Hi! I have a spitz breed too. My boy Akeida is a Japanese Spitz and I adore him . He's about 3 1/2 years old now, but I still often get asked at the park if he's a Samoyed puppy, lol.

My Akeida boy

Papillon, what your breeder said about not ever clipping a samoyed is right on the money. Any dog with a double coat, like samoyeds, japanese spitz, pomeranians etc, you should never clip their fur. It just never grows back the same. You know how you see those two types of pomeranians? The ones with the lovely smooth sleek hair, and then there's the ones with the hair that looks like fairy floss? Well the smooth ones have never been clipped, whereas the fairy floss ones have been clipped and that's how the hair grows back.

Luckily my boy is really good with his fur. Despite the house looking like it's snowing when he sheds, I'm lucky because I only need to brush him about once a month, and he only gets a bath once or twice a year (that's the most that's recommended for his breed). I have a friend whose dad breeds samoyeds, and apparently they are a bit more high maintenance than my boy so I don't envy you there. Akeida once got quite knotty in his tail and pantaloons (lol) after he jumped in the creek while he was going through a shedding cycle before I managed to brush him. He was rather unco-operative with me trying to brush the mega knots out, so I slathered a huge amount of doggy conditioner the area until it was all slippery and combed it out while it was super soaked up with conditioner. Then I just washed it all out afterwards.

With persistence and as your dog gets older you'll probably find that it becomes a lot easier to brush. I think Akeida has just given up fighting his brushings and figures that I'm going to do it whether he likes it or not, lol.

Good luck!