Dogs in Finland

Facts about dogs and dog breeding in Finland

There are approximately 600,000 dogs in Finland, of which 450,000 are purebred. In 2011, the Finnish Kennel Club registered 50,002 purebred dogs.

As many as 316 different dog breeds existed in Finland during the years 1990-2008, although Finland is a relatively small country. Ten most popular dog breeds in 2011 were

  1. Labrador Retriever (1730 registrations)
  2. German Shepherd Dog (1708)
  3. Finnish Hound (1577)
  4. Golden Retriever (1490)
  5. Jämtland Spitz (1347)
  6. Finnish Lapphund (1325)
  7. Norwegian Elkhound grey (1025)
  8. Shetland Sheepdog (991)
  9. Jackrussell Terrier (982)
10. Miniature Schnauzer (879)
     (the Finnish Kennel Club 2012)

Many foreign show judges are eager to judge in Finland, as in a single show event dogs representing many rare breeds can be seen.

A Finn takes usually good care of his or her dog. Therefore the number of Finnish rescue dogs is quite small - in fact there are Finnish organisations which help rescue dogs in other countries.

Finnish dog breeds

There are five Finnish dog breeds, bred for hunting or herding:

Finnish Spitz is the national dog of Finland. It has been mentioned in literature as early as in the 1800th century. The breed has been developed from a landrace population without interbreed crosses, which is rare for any hunting breed in the world. Hunters use Finnish Spitz to bark at game that flees into trees, such as squirrels, grouses and capercaillies. The breed is also used for moose and elk hunting.

Finnish Hound was developed during the last 100 years, to hunt hare and fox. It is specialised to the difficult hunting conditions in Finland. Many consider Finnish Hound to be the best hound breed in the world. In addition to the Nordic countries, Finnish Hounds have been exported to for example Canada, Austria, Greece, Estonia and Russia.

Karelian Bear Dog is most often used for hunting bear, moose and elk, but it will hunt any kind of an animal. In this breed, ability as a beardog is an important measure of a dog's breeding potential.

Finnish Reindeer Herder (above) and Finnish Lapphund (below) have both been bred for reindeer herding. They have common roots in Lapland.

Finnish Lapphund has also gained wide popularity as a companion dog. Two subpopulations exist in the Finnish Lapphund: the original herding population and the nowadays more popular exhibition population.

Dog breeding in Finland

The Finnish Kennel Club (FKC) is an umberella organisation supervising breed clubs, which are responsible for the breeding of their own breeds. Only one breed club exists for each breed, but a breed club may be responsible for many breeds.

The first health screening program was started for the German Shepherd in the 1960's.

Currently, the most important means of the FKC to steer breeding are the breed-specific breeding strategies (JTO) and the health program against hereditary defects and diseases (PEVISA):

• Each breed with more than 50 registered dogs in a five year period has a written breed-specific breeding strategy (JTO). The strategy includes all the relevant information available on the breed: genetic diversity, gene pool, mental and working traits, health and reproduction, as well as conformation. Based on this information, breed clubs assess the state of their breeds and the need for special action that needs to be taken in breeding.

• Compulsory hip dysplasia screening of breeding dogs was established in 1984 for the retriever breeds. This PEVISA program was later expanded by other health traits, such as elbow dysplasia, hereditary eye diseases, heart diseases and spondylosis deformans. The decision on joining the program is up to the individual breed clubs. They decide which health tests are the most important in their breeds. Animals have to be identified either by a microchip or by a tattoo in order to make the screening official. Screening results are public information and appear in the breeding database of the FKC.

• All official Dog Shows and competitions are under Antidoping regulations, cropped and docked dogs born after 1.1.2001 are not permitted.

Currently, the FKC is developing general breeding strategies for all breeds, which will set certain directives for all dogs that are used for breeding. The breeding strategies aim at breeding healthy dogs within wide gene pools.

The FKC educates breeders and breed clubs' breeding advisors. Finnish dog breeders typically have good knowledge even on higher level genetics, and they are very open about their dogs' health and other traits.

Canine research in Finland

The science related to dogs is of a high level in Finland. There is ongoing research on

• dog welfare
• candidate genes for mental traits and various disorders
• heritability, genetic correlations and estimated breeding values of various important traits
• population genetics and inbreeding
• different aspects of dog nutrition

The first routine estimation of breeding values (BLUP) was started in 1996 for hunting traits in the Finnish Hound. In the early 2000's, the FKC started BLUP estimation for hip and elbow dysplasia, which are currently being estimated routinely for 38 breeds.