Pomeranian Breed Standard
Kennel Club, London 1994

GENERAL APPEARANCE - Compact, short coupled dog, well knit in frame. Exhibiting great intelligence in expression; activity and buoyancy in deportment.

CHARACTERISTICS - Sound, vivacious and dainty.

TEMPERAMENT - Extrovert, lively and intelligent.

HEAD AND SKULL - Head and nose foxy in outline, skull slightly flat, large in proportion to muzzle which finishes finely and free from lippiness. Nose black in white, orange and shaded sable dogs; brown in chocolate tipped sable dogs, but in others colours may be 'self-coloured', never parti-coloured or flesh.

EYES - Medium size, slightly oval, not full, or set too wide apart; bright, dark and showing great intelligence. In white, orange, shaded sable and cream dogs, rims black.

EARS - Small, not set too wide apart, nor too low down, but carried perfectly erect.

MOUTH - Jaws strong, with a perfect, regular and compete scissor bite, i.e. the upper teeth closely overlapping the lower teeth and set square to the jaws.

NECK - Rather short and well set into shoulders.

FOREQUARTERS - Shoulders clean and well laid back. Fine boned legs, perfectly straight, of medium length in due proportion to size of dog.

BODY - Back short, body compact, well ribbed up, barrel well rounded. Chest fairly deep, not too wide but in proportion to size of dog.

HINDQUARTERS - Fine boned, legs neither cow-hocked nor wide behind; medium angulation.

FEET - Small, compact and cat-like.

TAIL - Characteristic of breed, high set, turned over back and carried flat and straight, profusely covered with long, harsh, spreading hair.

GAIT/MOVEMENT - Free moving, brisk and buoyant.

COAT - Two coats, an under coat and an outer coat. Former soft, fluffy, the latter long, perfectly straight, harsh in texture and covering whole of body; very abundant round neck and fore part of shoulders and chest; forming frill, extending over shoulders. Forequarters well feathered, thighs and hindlegs well feathered to hocks.

COLOUR - All colours permissible, but free from black or white shadings. Whole colours are: white, black, brown, light or dark, blue as pale as possible. Orange which should be self-coloured and bright as possible, Beaver. Cream dogs have black noses and black eye rims. Whites must be quite free from lemon or any other colour. A few white hairs in any of the self-coloured dogs permissible but undesirable. Dogs (other than white) with white or tan markings highly undesirable and not considered whole coloured specimens. In parti-coloured dogs, colours evenly distributed on body in patches; a dog with white or tan feet or chest not a parti-coloured dog. Shaded sables should be shaded throughout with three or more colours, the hair to be as uniformly shaded as possible, and with no patches of self-colour. In mixed classes, where whole coloured and parti-coloured Pomeranians compete together, the preference should, if in all other points they are equal, be given to the whole coloured specimens.

SIZE -
Ideal weight: Dogs 1.8-2 kg (4-4& 1/2; lbs)
Bitches 2-2.5 kg (4.5-5& 1/2; lbs)
FAULTS - Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree.