The Labrador Retriever was last year's most popular dog breed in Finland

The Labrador Retriever was the clear number one of the registration table, with 1,851 Labs being registered last year. The Finnish Hound was last year's second-most popular breed with 1,664 registrations. The breed's decades-long downward trend in registrations now turned into a clear rise – the number of Finnish Hounds registered last year was 189 larger than in 2012.

The German Shepherd Dog was third in popularity with 1,404 pups registered. This figure decreased by no less than 350 from 2012.

The Jämthund was the fourth-most popular breed and only came twenty or so pups away from surpassing the German Shepherd Dog. Next on the list are the Golden Retriever, the Finnish Lapphund, the Shetland Sheep Dog, the Jack Russell Terrier and the Miniature Schnauzer. The Long-haired Chihuahua entered the top ten most popular breed list for the first time with 752 pups registered.

Popularity of small-sized breeds evening out

The number of registrations of many of the smaller-sized breeds has started to decline. At the same time, the downward trend in registrations of the bigger breeds is ending. Could these changes be due to the economic situation?  
“There was lots of demand for big dogs in Finland during the recession of the early 1990s. Perhaps history is repeating itself in tune with economic trends? People might be seeking a sense of security from dogs in times of uncertainty,” says Tapio Eerola, editor-in-chief of Koiramme magazine.

Number of registrations falls

In all, 46,904 dogs were registered in 2013. In 2012, the corresponding figure was 49,743.

“Finnish dog breeding maintains stability even in tough economic times. No breed experiences a sudden collapse, as it is more typical for the decline in pup numbers to spread evenly across the different breeds,” Eerola points out.

Finnish Kennel Club CEO Markku Mähönen agrees.

”The number of registrations does not tell the full story about the Finnish nation's relationship with dogs. Even if the number of registrations is down, the amount of active dog owners has remained high. This can be seen from the development of the Finnish Kennel Club's membership numbers. I'm overjoyed by the fact that our membership exceeded 150,000 for the first time last year,” he says.

Issues 1-2/2014 of Koiramme magazine also deal with last year's registration numbers.  

Registrations in 2013
(Figures for 2012 in parentheses)

1. (1) Labrador Retriever  1851  (1973)     
             
2. (4) Finnish Hound  1664  (1475)     
             
3. (2) German Shepherd Dog  1404  (1745)     
             
4. (5) Jämthund  1378  (1302)     
             
5. (3) Golden Retriever  1219  (1535)     
             
6. (6) Finnish Lapphund  1096  (1155)     
             
7. (8) Shetland Sheepdog  1040  (1067)     
             
8. (10) Jack Russell Terrier  914  (954)     
             
9. (9) Miniature Schnauzer   859  (989)     
             
10. (17) Chihuahua, long-haired  752  (686)     

Further information:
Finnish Kennel Club Communications Manager
Kaija Unhola
tel. +358 50 432 0844