About the Suomenlapinkoira

About the breed:

The lapinkoira has been the herder of the Saami people for hundreds of years. It is a compact and strong middlesize dog who´s impressive coat in all possible colours make many people notice the breed. In looks the breed is strong compared to it´s size. It must be a sturdy dog to look at and the heavy coat makes the dog look even stronger than it is. The head is broad and short and should have a smiling and soft expression. The original working area for the lapinkoira has been in a harsh climate and with snow a big part of the year and it is therefore important that the breed is strongly and healthyly built and that it has it´s harsh coat also in the legs. Without this it would not be able to work in it´s original climate.

In temperament the lapinkoira is very friendly. It loves people, children as well as adults and it is a dog who loves everybody in the family, it does not bond only with one person. The lapinkoira is normally also fond of other animals. Our dogs live with our cat without problems and we know several who live with rabbits, sheep etc.
The lapinkoira is curious and learns things very easily. Many have trained and done well in obedience, agility, tracking etc. It must be remembered though that the lapinkoira is an independent dog who has a strong own will. It will never be a completely obedient dog and it will always like to think that in the end it is the one in charge. There is also a big variety within the breed concerning who enjoys the mentioned activities and who don´t. When the breed was preserved from extermination in the 1960ties lapinkoiras from different places of Lappland were mixed together. The dogs looks and temperament varied a lot from region to region and maybe the breed could have been split into several breeds, but as they were all mixed the lapinkoira today has many different colours and types. And there are also many different kinds of temperament. It is therefore difficult in advance to guaranty that a lapinkoira will be able to do well in obedience, agility or other sports. If you know before you buy your puppy that you would like to train on an elite level I do not recommend a lapinkoira.  But if you just think it could be fun to try in case the dog likes it there is a good chance it will go well with the training. I myself trained nearly all our lapinkoiras in obedience and there has been a big difference from dog to dog how they took it. Common for them all was a big reluctance towards retrieving which made it hard ever to go to the top in the trials. Except for that some of the dogs were really clever and enjoyed the training while others found it extremely boring and were allowed to stop the training quite fastly. I also tried agility with several of my lapinkoiras and here too there was a difference from dog to dog. Common for them all was that they were not among the fast ones, but some of them found it funny while others thought it was boring. Besides the lapinkoiras independent character one must be aware that not all males love other males and not all bitches love other bitches. It is in no way an agressive breed and it should never be, but it is not a breed either who without conditions accept all strange dogs they meet.

The lapinkoira as a historical breed goes hundreds of years back. They were working for the Saami people who were nomades helping them to collect the reindeer. The reindeer was the Saami people´s income and the dogs were therefore extremely important for them. Old legends say that the Saami fet the dog before he ate himself. The Saami people had two types of dogs, one with a more short coat with a longer body. This one was used as the real herder, it was a runner who could run long distances several days in a row. This is the type we know today as the lapinporokoira. Besides this they had a shorter and more square type of dog with a longer coat and the tail on the back. This type of dog was not made for running as long distances as the other, it lived at home with the women and children where it worked as a guarding dog, companion to the people and a herder for the reindeer who was left at home. This is the type we know today as the lapinkoira. As the Saami people started using scooters instead of dogs both breeds were in great danger of exstinction. But a few enthusiastic people saw the importance in preserving these fantastic dogs and in the last minute a rescue work was stared and dogs were taken from Lappland and registred. This wasn´t done before in the 1960ies so even if the history of the lapinkoira goes back much further it was only an official breed for quite a short time. Today the lapinporokoira is still used in Lappland for the work with the reindeer, but you do not find any lapinkoiras used for their original job anymore. 

Our work for the lapinkoira:

For us breeding is a matter of preserving the fantastic breed we think the lapinkoira is. We wish in a humble way to do our best to continue the work the Saami people started and to try to keep the lapinkoira the way they made it. In our try to do this we have done several things to make our breeding better and for the breeding in Denmark we have done a big job to improve the breed here in the country and to bring new blood here. During the years we imported 12 lapinkoiras to Denmark! 11 of them from the country of origin, Finland and one from Sweden. These dogs nearly all of them put a mark on the Danish lapinkoiras both as winning showdogs and when used for breeding and they helped bringing a lot of new blood to the breed in Denmark. We have done our outmost to import dogs of different lines from the best breeders in Finland and we try in our breeding to include as many different lines as possible as this is the best for the breed. This is also the reason  why we never made the same combination twice as we don´t think this will benefit the breed. Twenty puppies with the same set of parents do not create any genetic variation!

The elleven imports from Finland are:
Multi champion, worldwinner og Finnish champion Fidelis Uuriel
Danish champion, nordic winner Fidelis X-Port
Multi champion, international champion Fidelis Dana
Danish og Finnish champion Fidelis Rubiini
Danish champion Jahkkas Tupasvilla
Danish champion Heldalan Oykkäri
Shacal Tahmatassu
Multi champion, Finnish champion, worlwinner and Europewinner Orso Farm Otömöttinen
Jäkäläkummun Nellimi
Multi champion, nordic winner Orso Farm Ammi
Fihtolas Boskivilla
 

From Sweden we imported Black Blossom Miss Tjotjo.
 

This is not the only thing, we also took the trip several times to Finland to mate our dogs in order to bring completely new blood to the country. These trips were difficult and cost a lot to do, but they were of great importance for the breed and for our breeding. So far seven of our litters have a Finnish parent.

D-litter, Whos mother is Finnish champion Turnukan Anemone
E-litter, Whos father is Finnish champion Orso Farm Hiski
H-litter, Whos father is Finnish champion Jäkäläkummun Barfe Biedna
J-litter, Whos father is Orso Farm Otva
L-litter, Whos father is Fidelis Yari
N-littert, Whos father is Finnish champion Vielpas Aksy-Aijö
P-litter,Whos father is Finnish champion Lupu

Multi Champion Fidelis Uuriel