Pomeranian

What is a Pomeranian?

The smallest of the spitz breeds, 2-3kg, with a dense double coat, pricked ears, a fox-like face and a tail carried flat over the back. Everything about the outline says Arctic sled dog, because that is what they were before they were bred down.

They are a genuine toy dog with a working dog's temperament: alert, vocal, busy, and convinced they are in charge of the premises.

History and origins

Descended from the large Spitz dogs of Pomerania, on the Baltic, where the ancestors weighed 14-16kg and pulled sledges and herded. Queen Victoria is the reason they are small - she brought back a comparatively tiny Pom called Marco from Italy in 1888, showed him, and the fashion for smaller dogs followed her. The breed lost roughly half its weight in the following twenty years.

Appearance and size

1.8-3.5kg, 18-24cm. A harsh, stand-off outer coat over a soft dense undercoat, heaviest around the neck and shoulders, where it forms the ruff. Orange and red are commonest; black, cream, sable, blue and parti-colour all occur. The muzzle should be short but not so short that the nostrils pinch - the exaggerated "teddy bear" face sold at a premium brings breathing and eye problems with it.

Temperament and personality

Confident to the point of recklessness, devoted to their household, and suspicious of strangers. They are watchdogs by instinct and take the job seriously. Well socialised they are outgoing and funny; under-socialised they become snappy and noisy, and a small dog that has learned that barking makes things go away is hard to unteach.

Intelligence and trainability

Very trainable, and they enjoy it. Poms learn tricks quickly, do well at scent work and mini agility, and respond to reward far better than to firmness. The common failure is simply not training them, because a 2kg dog can be picked up instead of taught. That is how the reputation for yappiness is made.

House training takes patience - small bladder, and they dislike rain.

Children and other pets

Better with older children than with toddlers, and the reason is physical rather than temperamental: a Pom is genuinely breakable. Dropped from a sofa or stepped on, they break legs. A household with small children needs rules about where the dog is and who picks it up, or a bigger dog.

Fine with cats and other dogs when socialised early, though they will square up to animals ten times their size without a flicker.

Health problems

Luxating patella. Very common in the breed. Kneecaps that slip out of the groove, causing a skipping gait and, over time, arthritis. Mild grades are managed; grades three and four need surgery. Both parents should be patella graded.

Tracheal collapse. The windpipe softens and flattens, producing a honking cough that worsens with excitement or pulling on a collar. Walk a Pom on a harness, never a collar, from the day you get it.

Alopecia X, sometimes called black skin disease, where the coat is lost from the body and does not regrow. Cosmetic rather than painful, and commoner in males.

Dental disease, early and severe - small jaw, crowded teeth. Patent ductus arteriosus and other heart defects, which a cardiac check picks up. And hypoglycaemia in very young puppies, which is why a reputable breeder will not let one go before twelve weeks.

Daily care routine

Brushing, a walk, and a look at the teeth. Harness on for every outing. Watch for the honking cough and mention it to a vet early rather than treating it as a quirk.

Weigh monthly. On a 2.5kg dog, 300g is a twelve per cent gain and it shows in the knees.

Grooming and coat care

Substantial work, and the thing people underestimate. Brush thoroughly two or three times a week, to the skin, with a slicker and a comb - a Pom's undercoat mats underneath a coat that still looks fine on top, particularly behind the ears, in the armpits and around the rear.

They blow the undercoat twice a year and the house fills with it.

Do not have a Pomeranian shaved. The double coat regulates temperature in both directions, and shaving it risks post-clipping alopecia where it never comes back properly. A trim and a tidy, not a clip-off.

Exercise needs

Modest. Two twenty-minute walks and some play is plenty for an adult, and they will happily do more. Mental work matters as much as distance - a bored Pom barks.

Careful in heat. A black double-coated dog on a hot pavement overheats fast, and their heat tolerance is poor.

Feeding and diet

Small, measured meals of good quality food, split into two or three. Watch the calories, because a handful of treats is a large proportion of a 2.5kg dog's day. Dental-friendly kibble or raw bones appropriate to the size help, but nothing replaces brushing the teeth.

Price

£1,200-£2,500 from a breeder health testing patellas, eyes and hearts. "Teacup" Poms and extreme short faces are advertised well above that - those are not a recognised variety, they are usually just undersized dogs, and the smaller they are the more the health problems bite.

Running costs are low apart from grooming, which is £40-£60 every six to eight weeks if you do not do it yourself, and dentistry, which most Poms need at some point.

Buying advice

Ask for patella grades and eye certificates for both parents, and a cardiac check. Ask the adult weight of the parents - a breeder advertising "tiny" or "teacup" is selling a size, and size is the thing most associated with fragility and hypoglycaemia in this breed.

Do not collect before twelve weeks. Toy breeds leaving at eight are the ones that crash on low blood sugar in the first week.

Watch the mother move across the room. A skipping step on a back leg is a luxating patella, and it is heritable.