to be a real farmer´s dog. In Swedish that is called "bonnhunn" (local dialect again; could be translated "hind") and is mostly some kind of insult, but not talking Västgötaspets; then it´s a name of honour.