I would like to share some of the observations made from my personal experience breeding coloured Pomeranians for many years.

Hopefully these observations are of interest to those Pomeranian breeders interested in the challenge of breeding and showing colored Pomeranians.

Recently there appears to more interest in the colored Pomeranians. This renewed attention to the Pomeranian colours other then orange and orange sable can only be benefiical to not only the colored Pomeranians but will undoubtedly benefit the Pomeranian Breed in general.

Over the many decades Dochlaggie have been involved in breeding Champion Pomeranians, we have produced a rainbow of color in our dogs, including orange, orange sable, beaver, white, cream, wolf sable, cream sable, parti color, black and tan and black.

Pomeranians colored other than orange or orange sable are frequently referred to as exotic colored.

The original Pomeranians colors happened to be the actual colors that we currently refer to as the exotic colors e.g. whites, blacks, creams etc.

Imagine the huge excitement the appearance of the first orange and orange sable Pomeranians caused amongst Pomeranian fanciers of that time. Orange and Orange Sable Pomeranians quickly completelty overshadowed the original colors to become the most popular colored Pomeranians.

Although the clear orange Pomeranians seem to be the easiest to win with, I have observed many disadvantages to the practise of breeding clear orange Pomeranians to clear orange or orange sable Pomeranians.

This practice may result in a softer coat texture than is required by the standard, coat color may  appear faded and lack depth and the pigmentation is often fades .

Even if your only interest is in producing Orange Pomeranians, using some of the "exotic" colored Pomeranians in your breeding program occasionally can only be an advantage to your oranges. Adding a Black or Black and Tan Pomeranian to the Orange and Orange sables will improve pigmantation and often produces wonderful deep orange Pomeranians with coats of amazing texture, depth and clarity.

The beaver pomeranians born at Dochlaggie have been a silvery blue color at birth and upon maturity have wonderful beige coats with self colored points.

Our whites are a result of breeding wolf sable to wolf sable with interestingly enough, white Pomeranians 11 generations back in the pedigree.

The Dochlaggie white Pomeranians do not darken at maturity, 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 decided against going down this path.

White Pomeranians bred from parti colors, will always be 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 appear to be a very light orange sable as a baby puppy. As the coat changes from puppy to adult coat this Pomeranian will be cream with black tips.The cream color may vary from a darker cream to nearly white as an adult Pomeranian.

Both the cream sable and wolf sable pomeranian must have no orange at all in the adult 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 stand off 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.

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, 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] influences whether the dog will be wolf sable, cream sable, or white. 

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.

by Denise Leo, Dochlaggie Pomeranians .
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