Swedish Lapphund

FCI:

Swedish Lapphund - Group V. - Spitz and Primitive types, Section 3 - Nordic Watchdogs and Herders.

General Appearance:

It is intelligent, blithely confident, responsible, very independent, very courageous and energetic dog, a typical "big dog in a small body." It passionately loves all actions and activities, it is extremely nimble, lively and virtually tireless. It is sensitive and it has a sense of humour, it wants to be a member of the family - "pack". It   hates to be for a long time at home alone and also to stay in outdoor pens, it makes the dog stressful.

By using appropriate methods, it is easy to train and educate. It directly eager  to learn all. It quickly understands what is asked. It is grateful for any attention it devotes its man and it is totally committed. It likes to play and it loves long, hearty walks, during which it satisfies its curiosity.

Temperament/Behaviour:

It is not suitable for owners who have not any previous experience with dogs, or are inconsistent. Dog requires gentle, but perfectly consistent leadership and decisive owner, endowed with natural authority, owner who can whenever is necessary to apply non-violent - a true leader "pack". It is not ideal companion for people loving peace and difficult tolerant commotion, people who are careless, indecisive and volatile.

It loves children, whom it can play, but also it stands as a protector and defender attentive. As a perfect guard, it is very vigilant and watchful, which is reflected by barking. It must also be naturally sharp, and it can be sharpness against unknown persons, if the dog bred as a companion breed, in certain situations it can be a problem. There must be essential early socializing. From an early age it is necessary to get used to strangers, but also dogs and pets.

In addition it also requires mental work. There are a lot of activities that can be nice for this dog because it is versatile and handy. It is probably the happiest dog during training and competitions in agility, but also activities as flyball and obedience or herding sheep. If there is opportunity to live in the country, it is interested in "every free moment" chasing rodents and small carnivores (weasel, polecat) as an ideal farm dogs.

Body:

It's a small, but powerful, fearless, short-legged, alert dog full of energy. Height at withers , male is  33 cm ,female is 31 cm in both sexes there  is admissible tolerance of +/- 1.5 cm, weight of body is from 9 to 14 kg.

The head should be long enough to clean outlines. Its shape is evenly wedge. The skull should be flat from above, the front slope of well-defined. Muzzle should be viewed from the side almost square, slightly shorter than skull. The nose is shining black. Lips are tightly fitting to the jaws and teeth. The teeth are relatively large, square to the jaws. The bite is regular, correct and complete.

Eyes should be medium-sized, dark brown in colour and oval in shape. Ears must be upright, moderately large, pointed, moving, must not be too low. From the base to the tip to be fixed covered with short hair.

The neck is long and muscular. Topline of body should be horizontal, muscular ridge. The loin is short and thick. Croup is broad, slightly sloping. The tail may be either naturally short bobtail or long, any length is permitted.

Chest required long and deep, ribs must be properly rounded when viewed from the front to be oval in shape when viewed from the side of the elliptical. The bottom line of the body determines the belly slightly drawn up.

The forelegs have strong bones, their blades are long, well bent, so their tops directed obliquely upwards and backwards. The shoulder bones are slightly shorter than the blades, fairly close to the chest, they are very mobile. Forearm, may be slightly curved, but should not be too crooked to the game below the chest to move freely. Wrists are flexible. Feet should be medium-sized, short and oval shaped, strong bones must be directed straight ahead. The pads are strong (high).

The hindquarters should be straight and parallel, knees and hock angulation properly. There are powerfully muscled thighs. Legs should be slightly longer than the distance from the base of the ankle.

Coat consists of a thick outer coat consisting of coarse perfectly fitting medium long guard hair and the undercoat that is soft and very dense. Coat should be on the front pages short limbs, neck, chest and back of the legs a little bit longer. Most desirable colour of coat is grey, grey-red, grey and yellow or red. On the back, neck and sides of the body the colour is darker, to muzzle the head, neck, underneath the chest and abdomen, behind the thighs and around the anus, feet and hocks lighter.

Typical drawing around the shoulders, consisting of two bright, narrow, nearly vertical stripes, one of which faces roughly from the tap in front of the shoulder joint and the other from the withers to the elbow, which recalls the harness on the dog (i.e. harness) is desirable.

All faults from the requirements of the standard shall be considered as defects and evaluate exactly according to the seriousness with regard to the health and welfare of the male and female.