Finnish Lapphund Colours: Every Coat Colour and Marking Explained

Two Finnish Lapphunds can look like completely different dogs and both be purebred. Timber and Tundra do not match, and they are related. That mismatch is part of the magic of the breed, because it comes in one of the widest colour ranges in the dog world. If you have looked at your Lappy and wondered what colour that actually is, or you are trying to picture what a litter might bring, this is the plain owner to owner guide, with what the breed standards really say.

What colours can a Finnish Lapphund be?

Almost any colour. The Finnish Lapphund ranges from pale cream all the way to solid black, with most of the spectrum in between. The one rule shared by every major standard is simple. A single base colour has to dominate and cover most of the body, while secondary colours and markings are allowed on the head, neck, chest, underside, legs and tail (AKC standard, hosted by the Finnish Lapphund Club of America and FCI Standard No. 189).

The most common and most recognised look is black with tan markings, often called black and tan or tricolour (ShowSight Magazine). Seven coat words cover almost everything you will meet at a show or on a trail. Those seven are black and tan, wolf sable, cream, brown, sable, domino and black, and they are the same seven we draw designs in. For the wider picture on temperament, size and care, start with my Finnish Lapphund breed guide.

What do the breed standards say about colour?

The three big standards agree far more than they differ. Here is the short version.

The one real difference is merle. The UK Kennel Club lists merle as unacceptable, while the AKC and FCI standards do not name it at all (The Kennel Club, UK and FCI Standard No. 189). Standards get revised from time to time, so check the current wording with your own kennel club before you rely on it.

How does the banded hair rule work?

This one trips people up, so here it is in plain terms. Some Lappies have hairs that carry bands of different shades along a single strand. The AKC standard counts that as one colour rather than several. The wording is direct: "A colour which consists of bands of different colours on a single hair shaft (sable, wolfsable, or domino) is considered a single colour" (AKC standard).

So a richly banded coat still satisfies the one-dominant-colour rule. It also explains why three of the seven coat words describe a pattern of banding instead of a flat shade. Keep that in mind as we walk through the colours one at a time.

Finnish Lapphund colours, one by one

Black and tan (tricolour)

The classic Lappy. A black body with tan points on the face, chest and legs. The tan runs anywhere from pale cream to deep caramel, and white patches on the chest and feet, called Irish spotting, give the tricolour look English breeders love (Southern Finnish Lapphund Society). Timber is black and tan, which is why so many of my early drawings are. You can see every design drawn in this coat on the black and tan Lapphund designs page.

Wolf sable

The grey, wolfy one. Wolf sable comes from banded hairs, black at the base and tip with lighter tan bands between, three or more bands to a hair. That banding gives the silvery agouti look. Wolf sable is genetically dominant to black and tan, so at least one parent has to be wolf sable for a puppy to be one. These pups change the most, often shifting from near black to grey as they grow. A rarer brown wolf sable version exists too (Southern Finnish Lapphund Society). The wolf sable Lapphund designs are the greys and silvers in the shop.

Brown (chocolate)

Brown dogs carry no black pigment anywhere, so the nose, eye rims, lips and pads come out brown rather than black. Brown is recessive to black, which means both parents have to carry a brown gene to produce a brown puppy. Finnish breeders call it "ruskea" for brown, or "parkki" for tree bark (ShowSight Magazine). If your dog is one of these warm chocolate Lappies, the brown Lapphund designs are where they live.

Cream

Cream is the great masker. It hides the dog's underlying colour, so the only clue to the true base is the pigment on the nose, eye rims, lips and feet. A black-based cream has a black nose, and a brown-based cream has a brown one. Cream noses often lighten with the seasons, which owners call snow nose. Because two copies of an e-series gene turn black pigment to yellow, cream puppies can appear in litters from black or black and tan parents (Southern Finnish Lapphund Society). The pale ones are gathered on the cream Lapphund designs page.

