The Pomeranian, very often referred to as Pom Pom or just Pom, is a Spitz type dog, which is considered to have descended from the German Spitz.
As the name suggests, it was very commonly found and bred in the Pomeranian region of Central Europe, now a part of eastern Germany and northern Poland along the Baltic Sea.
However, proper documentation was lacking until the breed’s introduction to the United Kingdom. An early modern recorded reference of the Pomeranians is from November 2, 1764 in a diary entry in James Boswell’s “Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland”.
Queen Victoria, granddaughter of Queen Charlotte, was hugely instrumental in promoting and popularizing the breed during the fag end of the 19th century. The first breed club was set up in England in 1891 and the first breed standard was written soon afterwards.
Pomeranians are small dogs weighing 1.9 – 3.5 kg and standing not taller than 11 inches. They come in many colors, with the most popular being black, white and orange. These are very friendly dogs and love being around their owners. They are enlisted under European Spitz Dogs in Section 4 of Group 5 with Kennel Club of India (KCI).
These dogs have a life span of 12–15 years and are lovely with children and elderly people. They make excellent companions. However, because of their beautiful coat, they need to be brushed regularly on a daily basis.
The Pom’s ancestor, German Spitz, has been an extremely popular dog in urban and semi urban households of India since decades; and is commonly mistaken as the “Pomeranian”. However, the actual Pomeranian has been gaining popularity in recent times.
Kolkata, then known as Calcutta, showcased some of the best of this breed in the 80s and 90s. In recent times, Alok Nanda, Prasanjit Chatterjee, Gaurav Sharma and some others have been instrumental in showcasing some great Pomeranians in the country.
Dr. Rahul Das and his team have been the first from Odisha in recent memory to be campaigning for the breed.
(The author is an expert on dogs and can be contacted at: brijesh.dash@gmail.com)
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