The 1857 painting by Fritz von Dardel;
"Peasants from Dalarna travelling in the winter in Skåne".
The dog in this painting have been recognized as a Dalbo-dog by Il Öhman
& Björn von Rosen.
One of the oldest written evidence of the Dalbo-dog are from Blutherus "Oratio encomiastica de Dahlia", dating 1632,
where he praises the Dalbo peoples incredible strong dogs, who without a doubt attacks the predators and guards the livestock
so effective that the animals can pasture in the wilderness without a human shepherd, and without one single animal lost.
The first illustration of this breed are belived to be Govert Camphuysens painting from the beginning of the 1650's.
The Dalbohund (Dalbo-dog) was a breed belonging to the Molosser family. Its primary task was to guard and protect the
livestock, and also to guard the property of their owners, the same way as the Molossers of southern Europe still are used.
Sven Nilsson gave this description of the Dalbohund in 1847; "Broad head, deeply sunken between the eyes,
the muzzle shorter and broader that the muzzle of the wolf, big hanging ears. The tail and the back covered with long hairs.
The bone large. The colour often black on the back and sides, while the belly, chest, legs and muzzle, all the way up to
the ears, pale yellow. The size of a wolf".
The British Zoolog Horace William Wheelwright did some travels to Sweden and wrote in 1865; "The only hound peculiar
to the land which I know of, are the Dahlbo hound (now nearly extinct), a magnificent dog, rather like
an English Mastiff, of the size and colour of a wolf, which was formerly much used in these forests to watch the
cattle when pasturing in the forest".
Mr. Horace Marryat wrote in his 1862-book "One Year in Sweden"; "-and, just before starting, to wonder at the huge
proportions of a Dalbo dog, a very lion, but most sociable".
The forementioned Mr. Kolthoff wrote that the dalbo-dogs he did see in 1868 were used as chained guard-dogs and so
fierce that they seldom could be let loose. Mr. Kolthoff also wrote; "I my childhood I heard about two Dalbo-dogs at
the Såtenäs property who killed a woman and were therefore shot".
When judging both these descriptions and also the pictures on this page we can clearly see that this was a breed of
typical Molosser type, somewhere between the dogge and the mountain dog. The Dalbohund was between 75-80 cm.
(29,4-31,44 in) at the shoulders, which tell us that this breed was very large, even according to todays standards.
There are however different descriptions of the temperament of the breed, some describing it as very friendly,
while others uses words like "very fierce" on the breed.
Like the Dalbohund "Frigård" from a farm in Kalleby, Tanum, described as "nice as a lamb against humans, but like a fierce
beast when he fought against the wolf". Frigård was a dog of considerable size, with a shaggy grey-black coloured
coat. Frigård had in countless fights against wolves shown that he was unbeatable, and he carried a spiked collar around
his neck, to protect it against the bite of the wolf. However, even if he was unbeatable, he was outnumbered and killed
a late evening in the month of March, when he followed a single wolf into the forest, where the whole wolf pack waited.
The only remains that was found the next day was his spiked collar.
In addition it have been found dog skeletons in several Viking-grave finds; 6 dogs followed the Gokstad Chief in his grave
(buried ca. A.D. 900), one of them a large powerful long legged dog. And a similar large and long legged dog was found in the
Oseberg Ship burials (buried in the late 800's). Also at "Brattli", the farm belonging to Erik the Red in Greenland
(Greenland discovered by Eric the Red in A.D. 982, and settled in 986) there have been found remains of a large,
long legged dog.
Il Öhman wrote in her 1976 article in "Hembygden"; "The theories that the St. Bernard, Newfoundland or Rottweiler should have
contributed to the origin or development of the Dalbohund can without any doubt be completly discharged, since the breed, by
its correct name Dalbohund, have been known as a native Swedish dog breed since at least the 1700's. Imports of
St. Bernard and Newfoundland began in the late 1800's, and the Rottweiler have been bred as a purebred dog for only about
100 years. However, it is possible that an English or continental Mastiff type of dog could have contributed to the
development of the Dalbohund. That theory have had its spokesmen for more than 100 years".
We know that mastiffs from Britain were imported to Scandinavia; in Denmark they used spiked collared mastiffs from England
to hunt wolves, which mostly were extinct in Denmark from the mid 1700's. Also Sweden imported Mastiffs from Britain.
S. A. Forsius wrote in "Physica" in 1611; "The largest we know of, is the english dogge, which does his owner
a faithful service and help, and it frightens all other dogs".
Bella is the mother of Frågen, also pictured at this page.
us that the flock guardians have existed in Scandinavia for a very long time. The largest of these collars show us that it
have bee used by a dog that have been nearly 70 cm. (27,5 inch) around the neck.
