Double Dewclaws on the Iceland Sheepdog

Hello Folks,





The Canadian standard says





"Dewclaws: well-developed double dewclaws are desirable"





In Keeping with this most Icelandic Breeders around the world consider double dewclaws important, Single Dewclaws on the Front and Doubles on the back is the most common Dewclaw seen within the breed. IMO second would single on all four legs, rarely you will find doubles on all four legs, and even rarer, you will find the odd dog with singles on some legs and no dewclaws on one or more legs.





The Standard is very clear " Serious Faults :Lack of dewclaws.Yellow eyes.Round protruding eyes"





Monika at Tofra Kennels has spent years studying and learning about the dewclaws in the Iceland Sheepdog Breed to read about her "theory of the inheritance of dewclaws in the Icelandic Sheepdog" Please go to her website, and on the left side click on Articles.





http://www.tofradogs.com/english.htm





Within my own kennel, I have been keeping track of all dogs and their litters since 2000, and I will show you what my own percents look like, I will continue to update the results as each new litter is born, and of course that means that the results will also move around.



Personally, I will admit that I do not breed for the double dewclaws on the front legs, nor would I given the choice buy a puppy with double dewclaws on the front legs, I find that having doubles on the front is for me at least a distraction of the clean look of the leg. However having said that, I do look and breed for large, tight, lowset, very strong back double dewclaws.

As it would appear that the front set and back set are breed on different thesholds, this means I can work on creating bigger strong doubles on the back without having to worry about producing double dewclaws on the front legs..

Now you might ask, why would it be important, well the most basic and simple answer is that its one of the things that set our breed apart from many other Spitz breeds. We are a double dewclaw breed, and its often one of the first things a judge or new puppy owner will say, is can I see the famous double dewclaws.

But I think that its has more to do with the landscape that the dogs developed in, Iceland is a rough land, and its landscape is very much like the high artic in Nunavut, (as they are just across from each other, its no wonder that they are very much the same) and when I lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, I got to see first hand how the Icelandics used their dewclaws, and much to my surprise it was not on the climb up rocks so much as them using it for the controlled movements coming down the cliffs and rocks, they would spread out their foot, and with proper strong lowset dewclaws, they would use them as extra toes for grip and for control of their speed down. Only once did I think that one of my dogs had damaged their dewclaw using it, but when I looked very closely, he had in fact cut it on a rock, and Jason packed him out for a bit on the hike, and soon enough, he was put me down, and he limped out the rest of the hike.

Please never allow your vet to talk you into removing your Icelandic Sheepdogs Dewclaws, they are part of what makes our breed great, and just because most vets are use to removing them on other breeds does not mean that its correct for all breeds.

I have had a number of my puppy owners talk about the fact that their Icelandics use their feet and toes to hold their toys, and to control what the toy is doing a great deal more then any of their other dogs of different breeds over the years every had, and I will agree, the Iceland Sheepdog uses his feet and dewclaws to the best of its advantage, and I again thank Iceland and the Icelandic Peaple for this, I think they have breed for a hardy, smart, thinking dog, now its up to the breeders of the Iceland Dog, no matter where they live, to follow in the same footsteps.

Barks