Report To KC For Breed Recognition

Report to the KC Breed Standards/Registrations Committee on German Spitz (Klein)/ German Spitz (Mittel)

INTRODUCTION
Currently all German Spitz imports are registered in this country as Pomeranians despite the fact that in Germany the spitz types have been devided into five varieties or breeds. The German Spitz Club wishes to establish separate registers for the two varieties/breeds of German Spitz in addition to the established breeds of Keeshond and Pomeranian. At a recent meeting between the KC Breed Standards Sub-committee representatives and representatives from both the German Spitz Club and Pomeranian Clubs it was agreed to recommend to the KC Executive the establishment of separate registers for the German Spitz (Klein) and German Spitz (Mittel) both breeds being distinguished by height at withers. Breed standards based upon the German ones but with certain amendments are to be agreed with the essential between Klein and Mittel being one of wither height.

I was asked to make recommendations with regard to registration procedure for German Spitz currently registered as Pomeranians and for the methods of 'grading up' from Pomeranians to German Spitz. This report is intended to cover these points and has been discussed with representatives of the German Spitz Club

ESTABLISHMENT OF SEPARATE REGISTERS
Breeders of Pomeranians have a particular interest in removing true German Spitz (Klein/Mittel) from their registers and this view is shared by the German Spitz Breeders. As a first step therefore it is necessary to remove all German Spitz animals from the Pomeranian registers and re-register them as German Spitz. The problem arises when it is seen that German Spitz breeders have worked from only a handful of imports and they have been mating these to each other and to larger versions of British bred Pomeranians. One cannot simply take all dogs thought by German Spitz breeders to be German Spitz and register them since it makes a mockery of the concept of breed. We thus have to set up German Spitz registers for dogs being up-graded to 'pure-bred' status.

In cattle breeds it is generally held that four or five top crosses with a particular pure bred bull will allow upgraded stock to be recorded as 'pure bred'. Five top crosses would convert to 96.87% pure and four to 93.75% pure. In my view it would be acceptable to settle for four top crosses with German Spitz before a Pomeranian can be classified as German Spitz (Klein or Mittel). It does not require the crosses to be male and use of pure bred German Spitz females will be equally acceptable.

Diagramatically the procedure would be as follows using four grading registers designated A,B,C and D to represent different grades of crossing the procedure:
Starting Point: Larger sized Pomeranians.
Register A would encompass all large sized Poms intended to be the base for upgrading.

There are complications in respect of Klein and Mittel. Ideally a register should be set up for each development stage towards each breed but that may be impracticable. I would therefore suggest that two pure bred registers be established, one for German Spitz (Klein) and one for German Spitz (Mittel). The development registers A,B,C and D should be combined as far as Klein and Mittel are concerned and at the stage of the fourth cross being produced, the litter (In its entirety) so born would be recorded as being either Klein or Mittel. From that stage the animals will be kept separate except when used on Development register stock. Hopefully German Spitz breeders will work on the principla of using top crosses with Klein stock throughout or with Mittel stock throughout to get the required type.

ALLOCATION TO REGISTERS
I have been sent three generation pedigrees for 50 German Spitz animals either imported to the UK or born here. Some are clearly Poms used as a base line, others are a mixture of imported German Spitz and UK bred Pomeranian 'blood'. I have examined the pedigrees and allocated them to the most appropriate register in the light of the percentage of German Spitz 'blood'. I have not attempted to allocate pure breds to the Klein/Mittel type but that would be a simple procedure which can be done with the club.

My allocations are appended, listed by the register they should belong to. In the case of some animals the percentage German Spitz 'blood' is less that 50 and is either 25 or 12.5%. Strictly speaking, these do not belong in any register being intermediate between A and B. I feel however, that it would be most logical to insert these in register B as a start.

Hopefully all animals in A,B,C and D will be mated to stock which are 100% German Spitz, i.e. in the pure bred register. In view of the limited numbers this might not be feasible without serious inbreeding problems. Accordingly matings may take place between animals in various of the development registers. Thus we may mate two register B animals together.

Our procedure should then be as follows:
A mating of B with B would be 50% to 50% and give rise to 50% offspring. All offspring should thus go in reigster B.
A mating of B with C would be 50% to 75% and give progeny that are 62.5%. They should be registered in register B even though they are higher than 50% but it would be unfair to record them in C.
A mating of B to D would be 50% to 87.5 giving rise to progeny that are 68.7%. They should thus still be registered in the B register.

Intermating with development register animals should be permitted as a means of enlarging the gene pool but animals so born must be registered in the lower of the two registers from which the parents cam. Thus B with C goes in B, C with D goes in C.