Sable (red sable)

Sable runs from pale cream to a deep red orange, with darker tipping on the guard hairs. The tipping can read as a saddle across the back, or it can fade down to a scatter of tipped hairs. The tip colour follows the dog's base, so a black-based dog has black tips and a brown-based dog has brown tips. The Finnish word is "soopeli" (Southern Finnish Lapphund Society). The warm reds sit on the sable Lapphund designs page.

Domino

Domino is another banded-hair pattern, and the AKC groups it with sable and wolf sable as a single colour. It shows up as a striking facial pattern, usually with a bold mask, large eyebrow spots and a pale head stripe that can fade with age (AKC standard). It is the face people photograph most and the one they struggle hardest to name. The domino Lapphund designs are the masked faces in the shop.

Black

Solid black happens, and it is a recessive expression, so it turns up less often than the black and tan most people picture (Southern Finnish Lapphund Society). A black Lappy usually still carries a little white on the chest or toes, and sunlight can lift a red or bronze cast out of the coat. Photographing one is a genuine challenge, which is part of why the black Lapphund designs lean on clean silhouettes.

White markings, spectacles and rare colours

White Irish spotting turns up regularly on the chest, belly and feet, and many Lappies wear paler rings around the eyes that look like little spectacles (Southern Finnish Lapphund Society). Those spectacles are one of the breed's charms, and they read as sharper on a dark face.

A blue and a blue and tan dilute exist genetically, though both are very rare, and the Southern Finnish Lapphund Society records that neither has been seen in the UK so far. There is no official rarity table for the breed, so treat any list ranking colours by rarity as opinion. What the genetics do tell you is direction. Recessive colours like brown and solid black need both parents to carry the gene, so they appear less often than the dominant patterns.

Which patterns are faulted or not accepted?

Inside the breed's open colour rules, a few patterns are seen as undesirable because they break up that one dominant colour. Parti colour, brindle and saddle all fall into that group (Finnish Lapphund Health UK). These are described as faults rather than formal disqualifications, so a pet with one is still a perfectly good dog.

Merle is the exception, and only under the UK Kennel Club standard, which names it unacceptable. A merle-patterned dog advertised as a purebred Finnish Lapphund is worth a hard second look, because the pattern does not sit naturally in this breed's colour palette.

Could an unusual colour mean my dog is a mix?

Sometimes, and the honest test is not the colour on its own. This breed's palette is so wide that an odd shade proves very little by itself. Structure, coat texture, ear set and tail carriage tell you far more than a coat colour ever will, and registration papers or a breed-detection DNA test settle it properly.

Merle is the one pattern that should raise an eyebrow, since it is not part of the breed's recognised palette. A shelter dog labelled as a Lapphund mix is a common story, and I unpack what those dogs usually turn out to be in my Finnish Lapphund mix guide.

Why did my Finnish Lapphund puppy change colour?

Because that is what Lappies do. Coat colour shifts a great deal as a puppy matures, so the colour a pup is born with cannot reliably predict the adult. Eye colour, nose pigment, tan intensity and markings all keep developing as they grow (ShowSight Magazine).

The two biggest movers are wolf sable and sable. Near-black wolf sable puppies often lighten to grey over the first year, and heavy black tipping on a sable can fade to a handful of tipped hairs. White markings can shrink as the puppy grows into them, and a domino head stripe can soften almost to nothing. If you have a colour in mind when choosing a puppy, talk it through with your breeder, because the parents' genetics set what is even possible.

Does coat colour affect a Finnish Lapphund's health?

No. Coat colour sits entirely apart from the breed's health testing. Responsible breeders follow the Finnish Lapphund Club of America CHIC program, which asks for an OFA hip evaluation, a prcd-PRA DNA test registered with OFA, an eye exam by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist, and permanent identification such as a microchip or tattoo. An elbow evaluation is recommended as part of pre-breeding screening, though it is a recommendation rather than a CHIC requirement (FLCA, What is CHIC).

