Dogs come in all shapes and sizes, with different personalities, colors and coats. In mixed breed dogs, it can be hard to predict how a puppy will turn out. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, but if you’re living in a studio apartment and you get a Pomeranian puppy that grows up to be three feet tall and weigh forty pounds, it matters!

The American Kennel Club knows that it matters and that is the reason for the establishment specific standards for each of the breeds it recognizes. The American Kennel Club requires that certain characteristics of a breed be stable for many generations of dogs before it recognizes a breed. Thus, a puppy buyer can predict how big or small a grown dog will be and what kind of temperament it will have. According to the American Kennel Club, a Pomeranian puppy, for instance, will weigh no more than seven pounds and have a perky, energetic personality.
Setting standards for breeds encourages good breeding and helps weed out qualities that might be bad for the dog’s health. Take, for instance, the size of the Pomeranian. The Pomeranian is fragile, and its weight should be restricted. Setting a standard for the Pomeranian’s weight discourages breeders from breeding heavy dogs.

The standard of the Pomeranian breed is thorough and precise, covering every part of the dog from the nose, which must be dark, to the high, plumed tail, lying straight and flat against the back. The Pomeranian’s face has small ears, dark eyes and short muzzles. Proportion is important when judging the standards of a Pomeranian. The height of the dog, from its elbows to its withers, should be roughly equal to the height dog from the ground to the elbows. The dog’s shoulder blade and upper arm should also be roughly equal in length. The Pomeranian has a soft undercoat and a long, roughly textured outer coat, which settles in feathers on the backs of the legs and in a frill around the shoulders and chest. A dog can be disqualified from competition if it has a soft, flat, or open coat.
The standard of the breed permits the Pomeranian to be virtually every color, and all colors and variations must be judged equally. Common Pomeranian patterns include black and tan, brindle and parti-color. With black and tan, light patches appear above the eyes, on the muzzle, throat, chest, legs, feet, and under the tail. A brindle coat has a gold or red base with bold black stripes. A parti-color Pomeranian is white with patches of any other color, although a white blaze on the head is preferred.

In specialty shows, Pomeranian dogs are categorized into three different groups according to the color combinations of their coats. Red, orange and sable dogs are judged together while black and brown dogs are judged in a second group, and other variations are judged in a third group.

The AKC also judges a dog’s temperament. The Pomeranian should be confident, intelligent and extroverted, spirited and full of personality. Breed standards define the dog and promote predictability. The American Kennel Club makes Pomeranian breed information available to anyone who wants to know what a champion Pomeranian looks like.

The Pomeranian standard for the body are measured by proportions, for instance, the dog’s upper and lower legs are approximately equal. Breeders can easily obtain more detailed Pomeranian information that specifies the precise standards of the breed from the AKC.

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