AKC Gazette – December 2019
Read the December 2019 AKC Gazette Finnish Lapphund column about Santa’s dog here…
Finnish Lapphunds - Does Santa Claus Have Lappies?
(originally published in the AKC Gazette – Dec 2019 issue)
When I got my Finnish Lapphund and found out that they are reindeer herding dogs, I couldn’t help but wonder if Santa Claus also has some Lappies at his home at the North Pole. So, I set out on a fact-finding mission to see if there was any documentation that Santa Claus has dogs and if they are Lappies.
My initial internet search turned up very limited information –no images of Santa Claus sitting by the fire with dogs curled at his feet; no dog herding competitions at the North Pole listed on the InfoDog website; no one named Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Pierre Noel, Kris Kringle, Pelznickel, Sinterklaas, or Joulupukki in the breed archives; and no breeders claiming that they had sold a puppy to this infamous legend (we can only assume that any breeder working with him today would be sworn to absolute secrecy).
So, I took a deeper dive into the internet and found a few obscure records indicating that Santa Claus had only one reindeer at the start of his gift giving tradition. Then there was mention of eight reindeer and then finally a team of nine with the addition of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. This made sense to me – as delivery requests grew, he would need more reindeer to pull a larger sleigh filled with more and more toys. I would like to propose that in these modern times that Santa Claus in fact has a very large herd of reindeer, a fleet of state-of-the-art sleighs, and a team of drivers to accommodate his global deliveries in a timely fashion.
And with a very large reindeer herd to manage, who better to help Santa Claus than the Finnish Lapphund? Lapponian dogs have an ancient history as helper dogs and reindeer herders of the Sami people in Lapland, the arctic regions of Finland, Scandanavia, and parts of Russia. A Finnish Lapphund named Iikka from Norway very much enjoyed watching and moving a reindeer herd on a recent visit to Lapland. This video shows Iikka training to herd reindeer and shows the enthusiasm, agility, and speed these dogs have on the snow. (https://www.facebook.com/veronika.martinsen/posts/10160323864215554). My research found a reference that Santa’s workshop might have at one time been located in Lapland and I’m sure a few locals would insist that he still lives there. But I would like to propose that when Santa moved his workshop and reindeer to the North Pole, that he took Lappies with him.
Besides being an original reindeer herding dog, Finnish Lapphunds are known to be wonderful companions for homes with children. Santa Claus established the holiday tradition of making children happy, so I submit that because both Santa and Lappies make children happy that he would select the Lappy as his breed. If he ever decided to have his dogs attend one of his many shopping mall visits, a Lappy would willingly lend an ear, with a twinkle in its eye, to hear all the children’s secret wishes. But the Lappy’s mischievous nature might not make it the best delivery helper - the stockings hung with care, the brightly wrapped packages, and Santa’s milk and cookies might prove too tempting a distraction for a Lappy.
Finally, after a very extensive search on the internet, I found a video of Santa Claus with a Lappy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pINcr6N74rw). The footage does not show Santa’s full-scale workshop and reindeer herds that must exist at the North pole, but I suppose that is to be expected to keep the magic of the season going strong. I personally like to imagine that there are a bunch of happy Lappies carrying on the ancient herding traditions in that mystical magical place called the North Pole.
Happy Holidays my dog loving friends!
