The chart shows Entlebucher births recorded by country over the period from January 2023 to August 2024. This indicates there are fewer than a thousand of our breed registered annually worldwide. Now you can see why waiting times can be so long. 

Setting aside the fact that this shows how uncommon our breed is, even in its home country of Switzerland, should we be encouraged by the increased diversity of where the dogs are being bred? Yes and no. From the point of view of broadening the gene pool, whilst the dogs still go back to the same limited breeding stock, modern pairings are more diverse which could, in the long term, be helpful to the breed – BUT…

There is a big BUT in all this. To be of most help to the breed, all countries would work to the same high standards of breeding. If all those breeding were to follow, careful adherence to breeding best practice, full health testing – and suitable matching of those health tests, character testing and conformation to the FCI breed standard, then we could be rightly encouraged by this picture. 

There are many ways in which countries are falling short of those standards. And that makes the split shown in the graph more alarming. Below are just a few of the key areas of concern, which when numbers are so low can have a serious effect on the development of the breed.

What are the problems: 

• Overbreeding of a bitch or a stud dog – meaning that dog will, within a generation or two appear in the lines of too many of the breed as a whole. 

• Not being strict enough with health testing or matching of health tests – meaning for example that there are an increasing number of puppies born which do not achieve a clear gonioscopy (indicator of risk of glaucoma) making the overall risk of glaucoma greater going forward. This is used as an example, but it can be true within others of the health tests. Many breeders will claim they do ‘all health testing’ but that in itself is no use if the appropriate decisions do not follow from those tests, including the difficult decision not to breed from some dogs.

• Breeding from dogs whose character is not in keeping with that expected of an Entlebucher. Of course, some of this can be the way the dog is raised, but a large element is most definitely genetic.

• Not looking at conformation to breed standard before breeding. The Breeding test (Ankörung), based on the Swiss model, is undertaken by a number of countries but by no means all. It assesses the dogs point by point to ensure they are fit for their original function and remain true to type over the years. Some countries have a system whereby it is dog show results which are considered. That can be workable, but is subject to the vagaries of judges preferences which can be more subjective than the objective scoring of the breeding test.

As an example, some countries favour longer, lower dogs, which push some aspects of the breed standard. There are some who favour dogs at the bigger end of the scale. Both tendencies can cumulatively have an adverse effect on the overall structure of the dogs being bred. There is an increase in tails which, per the breed standard, curl a little too far. If higher numbers of dogs are bred in countries with any particular tendency, which moves away from the breed standard, then in a breed as low in numbers as our own, it can very quickly affect the whole breed. 

With the above in mind, it is important that we all work hard to be a good custodian of the breed for future generations. It is essential if the breed is to be enjoyed in future in a very similar form to the one we see today.