There are many websites written about the spitz breed. What I share here is my experience Living With The Spitz and through people's experiences.
Size and Colour
- Small and medium size weighing between 5 - 15 kg for a healthy adult.
- Females are smaller and males are generally larger and fluffier.
- Spitz are bred in a mix of colours (brown, black, grey, white) while the Japanese Spitz are pure white.
Personality and Temperament
- Spitz are people dog and thrive for human companion. They are quite emotional actually.
- Highly intelligent, good memory and easy to train.
- Lively, cheerful, playful and generally a fun dog to be around.
- Low to medium energy - they don't need to run themselves silly. They love walking nearby you and a good 30 minutes daily walk is usually enough.
- Curious sniffers especially out in the park - it stimulates their mind a lot.
- Slower rate of maturity - tend to display puppy-ish behaviour and calm down after 2 - 3 years old.
- Aloof at times - they take their job seriously to guard and protect until they trust that it's safe (usually by sniffing).
- Prefers being around dogs of the same size or smaller than them. Some are afraid of bigger dogs from their perspective.
- A great family dog however with toddlers, sometimes younger spitz may not have the patience and tolerance for highly energetic kids.
Coat and Fur
- Double coated fur, which helps them stay clean.
- Generally neutral smell, they don't have the doggy odour thanks to their coat.
- Major shedding twice a year.
- Require regular weekly brushing.
What People Say Living With The Spitz
- Great with my little kids
- Thick fluffy coat, like a real life Teddy bear / Polar bears to cuddle
- Looks very clean (the great thing about double coated furs, they are self-maintained!)
- Sharp ears and in-tuned to sound (they know someone is approaching your door way before you)
- Females tend to be more vocal and have sharp pitchy barks
- Jumps a lot when excited and can jump very high
- Always want to be with you
- Persistent and sneaky - does not give up easily with whatever it wants
- Quick learner - not just with tricks you want to teach them but what you don't want them to learn
- Still gets asked whether it is a puppy even at five years old!
- With regular and predictable patterns, they know when it's bedtime because it's that time to go to bed (even before me)!
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