Jindos are a medium sized dog

Dogs will typically range between 50-55 cm, with the ideal being somewhere around 53-54 cm (20-21 in). They should weigh between 18-23 kg (39-50 lbs).

Bitches will range between 45-50 cm, with the ideal being between 48-49 cm (18-20 in), and will typically weigh between 15-19 kg (33-42 lbs).

Yes. Jindos shed. As a double coated breed, it’s expected and normal that they will shed heavily at least twice a year as the seasons change. Depending where you live, sometimes they will shed lightly throughout the year (especially if you live in warmer climates, or if they spend a lot of time indoors). I personally find their shedding to be much more manageable than some other breeds like Labradors and German Shepherds that shed heavily throughout the year. Washing them in a warm bath and brushing them out while using a force dryer is very helpful when they’re blowing their coat, but expect “tumbleweeds” of fur to collect around the corners of the room and along the edges of the hallway during shedding season.

No, Jindos are NOT hypoallergenic. However in my own anecdotal observation as someone with dog allergies, it seems that Jindos may produce less dander than average breeds, and that certain people with dog allergies might not be allergic to Jindos. I am only mildly allergic to one of my dog’s saliva, and not allergic at all to the other. However I would still strongly advise against getting a Jindo under the assumption that you will not be allergic to them. I highly recommend spending some time with a Jindo if you are not sure, but still interested in the breed. Some people are not allergic to their dander, but may be allergic to their saliva, and vice versa.

No, Jindos have 0% wolf content.

White (Baekgu) , Red Fawn (Hwanggu), Brindle (Hogu), Black & Tan (Naenunbakyi), Black (Heukgu), and Wolf Grey (Jaegu).

They have their similarities and their differences. It’s been said that Jindos tend to hang back and analyze a situation before reacting (if they react at all), whereas many of the Japanese breeds will “act first, ask questions later”.

Jindos also tend to be scored as more biddable and easier to motivate and train in comparison to some of the other asian spitz breeds. This occasionally comes as a surprise to people who are used to working with some of the other Nihon Ken breeds like Shiba and Shikoku.

I find it fairly common that people stumble upon Jindos while looking at Shiba Inu. While the two breeds do have similarities, there are enough differences between them that I would not feel comfortable making the claim that the two breeds are interchangeable. Starting with the fact that Jindos are about twice the size of a Shiba Inu. Shiba males weigh on average 23 lbs/10.43kg and females weigh on average 17 lbs/7.7kg - and Jindo males on average weigh in at about 40-50 lbs {18.14kg-22.67kg} and females weigh between 33 to 42 lbs {14.96-10.05kg}. Size aside, Jindos on average are considered to be slightly more biddable. However Jindos are a very intense breed, and Same Sex Aggression and Socialization should be taken very seriously - even more so than one would with a Shiba.

Temperamentally, I find that Jindos share more similarities with Japanese Akitas. Both breeds are aloof with strangers, Same Sex Aggression is expected in both breeds, and they are both High Prey Drive breeds that require proper motivation to train. Akita Inu are slightly larger than Jindos, typically running between 55 and 75 lbs (24.94-34.01kg) depending on the sex of the dog.

Jindos are a self serving breed. This means that they can appear to have a “what’s in it for me” attitude when you ask something of them. However, with the right motivation (high value treats, a toy they really like, or even using the environment as a reward) - Jindos can be pretty easy to motivate once there’s an established bond between the dog and handler. Once there’s a bond, sometimes your Jindo will be so excited to work with you that you won’t even need treats. One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing people call their Jindos “stubborn”. If the dog isn’t doing what you’re asking of it, take a step back and try to figure out if 1) the dog actually even understands what you’re asking of it. Are you being clear enough? and 2) if you’re sure it does understand - Are you offering it a reward of high enough value and taking into consideration the level of distraction in the training environment? It’s also important to keep in mind that Jindos typically dislike a lot of repetition. I recommend to keep training sessions short and exciting (5 to 10 minutes max), and end on a high note. If you’re trying to teach the dog a new trick and it just isn’t getting it - don’t just walk away in disappointment. Ask the dog to do something it DOES know, like “Give Paw”, and then reward the dog (throw a party!) and end the session. You’ll find that your Jindo will be much more eager to learn with you if you keep sessions short and fun.

Jindos do not make good “Dog Park Dogs”. They have a very short fuse for rude behavior, and do not pull their punches when provoked. A Jindo will not start a fight, but they will absolutely finish one.

