To clarify  I have no intention of going at this alone. This petition should be considered a litmus test of members who are interested in this change. If there is enough interest, a collective of members can formulate and prepare the final petition/argument to send to the board. This will not be done in a bubble or in the dark. I hope this can be a collaborative process, and this was the best way I could think to circulate this.

Currently the AKC Pomeranian Breed Standard reads that All colors, patterns, and variations there-of are allowed and must be judged on an equal basis. (08/31/2011). Merle is an allowed color/pattern within the breed. What is Merle? Merle is an incompletely dominant coat color pattern characterized by irregularly shaped patches of diluted pigment and solid color. The gene affects color and pigment completely randomly, it will affect coat color and pattern, and can affect eye color, which can result in two blue eyes, blue flecks, blue marbling and heterochromia (two different colored eyes). As of today, 01/11/2024, there are fifteen (15) AKC Merle Champions of record. The first champion was in 2006 and the most recent in 2023.

Currently the only DQ for the Pomeranian Breed is 'Eye(s) light blue, blue marbled, blue flecked.' This means, that any Pomeranian, where the merle gene happened to land on the eye and affect pigment is not eligible to show in conformation. There are no health risks associated with blue in the eye, or the merle gene (when bred correctly and within the ethics laid out by the American Pomeranian Club). 

We all know how hard it is to breed a Pomeranian, let alone one that adheres so closely to the standard, that we run on the puppy as a show potential. But a well bred merle, who possibly checks all the boxes, but is born with blue flecking in his eyes, is immediately eliminated from a show program, for something completely out of the breeders control. 

This petition is circulating to amend  the current DQ to read as follows:  'Eye(s) light blue, blue marbled, blue flecked, except in a visual merle'

This verbiage will eliminate 'hidden merles' from being able to be exhibited and potentially risking a double merle breeding, while simultaneously allowing ethically bred, visual merles, who happen to have blue in the eye(s), to be shown in conformation.

In order to get this petition in front of the Board of the American Pomeranian Club, we need 20% of membership to sign this petition. 

The last revision was fairly recently, in 2011, but I feel that this change is important enough to open the standard for this revision. 

Based on the feedback on the petition, I will open discussion on presenting it to the board, and the board will have a opportunity to review and decide if this should be submitted to membership for a vote. 2/3 of membership must approve the change, and then there will be a moratorium, so for this to make sense, we need a good turnout on this issue. 
Please sign only if you are an APC member. Sharing encouraged!

I am open to dialogue here or privately. This is something I’m passionate about, I am a member in good standing with the APC, but this petition, its contents are mine alone. This will take a village and I’m totally open to ideas of others how to best present this going forward!

Annie Coughlin

APC Member in Good Standing