A man from Vallerås, Bengt Hansson, did tell that the dog at his family's farm, "Halland", was bought from Norway,
close to the border of Värmland, in the 1850's. It is clear that it would be difficult to separate the specimens of
the Dalbohund and the Norwegian Nauthund/Fehund (Norsk Dogge/Norsedogge), when it comes to dogs living close to
either side of the border. In addition the now Swedish regions of Bohuslän, Jemtland and Herjedalen were belonging to
Norway up until about 1700.
A close related breed of dog did exist all over the central and eastern parts of southern Norway. You can read more
about this Norwegian Molosser at the pages of the Norwegian Nauthund/Fehund (Norsk Dogge).
The above picture was taken 22nd June 1904 at a professional photograph, and the place is Mellerud in Dalsland. This is one
picture out of two, showing the Nilsson brothers; Isidor with Frågen and Robert with Frågens mother, Bella. Both dogs were,
when they lived, called Dalbohunder (Dalbo-dogs).
This dog, the female Bella, are believed to be one of the very last pure Dalbo-dogs. As can be seen at the picture there can be
no doubt about her's Molosser heritage.
Wiliam Hamilton wrote in a letter to Wibon, in the beginning of the 1900's; "The breed in it's pure state may well be almost
extinct I believe, but there are several individuals of more or less crossed dogs to be found. I did see at my travel in
Dalsland two very beautiful dogs of Dalbo type, located in Mellerud, but I do not know who owned them".
It is highly possible that these two dogs described are the same two that is pictured at this page.
Right: spiked collar found at Vargön (Wolf Island).
Notice: The picture from Dalsland Museum was taken by myself, and I have seen that some other websites
uses this picture, even with their own name and copyright notice on it. If this picture is to be found
at any other website, it is copied from Molosserworld and used illegally without permisson.
half of the 1800's. Gustav Kolthoff (1845-1913), a great zoolog, who himself did know these dogs from his own childhood,
did realize that the Dalbo-dog were vanishing. Early in the 1900's he travelled, searching in "Dalsland" and "Västergötland",
for the remains of the breed. However, the conclusion he gave in 1913 was that the breed had become extinct.
Wibom sent an appeal, and also put adverts in hunting and dog magazines in 1913, to try to locate owners of dogs which
would be the last remains of the Dalbohund. Wibom's appeal was distributed in Dalsland, Bohuslän, Västergötland and Karlstad,
but information about any survived speciments did not arrive. In 1916 E. Sahlberg adverticed in a newspaper in Dalsland and asked for
information about any surviving Daldo-dogs, but also this effort were fruitless.
In the first half of the 1900's the Dalbo-dog were described by several old natives who had themselves met or even had in
their possession this old Swedish breed. Based on these descriptions a standard was set up on the Dalbo dog in the 1950's
by Il Öhman, the person that without a doubt collected most of the available information on the breed, and saved the information
from being lost.
pictures he considered that Frågen was not a pure Dalbo-dog. Frågen was presented as the son of Bella, but
von Rosen believed that his father was a male from a another breed of dog, maybe of spitz type.
I do not know how much knowledge Björn von Rosen had when it came to the slow development in the Molosser breeds, but
his main knowledge of dogs came from the spitz and hunting dogs.
I have studied the pictures time after time, and I believe that the picture of Frågen from 1904 shows a very young dog, not much
developed and matured when the picture was taken.
Björn von Rosen's main reason for believing that Frågen was only half Dalbohund was that Bella had a much broader muzzle
and head, which did match the earlier descriptions of the Dalbohund, while Frågen displays a smaller head with a narrower
muzzle. We know that the large Molossers developes slowly, and if the first picture from 1904 of Frågen was taken very early in
his life it is of course showing a dog that has a smaller and more narrow head and muzzle than his mother. But, if we take a
closer look at the 1906 picture, even if it is more blurry, of Frågen (pictured with his humans in front of the house), we will notice
that he has developed quite much from the picture taken two years earlier. In the 1906 picture Frågen shows the same broad
head as Bella, flat on the top and with a broad muzzle, with the same size of ears and the same ear carriage. While the
1904 pictures of Bella and Frågen do not match when it comes to headtype, the 1904 picture of Bella and the 1906
picture of Frågen makes a good match, and shows the same kind of headtype.
My conclutions is that Frågen may very well have been a pure Dalbohund, and despite my respect for von Rosen and his work,
I must nevertheless conclude that maybe he was wrong, and he did not, reasons unknown, take into consideration the slow development
of the Molossers and that they mature late in their life.
developed dog than at the 1904 picture of the same dog.
and bobcat, but already in the mid 1800's most predators had vanished from the forests and the large mastiff-like dogs as
the protectors were no longer needed. The old Swedish Molosser became rare, but still some farmers were using them as
guarding dogs for their home and property.
After the latest "wolf-period" in the mid 1800's, the Dalbo-dog as a livestock guardian was no longer needed and this,
together with a rabies epidemic in 1854 and the 1867/68 hunger, are believed to be the main reasons for the breed's decline
and finally extinction.
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