Breed · Dog
Pomeranian
The smallest of the spitz family, bred down from sled-dog stock and made fashionable by Queen Victoria.
Underneath the pompom is a spitz: bold, bossy, sharp-eared and convinced of its own consequence. Poms are genuinely clever, surprisingly trainable, and superb company for someone who wants a small dog with theatre in it. The coat is a real double coat and moults like one, the bark comes standard and needs managing from puppyhood, and the tiny frame under all that fluff is more fragile than it looks — this is a step-watching, arms-of-toddlers-forbidding sort of dog.
At a glance
- Lifespan
- 12–16 years
- Adult weight
- 1.8–3.5 kg
- Daily exercise
- 30–45 min, plus indoor games
- Trainability
- Good; thinks it is optional
- Alone time tolerated
- Moderate
- Shedding
- Heavy for the size; real spitz moults
- Noise level
- High untrained
- With children
- Poor with small children — too small, too proud
- With other pets
- Fine with gentle ones; will boss dogs ten times its size
Colours · 4 listed
Orange is the postcard, but the breed comes in a wide run of colours. The coat is the same double-layered work in all of them.
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Orange
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Cream
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Black
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Sable
Right for you if
- You want maximum dog character in minimum dog, and find bossiness funny.
- Brushing a proper double coat several times a week is fine by you.
- The household is adult, calm, and nobody will leave a gate to a staircase open.
- You will train the bark early instead of laughing at it until it is a habit.
Wrong for you if
- Toddlers, boisterous dogs or hard floors and open stairs define the house.
- You expected a low-maintenance coat because the dog is small.
- Yapping would end the tenancy.
- You want a dog that defers. Spitz do not defer.
What to ask a breeder
- Ask for the parents’ patella grades — tiny spitz knees are the breed’s known mechanical question, and the grading is cheap and standard.
- Ask whether there is any history of collapsing trachea in the lines and how the breeder manages collars versus harnesses — a good one will tell you to walk the dog on a harness before you ask.
- Ask about coat loss in the lines and what the breeder does about it; ask to see the parents’ coats up close and part the fur to the skin yourself.
Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.