American Canine Association

Breeds

Finnish Spitz


History

Known as the National Dog of Finland, the Finnish Spitz is a breed known for their unique voice when alerting their owner of prey that they have found. This breed has been around for hundreds of years and is quite popular around the world today.

Appearance

The Finnish Spitz is a medium sized breed dog with males and females measuring 15-20 inches in height and weighing 30-35 pounds in weight. This breed has a wedge shaped head, forming into a narrow muzzle with a scissor bite. The space between their two triangular shaped ears is broad, as their two ears stand tall at the top of their head. Their two eyes are almond in shape, dark brown to black in color and medium in size. Their general body build resembles that of a Fox; lower to the ground, stocky, active, thin and rectangular in shape. Their tail has fluffy hair standing out on it, as it curls up and over their back. Their coat is a double layer, thick and harsh to the touch, available in all shades of red with or without white markings.

Temperament

The Finnish Spitz is a very good listener, loyal, friendly and brave. This breed makes an excellent bird and retrieving partner. The Finnish Spitz is a wonderful choice of breed to add to all family types, including growing ones. Known for being good with kids of all ages, however recommended for homes with older children due to how playful and active this breed can remain, well into their adult years. This breed is best suited as an only pet, as they have been known to be dog aggressive and they are natural hunters. This breed requires early socialization and obedience classes. The Finnish Spitz needs a confident and firm owner who only uses positive reinforcement training methods and will remain pack leader at all times. This breed is known for barking and howling a lot, as it is what they were intended to do in earlier times.

Grooming

This breed does shed. Daily brushing and bathing when needed. Professional grooming at least twice a year.

Special Notes

Please fully educate yourself about the Finnish Spitz prior to adding one to your household to ensure you are able to make a life long physical and financial commitment to your new family member. We recommend a properly fenced in yard or properly fitting harness and leash while outdoors at all times. All dogs originate from wolves (Canis Lupus). Each breed of dog was originally created by mixing different breeds together in an effort to bring forth certain characteristics. Once a breeder has created acceptable “breed characteristics” within their bloodline and these “breed characteristics” have shown to be reliably reproduced in the offspring for three (3) generations, the bloodline may be upgraded from the category of “foundation stock” to “pure-bred”. The same “pure-bred” breed standards vary from different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders. Dog DNA testing companies can have accurate results for a specific bloodline of a small colony of dogs. However, there are tens of thousands of different bloodlines in the world which have not yet been tested for marker baseline results by Dog DNA testing companies as of 2017. For this reason Dog DNA testing companies do not guarantee the 100% accuracy of their breed lineage results and will also show different marker results for the same pure-bred breed in different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.

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