Home / Questions / Norwegian Lundehund
Norwegian Lundehunds are moderately easy to train, with consistency: trainability is rated 3 out of 5 in our breed record, the middle of the scale, and the middle is an honest place. A Norwegian Lundehund learns everything a pet dog needs to learn, but it learns at its own pace, checks whether each cue is worth obeying today, and improves in weeks rather than days. The breed is Confident, lively, devoted and strong willed, high in energy, a Non-Sporting dog from Norway. The same breed that frustrates a sporadic trainer, five minutes when someone remembers, delights a steady one, because the dog's memory is good and its Confident, lively, devoted and strong willed temperament responds to clear, kind repetition.
Harsh methods are pointless with this proud little breed; warmth, clarity and food rewards produce a companionable, fascinating partner. Lundehunds are bright and learn well with reward based, varied training, with a primitive independence that engages when lessons bore them, and housetraining that famously needs extra patience and routine. Harsh methods are pointless with this proud little breed; warmth, clarity and food rewards produce a companionable, fascinating partner. Norway produced the Norwegian Lundehund, a small spitz breed bred to work as an all purpose northern farm, hunting and companion dog in a hard climate. They suit owners who like a dog that talks back a little.
The record in one paragraph: trainability 3 out of 5, energy 4 of 5, barking 4 of 5, grooming effort 3 of 5. The Norwegian Lundehund needs 45 to 90 minutes of exercise a day, stands 12 to 15 inches, weighs 12 to 18 lb and lives 12 to 15 years. A high energy, highly trainable dog is a joy with structure and a whirlwind without it, while a calmer dog at the same score simply learns in a lower gear. The Norwegian Lundehund's Non-Sporting heritage, from Norway, supplies the why behind the numbers: the breed's original work decided what it pays attention to, and modern training succeeds when it pays in that currency.
Distraction economics decides outdoor training with this breed. Indoors, your treat outbids an empty room; outdoors, it competes with the Norwegian Lundehund's whole Non-Sporting inheritance, smells, movement and other dogs, and it often loses. With that, a 3 out of 5 breed becomes quietly reliable; without it, the same dog gets labeled stubborn by the very inconsistency that trained it.
Priorities are housetraining with a meticulous routine, recall built carefully and managed honestly outdoors, lead manners, a settle, and cooperative care for feet and ears. Priorities are housetraining with a meticulous routine, recall built carefully and managed honestly outdoors, lead manners, a settle, and cooperative care for feet and ears. Adolescents are agile, clever and climbing focused, and games plus structure carry the household through.
Puppies are bright, foxy charmers; adults are keen, devoted companions that climb everything climbable and supervise the household from height. Lundehunds are clever, agile and affectionate, with a primitive independence and a comedian's physicality.
The comparison set on the record sharpens the picture. The Norwegian Lundehund's closest matches here, the Alaskan Klee Kai, the Schipperke and the American Eskimo Dog, carry their own trainability scores, and the spread across that shortlist shows how much the score can move inside one build and coat type. The Norwegian Lundehund's 3 out of 5 is its own: plan lessons from it, not from a lookalike's reputation, because two similar breeds can be very different students.
Build the day around the record: 45 to 90 minutes of exercise, with training folded inside it rather than bolted on. Five minutes of cues before breakfast, a recall game mid walk, two minutes of settle practice in the evening teaches more than a weekly marathon, because the Norwegian Lundehund learns in repetitions spread across real life. Puppies need the same shape at a smaller scale, with the breed's growth stages respected: joints and attention spans are both unfinished in the first year, and the 12 to 15 year lifespan rewards owners who pace the early work. Keep rest days genuinely restful: consolidation happens off duty, and a 3 out of 5 breed returns from them sharper, not rustier.
For completeness, the record's remaining lines: the record's color line for the Norwegian Lundehund reads: Standard colors: red-brown to yellow-brown with white areas. Its coat is recorded as Dense and short (seasonal shedding), and its apartment rating is With enough exercise. The record's color line reads: Standard colors: red-brown to yellow-brown with white areas. Owners teach the dog in front of them; the record just makes sure it is the whole dog.
Money puts the training effort in proportion. Feeding a typical Norwegian Lundehund runs near $13 a month, insurance cover sits between $29 and $55 a month, and a set of group classes costs less than either line's quarterly total, yet owners routinely fund the first two and improvise the third. The record suggests the opposite priority order for year one: the classes, a long line and a treat budget are what convert a 3 out of 5 score into an adult dog that is cheap to live with for 12 to 15 years, in every currency that matters. Budget the treats, schedule the 45 to 90 minutes, and the record's other numbers take care of themselves.
The day the puppy comes home. In the Norwegian Lundehund's case the setting matters as much as the method: bark level 4 out of 5, shedding 4 out of 5, and a home routine built around a dog of 12 to 18 pounds shape what practice actually looks like. Young Norwegian Lundehunds are learning in every waking hour whether anyone is teaching or not, so the only choice is whether the lessons are yours. Start with name recognition, recall to a whistle or cue, toilet routine, crate comfort and gentle handling, all paid in food and play. Formal cue lists can wait a few weeks; the habits cannot. A breed rated 3 out of 5 keeps what it learns early, in both directions, for a 12 to 15 year life.
The trainability record says 3 out of 5, and that is the heart of the answer. With the Norwegian Lundehund, whose lifespan runs 12 to 15 years and whose senior years begin around 10 years, the honest answer also shifts across the dog's life, and the training plan should shift with it. A first time owner who follows a structured puppy course and trains a little every day will find the Norwegian Lundehund very manageable at the higher scores and a genuine education at the lower ones. Weigh the whole record before deciding: 45 to 90 minutes of daily exercise, a With early socialization verdict around other dogs and Good with children around children make the full picture, and training is only one panel of it.
For this breed, owners consistently name the same theme: keeping the dog's agreement. The Norwegian Lundehund's own numbers frame it: trainability 3 out of 5 alongside energy 4 out of 5 is a specific combination, and it produces a specific kind of student rather than a generic one. At 3 out of 5 for trainability, the Norwegian Lundehund understands quickly and then applies its own judgment, filtered through a Confident, lively, devoted and strong willed temperament. The work is motivational, not mechanical: high value rewards, short varied sessions and rules the whole household enforces identically. Owners who crack that code stop calling the breed hard and start calling it particular, which is fairer to both parties.
Last updated: November 10, 2026