by: Rita Rail

Oh Boy!!! You have an “Emily” also. My Emily is now 9 years old and very aggressive when it is not “her way”. She does obey me when I use a harsh voice. I am soft-spoken and this works in other situations. Here they are. To take off a harness, Use the harsh voice, shake your finger in front of her and tell her “You are a bad girl” a few times. Strange as it is, when she calms while removing the harness, keep telling her in soft voice how pretty she is and how good, a few petting strokes usually calms her down, You have to be very expressive. If you get that far and the harness is off and she is jumping around, raise your voice telling her how good she is etc,” Use the same tactics for grooming. Poms are extremely smart, not all, because some do not want to live that way. They make their choice(like Crystal) do what you want with me, just don’t hurt me. I think Emily is a sociopath. She will pick up a dropped Kleenex and shred it. Very annoying to me. She gets scolded. She does not like this, she lives for praise. I see it in her mouth and now she obeys the following…. Get down to her level as much as you can and tap the floor while telling her in a stern voice to “Bring To Me!” Keep on saying this in the same manner, over and over. If she does not obey, take it from her and keep on saying “Not Nice, Not Nice”. This is a new routine and please do this over and over, remember , you are dealing with a Pom who is as smart as you are in this area. Your Pom should eventually become trained to this situation and now as I sometimes see Emily with a Kleenex in her mouth, she will not hide to shred it any longer, she will make sure that I see her and then I have to do the tapping on the floor routine. I think that she has in her mind that she is in control. All this training is very taxing but it pays off in the end. The above applies to grooming also. Do it in stages on her body till you have control of all areas. She must have trust in you. (She is the Queen) and you will be the Advisor that she trusts. Emily is very loving and wants to be with me always. When she sees that I am awake in the morning, she sits on my head and gives me a little lick on the ear(as she has been trained to do) and when I get up she expects a kiss on her white cheek patches. You see, I pay homage to my Queen!!! It has taken me years to figure her out, this hot-tempered little spitzfire. I am on the right track now. Also, I use a small muzzle for cutting nails and if the dog exerts uncontrolled behavior for grooming, put on the muzzle, Emily is progressing because she hates the muzzle. Do her nails first and by the time you are ready to groom, your dog will be easier to handle. This muzzle rally pays off. If needed when off, remind your dog of the muzzle. He will understand. On a last note, Crystal is an angel for grooming and everything else. I have an Upper and a Downer since Emily now tells what she wants by using different barks, I have never had a dog like this but have had human three year olds like this. I love it!!!! Please let me know if you succeed. RR

by: Rita Rail

Your one year old has an “in charge complex”. I have been faced with this problem for 9 years now. You must have a lot of patience. Your little dog does the same thing as my Emily does and she will always show you she is in control until she lets me think I control her in some areas. Never let your guard down!!! Never take it for granted that if she behaved properly the previous time, that this willalways happen again. She is keeping you in line!! There is no trust except to play, admire her prettiness or love her. She does as she pleases. I wear a muzzle on her for grooming, nail cutting. I got tired wearing band-aides. I have taught her to open her mouth wide to show me and my vet her teeth. Otherwise, I would never try to extract anything out of there. She has very large canines for such a small dog. She seems to be trainable in all areas except body touching unless she permits this. She is very happy but needs to know I am in charge. This I do when I am playing with her toys with her. She will play with only the toys she likes and I have to give away all the others I purchase. She likes the kitty soft toys. I will call her, using a very firm voice just to make her come to me and she does with her head down and tiny, soft footsteps and I pat her on the head and tell she is such a pretty girl and I love her so very much. She never fails to respond to this command. If I drop something, I just use a very strong command to “Drop it ” and she does. I find that a very strong voice will work when needed and the balance of the time just be soft spoken but firm and you will gain ground. Whenever my poms sit with me, I run my hands over their bodies for any tangles and take them out immediately. They do not seem to mind that and when I am actually doing the grooming of long hair, it is better to hold a section at a time and have no pulling on the body as I could lose my fingers!! Crystal loves to go for walks but eats all kinds of vegetation to the point having a belly-ache afterwards, so she now wears a muzzle for her outings. Emily will show you when she feels like it, how much she loves you as she will nuzzle you and kiss you but mostly on her own terms. She will let you win some times but she will win most of the times so a word of advice, try to be smarter than she is. It is a known fact that most people with red hair are known to be fiery , my dog has red hair and yours????? Take care RR

NEW
by: B.Finnerty

I disagree with you Rita. You ALWAYS use positive reinforcements not scolding and mean voices. Calm, soothing tones, with gentle touches work! Pomeranians are genetically predisposed to the “attitude”. It’s a Pom trait. Some show it at different time and for different reasons, but most will suffer from a “nasty moment” from time to time. Getting “nasty” back at them just increases the fit for a longer duration. Teaching them the command “leave it” will help with those times when they pick up items they should not have. Hold a treat in your hand, show them, make a fist around the treat turning your hand palm down and say, “leave it” Wait until the dog stops licking and nibbling hand, the second that happens open hand and say “take it” Repeat until its automatic that they sit and wait for that treat when you close your fist around it. After that you can move on to preferred toys, treating after they “leave it”. My baby is 5 months old, he learning this in three commands and I use it for everything he isn’t supposed to get his mouth on now. I also use it when playing fetch and ball.

Positive reinforcement works!!!