hjemmeside2The lapinporokoira is historically closely connected with the lapinkoira. The breed was used for centuries as herder for the Saami people to help with their reindeer. Where the lapinkoira was more of a guarding dog who stayed home with the tents the lapinporokoira was the real worker who could work day after day and run long distances. The dog is build as a typical runner, long in the body with very good angulations and a low carried tail. Today some lapinporokoiras are still used as herders in Lappland. The breed is very strong in comparison to its size. It must never seem skinny. It should always have long and efficient movements as it was important in their original working field that they could run long distances and for a long time. It is also important for the breed to have a thick dence coat. Some people by mistake think that the breed is shorthaired. It is not. It has a thick waterproof coat like similar other arctic breeds. The coat must never be soft as the dog in its original climate would then get wet all the way to the skin. It is also important that the dog has coat everywhere on the body even in the ears as the dog would otherwise freeze in -30 degrees celcius and under.

The lapinporokoira is not a dog who will lie in the sofa all day it is a typical working dog who should be used for something. In Finland many people saw the breeds qualities and many dogs are doing very well in obedience, agility, tracking, rescue work etc. The breed is obedient if trained and it learns easily and remembers what it learned. Furthermore it is not at all as stressed as many other working breeds. In Lappland it has been typical that it should work hard some days and not work at all some others. So the Saami people couldn´t use a dog who was going crazy in the times where there was no work to be done. It is therefore usual for the breed that it is ready to work when you are ready, but when it is at home it is relaxing. The breed is quite strong mentally and we do not recmommend the breed to somebody who never owned a dog before or somebody who are not planning to work with their dog one way or the other.

hiski6

Our work for the breed

As we had had Finnish lapphunds since 1991 we had of course also noticed the lapinporokoira. At our visits in Finland we saw the breed and several breeders of lapphunds were also breeding lapinporokoiras so here we met the dogs too. There were no lapinporokoiras in Denmark and we thought that was a pity. When our good friend Terhi Uski offered that we could borrow her bitch “Vilma” and have a litter from her we therefore said yes at once. Vilma was a Finnish champion and was the world winner from the world winner show in Helsinki in 1998 with a huge competition. She was not only one of the most beautiful porokoiras we had ever seen she was also the most kind. We chose which male to mate her with in Finland and in the year 2000 we fetched Vilma pregnant in Finland. In April she gave birth to 8 beautiful puppies and they were the first porokoiras ever in Denmark!

hjemmeside3To get some genetic variation in the country we decided to borrow one more bitch from Finland. The owner of kennel Kivimannun offered us a black bitch “Sanna” who came to Denmark in the early spring 2001. She too had been mated with a male in Finland. The result of this was 6 puppies born in February 2001. As Sanna too stayed in Denmark the amount of porokoiras was now 15 in Denmark. To get even more material to work with we chose in the summer 2001 to accept one more generous offer. Winnie and Ola from Fjällfarmens kennel in Sweden offered that we could borrow their bitch Dorrit. Once again we did not need to think for one second.We had met Dorrit in Finland at the breed specialty where she won the CAC and liked her a lot. Dorrit travelled to Finland and was mated before she came to us in Denmark. The result was 7 puppies born in the summer 2001. Now the number of dogs was 22 in Denmark. During the next years a couple of dogs were imported from the other Scandinavian countries and in 2004 the first other breeder had their first litter. In 2005 one more breeder had her first litter, both breeders got their foundation dogs from us.

We are happy and proud that we introduced this lovely breed in Denmark and mostly we are happy that we managed to do it well. The first champion in Denmark was Lapinlumon Armas from Vilma´s litter closely followed by Lapinlumon Bieggamillu from Sannas litter. The latter was the first bitch to gain the title. I was working as the breed representative from the time we imported the first dog. In 2007 we bought our first porokoira to live with us, a bitch from Finland. We wanted to have a bitch to mate with males from our original old lines so they could build the foundation for our porokoirabreeding. We will never breed porokoiras on a large scale, but we will continue our work for the breed and if anybody has any questions or want information they are always welcome to contact us.