German Spitz

All you need to know about the breed

As any seasoned Medium Spitz owner will tell you, have lint roller, will travel. But what the Medium Spitz may lose points for in shedding profusely twice a year, they more than make up for in affection and good fun. Bred for life in Arctic climes, their thick double coats helped keep them warm in sub-freezing temperatures. Now, it just adds to that chic, runway-ready look the breed gives off.

An ancient dog, the Medium Spitz is definitely enjoying a popularity boon. It is well deserved. The breed is playful, devoted to their human families, intelligent and, let’s be honest, absolutely gorgeous with that magnificent mane-like coat. Motivated by treats and toys, the Medium Spitz is pretty easy to train if you can keep them interested—this is an independent, working dog so they need to see the payoff in staying focused on your program and not their own. However, once you get that down, the Medium Spitz makes for a great family pet, obedient, loyal and always up for a snuggle. They are quite social, so they don’t do well being left alone for long. Who can blame them?

While the Medium Spitz is obviously a Spitz, they are also a spitz-type dog, small “s”. Which means they are related to other magnificent breeds like the Pomeranian, Akita Inu, even Siberian Huskies, some of the well-known spitz-type dogs. But they are all in good company. Pretty healthy overall and with a nice long lifespan, you can look forward to years of good fun together.

With ancestors thought to be larger Scandinavian herding dogs brought to the region by the Vikings, Medium Spitz dogs were originally farm-dwellers, performing tasks like herding and guarding, skills they still possess. As such, Medium Spitzes are intelligent, independent thinkers and full of pep.

In the 18th century when James I ascended to the throne with his German wife, their many German visitors would bring their dogs to court with them. During this time, spitz-type dogs became hugely popular with British nobility. Queen Victoria was a devoted fan of the breed although at the time there was confusion as to whether her dogs were Pomeranian or Spitz. It is now believed they were more likely to be German Spitz (Mittel) dogs. However, around this time breeders started to develop smaller and smaller dogs, leading them to arrive at a toy breed later known as the Pomeranian, a direct descendent of the Medium Spitz.

Through no fault of their own, German breeds fell out of favour around the time of World War I. It took decades for the Medium Spitz to recover, which they did around 1975, thankfully, when Dutch Keeshonds were bred with larger Pomeranians, putting the Medium Spitz firmly back on the canine map.