A well socialized Jindos is a supremely confident animal and should be neutral around other dogs when on neutral territory; they should not be snarling and snapping uncontrollably at the sight of another dog. However when its personal space is invaded or when directly challenged by another dog, a Jindo will likely react with extreme displeasure.

WELLBRED Jindos should not be handler aggressive. Traditionally in Korea, any Jindo that bit its “Master” was stripped of its title as a Jindo and culled.

Unfortunately, due to an increase of “Backyard Breeding”, there have been recorded instances of some poorly bred and under socialized Jindos that have bitten their owners, but this is not an acceptable breed behavior.

Jindos respond best to obedience training that utilizes a balance of positive reinforcement and judicious negative reinforcement by its owner. Handing off a Jindo to be trained by someone else, especially someone who only uses heavy-handed methods will cause the dog to baulk and shut down. Additionally, hitting a Jindo will cause the dog to become hand-shy, meaning they will duck or flinch away from hands. We do not condone hitting any dog, regardless of the breed.

No. Jindo Dogs are a BREED of dog. They are considered a “pure breed”, and breed true when bred together. A very simplified way of explaining this is to say that if you breed a Jindo to another Jindo, you will end up with Jindo puppies that look very similar to their parents. Jindos have a breed standard, a “Type” (although there will still be some variation among different lines), and their temperament is more or less predictable (although it is important to note that because they are a LANDRACE breed of dog, they have a very low rate of inbreeding (COI), and therefore you can still have a wide range in temperaments in a litter).

What researchers for the last several decades and DNA tests like Embark typically refer to as “Korean village dogs”, are not actually a “breed”. They are considered a type of BREEDLESS dog (*For what it’s worth, the term ”breedless” is not synonymous with what we often call “mutts”, “mixes”, or “strays”).

What we call a “breed” typically refers to a group of dogs that have been selectively bred by humans to perform a specific task, such as herding, guarding, or hunting etc. When the first ancient dogs self-domesticated in the wild from their wolf-like ancestors thousands of years ago, they were not “breeds” yet, they were just “dogs”. Those “original dogs” are what researchers commonly refer to as “village dogs”.

At one point or another, humans began domesticating dogs out of those free ranging “Dog” populations, and began turning them into “breeds” so that they could perform specific tasks for humans. When they did this, it’s important to recognize that humans did not capture ALL of the free-ranging dogs. If we think of the earth-wide population of dogs as a fish-bowl full of marbles, humans only took a few marbles out of the bowl to turn into “breeds”. The remaining “original” breedless dogs continued to exist and free-breed outside of human control. In actuality, 70% of the earth’s population of “dogs” are free-ranging, breed-less dogs. Occasionally these village dogs, depending on their location and closeness to human civilization/settlements, are able to reproduce with a breeded dog and have an offspring that would be considered a “mix”, but for the sake of this discussion, village dogs are not what most people would consider a “mix”.

Village dogs do not “breed true”, and as previously stated - their reproduction has never been under direct human control. If you were to breed a white short-coated village dog to another white short-coated village dog, you could still end up with a black, spotty, long-coated village dog that does not resemble its parents very much. Village dogs carry the “blueprint” for all breeds that exist today, and that is why you will often see big, small, tall, short, spotty, wirey, fluffy, hairless village dogs all over the world that can look wildly different from one another in the same litter.

It is thought that Jindos originated from the original native spitz-type dogs that were (and still are) endemic to the Korean peninsula, aka the Korean village dogs that likely self domesticated from East Asian wolves thousands of years ago. It is worthy of being mentioned that in the Korean language there is no direct translation or term for “Korean village dog”, and that being the case, this subject in particular is often at the center of heated debates among those not involved in breed preservation. It is not uncommon to find rescues that label all of the dogs as “Jindos” or “Jindo mixes” when importing them to English speaking countries, in spite of those dogs being genetically distinct from Jindos. Most Korean shelters and rescue organizations, in my anecdotal observation, will typically use the term “믹스견” (Mix Dog”) on their websites for the spitzy type looking dogs that do not have the Jindo phenotype at first glance.

While there is no word in Korean for “Korean village dog”, many native Korean speakers will often use descriptive “nicknames” when referring to village dogs or Asian spitz type dogs such as: Neurongi 누렁이 (“yellow one”; yellow coated landrace village dogs native to Korea), Badugi 바둑이 (a Balbari with a spotted patter), Balbari 발바리 (a small village dog that often has a small body and short legs), Deulgae 들개 (“field/wild dogs” often refers to strays in the wild without owners), Ddonggae 똥개 (slang of shigol japjong), Japjong 잡종 (“mutt”), and Shigol Japjong 시골잡종 (“countryside mutt”).

