A small pet dog developed from the larger spitz types by reduction through selective breeding, this dog originated in Germany, but was fostered and developed in England. It has sometimes been called the Dwarf Spitz or the Loulou by those who do not distinguish between it and its continental equivalent, the German Toy Spitz. It takes its name from the extreme northern German district of Pomerania. To its friends it is known simply as the Pam.
The ancestors of the Pomeranian arrived in England from Germany in the 18th century, when the German- born Queen Charlotte came to the British throne and brought with her the favourite court dogs of her country. She called them Pomeranians, but these were white spitz dogs weighing 20-30 lb (9-14 kg), which places them in the size-range of what we today call the Standard or Mittel Spitz. Devoted, vivacious and affectionate companions, these white spitz dogs soon became popular in Britain and were painted several times by Gainsborough. By the 19th century the Porn was a favoured Victorian breed.
In 1888 Queen Victoria was on a visit to Florence when she saw some small examples of the breed (equivalent in size to today’s Miniature Spitz) and brought them home with her. They were added to her kennels and this royal accolade resulted in a further rise in the Pomeranian’s popularity. The Queen not only went on to breed them but also exhibited them and won great acclaim for her dogs. She exhibited six of them at the 1891 Cruft’s show in London and one of them, called Windsor Marco, won the breed class. (It would have been a brave judge to have placed her second.) When Queen Victoria died in 1901, her favourite black Porn, Turi, was with her to the end, lying at the foot of her bed. In the years that followed, the size of these little dogs continued to shrink, heading down towards the dwarf dog we know today. Its modern height is only 7-8 in (18-22 cm); its weight only 4-5 lb (1.8-2.2 kg). These tiny examples became so favoured that the earlier, larger types vanished in Britain (although they did, of course, survive in continental Europe).
The first Pomeranian Club was formed in 1891, and the following year the first examples arrived in the United States. In 1911 the American Pomeranian Club held its first show.
Fondly described as ‘animated puff-balls’, Poms appear in 12 different colour forms: black, brown, chocolate, beaver, red, orange, cream, orange sable, wolf sable, blue, white and particoloured. The coat is amazingly thick and upstanding, with an exaggerated ruff that completely surrounds the small, foxy face, and a fluffy tail which is held up over the back.
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