The Pomeranian (often known as a Pom or Pom Pom) is a breed of dog of the Spitz type, named for the Pomerania region inCentral Europe (today part of northern Poland and eastern Germany) Classed as a toy dog breed be!ause of its small size, the Pomeranian is des!ended from the larger Spitz type dogs, spe!ifi!ally the German Spitz "t has been determined by the #$d$ration Cynologi%ue "nternationale to be part of the German Spitz breed& and in many !ountries, they are known as the Zwergspitz ('(warf)Spitz')The breed has been made popular by a number of royal owners sin!e the *+th !entury ,ueen -i!toria owned a parti!ularly small Pomeranian and !onse%uently the smaller .ariety be!ame uni.ersally popular (uring ,ueen -i!toria/s lifetime alone, the size of the breed de!reased by 012 3.erall, the Pomeranian is a sturdy, healthy dog The most !ommon health issue is 4u5ating patellaTra!heal !ollapse !an also be an issue 6ore rarely, the breed !an suffer from a skin !ondition !ollo%uially known as 'bla!k skin disease', or 7lope!ia 8 This is a geneti! disease whi!h !auses the dog/s skin to turn bla!k and lose all or most of its hair9*: 7s at ;1*S7, and the !urrent fashion for small dogs has in!reased their popularity worldwide