No, Jindos and KVDs (Korean Village Dogs) are not the same. "Jindo Dog" specifically refers to a distinct breed of dog. On the other hand, "Korean Village Dog" or "KVD" is a term used by scientists to describe a broader category of a "type" of dog that descend from native aboriginal breedless dogs which have inhabited Korea for thousands of years.

Around 1500+ years ago, free-ranging spitz-type dogs, likely descendants of original dogs that self-domesticated from East Asian wolves, populated the Korean peninsula. Some of these ancient dogs ended up on Jindo Island and became isolated there due to the lack of access to the mainland. Over time, this isolation led them to develop into a pure breed with a distinct appearance and temperament compared to dogs on mainland Korea.

Meanwhile, the self-domesticated dogs on mainland Korea continued to breed among themselves for millennia with minimal human intervention. This resulted in a diverse array of dogs with various coat lengths, ear shapes, leg lengths, and coat colors.

As pet culture evolved, imported breeds were introduced to Korea, and they were often allowed to freely roam and interbreed with the native dog population. This intermingling explains why DNA test results for Korean Village Dogs often show traces of other "breeds" listed alongside the Korean Village Dog result. This genetic admixture also explains the wide variety in appearance, size, and temperament that can be found in Korean Village Dogs.

No! The label “mutt” or “mongrel” is generally used in the English language to refer to a dog that is a mix of breeds. For example, a poodle-labrador retriever mix, a pomeranian-husky mix, and a chihuahua-daschund mix would all be labeled as “mutts”. While a KVD may indeed have ancestors from various breeds, the label "Korean Village Dog" is distinct and not interchangeable with "mutt".

As explained earlier, "Korean Village Dog" specifically identifies dogs that claim ancestry to the indigenous free-ranging dogs that inhabited Korea long before modern breeds were introduced from other countries.

No, it is not illegal to export Jindos from Korea or from Jindo Island.

There are several reputable Jindo breeding kennels on the mainland, and those Jindos are not under any protection regulations. Additional evidence that it is not illegal to export Jindos lies with the fact that Korean international airline travel paperwork clearly lists “Jindo” as one of the dog breeds.

It is also possible to export a Jindo off of Jindo Island. However those Jindos do require a transport/export document from the county to be moved off the island and out of the jurisdiction of the protection regulations.

Jindos tend to do best when raised from a young age with “prey” animals, and this includes cats. With proper introductions and training, there have been success stories of Jindos learning live with cats, and accepting new cats into the household at a later date. However neighborhood cats or stray cats that wander into a Jindos’s yard are a different story and will likely be hunted and treated as prey.

Jindos are typically not known to like water.

With constant counter-conditioning and exposure from an early age, I have been able to train my female Jindo, SunMi, to be indifferent to water. I would not go so far as to say that she “loves” water in the same way that a Labrador Retriever does, but she will not balk if I ask her to swim across a river with me, and will often splash through creeks if she is with another dog and they are playing. She tolerates baths with a stoic indifference, and does not have an issue relieving herself in the rain.

But I highly suspect that there will never be any Dock Diving Champion Jindos.

Properly socialized Jindos that have been mindfully bred for good temperaments should not be aggressive towards their owners. This breed is described as being “aloof” towards strangers, which implies that the dog has limited interest in interacting with strangers, but should be able to tolerate their presence or being pet. Unfortunately there are many backyard breeders who are breeding Jindos without paying attention to temperament and are NOT socializing the puppies appropriately, and this can lead to genetic fear-aggression/fearful behavior for lack of socialization which can tip into aggressive behavior. A Jindo will however defend its owner if the owner is physically attacked by another person, which implies that the breed can display a degree of human aggression under very specific circumstances.

Anecdotally, Jindos are one of the easiest breeds to housebreak. Being a naturally clean breed, they have a strong instinct to keep their dens clean. This in turn leads to a strong desire to relieve themselves outside of the home at all costs. Some Jindos have been known to refuse to relieve themselves even in their yards (although this is not extremely common unless the dog has been habituated to it with “potty walks”). Many puppies are already house trained by 10 weeks of age, and quickly learn where they are supposed to relieve themselves if properly trained in their new homes. Most accidents that occur are typically because the puppy attempted to alert the owner to its need, and the owner did not notice in time.

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