Canton Pomeranians

The range of Pomeranian sizes is quite large.  There are basically 3 canine clubs that really affect the canine world namely:  KC, FCI and AKC.  It is based on these perspective that I am writing this blog.

The Kennel Club (KC)  Standard of England stipulates 4 – 4 ½ pounds for males and 4 ½

-5 ½  pounds for females.

The Federacion Cynoloque International (FCI) Standard stipulates the size in height…18-22cm from the withers to the floor.  This would really depend on the body structure of the dog.  This is basically a small dog similar to the KC standard, perhaps even smaller.  Dogs taller than the required standard would not fall under Pomeranian(toy spitzbut  would be classified under miniature spitz.

The American Kennel Club(AKC) Standard of the United States puts the size requirement spanning in the bigger range…3 to 7 pounds.   Originally, the standard was closer to the other 2 main clubs but some years back, there was this change, thereby, allowing larger poms of good quality to be shown in the ring. 

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Many many years back when I used to visit England quite often, I learned that the English breeders would have two sets of poms, particularly female Pomeranians.  One set would be for breeding and the another set would be showing.  Their fabulous show females were not good breeding propositions and oftentimes too small to breed or necessarily requiring C-section.  As such, many would use huge “donkeys” as their broods and breed them to their show sized males.  The result would be a mixture of small and large puppies.  The smaller ones were prettier in face while the larger ones were more homely in looks.  The larger males are usually petted out.  The smaller females, usually quite pretty were sold as show prospect ….or eventually be shown by the breeder themselves.   The small males and the larger females were basically the stock the breeder would consider for their future  breeding program.

I recall seeing such fabulous offsprings from large very ugly mothers.  The breeders would rationalize that these mothers though ugly, have generations of  good bloodlines behind them and that explains why they can produce such lovely puppies specially when it is linebred to a suitable male. 

Above is a picture of Eng Ch Hadleigh Shining Star(Left) and my silver grey “dream” puppy named Yap Star Sapphire of Madono(Right)  which my brother Benjamin purchased for me in Japan in the late 70s.    His dam was a large spitz type looking kind of Pomeranian.  The pedigree of the mom, she is basically Hadleigh breeding and I suppose her looks goes back to her original spitz ancestors. 

What I want to impress is the need for linebreeding and inbreeding to bring the quality in.  As the quality comes in and as the sizes shrinks, you have to introduce new blood for hybrid vigor.  In the process you produce larger stronger pups…sometimes reverting back to the large spitzy looks.  Though ugly, provided these bitches had the right bloodlines, they would be the machinery for producing your future champions.

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With the not so recent change in the size for the breed standard in the United States, you see bigger and bigger dogs in the American show ring.  You hardly see the smaller type of  pomeranians you saw of yesteryears. 

Though I know this is the way to go…that is, having larger males and female to breed from, I somehow still miss and keep on longing for the 4 -4 ½  pounders…these are what I really love and these are the males that I want to show in the ring.

Pictured on the left is Ph Ch Canton Al Capone and on the right is PH HOF Canton Baby Ruth.   Both of these dogs, I think are the epitome of the Pomeranian breed type.  They are about 4 – 4 ½ pounds.   Al Capone is more of the beautiful American type of Pomeranians with that so called Teddy Bear look whilst Baby Ruth is more towards the English type with that distinct wedge shaped short foxy muzzle.  I love using these males if I want to get show males but I am quite reluctant to use them because I know they will shrink the sizes of their puppies so easily no matter how large the bitch is….and what do I do with a small bitch too small to breed?    And usually, don’t most breeders aim to produce females rather than males?

I like to produce 4 – 4 ½ pounds males and 5 -7 pounds females as one year adults.  But, producing both in some way is contradictory because if you use a 4 – 4 ½ pounds male then what you are saying is you want to produce this in both sexes; and vice versa, ie, if you use a 5-7 pounds male, you are inadvertedly saying that you want to produce this size.   I want the larger sized females to produce sweet pretty smiling faces like my males.  If I see my females shrinking in size,  I would use a larger male.  If the females are larger, I am inclined to use smaller males…but again, since I want more female pups to keep, I would sometimes use a larger stud on a large bitcy to produce larger female puppies.

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It is so important to understand the SIZE development stages of your bloodline.  I can usually project the one year old dogs when they are puppies.  At 3 months, I could make rough guess what they will be at a year old…double the weight and sometimes add one pound.  At six months, they usually stop growing in height but they body up side-wards in weight… add one pound for a year old weight.  It is amazing to see the transformation of my poms.from “grasshoppers” to a “”swan.”   After a year, as they grow with age, or even after they whelp their first litter, they usually gain another pound.

For more details on Development Stages, please click on this section on my PUPPY page.

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Many visitors who see my poms either like my smaller 4 – 4 ½  Baby Ruth and Al Capone.  Others,  prefer my slightly larger 5 – 5 ½  Harry Potter and Bravestar….and yet when I show them youngsters that I know which will develop to be of the same style and type, they cannot believe that such youngsters who pass these ugly development stage

and be transformed to these beautiful Pomeranians.  Their wrong idea which they insist on is that these beautiful dogs would look exactly like their adults counterparts in a smaller version when they are young.  WRONG!!!

Pictured above is Bravestar at 1 year(Left) and at 3 years(Right).  Notice that he was transformed for a fine bone dog to a medium boned dog.  

Quite recently, a foreign judge with an inclination for the English type of Pomeranian commented that Bravestar(at 4 years old) was heavy boned and therefore was of the American type.  I found this quite ridiculous because the age of the dog was totally ignored.  As a Pomeranian matures with age, his bone becomes heavier set… even English Pomeranians as they grow older approaches the heaviness of the medium boned American dog.  Bravestar is more of the English type with medium bones but as a youngster, he was definitely English type with fine bone.   If Bravestar remained fine at this age of 4 years old, I would imagine if would have been super fine at a year…and so fine and light bodied that he would have been easily blown by the wind.  The irony to this is story is can only be closed with another anecdote.  About 3 years back, an FCI European judge awarded Bravestar(at one year old) Best in Show for being an excellent specimen of the English type of Pomeranian.