This Finnish Lapphund Breed Guide was written by one of our experienced UK dog breeders. List all of our Finnish Lapphund breeders. The Finnish Laphund is descended from the spitz type reindeer herding and watchdogs, that accompanied the Sami people of Lapland, for centuries.
General appearance is that of a sturdy, well boned, long coated dog of slightly under medium size.
Though the Lapphund fits the general description of a spitz breed, it should be noted by show exhibitors and judges that the square proportions and upright carriage of other spitz, such as the Samoyed, is incorrect for the Lapphund. The body length should be slightly greater than height at withers and tail carriage, though curved over the back or side in movement, may hang low in stance. The FCI standard also allows for tipped ear carriage. A feature of this breed, is the wide variety of coat colour shades and patterns that occur, most commonly black, brown, red, cream, black and tan, brown and tan, sable and wolf sable, all with or without white markings. Less common colours are white, brindle and blue and possibly others, in fact the only major colour gene that doesn t occur in the breed, seems to be merle.