CHIC is about transparency rather than perfect results. A dog can earn a CHIC number with an abnormal finding, as long as the results are published. This is general information, not veterinary advice. For your own dog, talk to your veterinarian and a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist, and remember that a DNA test never replaces a routine eye exam. The condition by condition detail sits in my Finnish Lapphund health problems guide.

Whatever your Lappy is, wolf sable grey, classic black and tan, rich brown, warm sable, soft cream, masked domino or gleaming black, there is a way to show it off. I started Lapphund Designs because I could not find anything that actually looked like my dogs, so every design is drawn coat by coat across t-shirts, mugs, stickers and coasters. If your colour is missing, tell me, because I am still adding to the Lappy Pack.

Black is the one Finnish Lapphund colour that causes real confusion, and I cover why a solid black Lappy can be mistaken for a Swedish Lapphund in a separate guide.

The Keeshond is the breed whose standard actually requires those eye markings, and I cover how Lappy spectacles compare with a Keeshond's in a guide of its own.

Wolf sable is the coat that gets our dogs mistaken for a Norwegian Elkhound, and I put the two breeds side by side in Finnish Lapphund vs Norwegian Elkhound.

Related Finnish Lapphund guides

• Finnish Lapphund vs Norwegian Elkhound
• how Lappy spectacles compare with a Keeshond's
• why a solid black Lappy can be mistaken for a Swedish Lapphund
• Finnish Lapphund mixes: what a shelter Lapphund cross usually is
• Do Finnish Lapphunds shed a lot?
• How to groom a Finnish Lapphund
• Finnish Lapphund names, including names by coat colour
• Finnish Lapphund history and origins
• The complete Finnish Lapphund breed guide

Finnish Lapphund colours: quick answers

What is the most common Finnish Lapphund colour?

Black with tan markings, often called black and tan or tricolour, is the most common and most recognised colour. The tan ranges from pale cream to deep caramel, and white Irish spotting patches create the tricolour look.

Are all colours allowed in the breed standard?

Almost. The AKC and FCI standards permit all colours, and the UK Kennel Club allows all colours except merle, which it names unacceptable. In every standard one base colour must dominate and cover the body, with markings allowed on the head, neck, chest, underside, legs and tail.

What is wolf sable?

Wolf sable is a grey, wolfy agouti colour created by banded hairs, usually black at the base and tip with lighter bands between. It is dominant to black and tan, so at least one parent must be wolf sable, and puppies often shift from near black to grey as they mature.

Can Finnish Lapphunds be brown or cream?

Yes. Brown dogs have no black pigment, so the nose and eye rims are brown, and brown is recessive, so both parents must carry the gene. Cream masks the underlying colour, with the true base showing only through pigment on the nose, eye rims, lips and feet.

What is the rarest Finnish Lapphund colour?

There is no official rarity ranking for the breed. The blue and blue and tan dilutes are the rarest documented colours, and the Southern Finnish Lapphund Society records that neither has appeared in the UK yet. Recessive colours such as brown and solid black are also seen less often than the dominant patterns.

Why did my puppy's colour change?

Finnish Lapphund coats change a great deal with age. Eye colour, nose pigment, tan intensity and markings all develop as the puppy grows, so the newborn colour cannot reliably predict the adult. Wolf sable and sable puppies change the most.

Sources

• Finnish Lapphund Club of America, AKC breed standard
• Finnish Lapphund Club of America, What is CHIC
• FCI Standard No. 189 (Suomenlapinkoira)
• The Kennel Club (UK), Finnish Lapphund breed standard
• Southern Finnish Lapphund Society, Colours
• Finnish Lapphund Health UK, Colour
• ShowSight Magazine, A Rainbow of Colors

Written by Jill, co-founder of Lapphund Designs. Jill lives in Castlegar, BC with her husband and their two Finnish Lapphunds, Timber and Tundra. She started Lapphund Designs after struggling to find products that celebrated the breed she loves.