Pomsky Puppies

Two northern breeds behind one small dog

The Pomsky crosses a Pomeranian with a Siberian Husky, which sounds like an odd pairing until you remember that both are spitz dogs from the cold end of the world. Pricked ears, a wedge of a muzzle, a thick standing coat and a tail carried over the back — the family resemblance is there in both parents, separated mainly by about forty pounds.

The Siberian Husky is the working half. It was developed by the Chukchi people of northeastern Siberia to pull light loads over very long distances on very little food, which is a job that rewards efficiency rather than raw power. The breed reached Alaska around 1908 to race the All-Alaska Sweepstakes and was winning it within a couple of seasons, and in 1925 a relay of Siberian teams carried diphtheria serum more than six hundred miles to Nome through a winter storm. Togo ran the longest and hardest leg of that relay; Balto ran the last one and got the statue in Central Park. The American Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1930.

The Pomeranian is the same northern stock scaled down. It takes its name from Pomerania on the Baltic coast, where sled and herding spitz dogs were bred toward smaller and smaller sizes over generations. Queen Victoria brought a Pomeranian called Marco back from Italy in 1888 and showed him, and British interest in the breed climbed sharply afterwards, with the average size dropping over the following decades. The AKC recognised the breed the same year, and the modern Pom weighs between three and seven pounds with a ruff around the neck like a lion.

How the cross came about

The Pomsky is genuinely new. Online interest in the idea built through 2011, and the first documented litters in the United States arrived in 2012, which makes this one of the youngest crosses you can walk into a store and meet. Everything about it is still settling.

That matters when you go looking, because generation tells you a lot. A first cross — a Husky parent and a Pomeranian parent — produces the widest spread of outcomes, with littermates landing anywhere between the two. A second generation, where both parents are Pomskies, is easier to read, because the parents are already the thing you are trying to predict. Asking which generation a puppy is, and what its sire and dam finished at, is the single most useful thing you can do, and it is one of the first things our staff will pull up for you.

Littermate variation is normal here rather than a complication. Two puppies out of the same litter can differ in size, coat length and how closely the face reads as a small Husky. That is simply what a young cross looks like, and it is a large part of why people come in to see them in person rather than choosing from a photograph.

Size, coat and colour

Most Pomskies finish somewhere in the small-to-medium range, well under a Husky and comfortably above a Pomeranian. For a sense of the two ends: the Husky standard asks for males of about twenty-one to twenty-three and a half inches at the shoulder and forty-five to sixty pounds, while a Pom stands six or seven inches and weighs single figures. The adult in front of you comes down to its parents, not to the label.

The coat is a proper double coat from both sides — a soft, dense undercoat with a longer outer coat standing off it, thickest around the neck and the hindquarters, with a plumed tail that curls up over the back. Puppies go through a stage where the coat looks woolly before the adult texture comes through.

Colour follows the Husky palette more often than not: grey and white, black and white, red and white, agouti, and cream, usually with the mask and eyebrow markings that make the face so recognisable. Solid and parti-coloured puppies turn up as well. Eyes are the detail people ask about first — brown, blue, one of each, or a single eye split between two colours, all of which come down through the Husky side and all of which turn up in this cross.

The temperament everyone talks about

Two things come through the cross more reliably than anything else: the Pomsky is busy, and the Pomsky is chatty.

Busy is the sled dog in it. This is an alert, quick, interested little dog that would like to know what you are doing and whether it can come. Both parents are working spitz at heart, and the mind is the part that needs feeding. Puzzle feeders, a scatter of kibble in the grass, five minutes of trick training before dinner, and a walk that allows plenty of sniffing will do more for a Pomsky’s afternoon than an extra mile of pavement.

Chatty is the Husky’s most famous trait, and it survives the size reduction completely. Huskies are not really barkers — they talk, in a repertoire of woos, grumbles, sighs and rising howls, and they use it to hold up their end of a conversation. A Pomsky will answer you back, comment on the doorbell, and greet a returning family member with an entire speech. Owners tend to find this the single best thing about the breed.

With their own household they are affectionate and physical, and they like being in the middle of things. The Pomeranian side often brings a strong attachment to one particular person. With visitors most Pomskies are curious and outgoing, which is very much the Husky inheritance — sled dogs worked in large teams alongside changing handlers, and it left the breed sociable.

Grooming a double coat

A double coat sounds like a project and is really a rhythm. A slicker brush and a comb two or three times a week keeps the outer coat lying properly and the undercoat lifted, and ten minutes at a time is enough. Work in sections, from the skin outward, and pay attention behind the ears, under the collar and around the trousers where the coat is densest.

Twice a year the undercoat turns over with the seasons. Swap the slicker for an undercoat rake for a fortnight, do it outdoors if the weather is good, and the whole thing is over quickly. Most Pomskies enjoy the rake and lean into it.

The coat is insulation in both directions, so leave it alone rather than clipping it short — it is doing a job in a Florida or Tennessee summer as much as in a northern winter. Walk in the cool part of the day, keep shade and water available, and a Pomsky is entirely comfortable.

Baths are occasional rather than scheduled, with a thorough dry afterwards, because a dense undercoat holds water. Nails every few weeks, ears wiped while you groom, and teeth brushed as a matter of routine, started early enough that the puppy decides the toothbrush is a game.

Training a clever northern dog

Spitz dogs were bred to make decisions out in front of a handler, so a Pomsky weighs an instruction before acting on it. That is not a shortage of brains — it is the reason the breed was useful — and it responds beautifully to the right currency.

Keep sessions short, cheerful and well paid. Ask for one thing at a time, mark the behaviour the instant it happens, and stop while the dog still wants another go. Variety matters more here than repetition, so rotate through sit, touch, spin, place and recall rather than drilling one of them twenty times.

Recall is the piece worth real investment, and a long line in an open space is how you build it. Pay it every single time with something better than kibble. A securely fenced yard and a lead on the street are simply part of owning a dog with sled dogs in its family tree, and once you accept that, the rest is easy.

Socialization through the first six months is the other investment: new floors, traffic noise, umbrellas, hats, calm adult dogs of a range of sizes. A puppy that has met a hundred ordinary things by half a year treats the hundred and first as ordinary too.

Coming to meet the Pomsky puppies

A photograph gets the markings and misses everything else. Coat texture, adult size and how much Husky there is in the face and in the personality are all things you judge with a puppy in your lap, and littermates in this cross genuinely differ. Ten minutes on the floor usually sorts out which one is yours.

Our Pomsky puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy’s parents were and what they finished at. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to spend as long as you like with a puppy before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and if you would like to spread the cost, 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.