LENGTH OF TIME REGISTERS SHOULD BE OPEN
I do not favour a completely open registration system with no time limit. Nevertheless, I see the need to enlarge the base of the population. To this end I think register A entry of Pomeranians as base animals, must have a fixed time limit attached to it. I think this should be fairly short in order not to have a continual procession of Poms being transferred.

I think a period of three years from establishment of German Spitz registers should suffice for allowing Poms to be recorded as register A stock. After that time register A should be closed. Registers B, C and D should be closed progressively as animals filter through the system but at this stage I do not think we should put a time limit on them. I feel that a ten year minimum is needed to allow numbers to build.

GENERAL COMMENTS
Inbreeding: This is quite low. Roughly calculated inbreeding figures are given in parentheses after each dog listed in the apendices and the overall values are low. Even allowing for the short pedigrees I have inbreeding does not seem high. However, three animals do feature very widely in the population for 49 dogs for which I have pedigrees.

This is illustrated in the following table for the dogs Tum Tum vh Vlinderhof of Lireva (Male), April Folly at Tordown (Female) and Venestiens Mauricia of Lireva (Female). Relationshp to these three is shown in percentage terms.

Numbers of animals with percentage 'blood' from Tum-Tum, Folly and Mauricia

The number of dogs in each column is 48, the 49th being the animal itself. In working out percentage influence overall totals have been divided by 46 (i.e. excluding the three dogs named).

In effect, Tum Tum is grandsire to the population and the other two are each equivalent to great grand-dams. This is high reliance on a small number of dogs and the need for more imports of differing lines is paramount.

The German Spitz Club does keep litter records and hopefully will persist in this as a means of keeping an eye open for defects. None may have appeared in bulk but numbers are small and many defects take time to emerge.

German Spitz breeders may wish to gain full pedigree/purebred status faster but there are no shortcuts to up-grading and the best solution for an increase in numbers is to import animals in bulk.

APPENDIX

Dogs to be registered in each of the registers after being removed from the Pom. register. Numbers preceding names are German Spitz Club numbers.

FOR REGISTER A (POMS)
2. April Folly at Tordown
22. Boogie Blue at Tordown
30. Leehames Moonlight Renata
40. Golden Shunshine of Glendarrach

FOR REGISTER B (ONE TOP CROSS)
50% German Spitz
9. Tordown The Bon Bon
6. Tordown The Dolliwog
7. Tordown The Cuckoo Bird
10. Sherbert Fizz at Rikarlo
13. Tordown The Bundle of Joy
15. Tordown Fools Gold
16. Tordown the Folly Rocker
17. Tordown Chips With It
18. Tordown the Fancy Dancer
19. Tordown The Beamish Boy
36. Kandifloss of Torden
49. Cry Wolf At Torden
25% German Spitz
21. Tordown The Dream Cream
23. Kandyko Black Tarquin
24. Kandyko Cream Galaxy
33. Coomar Pipkin
34. Fairpass Elanee
48. Kandyko Little Missy
12.5% German Spitz
11. Tordown The Golden Boy
12. Tordown The Golden Girl
28. Merrichi Silver Star
29. Merrichi Little Boy Blue
32. Merrichi Blue Fox
35. Dixie of Wilbury

FOR REGISTER C (TWO TOP CROSSES)
75% German Spitz
3. Cotton Bobbin From Tordown
14. Cotton Candy From Tordown
31. Merrichi Beaver Lamb
37. Kingsabbot Kandisweete
38. Kingsabbot Kandistare
39. Kingsabbot Prinz Leo
      Ding Dong Belle From Tordown

FOR REGISTER D (THREE TOP CROSSES)
87.5% German Spitz
20. Hijinka Helles Belles
25. Serenade For Swanhilde
26. Concerto For Coppelia
27. Symphony For Sylphide

PURE BRED GERMAN SPITZ REGISTER
Imported Stock.
1. Tum Tum vh Vlinderhof of Lireva
4. Venestiens Mauricia of Lireva
5. Prinz Schneeflocke von Cottas
43. Tefanra Leonas Lady Xabrina
From Imported Stock
8. Lirevas Harlequin of Tordown
41. Merrichi Little Dutch Boy
42. Dovetrees Christmas Carol
44. NAF (by 5 out of 46) (Lusam Loup de Loup)
45. NAF (by 5 out of 46)
46. Dolly Dapple From Tordown
47. Merrichi The Dutch Lover

In my view registrations should be made of all these even if no longer alive and no fee should be charged to the owners who have registered them already.

© MB Willis

Note: Serenade For Swanhilde, Concerto For Coppelia and Symphony For Sylphide were originally incorrectly placed in C instead of D so I have placed them in the correct section for ease of viewing - NJG