Different colors of Pomeranians

 BLACK - Black is a dominant color and is relatively easy to accomplish by breeding a black to any other color you will most likely have some black offspring. If you breed a black to any other color you will get 50% black pups. You could also breed to a chocolate to get black offspring for example; chocolate bred to red or orange would gibe you black offspring. Black can also be produced when a “Clear” red or orange is mated to a dog showing sable in the coat. There are many ways to get black. You could breed a blue to an orange (that doesn't' carry dilute) and get black; black & tan to orange and get black; chocolate to blue and get black; chocolate to black & tan and get  black... so many combinations! Any two colors bred together will produce black, so long as they do not both display the same color factor. For example, blue to chocolate, will give
you black, because the blue does not display chocolate (otherwise, it would be a beaver), and the chocolate does not display the blue (dilute). However a chocolate and a chocolate & tan could not produce black, because they both display the chocolate factor which would be a double dose of a recessive gene.

 CHOCOLATE - Again the easiest way to get chocolate is to breed to a chocolate dog or a chocolate factored dog, for instance a black dog that is chocolate factored. Chocolate is recessive to black. If  a black from a pedigree with many black to black breedings behind it is mated to a chocolate you will most likely get black pups. How ever you can increase your chances for the color chocolate if you breed two blacks together and they each had one chocolate parent you can expect 3 black pups to every 1 chocolate pup so a 3 to 1 ratio for the color chocolate. To further increase your chance for chocolate you can breed a black who comes from one chocolate parent to a chocolate and 50% or 1 in 2 of the pups will be chocolate. Chocolate to chocolate will always yield 100% chocolate puppies but since chocolate is a recessive color they could be carrying a hidden dilution factor and the pups could turn out to be VERY light chocolate instead of the rich Hershey chocolate color you are striving for.

 WOLF SABLE - Wolf sables are a tricky issue as we all know but they can be produced occasionally from breeding black to black, black to sable, or black to a true wolf sable. The modifiers for these genes are the important thing not the color of the parents. It is simple yet difficult to accomplish because the genes needed to produce a “true” wolf sable are easily modified or completely covered up by the genes that cause us to see a dog as being black, sable, or even cream. For example you may have a cream bitch that is able to produce that “true” wolf sable and never know it because she was not bred to a dog that also carries the correct genes to produce a wolf sable. Since the genes involved are recessive you may not physically see them present when looking at the dog and both parents NEED to be carriers of the correct gene combination to produce the color.

 BEAVER - Beaver is produced when breeding chocolate to chocolate and both are carrying the dilute gene. It can also be accomplished by breeding a dilute factored black (a black dog which has the dilute gene such as a blue) to another color that is
carrying or displaying both the chocolate and dilute forms.  The dilution factor is not easily detected in the chocolate dogs except when the chocolate is not a rich dark chocolate, which may be the dilute gene at work or another series of genes modifying the chocolate gene.  In a black Pom the dilution factor can be noticeable by a light brown eye color. The color is often compared to that of a weimaraner. Both parents must carry the dilute gene and the chocolate gene as well.

 LILAC - Lilac is the same gene in action as above in the beaver dog except it effects the color chocolate more intensely making it a lighter shade of beaver due to with other modifying factors; hence lilac or lavender.. This color can be reproduced by breeding chocolate to chocolate, blue to chocolate, beaver to chocolate. Both parents must carry a copy of the dilution gene to be able to produce any lilac offspring. The more chocolates you have in a five generation pedigree the better to try and produce this color, and it is best if the lilac color can be seen with in the first three generations of the pedigree. You will also want to have blues or beavers in there the first five generations as well, or you don not have much of a chance in getting lilac. Ibizan Hounds are a common example of this color.

  BLUE - Blue is the dilution gene acting on the color black, not to be confused with blue merle. This color can be reproduced by breeding a blue to a black, if the black carries dilute (has a dilute parent, or if it has a lot of dilute dogs in it's pedigree or siblings of the dilute color, you have a better chance). Also by breeding blue to blue. Another example would be a red sable to a cream, carrying the dilute gene which would be noticeable by diluted pigmentation. Despite the color of  the parents the main thing here
is BOTH parents must carry a copy of the dilution gene to be able to produce any blue offspring. They eyes are generally lighter than in undiluted (black) litter mates and may be blue at birth darkening to a paper bag colored yellow-gray by a year of age. The nose leather, eye rims and lip edges will be dark gray. Some blue dilute individuals may have acceptably dark eyes. This is probably due to the presence for an independent gene for dark eyes.

 ALBINO - white coat with pink eyes and noses; Albino is not a color! Albino dogs must carry a double dose of this recessive gene. Carriers for Albinism can appear normal color and still carry one copy of the gene. Obviously two albinos bred together or two dogs both carrying the albino gene can produce albino pups. Although rare in the Pomeranian it does exist and should be avoided. These dogs and their offspring have faults such as poor conformation, poor temperaments (aggression and fear problems, problems with trainability), multiple missing teeth, photosensitivity, sunburn, cancer and so on…

 CORNAZ ALBINO - blue eyes with pale grayish coat - described in Pekinese and Pomeranians only. There seems to be little information on this coat color other than it was first documented in 1929. The crossing of two true albinos has ever been known to produce a dog with pigmented eyes, but Cornaz albinos have been found among the offspring of such crosses.

 GRAY - not to be confused with blue. These pups are born black and the color is reduced over time to a gray with black nose leather and lip pigment. As seen in the kerry blue terrier. Breeding to a dog that expresses this color would give you 50% Gray offspring.

 WHITE - white is a recessive gene and produced when two whites are bred together, or when one parent is white and bred to a white factored dog. White factored dogs may be any color hence masking the color white although it is there and can be pulled out when bred to either a white dog or another white factored dog.

 SABLE (RED OR ORANGE) - when breeding for sable the easiest route is to breed to a sable. However a weekend gene can produce dilution's of red, cream, or orange with or with out sable markings. In most cases sable to sable will yield more sable offspring. Sables nearly always have black whiskers. An "orange" dog with black whiskers, is fairly likely a sable. A dog with even just a small patch of black hair is considered a sable, or with occasional black hairs intermixed in the coat, is still, genetically, a sable although for all intents and purposes, they appear orange.

 BLACK & TAN - black & tan can be produced by breeding to black & tan or to chocolate & tan however in poms the gene can be easily covered up by another gene that allows the body to appear solid and then modified by the gene that restrict color to make a black & tan appear to be sable, when genetically it is a black & tan. You need black & tan present in a double dose to produce black & tan pups. So both parents must be either black & tan or be carrying the black &
tan gene.

 PARTI - parti is recessive to the dominant “solid” color, there for must be present again from both parents to produce a true parti. Often parti factored dogs; are accomplished by breeding a parti to a solid dog-  they are often are solid with a white chest however these mis-marked dogs are capable of producing correctly marked parti pups when they are bred to another parti dog.

 CLEAR RED OR ORANGE - these Pom colors can be produced when bred to each other, these dogs do not have the ability to produce dark pigment in the hair. This color can also be accomplished when breeding a clear red or orange to a dog with sable, as long as the sable carries the recessive clear gene. However when clear orange or red is bred to a sable dog black pups can also be produced
from this type of mating.

 CREAM - cream can be a difficult color because of the many modifiers that can cause the dog to appear cream. Breeding two dilute orange dogs or a dilute sable to a black with the chinchilla gene will produce some cream puppies since the chinchilla gene causes reds to become cream to off white.
 

 BROWN NOSES ORANGE OR SABLE WITH CHOCOLATE TIPPED HAIR - these dogs can be produced by breeding any two colors together but each parent must be chocolate factored meaning carrying at least one chocolate gene and must also carry the orange or sable gene.
 

 MERLE - This is another dilution gene, but instead of diluting the whole coat it causes a patchy dilution. There is no such thing as a sable merle gene, red merle gene or blue merle gene. There is only a merle gene. On average over a large number of litters, breeding merle to merle will produce one fourth full colored dogs, one half merles and one fourth defective whites. Breeding merle to full color will produce one half full color and one half merles, but no defective whites. The merle to full color breeding, then,
produces just as many merles as does the merle to merle breeding, and without the danger of defective puppies. The safe breeding for a merle, then, is to a non-merle mate. This breeding should produce all healthy puppies, and about half will be merles. Breeders should use caution when breeding merles to sables, as this mating may produce sable merles. Sable merles are no more likely to have health problems
than any other color. However sable merles is that they may be mistaken for normal sables. If two such sable merles were mated together, the resulting litter could contain defective whites.

 BRINDLE - brindle in it's self is NOT a coat color rather than a pattern any color dog can have brindle stripes. When a brindle is mated to a non brindle 50% of the offspring will be brindle. In general dominant black suppresses brindle.