Visit with SunGlo Pomeranians
The Pomeranian Review
March/April 2008

Hello, we would like to start out by saying we were tickled when Brenda asked us about having a visit. We really haven't done much to write about, but here we go…

SunGlo Pomeranians consists of Dan & Tammee Felix & a small "herd" of Pomeranians. You start out with a "pom", then you get another & you have a "pair", then you add one more it's a "pack" & after that-it's a "herd".We've always said we are pet people that show.

Our poms are companions first, everything else we do with them is just icing on the cake. Our dogs are raised in our home. When we are not home, most of them are confined to "doggie jail", which is one of our bedrooms with linoleum, open crates & dog beds with the TV playing the animal planet channel. When we are home, they have run of the house & yard. Puppies are raised in our bedroom. Around 4-5 weeks, when we are home, we bring them out into a pen in our living room, after about 8 weeks they move into that pen permanently until they are ready to move into the dog room. We try to rotate who gets to "go" on little road trips & do something special with each pom.

Our first 2 poms are huge (20lbs)-they were obtained as companions & they are wonderful, but they barely resemble the breed. We call them our "robo-poms". They will both turn 15 this year. A funny thing about them is that we don't think they know they are big! Perhaps because of them, this is where our obsession with liking the "little" ones came from.

When we first started showing, we used a handler. We decided we wanted to be more involved in showing. We took handling classes & ventured into the ring ourselves. It may take us a little longer to finish the title ourselves-but the pay off is bigger. We receive a great sense of accomplishment & pride when we are able to put a new title on one of our poms.

Usually Dan shows the dogs & I do the work behind the scenes, I am unpaid kennel help. It's a team effort & we each bring something different to the mix. While we were showing Ch. SunGlo's Just Lookin For Trouble, aka "Snickers", half way through his points, Dan & Snickers decided they didn't like showing together. Determined to earn the bred by medallion, (which means a lot to us); I had no other option but to step into the ring myself. Snickers showed well for me, we picked up 2 additional majors (including winners' dog at the sdpc specialty) & the singles needed to complete his championship. We still occasionally show Snickers here/there. Last year Dan decided he'd like to try showing him again & they picked up a Best of Breed at San Fernando, and both days at Bahia Sur.

A couple of years ago, when the "late onset" coat problem started showing up in some of our dogs, and showed up as early onset in one of our "show hopefuls", our beautiful black & tan boy Skeeter. I say "hopeful" because he didn't finish before he showed signs of being affected. He had both majors-we pulled him before he could complete his championship. We tried every potion/lotion/diet suggested-and then one day we woke up & realized we were nuts. He has a medical condition that caused him to lose his coat. Accept it-get over it-be done with it. He is probably the best dog we'd ever produced at that time, and it broke our hearts the day we had him neutered-but we decided a long time ago we would not contribute to this medical condition that affects our breed.

I became very discouraged by the coat loss issue & started to wonder if it was all worth it. We decided to spay/neuter everyone (except 1 Ch. male who has never been bred & our Reginapom girl who has not produced any coat issues) & began the search to start over again with our breeding program. Little did we realize what a challenge that was going to be!!! I thought about quitting-but realized quitting doesn't fix the issue.

We had always admired the dogs Nancy & Robert Coddington had produced so we contacted Nancy & got lucky-she had a cream female available. Gidget was soon on her way to California. Shortly after we got Gidget, Nancy had a litter out of her b/t Grace & she had an orange sable female-we were in love before we even saw her & when she was old enough-Madison also headed west. We can not thank Nancy & Robert enough for allowing these 2 beautiful girls to become part of our family.

When Tapanga, our Reginapom girl came into season, we inquired with Leesa Molina & Karen Huntsberger about breeding to their male Melenbri Sweet Talkin Guy, who I had fallen in love with after meeting him. We loved what Guy had produced & admired that his kids had the beautiful side profile we were trying to improve in our own dogs. They were kind enough to allow us to breed to Guy & we were blessed with a beautiful litter of 3, 2 girls and a boy. We just took them to their first show in January. We're going to hold the bigger girl out & let her get her head on straight & more coat & continue to play with the boy & the smaller girl. We like to show puppies & let them get into the show routine. Also waiting in the show ring wings are our bred by girl SunGlo's Kiss me Kiwi, and our two Trudy kids, Madison & Gidget who are just waiting for their mature coats-which is like watching grass grow.

