Also known as the Toy German Spitz, the Dwarf Spitz or the Loulou (abbreviation of Loup Loup), or in its homeland as the Zwerg Spitz, this breed was developed exclusively as a companion dog.
This is the smallest of the German Spitz breeds, a dwarf form developed as a toy dog ideally suited to life in a restricted:, urban
environment. In personality it still considers itself to be a large dog and announces this fact without hesitation. For those with limited space, or the inability to undertake long walks, this is a tailor-made breed.
There has been confusion between this and the Pomeranian breed. Both have been created by selective breeding that has favoured smaller and smaller individuals, but the development of the Toy Spitz has taken place in Germany and other parts of continental Europe, while the Pomeranian has been refined in England and elsewhere outside continental Europe. Some authorities treat them as one and the same, but others separate them as two distinct breeds (as is done here). The reason for separating them is that they have been bred as distinct lines for well over 100 years and the size of the Pomeranian has been reduced even below that of the German Toy Spitz. They may have paralleled one another’s progress, but they are not the same breeding stock.
The German Toy Spitz is a favourite lapdog on continental Europe, but is little- known elsewhere because its niche is already occupied by its ‘parallel breed’, the English-developed Pomeranian.
In height, this breed is under 9 in (23 cm); in weight it is under 7 lb (3 kg). It is accepted in solid colours with black, orange, brown, grey and white being the favourites, and also in particolours.
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