THE POMERANIAN. 



425 



formation of the Pomeranian Club of Eng- 

 land, which was founded in i8qi, and through 

 its fostering care the Pomeranian has reached 

 a height of popularity far in advance of 

 that attained by any other breed of toy 

 dog. One of the first acts of the club was 

 to draw up a standard of points as follows : 



1. Appearance. — The Pomeranian in build and 

 appearance should be a compact, short-coupled 

 dog, well-knit in frame His head and face 

 should be fox-like, with small erect ears that 

 appear sensible to every sound ; he should 

 exhibit great intelligence in his expression, 

 docility in his disposition, and activity and 

 buoyancy in his deportment. 



2. Head. — The head should be somewhat foxy 

 in outline, or wedge-shaped, the skull being 

 slightly fiat (although in the Toy varieties the 

 skull may be rather rounder), large in proportion 

 to the muzzle, which should finish rather fine, and 

 be free from lippiness. The teeth should be level, 

 and on no account undershot. The head in its 

 profile maV' exhibit a little " stop." which, how- 

 ever, must not be too pronounced, and the hair 

 on head and face must be smooth or short-coated. 



3. Eyes. — The eyes should be medium in size, 



rather oblique in shape, not set too wide apart, 

 bright and dark in colour, showing great intelli- 

 gence and docility of temper. In a white dog 

 black rims round the eyes are preferable. 



4. Ears. — The ears should be small, not set too far 

 apart nor too low down, and carried perfectly 

 erect, like those of a fox, and like the head should 

 be covered with soft, short hair. No plucking 

 or trimming is allowable. 



5. Nose. — In black, black and tan, or white 

 dogs the nose should be black ; in other coloured 

 Pomeranians it may more often be brown or 

 liver-coloured, but in all cases the nose must 

 be self not parti-coloured, and never white. 



6. Neck and Shoulders. — -The neck, if anything, 

 should be rather short, well set in, and lion-like, 

 covered with a profuse mane and frill of long 

 straight hair, sweeping from the under jaw and 

 covering the whole of the front part of the shoulders 

 and chest as well as the top part of the shoulders. 

 The shoulders must be tolerably clean and laid 

 well back. 



7. Body. — The back 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. 



8. Legs. — The forelegs must be perfectly 

 straight, of medium length, not such as would 



MISS BIRKBECK AND HER WHITE POMERANIANS 

 Photograph by T. Full. 



54 



