Hello, I live in the Mid-West United States and recently adopted a dog from the rescue/ grooming salon where I work. Max is his name and the rescue paperwork states that he is a Pomeranian.  Max doesn't look quite like other Poms.  His tail doesn't seem to fan out across his back as far as seen in the breed standard photos, and he is not as poofy.  His coat, in fact,  is more course and lies close to his body.  He came from a puppy mill, which are notorious for poor breeding, so I figured he didn't get good genes, therefore he didn't measure up to Pom breed standard.  Then, today, I was looking at a UK dog breed book and I saw a photo and breed profile of the German Spitz Klein.  Max looks exactly like them, and is golden in color. I searched the internet for more info, but only found the breed on UK sites, so I was reluctant to believe it could be a probability.  Then my father looks at the breed profile and says that the Amish in our area breed these dogs.  Quite often, he has seen them running on their farms.   Most of the dogs that he has seen are white.  I am wondering if spitz dogs are being sold here under the name of Pomeranian, because people are more likely to buy a Pom.  Few people, here, know of German Spitz Klein.  I realize that a Pom is a spitz type dog, but mine just doesn't look like other Poms, and he does look a great deal like GSK.  He is great with children and other dogs and not much of a barker.  Any thoughts? 
thanks Max's Mom

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As in reality they are the same dog (you will see many Pomeranian's in the old Spitz Klein etc. pedigrees) you always get throwbacks etc.  We have two litter brothers, from very good lines, one has a coat touching the floor with a brilliant undercoat but his brother has a nice coat but nothing special.

You might get this bit removed.  All you need to do is put your website on your details.

the modern Pom was bred down in size from what is essentially the German Spitz, which now comes in different sizes.  some features like coat and body shape were emphasised by breeding and nd also grooming.

A puppy farmed Pom is likely to be bigger and throw back to the original as the bitches would be easier to whelp, have bigger litters, and no selection for Pom traits would e practised, if anything only those bitches that bred larger litters easily would be kept, hence the increase in size.

A good coat wouldn't' be an advantage to a puppy farmer either so no notice would have been taken of this or any other traits desired by a breed enthusiast.

Pom and other toy breeders often keep the larger bitches for breeding only and mate them to very small males to get show standard for the ring, but have bitches that can breed more easily, as the tiny bitches could have problems.

Hi Max's Mom,

Did your father also tell you that the Amish are well known for running puppy mills?   

When a dog comes from a puppy mill they are often different in size and cosmetically have lots of "faults" which make them look more similar to other breeds than their own. If you dog is healthy, that's great.  If he looks more like a Spitz Klein than a Pomeranian - well, what breed you tell people he might be is entirely up to you

The GS and Pom breeds are closely related, so if your Pom is a bit bigger than the ones in books and not in the full coat of a show dog then it will look like as GS. I would suspect that it is just a big Pom, commercial puppy farms/mills rarely pay much attention to breed standards when doing a mating, I think you just have a big not very well bred Pom.

Well, I'm sure that he doesn't know, but I did.  As a rescue volunteer I learned that the Amish puppy mill.

Hi As barbara says the Pomeranian is essentially a miniature German Spitz as the keeshond is essentially a enlarged German Spitz. There are 5 sizes of German Spitz recognised by the FCI (Miniature-Pomeranian Small-Klein Medium-Mittel Grosse-Large Wolf-Keeshond) Indeed in continental Europe klein pups that go oversize or Mittels that are undersize can be reclassified to the other. There have been several older people that have stopped me on walks(i have mittels) and have said it is nice to see Poms as they used to be!! There are a couple of kennels of Mittel Spitz in the US but it is highly likely that your dog is as Barbara says a oversized Pomeranian or could be a cross with a American Eskimo (most probably what your father has seen that is a descendant of the European German Spitz.) I would also sayif your dog isn't much of a barker that that is unheard of in German Spitz!! The GSK in the pictures you will have seen are not clipped on their body at all. All of the show Poms I have seen have their body hair clipped? (Waits to be correctedPerrodeagua?) to get the 'true' pom shape.
I'm sure you will enjoy your dog whatever breed you think he maybe
Angela

Yep, if the coats quite long it is scissored in like a circle for the pompom shape :d  Bottom and tail are trimmed to but the coat is never clipped.

Don't forget in America the Pomeranian's on the whole seem a lot bigger than here in the UK etc. 

Unfortunately here in the UK our calendars etc. are those from America and you are lucky if you get one that really resembles the breed over here.

Thanks for that did mean scissored (not clipped)!!
Angela

Thanks to everyone that offered their input on the matter.  It was very helpful.  Of course we love Max no matter what.  He is a great dog!  Finding another like him, if we ever so choose, sounds like it will be a bit tricky.  We wouldn't want to support a puppy mill.  We'll just have to keep our eyes on the rescues.
Thanks again,and  Happy Holidays

Hello this is my first post and i will help

Here you have some good info about German Spitz
http://www.allaboutdogs.net/german-spitz-dog/

This is a very old thread. 2007!