Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Rare Komondor population boosted by a quarter by one litter

The Komondor, pictured here, is one of the world’s rarest dogs.  There are only a few thousand left in the world, predominantly in the US, and only around forty of these live in the UK.

The UK’s population has been boosted by a quarter by a record litter of nine little Komondors, born in Cornwall.  The usual litter size is just four.

All the fluffy pups look the same so their tails have been dabbed with a little colour so the new owners can tell the difference.  As a result, their names thus far are:

Red, Blue, Purple, Green, Silver, Brown, Pink, White and Tiny - named because he was slightly smaller than the others

I wouldn’t like to have to bath these dogs though.  They are known as the hairiest dog in the world because after the age of around six to nine months their hair grows as dreadlocks.  They take an awful lot of grooming and are not for the virgin dog owner.  Bath time must be fun.  In fact, if you’re going to take on a dog like this, I would think you would want to use free standing baths so you can get round the dog from all sides.  They have the heaviest fur in the world and owners have to separate the strands of deadlocks to avoid it turning into one hairy mass.  No wonder they aren’t too popular.

Eight of the pups are being sold for £1,000 each and the owners are keeping one.  Komondors are originally from Hungary and in World War II started to die out as the Germans killed them.  They are very loyal dogs and the Germans could not capture a farm or a home without killing the dog.