JUDGING THE POMERANIAN by FRED C. BASSETT
W hen I present seminars on the Pomeranian, I start by telling students that the Pom is pretty easy to understand in structure. It is a “four-square” short-backed dog with structure typical of these traits. Look for sound legs with balanced angles front and rear. The Pom is square in body proportions measured from with- ers to ground, and point of shoulder to point of buttocks. There are three things that make the Pom unique, so I will emphasize those as our breed-specific characteristics: 1. The Head 2. The Coat and Its Presentation 3. The Tail and Its Plume In order to understand the above traits, first, let’s discuss the Pom’s origin and give the breed context. The Pomeranian is part of the North- ern/Nordic/Spitz family of breeds, and shares the traits of this family of dogs including: • Wedge-shaped head • Prick ears • Tail over the back, with heavy coat • Double coat with weather resistant texture • Short compact body
“THE POMERANIAN’S HEAD IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. WHEN IT IS CORRECT, THERE IS NO WAY THAT THE DOG CAN BE MISTAKEN FOR ANY OTHER BREED.”
for any other breed. The Pom takes the Spitz traits of wedge shape and prick ears, and through selective breeding has evolved to have the broadest wedge shape of the family with the short- est muzzle to skull proportions. Our newly revised standard now includes a clarification for ideal head length pro- portions: muzzle to skull. See Figure 1 for clarification. The ears are also very important to give the Pom a distinctive look and expression. We call for the prick ears to be small and set high. You will see many ears that are too large, but I don’t think I have ever seen any that were too small. We also have many that
• Sound legs with adequate angles to provide an endurance trot gait This family of dogs shares each of these traits to some degree. The Spitz family of dogs includes the Pomeranian as well as the Keeshonden, Schipperke, American Eskimo, Samoyed, Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky, the Asian Spitz breeds (Chow Chow, Shiba Inu and Akita), as well as many other Asian and FCI breeds not yet recognized by the AKC. THE HEAD The Pomeranian’s head is extremely important. When it is correct, there is no way that the dog can be mistaken
Fig. 1: Left: the ²/ ³ skull and ¹/ ³ muzzle; Right: “Wedge” shape
T op N otch T oys , F ebruary 2017 • 59
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