Dog Breed Guide
Dutch Smoushond
Profile
- Size
- Small
- Country of origin
- Netherlands
- Origin
- 19th century
- Bred for
- Stable ratter, Companion
- Height
- male 37 - 42cm (15 - 17in), female 35 - 40cm (14 - 16in)
- Weight
- about 9 - 10kg (20 - 22lb)
- Life span
- 12 - 15 years
A small dog whose shaggy, harsh, straw-colored coat, mustache, beard and eyebrows give it a comical expression. The coat is a single shade of yellow in lighter or darker tones, and the hair on the ears and beard is often a little darker.
Bright, cheerful and friendly, it loves spending time with its family and gets along well with children. As a dog that once chased rats in stables, it is active and curious, but it is less fiery than a terrier and is calm and easy to live with.
It sheds little, but hand-stripping the old coat about twice a year keeps it in good condition. It is a very rare breed, seldom seen outside the Netherlands.
Good to know
Smoushond is a Dutch name that refers to its scruffy appearance. In 19th-century Holland it was loved by gentlemen as a "stable dog" that kept the stables free of rats. Merchants in Amsterdam are said to have sold these dogs to customers visiting the exchange as stable dogs.
A breed club was formed in 1905, and it began registering the dog, whose numbers were already falling, as a purebred.
After World War II, however, its numbers fell so low that it was thought to be extinct. In the 1970s Dutch enthusiasts tracked down the few dogs that remained and bred them to recover the old type, bringing the breed back to life. Even today it is a very rare breed worldwide.