Norwegian dog facts

In Norway it’s about 500,000 dogs. Ca. 400,000 of these are pedigree dogs. It’s born about 24,000 puppies every year.

The official national dog is the Norwegian elk dog grey. A breed of compact medium-sized dog with a heavy grey coat developed in Norway for hunting elk

The Norwegian elk dog grey

The 3 most common dogs in Norway are the schäferhund (the german shepherd dog), the norwegian elk dog grey and the border collie.

The Norwegian Lundehund, which takes its name from the lunde, puffin is one of the world's rarest breed of dog not only because of its modest numbers, but also because in one and the same breed we find a whole series of unusual anatomical characteristics. Some of these characteristics are found, but only sporadically, in other breeds. The lundehund has 6 toes on each foot, all fully formed, jointed and muscled. The dog can close its ears so that the ear-canal is protected against dirt and moisture, and it has neck-joints which enable it to bend the head backwards over the shoulders, so that the forehead touches the back; this is useful when the dog has to turn in a narrow passage. Furthermore, this dog has extremely mobile fore shoulder-joints, so that both front legs can stretch straight out to the sides.

The Norwegian Lundehund

Norway has nearly 200 police dogs. They are mainly private owned. A few dogs are government owned, including dogs specialised on explosives.

Dogsledding is a popular winter activity in Norway.

From 15 April to 20 August all dogs in Norway must be kept on a lead.

The Norwegian version of “woof woof” is “vov vov” or “voff voff”.