Finnish Lapphund

Friendly and calm, though quick to bark at anything new.
A Finnish Lapphund
Photo: Svenska Mässan from Sweden
Adult male
15–24 kg
33–53 lb
Adult female
14–20 kg
31–44 lb
Lifespan
13.8 yrs
Handler demand
Suits a first-time owner
Class · Family
also Companion, Working

What it's like

The Lapphund is friendly, calm and willing. It is alert enough to bark at anything new but is seldom sharp, generally gets on readily with people and other dogs, and keeps the stamina of a working breed.

Day to day
Activity
A good daily walk and play
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Suits a first-time owner
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Bonded to its family
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Very vocal
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
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Living with one

It has a long coat. Most of the shedding comes when the seasons change. Plan on daily brushing. It needs a moderate amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Finnish Lapphund is a medium dog, about the weight of a grown Border Collie. Males end up clearly heavier than females.

It is a sturdy spitz, a little longer than it is tall, with erect or tipped ears, a soft expression and a tail carried over the back or side when moving. The double coat has a long, harsh outer layer over a thick, soft undercoat, and males carry a heavy mane. Many colours are accepted, often with pale spectacle-like markings around the eyes.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Finnish Lapphund puppy is already as heavy as a grown Pug. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
11 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight7
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
01020302m4m6m9m12m18m
01020302m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
3.3–5.2 kg 7.3–11.5 lb
3.4–4.8 kg 7.5–10.6 lb
3 months
4.8–7.7 kg 10.6–17.0 lb
4.8–6.8 kg 10.6–15.0 lb
4 months
7.0–11.2 kg 15.4–24.7 lb
6.8–9.7 kg 15.0–21.4 lb
5 months
9.0–14.4 kg 19.8–31.7 lb
8.6–12.3 kg 19.0–27.1 lb
6 months
10.7–17.1 kg 23.6–37.7 lb
10.1–14.4 kg 22.3–31.7 lb
7 months
12.0–19.2 kg 26.5–42.3 lb
11.2–16.0 kg 24.7–35.3 lb
8 months
12.9–20.7 kg 28.4–45.6 lb
12.0–17.1 kg 26.5–37.7 lb
9 months
13.6–21.7 kg 30.0–47.8 lb
12.5–17.9 kg 27.6–39.5 lb
10 months
14.0–22.4 kg 30.9–49.4 lb
12.9–18.5 kg 28.4–40.8 lb
11 months
14.3–22.9 kg 31.5–50.5 lb
13.2–18.9 kg 29.1–41.7 lb
12 months
14.5–23.3 kg 32.0–51.4 lb
13.4–19.1 kg 29.5–42.1 lb
15 months
14.9–23.8 kg 32.8–52.5 lb
13.8–19.7 kg 30.4–43.4 lb

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Finnish Lapphund lived to about 14 years, longer than the typical medium breed. Too few had died yet to pin the figure down, so it may turn out higher.

Where it comes from

The Finnish Lapphund comes from the reindeer country of the Sami, who have worked dogs of this type as herders and guards across the far north of Fennoscandia and Russia for centuries. The Finnish Kennel Club wrote its first standard in 1945, calling it the Lapponian Herder, and in Finland today it is kept mainly as a companion and working dog4.

The Finnish Lapphund took its modern shape after the Second World War, when Finnish breeders gathered dogs from Lapland to preserve the old herding type. In the late nineteen-sixties the breed was divided in two: the longer-coated dogs became the Finnish Lapphund, while the shorter-coated, longer-bodied ones became the Lapponian Herder. As snowmobiles took over much of the reindeer work, the Lapphund moved into homes and the show ring, and it has since spread beyond Finland. Its job was to gather and hold reindeer, which do not bunch like sheep and may turn on a dog, so it barks freely and dodges quickly.

Breed standard

The Finnish Lapphund is judged against standard no. 189, in group 5, Spitz and primitive types4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Finnish Lapphund figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

Keeshond
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Samoyed
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Icelandic Sheepdog
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Kishu Ken
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Or compare the Finnish Lapphund with any breed you choose
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Sources

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Parts of this page were written by AI ·