CHOCOLATES are SWEET

Chocolate Pomeranians are Sweet

One hundred years ago, a lot of Pomeranians were in the chocolate color; ie, at that time, they were either white, black, chocolates or parti-colors until they tried to kill this color because of the emerging popularity of the new oranges at that time.   More recently, the chocolates are starting to be active in the show ring active again and thereby increasing its popularity.  Despite the color prejudices of judges, come chocolates have made it easily to the championship titles.  Pictured below are some of the chocolate champions American and Philippine Champions in the Pomeranian Breed history:

  1. Am Ch Starlite Legacy Choco Bear (behind our chocolates)
  2. Am Ch Heartland’s In the Nicatime (behind our chocolates)
  3. Janesa's Lindt Excellence (imported by Canton Pomeranians)
  4. Ph Ch  Showins Chocolate Choo Choo (imported by Canton Pomeranians)
  5. Ph Ch  Yingyang Twix (bred by Canton Pomeranians using Yingyang suffix for chocolates)
  6. Ph Ch  Janesa’s Raisenet  of Canton (imported by Canton Pomeranians)

 

Just like sweet chocolates, the chocolate Pomeranians can be addictive to many people…like me!  They come in different shades…from light chocolates, medium chocolates, and dark chocolates.  They could more of the red chocolates or the black chocolates.  They could also come in chocolate and tan,  parti-chocolate(choco and white), or even chocolate sables.

Chocolate is a dilute color.  It is also a recessive gene which means that to be able to produce it, both parents should either be chocolate themselves or a chocolate carrier.  A chocolate carrier means that at least one parent is chocolate, and if not, one ancestor carries this chocolate gene and the said gene has not been washed out over generations of breeding to non-chocolates.  There are some ways of finding out whether a non chocolate dog is a chocolate carrier.  There are turtle tail signs such as:  (1)  The eyes or nose may be chocolate ; (2)  The black could be a diluted carrying some hue of chocolate, something like a cat color;  And of course, there is Test Breeding wherein to find out, you breed the test case with  a chocolate partner.  If they produce chocolates, then, they are chocolate carriers.  Since Pomeranian litters are usually not big, you may have not any chocolates at all in the first litter.  Since the sample size is so small, this would suggest more breedings.  Unless this non-chocolates are chocolate factored, their puppies will not be chocolates..  And so, the chocolate probability goes on and on as long as both parents continue to be chocolates or chocolate carriers.

If  you  have a chocolate female and you cannot find a suitable chocolate male, what will you do?  Or maybe, the chocolate male or chocolate factored male that is available is not good enough since you want nicer puppies? Then you  next option, will be to breed to the best  quality dog,  and you will most likely produce non-chocolate  puppies which will be in turn be chocolate carriers.   In the next generation, bred to a chocolate or chocolate carrier they may be able to produce chocolates. 

Because of the very limited chocolate gene pool and the fact that chocolates  are recessive, their breeding becomes more difficult.  Many have to tried to improve the quality of  this color by mixing in the more advanced colors like oranges, reds, sables or blacks.  Blacks will be the best color mixture because they would make the chocolate color richer and deeper. 

Our high school biology teaches us the Medelian Theory.  When we apply this knowledge to our chocolate breeding, we get a pretty good idea of the probabilities of  producing chocolate puppies.  Hence, for a chocolate breeding program, the following are the equivalents  in our Mendian Chart:

DOMINANT GENE:       Blacks, Creams, Oranges, Reds, and generally, most any color except chocolates

RECESSIVE GENE:      Chocolate

CARRIER GENE:          The color appearance of the dominant gene except for the fact that at least one parent is

                                 a chocolate or at least has an ancestor whose recessive chocolate gene remain intact.