Hällefors Elkhound () is a Swedish

dog breed A dog breed is a particular type of dog that was purposefully bred by humans to perform specific tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. Dogs are the most variable mammal on Earth, with artificial selection producing upward of 360 globall ...

Appearance

The Hällefors Elkhound is a medium-sized, rectangular Spitz with either a sickle or curly tail. Thick, harsh, and dense coat should always be yellow, ranging from fawn to reddish. The colour shade is lighter in chest, belly, legs, and below the tail. The average height for males is 55 to 63 cm and for females 52 to 60 cm.

Behaviour

The Hällefors Elkhound is an energetic, courageous, and persistent dog with a strong character.

History

The breed was developed in

Svealand Svealand (), or Swealand, is the historical core region of Sweden. It is located in south-central Sweden and is one of the three historical lands of Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by Götaland. Deep forests, Tive ...

, but its more detailed area of origin has been argued. It is stated that despite its name, it was not created in Hällefors, but in Fredriksberg village located in neighbouring

Ludvika Municipality Ludvika Municipality () is a Municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Dalarna County, central Sweden. It has its seat in the town of Ludvika. In 1971 the City of Ludvika (itself instituted as such in 1919) was amalgamated with the adjacent munic ...

.SKK
''Hälleforshund''
Svenska Kennelklubben (SKK). Retrieved June 21st 2014. It has mainly been used as a deer-hunting dogSKL. (May 30th 2006
''Hälleforsinkoira''
. Suomen Kennelliitto (SKL). Retrieved June 21st 2014. and its most remarkable ancestors are the

Finnish Spitz Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

and the Ostyak Laika. The Swedish Kennel Club, Svenska Kennelklubben, recognized the breed in 2000 and nowadays it is also recognized in several other Nordic countries, such as

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Lineage

The breed falls under the

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

sub-

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

referred to as d1 that is only found in northern Scandinavia. It is the result of a female wolf-male dog hybridization that occurred post-domestication. Subclade d1 originated 480–3,000 years ago and is found in all

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

-related breeds: the Finnish Lapphund, Swedish Lapphund, Lapponian Herder, Swedish Elkhound,

Norwegian Elkhound The Norwegian Elkhound is one of the Northern Spitz-type breeds of dog and is the National Dog of Norway. The Elkhound has served as a hunter, guardian, herder, and defender. It is known for its courage in tracking and hunting elk an ...

Black Norwegian Elkhound The Black Norwegian Elkhound (Norwegian Elghund Sort (NES) in Norwegian) is a small Spitz breed classified by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale, FCI as a hunting dog. It is currently an uncommon breed in Norway and very rare outside ...

and Hällefors Elkhound. The maternal wolf sequence that contributed to these breeds has not been matched across Eurasia and its branch on the

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In ...

is rooted in the same sequence as the 33,000 year-old Altai dog (not a direct ancestor).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallefors Elkhound Rare dog breeds Dog breeds originating in Sweden