Controversial Merle and posh pets
Copied from The South of England Pomeranian Club
In light of the recent television programme ‘Posh Pets’ the SOEPC breed club would like to emphasize that the pattern ‘Merle’ in any colour variation in the Pomeranian is not permissible by the Kennel Club and enforced by all the Pomeranian Breed Clubs in the UK. One of the reasons for Merle not being permissible in the UK are the related health issues associated with this gene. Buyers should not be duped by persons advertising such colours as ‘rare’ and ‘exotic’ and thus charging over inflated prices and breeding purely for monetary gain. Often such persons have no true in-depth knowledge of the breed, related genetics and possible health issues. The dogs primarily used for breeding such patterns/colours have been imported into the UK; this often means there is no background knowledge of any health issues. Those looking for a Pomeranian should fully acquaint themselves with all the related information of owning a Pomeranian by firstly contacting the Breeds Clubs and then by visiting Discover Dogs at both the Excel in October and Crufts in March where full breed information is available.
The SOEPC breed club would also like to voice it’s disapproval on the mass importing of Pomeranian's, mainly from Eastern European countries, by what seems to be commercial traders that go on to sell these dogs at over inflated prices via internet sites and other sources. Adding a puppy to a ‘shopping cart’ and paying by PayPal or credit card is totally immoral; this is not a purchase off Amazon! These puppies are brought into the UK purely to be sold on for monetary gain. As the majority of these puppies are imported, once again there is very little background knowledge of the parents or any related health issues. If you are looking for a Pedigree healthy Pomeranian reared with love and great care contact the Breed Clubs for advice on the breed and also for reputable breeders.
unfortunately the first part about the merle is quite simply not true. Earlier this year the pomeranian club had the chance to have merle banned in the breed the same as the chihuahua did and the same as all of europe did for pomeranians and this was brought about because they saw this cross bred being advertised at stud but no, they only asked for the breed standard colour part to be changed to not allow merle to be shown. So people are still allowed to breed and kc register merle poms and they have to go down as colour not recognized by kc. That just means they do not have the colour or in this case pattern listed but they are still allowed to be kc registered and bred from. So very dangerously there is no way to know if you buy a pom with merle in and if you want to breed for merle yourself you could end up unknowingly doubling up on the merle gene and producing a litter of deaf blind and deformed puppies and that would not be your fault. What a let down for the breed, the pom club has failed to protect the breed yet again and was only thinking about showing yet again and not the health safety and protection of the breed. i quite simply do not support the breed club it's committee nor its members because they continuously let the breed down and they are meant to be the ones who have the power and are meant to be protecting the breed but it is left to people like me to educate and protect the breed and buyers. Also why is the pomeranian club not making this statement why is it one of the branches the south of england club who do not have the power to make these changes and applications to the kc. I do not breed merle because quite simply the pattern has never existed in the history of the breed and it has also never been in the german spitz which is where poms came from. The merle gene was introduced into the breed by crossbreeding poms to shelties so merles are the result of crossbreeding and producing fake pedigrees. So i highly advise against buying a merle from the UK and certainly do not encourage the breeding of them. They are banned in the whole of europe for a very good reason. If you really must insist on having one i would only suggest buying from the usa from a breeder who is also showing and winning with them because they are the only people who have been working hard to produce good examples of the breed and i have to say there are some very good examples of them in the usa from the right breeders. The only people who have them in the uk have done no research and have bought from dubious sellers and they are only in it for the money like this person on posh pets who had no idea about the breed mating or delivering puppies she has made it quite clear all she is interested in is the cash as are the people who have been using her stud dog who cannot even walk correctly and should not be used as stud purely on the fact he is a terrible example with too many faults to mention regardless of his merle gene. You will be able to buy from the usa from a dedicated breeder for far less than they are charging in the uk so it is worth looking into if you really must have one.
