Two very old small breeds behind one new cross
The Pomchi puts the Pomeranian and the Chihuahua together, and both halves are worth knowing, because a puppy can lean either way and most of them land somewhere between the two.
The Pomeranian is the small end of a very large family. Its ancestors were the Spitz sled and herding dogs of the far north, heavy working animals with standing coats and tails curled over the back, and the breed takes its name from Pomerania, the old region on the Baltic coast. The dogs that reached Britain in the eighteenth century were a good deal bigger than the ones you see today. Queen Victoria brought a small Pomeranian home from Italy in 1888 and showed her own dogs, and her taste for the smaller ones is a large part of why the breed came down in size over the decades that followed. What survived the shrinking is the outline: the fox face, the standing double coat, the plumed tail carried up over the back.
The Chihuahua arrives from the other side of the world. It takes its name from the Mexican state where travellers began finding the little dogs in the middle of the nineteenth century, and it is usually traced back to the Techichi, a companion dog kept in Mexico long before that. It is the smallest breed there is, and it has never once behaved like it. The rounded apple head, the enormous upright ears and the level, unblinking stare all come from this side of the family.
Put the two together and you get what the people who first made the cross were after: a very small dog with a proper coat, a bold outlook, and firm views about which lap it owns.
What a Pomchi grows into
Most Pomchis weigh somewhere between five and twelve pounds and stand about six to nine inches at the shoulder, which puts a grown one comfortably under one arm. The build is compact and better muscled than the size suggests, and people who pick one up usually say there is more dog in there than they were expecting.
The head is where the two parents negotiate. Some Pomchis have the fox muzzle of the Pomeranian, some the rounder skull and shorter face of the Chihuahua, and plenty carry a bit of each. The ears are almost always upright and large for the head. The eyes are round, dark and set to look straight at you. The tail curls up over the back and carries a plume of longer hair.
Coat is the other place the cross shows its hand. A Pomchi may inherit the long standing double coat of the Pomeranian, the short close coat of a smooth Chihuahua, or something in between. Colours run right across both families: cream, fawn, red, sable, chocolate, black, black and tan, blue, and parti-coloured combinations with white. A ruff around the neck and feathering on the tail and the backs of the legs are common on the longer coats. Puppy coat changes as the adult coat comes through, so the colour at nine weeks is not always the colour at nine months.
The personality in the small package
A Pomchi is lively, forward and thoroughly opinionated, and that is the whole appeal. It notices everything, has something to say about most of it, and attaches itself hard to one or two people in the house. Owners describe a small shadow that moves from room to room and reappears on the arm of whichever chair they have just sat down in.
They are affectionate in a direct way. A Pomchi wants contact rather than proximity, so expect one under a blanket, along a thigh, or tucked into the crook of an elbow while you read. They are funny in the way small confident dogs often are, and most of them have a party trick they invented themselves.
With visitors they take a moment. The Chihuahua side likes to size a new person up first, and the way through is to let the dog come over rather than the other way round. Meeting a wide range of people, floors, noises and calm adult dogs through the first six months turns that caution into confidence, and a well-socialized Pomchi greets the front door like a host.
They will also tell you the mail has arrived. For a dog that fits in a tote bag the voice comes as a genuine surprise, and most owners end up rather fond of it.
The coat, long or short
Grooming a Pomchi is a short job either way, and which job you have depends on the coat the puppy grew.
A short-coated Pomchi asks for almost nothing: a rubber curry or a grooming mitt once a week lifts the loose hair and brings up a shine, and that is the routine. A long-coated one wants a pin brush and a comb two or three times a week, worked in sections right down to the skin rather than skimmed over the top, with a little extra attention behind the ears, under the front legs and around the base of the tail where the hair is finest. Ten minutes in front of the television covers it, and most dogs fall asleep partway through.
Both coats let go of more hair twice a year as the seasons turn. A few extra sessions with the comb over a fortnight and it is done.
The rest of the list is short and belongs in the same session. Nails every few weeks, and you will hear them on a hard floor when they are ready. Ears wiped out with a soft cloth while you brush. Teeth brushed as a matter of routine, started early enough that the puppy decides the toothbrush is a game. Baths every few weeks, with a proper dry afterwards on the longer coats.
Training a small dog with large opinions
Pomchis are quick. Sit, down, a recall and a settle on a mat all come inside a few weeks, and the limit is never comprehension. It is whether the dog has decided the exercise is worth its time, and if you pay well it always is.
Keep sessions to three or four minutes and finish while the dog still wants another go. Two minutes before dinner and two more while the kettle boils gets you further than twenty minutes on a Sunday. Use small, soft, genuinely good treats, mark the behaviour the moment it happens, and make sure every adult in the house uses the same word for the same thing.
House-training runs on a schedule rather than on a signal. Small dog, short intervals: out often, out with the puppy so you can reward the right thing in the right place, and think in months rather than weeks. A crate with a soft bed gives the puppy somewhere of its own and makes the schedule much easier to keep.
Two lessons pay off for years. The first is teaching a Pomchi to be picked up on cue rather than swept off the ground, which takes a word, a hand signal and a treat, and gets you a dog that asks to be lifted. The second is a recall you can rely on, practised indoors first, then in a fenced yard, then everywhere else.
A day on Pomchi time
The day starts early and at close range. A Pomchi is a light sleeper and an enthusiastic waker, and breakfast is treated as excellent news.
Then a walk, and it is a proper one. Small dogs want the outing as much as big ones, they just want less of it. Two short walks a day at a pace that allows for sniffing suit most Pomchis exactly, and a harness rather than a collar is what most owners settle on. In a Florida or Tennessee summer the early and late hours are the pleasant ones, and grass beats hot pavement.
The middle of the day is for sleeping in a patch of sun within sight of whoever is home, punctuated by a burst of activity that arrives without warning and ends the same way.
Afternoons want a bit of brain work, and this is where the breed shines without leaving the house. A snuffle mat, a treat hidden under one of three cups, five minutes of trick training, a cardboard box with kibble scattered through shredded paper. A Pomchi that has used its head is a settled Pomchi.
Evenings are the sofa. This is a dog that does companionship as a full-time occupation, and it will be against you, under something, and asleep before the first advert break.
Coming to meet the Pomchi puppies
A photograph cannot tell you which parent a particular Pomchi took after, and that is the thing most people want to know. Coat length, ear set, the shape of the face, and above all temperament, since littermates differ far more in personality than they do in markings. You learn all of it in about two minutes on the floor with them.
Our Pomchi puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy’s parents were like and what the coat is likely to do. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.