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By Denise Leo, Dochlaggie Pomeranians
I have been working with some of the exotic colors, for nearly the 30 plus
years I have been breeding Pomeranians.
I will now include some of the observations I have made, from various breeding's over many years with my colored Pomeranians. I hope these observations are of interest and use to those interested in the challenge of breeding and showing colored Pomeranians.
Of late there seems to more interest in the colored Pomeranians, which can only be helpful to these colors.
Dochlaggie breed Pomeranians in orange, orange sable, beaver, white , cream, wolf sable,cream sable, parti color, black and tan and black and hope to add more exotic colors in the future.
I should not be calling the colored Pomeranians the exotic colors as the first colors available in our delightful breed, where the colors that we now refer to as the exotic colors.
I can imagine the great excitement the first orange and orange sable Pomeranians caused amongst Pomeranian fanciers of that time.
Although the clear orange Pomeranians seem to be the easiest to win with ,I have observed disadvantages to breeding clear orange to clear orange for many generations.
This practice may result in a softer coat texture than is required by the standard , depth of color may appear faded and pigmentation may also deteriorate .
Even if your only interest is in the Orange Pomeranians, using some of the "exotic" colored Pomeranians in your breeding program occasionally
can only be an advantage to your oranges.
The beaver pomeranians born at Dochlaggie have been a silvery blue color at birth and upon maturity have wonderful
beige coats with very dark self colored points.
The Dochlaggie whites are a result of breeding wolf sable to wolf sable with interestingly enough ,white 11 generations back in the pedigree.
Our whites do not darken on becoming adults if anything becoming as the saying
"whiter than snow "owing to the chinchilla gene present. I originally purchased the partis to use with the whites but have not as yet done this.
I have not made up mind as yet whether this is the way to go. With the whites from the parti colors, you will always have a parti Pomeranian even if you cannot see the parti patches as they are so small and the dog looks to be white in appearance.Once the parti gene is in the white Pomeranians I may not be able to remove it and I have observed that the parti gene does not always display itself as expected.
Most of the Dochlaggie cream pomeranians start life as sables and by the time they have their adult coat have faded to a beautiful cream colour.It is very hard to predict the finished color of the puppy until at least 7 months of age.
We do occasionally produce the cream pomeranian puppy which is born a cream and stays it's birth color.
A "true cream sable" may have light orange sable as a baby but will only have cream with black tips as an adult.The cream color may vary from a darker cream to nearly white as an adult.
Both the cream sable and wolf sable pomeranian must have no orange at all in the coat.
Pigmentation in the cream sable and wolf sable is very black and appears to be very dominant.
These are the 2 most useful colors to use as an out cross color in a white breeding program. Great care must be taken trimming any of the sables for the show ring. So much beauty can easily be lost if the color in the coat tips is heavily trimmed. At birth ,to an inexperienced eye, the wolf sable pomeranian puppies appear to be black, with the telltale silver coming through around the eyes after a few days.
The Wolf sable Pomeranian appears to be a very controversial subject. If you are unsure of the color of a "true wolf sable" have a look for pictures of a keeshond.
The" true" wolf sable Pomeranian should, in color be a miniature version of his larger cousin the keeshond. The wolf sable Pomeranian has the same coloration as a keeshond but
I can find no reference in our standard to the wolf sable Pomeranian requiring a black mask. All of my wolf sables are of "keeshond" coloring without the black mask.
The best coated Pomeranians are the wolf sables.The coat texture on a "true wolf sable" will be the harshest and most standoff you will find. In some parts of the world this Pomeranian color is relatively common, in other countries very rare. I have been given opinions on the wolf sable Pomeranian from people who have never seen one, nor had experience owning and breeding this delightful Pomeranian Color.
Unfortunately some of the negative attitudes & opinions will slow the development of this delightful color. But then, I am sure all the colored Pomeranians have suffered from negatives attitudes at some stage. Can you imagine even the oranges and orange sables may have had to face negative attitudes when they first appeared.
Keep an open mind about all the colors and if possible travel to see all the colors that our delightful breed comes in. We must all make allowances for the differences in our color monitors, so colors on the Internet can really only be taken as a guide and if possible try to personally view as many dogs as possible. There is a close connection between the wolf sable, white and cream sable, after many years experience with these colors I have made the conclusion the 3 colors are produced by the same gene.
My thoughts are that maybe the degree of strength of the chinchilla gene [gene for fading coat color] depends whether the dog will be wolf sable, cream sable, or white.
At this stage owing to the Breed Standard we use in Australia, I don't intend attempting to exhibit any Parti Pomeranians .Quoting the Pomeranian breed standard " In mixed classes, where whole colored and parti-coloured Pomeranians compete together, the preference should, if in all other points they are equal, be given to the whole colored specimens. "
The Judges here in Australia take this wording to mean that if there is a Orange Pomeranian worthy to win a challenge exhibited against an outstanding Parti Pomeranian, the Orange Pomeranian should be placed over the Parti Pomeranian.
Blacks and the Black and Tans are very useful colors to use in an orange breeding program to enhance pigment and colour depth.
Currently here in Australia the Black and Tans are causing controversy regarding the acceptability of this colour. Black and Tan is one of the original colours in the Pomeranian breed and was included in the list of Pomeranian colors in the Pomeranian breed standard of 1898.
The Colors of the Pomeranians as per the Breed Standard of 1898 included- White, Black, Blue, Brown, Black and Tan, Fawn, Sable,Red,and Parti Colors. There have been various changes over the years until we have the current Pomeranian Standard.
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Pomeranian Colours 
