Yeah, I'm a day late and a dollar short posting this ... so sue me .

"Six new breeds will be competing at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this week. A total of 2,000 dogs, representing 185 breeds will fight for the title of Best in Show beginning on February 13."

Read more: 6 New Breeds Competing in 2012 Westminster Dog Show | Pets - Yahoo! Shine

Hey FinSaint, one of them is the Finnish Lapphund you were telling me about, nice looking dog!

Those are some interesting breeds. The Norwegian Lundehund is pretty fox-like in that picture. The Entlebucher Mountain Dog is of the same breeding tree as the Bernese Mountain Dog and the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.

I actually thought about getting a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, but there are only a handful of breeders in Finland and almost all of the puppies have one or some of the genetic diseases common with the breed. I would've probably had to get one from England in order to get a healthy individual and the costs would've been too much.

The Finnish Lapphund is probably the least popular of the Finnish breeds and to tell you the truth I don't really like the way the breed looks. They're all hunting dogs and since I don't do hunting myself I would never get one of them, because the hunting instinct has been bred deep into them and it would be hard to try to substitute that activity with another.

That's funny, I thought the same thing about the Norwegian Lundehund ... it looks like a 'sneaky' kind of dog, lol! The Entlebucher Mountain Dog was one of the two I liked best, the other being the Finnish Lapphund. I can't believe the Lapphund isn't more popular, it's such a cool looking dog, like a mini-sled dog.

I was just speaking out of a gut feeling, but after I looked into it - it seems that I was wrong about their popularity.

The most popular dog breeds in Finland are:

1. Finnish Hound
2. German Sheppard
3. Labrador Retriever
4. Golden Retriever
5. Finnish Lapphund
6. Norwegian Elkhund
...
12. Finnish Spitz

So it seems that all the Finnish breed are very popular in Finland, go figure?

Finnish Hound



Norwegian Elkhund



Finnish Spitz



I just haven't seen many of those Finnish breeds in day-to-day life, but I guess they are more popular in the rural parts of Finland (Eastern Finland and Lapland) where people do more hunting.

Those are three good looking breeds, I like that Spitz too.

Have seen the Norwegian Elkhound before - they're beautiful breed...

Think my Mom's dog, adopted, looks exactly like the Spitz!

In the South, down here, I'd like that Fin Hound - alot like the Beagle...

Yeah, I do think that the Fin Hound looks like an overgrown Beagle, but I also see a resemblance to a Coon Hound: