koalablue

Strangely, she's just come back from a walk and didn't scoot at all. Maybe her rear was a bit sensitive as the groomer said she was able to express a fair bit. Fingers crossed she won't do it again. I'll give an update next week.

She gets bones on a regular basis and currently has beef brisket bones. The vet said her diet was excellent.

NexGard Spectra and her weight falls within the 3.6 - 7.5 kg on the box.

Six months ago I took my Pomeranian to the vet for her C3 vaccination and mentioned that she was scooting. He checked her anal glands and said there was only a tiny bit in them. This week she started scooting again and as she had an appointment with her groomer, she expressed the glands and said a fair bit came out. Two days later she started doing it again on her daily walk. Her bowel motions are firm, she doesn't lick her rear end, there's no odour in that area and she doesn't seem uncomfortable. She never scoots in the house or the backyard. She has freshly cooked steak, chicken or mince for dinner together with either cooked carrots, broccoli, peas, green beans or mashed pumpkin. I've read that it could be an allergy or just an itchy bottom. As I frequently meet up with neighbours who are also walking their dogs and all the dogs know one another, do you think she could be leaving a scent marking for those dogs?

Thank you everyone for your helpful advice. You'll be pleased to know that in the last fortnight she's just about given up putting rocks in her mouth. Persephone suggested we buy a clam sandpit and we'll definitely get one of those so she can also use it for cooling off in next summer. Just to finish this thread on a very happy note, Ruby has become a star in our estate. Her idea of a walk isn't the exercise, it's to say hello to everyone. As soon as she sees someone, man, woman or child, even if they're 4 or 5 houses away or on the opposite side of the street, she stands up on her back legs and jumps all the way to meet them. People will even stop their cars and wind down the window to call out and say "Hi there Ruby", ask to take photos of her, ask if we can wait while they go inside and ask their wife to come and see her (which one lady did and she was still in her dressing gown), and workmen have downed tools and stood there with their mouths open while she does her little act. One lady calls her "the little circus dog". It's just incredible, and everyone absolutely loves her. So yes, she's a star, but luckily for us, not a rock star. Thanks again for everything.

Thank you for the sandpit suggestion. I think that's an excellent idea and will probably do that.

The problem isn't using her brain more or feeding anything extra, it's satisfying her urge to chew. This is why I don't think the snuffle mat would help. She's improving very slowly but she is improving.

Thanks sandgrubber. Unfortunately she dug a hole in the lawn and found a small piece of hard, sharp plastic and swallowed it. Luckily it didn't harm her but I became quite paranoid about her digging from that point on. It seems she's happy to swallow virtually anything that she can get into her mouth.

Ruby is very food oriented, too food oriented if the truth be known, so I'd prefer to avoid food puzzles. I've probably spent more time training, walking, exercising and playing with this little doggie than all the others put together. I think I'll start looking for "brain" games. I'm not sure this is the answer but it's definitely worthy a try. Thanks.

Thank you Little Gifts. Yes, her meals have been adjusted on a regular basis. Because of her need to chew, we spent some time discussing this with the vet and I gave him a detailed list of what we were feeding her. He said her weight was perfect for her frame and told us to feed her 2 meals a day once she was 6 months. She has kibble for breakfast and meat from the butcher (beef mince, steak, lamb, pork fillet) or chicken for dinner with either sweet potato or pumpkin plus something else, e.g. peas, beans, baby spinach leaves, zucchini or even some cucumber. I have sardines for lunch once a week and I give her some too, but otherwise there is no lunch. She's definitely not going hungry. She's a large Pom and I've had to watch what I feed her to make sure she gets enough, but not too much. She also likes water melon, banana and pieces of apple. I've been to dog training classes in the past and have trained her accordingly. I've spent countless hours watching dog training on YouTube and have picked up some really good tips there too. While I never give up, I feel like I may just have to wait until she matures a bit more.

persephohne, I've now read your links. Ruby has been trained pretty much the same as in the Kikopup video. This post will be too long if I deal with everything so I'll confine this one to the bones. Ruby wants to chew anything and everything she can put in her mouth. She's nearly 8 months and I would have thought she'd be beyond this by now. Outside she will eat flowers, buds, twigs, sticks and leaves. Most of the rocks we have are sandstone and the grating noise when she chews them is just awful. I have to find a replacement that will keep her happy for long periods. It would be fair to say she just loves chewing. A marrow bone will keep her occupied for hours at a time and once the marrow is gone, she'll carry it around and play with it like a toy, but I didn't know these bones were so hard. While chicken frames may be completely safe, because the bones are fine, she would chew them up in record time and we need something to keep her busy for long periods. We gave her a raw chicken wing once and after she separated it into halves, she swallowed each half whole. My husband said my comment about her not liking brisket bones was wrong. My husband said he couldn't find any beef briskets and so bought lamb brisket which was cut into pieces that should have been larger. They were quite meaty and she tore off the meat in pieces we thought were too big. We tried a Kong toy and put some peanut butter in it which she loved, but as soon as she got it out, that was it. We also a bone shaped Nylabone and she had zero interest in it. I looked at the deer antlers online and a small one is $13.59 which is a lot to pay for something she may not even like. I've read some people have suggested turkey necks but others have said they're dangerous. Surely there must be some sort of bones that will satisfy a strong urge to chew other than antlers. I'll post again tomorrow.

Thank you persephone, sandgrubber and Little Gifts for all this info. I'll try and check out the links and respond to you all tomorrow but I'm dealing with a very serious medical condition with a family member at the moment. I'm most grateful for all the suggestions. Everyone is so helpful on this wonderful forum.

Our 7 months’ old Pom loves playing with rocks and chewing them. She finds them in the garden and I’m worried she’ll damage her beautiful new adult teeth. If she can’t find one, she’ll rip up some lawn and dig a hole to find one. If we take even one step towards her, we run the risk that she’ll swallow it. She’s done this twice but fortunately they were more like large pebbles. We’ve tried distracting her by offering her a dog biscuit or a toy while we’re inside and she’s outside but to no avail. We only did this 2 or 3 times though because we felt she could view it as being rewarded for what she’s doing. She’s hyper active so we take her for a 1/2 walk twice a day which includes one hill. She has a sleep after the morning walk but is on the go as soon as she wakes up. We play with her a lot both inside and outside, especially Go Fetch which is her favourite but she also loves her rope toys. When we play outside she gets over-excited and starts berserking all over the yard. We’ve only found one thing that stops her chewing rocks, digging holes and digging up the lawn and that’s giving her a bone. She doesn’t like brisket bones so we tried lamb, which she loves, but she managed to swallow a few pieces of meat that I considered were too large. I don’t remember what kind of lamb bones they were so maybe I bought the wrong cut. However, she absolutely loves marrow bones. Our butcher cuts a marrow bone into 7 pieces which includes the 2 knuckles, so they’re not large bones, and one piece lasts 2 days. I’ve read that dogs should only have bones once or twice a week. Can I give her a piece of marrow bone every second day, and what other bones would you suggest I try? I've discussed this issue with our vet and he said she's still very young and hopefully she'll grow out of it. I'd really appreciate your comments. Meet Ruby. She was 5 months' old in this pic and her coat is much longer now.