Finnish Spitz Dog Breed Information

The Finnish Spitz is the national dog of Finland and one of the rarest hounds registered in New Zealand, with only a handful of NZKC litters in most years. The defining feature is the bark. The breed was developed to track forest birds, hold them in a tree and signal the hunter with a rapid, rhythmic vocalisation that can hit roughly 160 barks per minute on point. Even the pet version of this dog tells you about every passing courier, possum and morepork. NZ owners on a lifestyle block love them; the neighbours in a Wellington townhouse do not.

Adults stand 39 to 50 cm at the shoulder and weigh 11 to 16 kg, with males noticeably larger than females. The breed is fox-shaped: pricked ears, a curled tail over the back, a double coat in shades of golden red to honey, and a clean, low-odour build that grooms itself like a cat.

Personality and behaviour

Finnish Spitz are affectionate with family, polite with strangers, and reserved without being unfriendly. The breed bonds closely to its household, plays well with children it has grown up with, and tends to be selective about other dogs. Same-sex housemate friction is common in adulthood, more so than with the average gundog or retriever.

The breed thinks for itself. Centuries of decision-making in the Finnish forest produced a dog that observes, decides, then acts, often without consulting the handler. Finkies are not stubborn in the terrier sense; they simply hold their own opinion about whether your recall cue is more interesting than the rabbit on the other side of the paddock. Most of the time the rabbit wins.

The trait that surprises new owners is the volume. A Finkie does not bark like a Beagle bays or a German Shepherd alerts. It fires off a sharp, high-pitched, hammer-rhythm bark that is deliberately designed to carry across kilometres of forest. In a quiet NZ cul-de-sac the effect is dramatic. Owners who chose the breed for its looks and not the voice tend to surrender the dog within the first two years; the noise is structural, not a training failure.

Separation tolerance is moderate. The breed wants company and tends to vocalise heavily when bored or under-exercised. A second dog or a household where someone is home most of the day reduces the problem.

Care and exercise

Plan on around 60 minutes of varied exercise a day, plus mental work. A flat lead walk is not enough. The breed wants terrain, scent, and the chance to use its hunting instincts: bush tracks, riverbanks, lifestyle-block paddocks and forestry tracks all suit. Twenty minutes of scent work or tracking in the backyard tires a Finkie more than an hour on the leash.

Grooming is unusually low for a double-coated northern breed. The coat is largely self-cleaning; mud dries and falls out, and the dog rarely smells. A weekly brush handles year-round maintenance. The two seasonal sheds (spring and autumn) are a different story. The undercoat blows out in clumps for two to three weeks and the lounge floor turns into a fox-coloured carpet. Daily brushing with an undercoat rake during the shed periods is needed to keep on top of it.

Dietary care is straightforward. The breed is not a glutton in the Labrador or Beagle sense, holds condition well on measured meals, and tends to live 13 to 15 years on standard NZ premium dog food. Two measured meals a day is the typical routine.

The climate constraint is heat. The double coat is engineered for Finnish winter at minus 20 degrees, not Auckland summer at 28 with humidity. NZ Finkie owners in the upper North Island shift walks to dawn and dusk through December to February, ensure deep shade and a paddling option (river, paddock pool, hose-down) and accept that the dog will sleep on the coolest tile in the house through the heat of the day. Regions like Otago, Southland, Canterbury, Wellington and the Volcanic Plateau suit the breed naturally; the colder and drier the better.

The hunting drive is the other practical care issue. Possums, rabbits, hares, magpies and pukeko are all triggers. Most NZ Finkie owners walk on a long line in unfenced reserves for life and reserve true off-lead work for fully fenced sections or remote forestry tracks where the consequences of a chase are limited.

Where to find a Finnish Spitz in New Zealand

Three honest options.

1. Registered NZKC breeders. The Dogs NZ breeds directory lists every active Finnish Spitz breeder in the country. Numbers are tiny: often only one or two breeders with active litters in any given year, and waitlists routinely run 12 to 24 months. Expect NZ$2,200 to NZ$3,500 per puppy. Reputable breeders hip score, eye test and openly discuss epilepsy lines.
2. Australian imports. A small number of NZ Finkie owners have imported puppies or adolescents from Australian registered breeders. Import costs (transport, MPI requirements, quarantine where applicable) typically add NZ$3,000 to NZ$5,000 on top of the puppy price.
3. Rare-breed and rescue networks. Pure Finkies very rarely appear in NZ rescue. Dogs NZ’s rare breed register and the SPCA occasionally have a Finkie cross. Adoption fees usually run NZ$300 to NZ$700.

Avoid any breeder who can’t show you both parents, won’t share health screening, or has multiple litters from the same dam in close succession. The breed’s small NZ population means responsible breeders know each other and can verify a line’s reputation; a quick email to the Dogs NZ Finnish Spitz contact filters out most issues.