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The German Spitz is currently a rare breed in the USA. The AKC registers
them as foundation stock until there are enough registered dogs to qualify
them for a registered breed. You might think they look like Pommeranians,
and for a little, they do. As a matter of fact, they are a very distant cousin to
the Pom, but they have had their own breed standard for quite sometime.
I've had experience with both, and I can assure you they are distinct from
one another. The following are my observations of the German Spitz.

The German Spitz are highly intelligent. They seem to understand quickly
what you want from them, and if they agree to it, will comply. They respond
quite well to bribery--I mean positive reinforcement. Once they learn
something, they don't forget it. They are creative and intuitive dogs. What
do I mean by that? We had a male named Hansel when we were stationed
in Bamberg. My daughter came along, and with her the numerous rattles
and baby toys. We kept them in a specified box in the family room. I
showed Hansel one time where the baby toys were, told him "no--baby toys",
and handed him his toy. He never chewed up her toys at all. As a matter of
fact, he took his toys to her on the pallet, and then moved to the far corner
with another one of his own.

Compared to their Pommeranian cousins, the German Spitz's ears are taller.
Their noses are longer and wider. While they do have a double coat, the
undercoat is not as dense and does not get matts or snarls as badly. Their
upper coat is longer and more coarse. They do not yap or whine
(generally), as adults, but they do bark. Mine have sounded like they're
much larger dogs than they are. They can be trained not to bark at guests
or door bells, etc. This is best accomplished when they're young.

As far as temperament is concerned, they are happy, fiesty, and playful little
dogs who love having plenty of attention. They are careful and protective of
their people, but accepting of strangers from whom they don't sense
danger. They adapt well to new situations. They are happy to walk you at
any pace for any distance, or just sit at or on your feet to be with you. My
males have had to sit in such a position to be touching me, but looking out
as if to guard me--all 10 lbs of them. Gretel likes to be where she can see
me.

Mine have been very protective of small children, but growl when they feel
threatened. I would have to say that whether or not a German Spitz is good
with children depends on several factors, primarily the temperament and
behavior of the child in question. Very small children are often unaware of
their strength, size, or actions demonstrated, and thus would need strong
supervision to protect the animal as well as the child. They won't attack
unprovoked at all, but they won't endure abuse, either. Older children, I'd
say closer to 5 or older, would likely be better companions. They love
playing and petting, and children of that age are better able to be gentle
and understand that they can hurt the animal, and the animal will defend
himself. On a personal note, we have children ages 1 year to 9 years
running around our house all the time. Between my two, their neighborhood
friends, and our personal friends' children, our dogs have been well
socialized with children. Gretel tends to act very protective around the
smaller ones. She seems to watch out for them as if to protect them, but
stays just out of their reach. She's also very attentive because they drop
the most food. See, I told you they were smart. Gretel was not around
children until she was 9 months old. She bonded strongly to me, but allows
the kids to play with her some and feed her treats for tricks. Rummy got
here when he was 1 year old, and he loves our kids. He runs, plays with
them anytime, and comes when they call him. He is generally very wary of
other children, however. On a couple of occasions, smaller children have
pulled his tail or fur or swung toys or arms at him. He growled a warning and
then moved out of reach. I suppose succinctly stated: They will be friendly
to small children, will play and respond lovingly to petting, but will growl and
snap if abused or feel danger.