A palace companion crossed with a Baltic spitz
The Shihpom puts together a Shih Tzu and a Pomeranian, and the two halves come from about as far apart as two small dogs can.
The Shih Tzu is the older side. It was developed as a palace companion in China from Tibetan stock, and that is the whole of its job description — no herding, no ratting, no guarding, simply being agreeable company for people who could afford agreeable company. The Chinese name translates as lion dog, which describes the mane of coat around the head rather than anything in the manner. The breed reached England and Norway in the 1930s, and the American Kennel Club recognised it in 1969.
The Pomeranian is northern European and comes from working stock. It is a spitz, bred down from the larger German Spitz dogs of the Baltic coast — sled-pullers, drovers and farm dogs — and it kept the entire spitz outline while shedding most of the size. Small pricked ears, a wedge-shaped foxy face, a dense stand-off coat and a plumed tail carried flat over the back. Queen Victoria is generally credited with the modern proportions; she brought small Pomeranians home from Italy in the 1880s and the fashion followed her.
Put the two together and you get a compact, thickly coated little dog that is soft and companionable indoors and rather forward about the world outside the front door.
Size, and what a Shihpom litter does
There is no written standard for a Shihpom, which is worth saying plainly. It is a cross rather than a breed, so nobody has set down what one ought to look like, and littermates vary more than they would in a purebred litter.
The parents give you the range. A Pomeranian is a very small dog, three to seven pounds and six or seven inches at the shoulder. A Shih Tzu is small but solidly put together, nine to sixteen pounds and nine or ten inches. Most Shihpoms land between the two — commonly seven to fifteen pounds and seven to eleven inches — and where a particular puppy finishes depends on which parent it takes after.
Build differs as much as weight. A Shih Tzu-leaning Shihpom carries noticeably more bone for its size than a Pomeranian-leaning one and feels heavier in the hand than the scale suggests, while a Pomeranian-leaning one is finer and lighter under all that coat. Ask our staff about the puppy in front of you and what its parents were like.
Plush, silky, or somewhere in between
Both parent breeds are double-coated, so a Shihpom is too. What varies is the character of the coat. Some take the Pomeranian’s stand-off plush, which holds away from the body and gives the dog a round, full outline. Others take the Shih Tzu’s longer, straighter, more flowing coat. Plenty land in between, with a plush ruff and longer furnishings on the legs, ears and tail.
The colours are wide open, because both sides carry a great deal. Orange, red, cream, sable, black, blue, chocolate and parti-colour all turn up, along with the Shih Tzu’s white markings and the dark masks that go with several of those shades. Puppy colour is not always adult colour, either. Sable puppies in particular often clear and change a good deal over the first year, so a litter that looks matched at eight weeks rarely stays that way.
The tail is a good part of the dog. Both sides carry it up and over the back, and a Shihpom in decent coat has a plume on it out of all proportion to the animal underneath.
A small dog with a large opinion
At home a Shihpom is a companion in the plainest sense. It wants to be on the sofa, in the doorway, on a lap, in the room. Both parent breeds were selected to be with people and neither was ever asked to work at a distance, so this is a dog that follows you around the house and considers that a fine way to spend an afternoon.
Outside the front door the spitz side comes forward. A Shihpom will greet a dog five times its size with no sense of proportion whatsoever, take an interest in everything that moves, and let you know when someone is at the door. It is a confident little animal, and the confidence is one of the real pleasures of the cross.
The way to get the best of it is to put the puppy down. Let it meet new people, other dogs, a rolling suitcase, a busy pavement and a noisy street at ground level and at its own pace, and pay it well for calm curiosity. A Shihpom that has met the world properly in its first six months grows into a relaxed, portable, easy-going adult, and that groundwork is the most useful few weeks of work you will ever put into a dog.
The coat routine, week by week
The coat is the part with a schedule attached, and it turns into a companionable job once it settles into a rhythm. A comb every day or two, in sections, right down to the skin rather than over the top, keeps it open and comfortable. The places that want the most attention are behind the ears, around the collar or harness line, in the armpits and around the back legs.
A professional groom every couple of months keeps the whole thing in shape. If the coat leans plush, ask for a tidy rather than a close shave — the standing outer coat is part of how a double-coated dog keeps sun off its skin, and a groomer who knows double coats will set you up with the right approach for a Florida summer.
Bathe occasionally rather than on a schedule, and dry properly right down to the skin afterwards; drying matters more than washing with a coat this dense. Wipe the face and the eye area while you are already brushing, keep the nails a little and often, and brush the teeth early enough that a puppy decides the toothbrush is a game.
House training and the first six months
House-training a toy-sized dog takes a bit longer for purely mechanical reasons, so the answer is frequency and routine rather than anything clever. Out first thing, out after every meal, out after every nap, out before bed, and a crate sized to the dog for the hours in between. Most puppies have the idea within a few weeks on that schedule.
Get the puppy comfortable being handled while it still finds the attention flattering — feet, ears, face, tail, coat, mouth. Every groom for the next decade is easier because of it.
The rest is short and cheerful. Five minutes of training twice a day gets you further than half an hour once a week, and this is a bright little dog that enjoys the game. Teach a settle word alongside the alert bark: acknowledge the announcement, mark the pause, put a name on it, and practise it deliberately rather than only when the doorbell goes. What you end up with is a dog that reports the delivery driver once and then goes back to sleep.
Walks are short and social. Two a day with some play in between suits most adults, and in the hot months the early and late hours are the pleasant ones, on grass rather than midday paving.
Come and meet the Shihpom puppies
Coat and character both vary between littermates in a cross like this one, so the puppy in front of you is the real information. What a photograph never conveys is how light one is to pick up, how much coat there is in the hand, and how quickly a Shihpom decides you are worth climbing on.
Our Shihpom puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you how a particular puppy has been getting on with people. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor and let a puppy come to you 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.