Actually, the American Eskimo and the Japanese Spitz is actually the SAME. I found this very interesting, and I think this should be all cleared up between the two breeds. When German immigrants brought the dogs to the Americas, U.S. and Canadian fanciers particularly chose the smaller, mid size, and the white dogs as favored varieties. Breeding those dogs exclusively, they eventually sought to have them recognized as a separate breed from what was by then known as the German Spitz. It was Mr. and Mrs. F.M. Hall who intitially chose the name "American Eskimo". It was, in fact, their kennel name. The UKC officially recognized the breed in 1913, followed later by the AKC and finally the CKC. Most Eskies in the US today are still registered with the UKC, and many now with the AKC as a second registry. From the U.S..and Canada, AED's were imported into Japan in the early part of the twentietyith century, where the breed name fell into disfavor during the second world war. Eskies in Japan were thus re-named "Japanese Spitz", and have recently gained popularity under that name as exports to Europe, Australia, and the British Isles. Almost comically, they have most recently seen their way back into the U.S. under the "new" name,and many fanciers unfamilliar with the history are heralding their "Japanese Spitz" as a "rare new" breed in this country, falsely said to be decended, not from Eskies, but Samoyeds! Even the United Kennel Club, the original registering organization for the American Eskimo Dog, is accepting the renamed Eskie as a "new breed" despite both historical documentation and obvious phenotype proving the "two breeds" are actually one and the same. Source: http://www.chekia.com/eskiehistory.html
