Category Archives: pet training

More Pomeranian puppy training. Predatory birds.

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My second post, on my second Pomeranian puppy.

To back up; I have had a Pom for about fifteen years. She has been a great companion and is trained to my rules, quirks, and hand signals. Her nose has turned from black to grey, her tail often hangs down instead of resting over her hips, and I have to rub her shoulders in the mornings so she doesn’t limp.

I decided to buy a Pom puppy so the training and personality could be passed on. The new puppy, Zenzi, is now nine months old, and has mastered most of Koko’s training. My timing was perfect. I have noticed that Koko would often sit in the floor and stare at me. She watched my face, what I was doing, and my hand gestures. After a few tests, I discovered that Koko is losing her hearing. When Zenzi barks at the door, Koko chimes in with her and doesn’t really know why. Zenzi quits barking when I address the problem, but Koko continues until she makes optical recognition with me.

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On the good side, having Zenzi in the house, has encouraged Koko to become more active. She runs and plays now, almost as active as Zenzi. When she becomes tired, she goes to a large piece of pottery, (the toybox), picks out something she thinks I will like, and brings it to me. It’s payment for what we call a butt-lift. I pick her up and she lays against my leg on the couch.

The latest challenge, is a very large red-tailed-hawk. I saw it swoop across Zenzi’s six-pound body and land on a branch, ten feet in front of her. I ran toward it, and threw a piece of wood at it. It just sat and looked at me and then at Zenzi. I grabbed the garden hose and blasted the bird with water. Each time it comes back I squirt it again. Birds don’t fly well with wet feathers. I bought the big plastic owls with the rotating heads, the mylar holographic tape, fishing line, and old CD’s that rotate and reflect the sun. The birds here are just too smart.

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My neighbor informed me that the mother had a young one in a nest in their yard, and sure enough, she was teaching the baby how to hunt Pomeranians. They were both in my yard. They both got a shower. I was told that hawks return to the same place to nest each year, and we DO have many other large predatory birds here in Florida, so I went to level two. I am enclosing a large area outside of my sliding glass doors with insulated roof and screened in sides. I will leave the grass and small plants so the dogs can exit the doggy door while I work, and still have grass in a safe environment. Zenzi could live fifteen, or eighteen years. The expense doesn’t hurt so bad if I spread it over the years.

I have been working on, what I call, Trust Exercises. It involves letting her go with me outside of the fenced in yard, and stay with me. I am on a slow road that is lightly traveled and try to do this when everyone is home. She was doing so good that we went farther, around to the other side of the house. Today, I was working in the back yard and left the back garage door open. The overhead was open too, so Zenzi stealthily went through and across my neighbor’s lawn. As I worked in the back yard, I heard a small dog barking. No… Zenzi’s in the house. I saw her run into another fenced in back yard with a woman from the third house trying to catch her and rescue her. Zenzi was scared and had run into a fenced in corner. I started yelling for her, stooped down, and she ran, jumped in the air, and I caught her airborne. Many hours later, we did Trust, again. This time she was never more then ten from me at any time.Zenzi101

#Puppy #Pom #Florida #WolfSable #Pomeranian #Puppytraining #Training #CuttingTeeth #ChewToys #bonding #Hawk #birds #BirdDeterrent #Dogs #pets

Koko, Zenzi, Pomeranians. Training their owner. Puppy, Pom, Florida, Wolf sable,

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As many of you know, I bought a Pomeranian puppy. I have had a Pom for the last fifteen years, but she is getting old and I wanted her to pass on all of the behavior, tricks, and commands, that I have taught her in the past. She welcomed the puppy, to my surprise. Her mother instincts appeared and she is teaching the puppy without my intervention. There are a lot of puppy things, that I had forgotten.

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Zenzi stood at the glass door and barked at the back yard. I walked over behind her and looked for an invader into her space. I saw no problem. Usually, I keep a piece of wood in the track of the sliding door for a little extra protection. It was lying on the tile, and not where it belonged. I placed it back on the tracks, and she walked away. Problem solved.

I have a grove of banana trees behind the shed. Zenzi learned that if she pulls the soft skin loose at the bottom of the plant, she can pull it lose all the way to the top. “What fun!”

My house has ceramic tile floors with Persian rugs scattered throughout. My coffee table is an old steam-trunk with a thick glass top. Normally, the top is cleared, displaying money from all of travels beneath. Now, everything in the living room is covered with puppy toys and things she brings in from the back yard. She is still cutting teeth, so I find sticks, leaves, parts of my aloe plants, and the remains of a tomato stake. Amazing… it’s a small doggie door. I also discovered a pair of my socks outside? Trying to tie your shoes is a game to her. Not good when I am running late for work.

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Yesterday I sat in my living room, watching the TV. From where I sit, I can also see out of the sliding glass door and most of my back yard. There is a doggy door, so they can come and go as they please and the yard is fenced in.

Suddenly, I saw Zenzi run from behind my shed like a scared rabbit. She stopped, stumbled as she looked behind the shed, and continued running toward the house. I assumed that she had met our neighborhood black-snake, or maybe a hawk that sometimes raids the mocking birds.

I jumped up, opened the door, and went toward the streak of a puppy. She went airborne and I caught her above my knees. She buried her face in my shirt and I held her tightly for assurance. I walked slowly toward the shed, carrying Zenzi, not knowing what to expect. When we got behind the shed, she started trembling and barking in her ferocious puppy bark. I didn’t see the threat. I watched her and followed her line of sight.

In the corner of the fence, was a plastic bag. It was open, full of air, and had blown over the fence and slowly drifted across the lawn. With her in my left arm, I reached down and grabbed the bag as she trembled. I crushed it to the size of an orange as we walked back to the house. Now I am her hero for killing the fierce shopping bag.

In the end, she’s a great little puppy, now just barely over two pounds. She has shown me a side of KoKo, my big Pom, that I had never seen before. When I call a command… like come, sometimes… most of the time… she just sits and looks at me. Koko looks up at me like… “You need some help?” I tell her to teach her and she goes to Zenzi, bumps against her, and walks back to me. Zenzi usually follows. I give rewards for the student and the helper.

 

#Puppy #Pom #Florida #WolfSable #Pomeranian #Puppytraining #Training #CuttingTeeth #ChewToys