We are fortunate to have poms representing SunGlo not only in conformation & performance events, but also in the community. We take great care & pride in working to produce not only show dogs-but dogs that can go onto participate in other events, both agility & obedience require soundness, and therapy work requires a wonderful temperament. Let me share a little about a few of them.

SunGlo's Havin A Black N Tan-Trum aka Skeeter, his story does not stop with the end of his conformation career. He was was in the Animal Planet Eukanuba Dog Show commercial in 2006 & was hired to do a photo shoot for them. He has earned his Rally Novice title and is training to compete in Rally Advanced & obedience. He is also a registered therapy dog & besides visiting patients in hospitals & convalescent centers-he hopes to begin reading with children at the library soon. He's always a crowd pleaser & makes many new friends every time he goes out. He may not have earned his championship by AKC standards-but he is a champion to us.

SunGlo N Showcase Play It Agin Sam, aka Samson. Samson is a 3 1/2lb creampuff. We showed him in conformation for awhile, but he hated it, so we pulled him. He just hung out at home & became a great "coffee shop" & "road trip" buddy. I had been training one of our other poms in agility, but we unexpectedly lost Charger to cancer. Determined to continue training in agility-I looked around our house for my next victim; oops I mean volunteer-Samson-he was agile like a cat. Samson is doing great. His A-frame needs work-and we aren't great at weaves yet, but we're getting there. We're starting a new class in the spring with a trainer that specializes in toy dogs. He's also dabbling in rally-but we're not ready to compete yet.

Another one of the SunGlo kids who's done really well in the performance events is Snoop- SunGlo N Showcase Gangsta Style, RN, RA, CD and 2 legs towards his JWW (jumpers with weaves). Snoop is a 2 ¾ lb black dynamo owned by our friend Diedre. We started him in conformation-but came to the realization he was just too little, even for us to finish. A friend of ours had asked us if we had a female parti pom available, I wrote her back & said no, but we have a 1 year old black male available. She asked for photos & that was it-she was in love. Snoop was a challenge-not only was he small-but he is also a little on the shy side. Diedre worked with Snoop & has accomplished more with him than we would've ever dreamed possible.

We sold an adorable little girl to friends of ours Robin & Dave. Robin named her SunGlo's Just Say Olive Juice aka Libby. Libby is a registered therapy dog-she reads with children at the library.

We're also looking forward to trying Lure Coursing with Kiwi & Madison this spring. They are laser light fanatics & I think they'll have fun with the lure coursing-more details to follow once we've "tried it".

I find training for conformation fun. Training for the performance events is challenging. I don't want to make it sound like training for conformation is a piece of cake-but there's usually food motivation. I don't find it as hard to get a dog to stand & stare at me with food in my hand as I do to get it to stay in a down position, between two huge dogs-while I stand across the ring from them, or ask them to run up a teeter & sit on the end until it slams to the ground. While I find the training a lot more time consuming & challenging-I find the pay off from the performance events much more rewarding. Good or bad is based on me & how I control/command my dog, not on someone's interpretation of the breed standard. The other thing that's fun about performance-everyone entered can qualify -they have 1-4th place-you can still qualify towards your title even if you don't finish in the ribbons. Although I must confess, getting a ribbon is fun too!!!

We realize no visit is complete without the list of thank yous, but we decided if we listed everyone who has helped/supported us-it would be like reading the phone book. We have been very fortunate on this adventure, we don't have any horror stories about bad dogs we bought, or how people tricked us. We have been blessed to make many great friends, met many wonderful people, and owned terrific dogs. We'd like to extend a special thank you to those of you who have trusted us with one of your dogs or allowed us to breed to one of your studs, we truly appreciate it!!! To our friends who we have laughed & cried with-it would never be the same without you!!!