Are you ready to bring a Swedish Lapphund into your life?
Swedish Lapphunds are a rare breed, and the numbers are very low in the United States. This means that you may need to be very patient once you’ve decided that a Swedish Lapphund is the breed for you. This can mean waiting for a litter to happen in the US, or working with an overseas breeder to import a puppy. Fortunately, several females in the US will be approaching breeding age in the next year, and if all goes well, we are looking forward to more domestically bred Swedish Lapphunds soon!
Breeding goals
We would like to see a well established healthy population of Swedish Lapphunds in the future. This means making sure that dogs who are bred are healthy. They are all genetically tested to determine if any dogs are carriers for recessive genes linked to adverse health outcomes, and have their elbows, hips, and eyes tested starting at age two.
Our main goal is to maximize genetic diversity within the breed, so it is important that every Swedish Lapphund who is healthy make a contribution to the gene pool. For example, if a dog is a carrier for a recessive trait that is associated with a negative health issue, they can still be bred as long as the other dog in the pairing does not also carry that same recessive gene.
What does it take to breed a Swedish Lapphund in the US?
Most of the dogs in the United States are too closely related to be bred to each other, so we must import frozen semen from overseas to impregnate our American females. This starts with searching the breed database to determine the best match. We look for matches that have a coefficient of inbreeding that is less than 2.25%.
Once potential matches are identified, we contact the male dog's owner to see if they are willing to collect semen from their dog and have it shipped to us in the United States.
We then work with veterinary reproductive specialists who are able to perform transcervical insemination with the frozen sperm at the optimum time for fertilization. Once the female goes into heat, her progesterone levels are tested daily to determine when that is. Ideally, the procedure is performed twice if there is enough semen, two days apart, and if all goes well puppies will soon be on their way!
As more unrelated Swedish Lapphunds are imported we can do breedings the old fashioned way. In a few more generations we will also be much less reliant on medical technology, but in the next few years most litters will come about through artificial insemination.
It is important that no single dog over-contributes to the breed. The international breeding plan limits the number of offspring that can be registered to 16 puppies per male or female Swedish Lapphund. This means that each female may have at most two or three litters in her lifetime, or may have only a single litter. Many of the female dogs in the US do not live with large breeders. Instead, they live with people who are committed to the breed and are willing to go through the laborious process of bringing more Swedish Lapphunds into the world so that they can live with others who will also be committed to the breed.
Can you give your Swedish Lapphund a good home?
Given all that goes into breeding and raising a Swedish Lapphund puppy, we want to make sure they go only to the absolutely best homes! Bringing a Swedish Lapphund into your life is more than just having a really incredible dog. It is also about joining a community of people who truly love this breed and want to do everything possible to make sure that this ancient breed survives and thrives in the world today. This may very well be a lifetime commitment, since once you bring a Swedish Lapphund into your life you probably won’t want to stop at just one!
This means that you will agree to leave your dog intact for at least two years, have him or her health tested, and if the dog is healthy, your dog will also contribute their genes to the gene pool consistent with the breeding strategy by having a litter or fathering puppies.
Of course, if more puppies are bred, more good homes will also have to be found. Swedish Lapphund owners should be willing to be breed ambassadors so that we can introduce more people to this incredible breed. This can mean participating in shows or sports–many Swedish Lapphunds excel in conformation, agility, herding, scent work, and rally–or it can also mean introducing your dog to friends and neighbors who may not be familiar with the breed. Swedish Lapphunds make wonderful family dogs, and will want to be integrated into their human family regardless of whether or not they participate in sports or shows. Most importantly, it means making sure that your Swedish Lapphund is well trained and socialized, so that when people meet their first Swedish Lapphund their first impression is a very good one!
Speaking of training, it is important to have a plan to train and socialize your puppy as soon as you bring him or her home. Swedish Lapphunds are incredibly intelligent, independent, and energetic, and take to positive training from an early age.
For additional reference: visit the Svenska Lapphundklubben