Allow us to immediately address the elephant in the Pomhouse. Terms like “Teacup”, “mini”, “micro”, “Teddybear” or “Babydoll Face” are marketing words that caught on and are now widely used by (backyard) breeders to advertise their puppies. Maybe you even clicked on our website, because you saw these words, playfully integrated in our description!
Pictured above is Mercury from our 2023 Queen litter
It isn’t per definition a bad thing to advertise your puppies this way. These words are familiar and recognisable for potential buyers, which is the essence of successful marketing. In this article however, we want to raise awareness about some misunderstandings and potential risks when looking specifically for breeders who scream “Teacup” and “Teddybear face” and use these words as their main selling point.
A Pomeranian is a Pomeranian. “Babydoll Face” or “Teddybear face” Pomeranians are the same breed as regular Pomeranians, they just are given a different label to sell them as a specialty, but as a breed or as their own type they do not exist. A few words of warning should be given here, based on accounts from our customers and their past experiences.
An immediate red flag which should make you cautious, is when the breeder you are talking to claims these “Teacup” Pomeranians will stay small. No matter the breed of puppy and their adult size, all puppies at some point will perfectly fit in your hand! However, they still have 1+ year of growing to do. No matter what they tell you, these puppies will not stay small or true to type. In other words they do not have the qualities which makes a Pomeranian, look like a Pomeranian.
Another trick in the book is claiming that the pups are a lot older than they actually are, to reinforce the idea of "look how small they are"! Always make sure you check if their development matches the age the breeder tells you. You can easily do that by looking at the teeth of the puppy. Below you see a picture of the dental development of puppies as they age.
💡 Practical tip: A puppy with less than 28 puppy teeth and no adult teeth is likely to be under 8 weeks old. A dog that still has puppy premolars and only the first bottom molars is likely to be under 6 months old.
Simply because there is no economical incentive for any breeder to only work with the smallest dogs in their kennel. Smaller females will usually only have 1 or 2 puppies (if that). When breeding solely for profit it is far more interesting to work with the larger mothers who have litters of 3 to 4+ pups.
A second, yet even more important factor, is that the smallest dogs often come with extremely high health risks! Smaller Pomeranians are more prone to diseases and are even more fragile in structure than their "normal" sized counterparts. A small mother can also run into problems during pregnancy and labour, such as C-sections, miscarriages, poor lactation, etc. Apart from the unnecessary stress and pain this causes, it also increases the cost and effort for the breeder. Think for example about veterinary costs, medication, increased workload to hand raise puppies…
We, as preservation breeders, select the parent-couples with great care, looking at all their characteristics. We don’t only take size into account, but also structure, personality, colour matchings, head structure, genetic diversity and many more qualities. This ensures we have well-balanced litters that make a perfect (show)pet! We strive to produce litters that do not have huge variations in size with all puppies conforming to the FCI standard of 19-23cm in height as adults.
We strongly advise against buying a puppy from a breeder that uses these marketing words as their only or main selling point. As a potential buyer, you should keep in mind that these are simply marketing words to make you believe that the “small” puppy will stay small also as an adult.
If someone tries to make you believe, from the get go, that the pups will be forever cute and small, would you consider them to be honest? And do you trust them to be willing to help you out if something goes wrong with the puppy?
It is hard to create a complete checklist of things to look for. However, we will list a few red flags that we can highlight from what we have heard from our clients about their past experiences.
Red flags:
