POMERANIANS.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 27, 17 September 1920, Page 11

POMERANIANS.

THE STANDARD. Appearance. — The Pomeranian in build and appearance should be a compact, short-coupled dog, well knit in frame. He should exhibit great intelligence in his expression, activity and buoyancy in his deportment. Head and Nose. — The head and nose should be foxy in outline, or wedge-shaped, i the skull heing slightly flat, large in proportion to the muzzle, which should linish rather fine, and be free from lippiness. The teeth should be level, and should on no account be undershot. The hair on the head and face should be smooth and short-coat'ed. The nose should l>e black in whita, orange, and siHided-sabie dogs ; but in other colours may be "selfcoloured," but never parti-coloured or j white. Ears. — The ears should be smalJ, not j set too far apart, nor too low down, j but carried perfectly erect, like those of i a fox. Eyes. — ^The eyes should be medium in size, not full nor set too wide apart, bright and dark in colour, and showing great intelligence. In white, orange, shaded-sable and cream dogs tlie rims round the eyes should be black. Neck and Body. — The neck should be rather short and well set in. The ba-ck must be short, and the body compact,

being well ribbed up, and the barrel well rounded. The chest must be fairly deep and not too wide, but in proportion to the dog. Legs,— -The f'orelegs must be well i'eath. ered and perfectly straight, of medium length, and not such as would be termed "^6ggy" or "low on leg," but in length and strength in due proportion to a wellbalanced frame. The shoulderg should be clean and well laid back. The hind legs and thighs must be well feathered down to ihe hocks, and must be neither "cowhocked" nor wide hehind. They must be fine in bone and free in action. The.feet should be small and compact in shape. The Tail.— The tail is • one of the characteristics of the breed, and should be turned- over tlie back and carried flat and straight, being profusely. covered with long, harsh. spreading hair. Coat.-— There should be two coats — ari undercoat and an overcoat : the one, a soft, fluffy undercoat, the other a long, perfectly straight coat, harsh- in texture and covering the w-hole of the body, being very abundant round the neck aml forepart, of the shoulderg and chest, where it should form a frill of profuse, standingoff straight hair, extending over the shoulders. The hindquarters should be dad with long hair or feathering, from the top of the rump to the hocks. Colour. — All whole-colours are admissable, but they should be free ?fbm white shadings. At presefit the whole-coloured dogs are:- — White, Black, Brown (Iight or dark). Biue (as paie as possible), Orange (which should be as deep and even in colour as possible), Beav.er, and Cream (which should have black noses and black riins around the eyes). Whites must be quite free from lemon or any other col our. A few white hairs in any oi the self-coloured dogs shall not necessarily disqualify. Dogs other than white, with white or %an markings, are decidedly ob jectionable, and should be discouraged. They cannot compete as wEole-coloured specimens. In- parti-coloured dogs the colours should he evenlv distributed on the body in patches ; a dog with white or tan feet or chest would not be a psrti-coloured dog. Bhaded-sahles should he shaded throughout with three or more colours, the hair to be as uniformily shaded as possible, and with no patches of seifcolour. In mxxed classes, where wholecoloured or parti-coloured Pomeranians compete together. the- preference should, if in other points they are equal, be given to the whole-coloured specimens.