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.

Thank you Tassie. I am proud of my little girl. When she does little puddles, it's not excitement caused by visitors, but rather when we're playing indoors and she's having lots of fun. She's wants to play all the time and will keep it up until she's exhausted ... or I am. If she's awake, she's on the go every minute, but it's just lovely having a puppy who finds everything so exciting. Yesterday afternoon she "helped me" do some weeding in the garden and this kept her entertained for half an hour or so. She makes a game out of absolutely anything.

I thought I'd persevere for a week or so before updating. I tried coming in and then going straight back out but that didn't work, so it was back to the drawing board and retrying everything. I'm happy to say that things are definitely improving. When I take her outside first thing after waking she will now wee nearly every the time, and she's doing her poos outside too. I still have to watch her carefully when she's inside regarding her wees. Sometimes she will race to her indoor toilet but I can't count on that yet so I'm taking her outside every 30 minutes now and that seems to be helping. I've noticed that there are can be tiny puddles when she gets excited and I think this has a lot to do with her frequency. Now that she's started going outside several times a day, I think the message is starting to get through so I'm giving her a lot more opportunities, and as she's a treat-driven puppy, lots of treats. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Thanks Tassie. I don't think she has a medical problem because she can hold on for a long time. It's more a case of preferring to wee inside at the moment. Yesterday she didn't have one accident inside but today she's had 3. Even with the dangers outside, during the day it's far too hot for her to be outside for long as we're experiencing a heatwave. She does wee on the fake grass inside about 30% of the time. That's why I took her toilet tray outside but that didn't work out. I've only seen her wee outside maybe 4 or 5 times and they were all during playtime. The leash is a total failure at the moment because all she wants to do is bite it, so it's not a case of either of us choosing the spot. I know the general area where she likes to go and that's where I take her when she's on leash. So far she's only gone during playtime. She loves exploring the garden and it's quite possible she goes there but she may well be out of my line of sight. Tomorrow's another day.

Yes, I think I may be expecting a bit too much from such a young puppy. I can't delay her evening meal because I think she has a time clock in her head. She knows when I'm preparing our dinner that I'll be doing hers too.

Thank you Dogsfevr. In the past I've always trained my pups to go outside on leash, but I took your advice, sat down, and let her run around. Lo and behold, she did a poo, and she's only done a few of those outside. As soon as I brought her in, she thought the family room would be a good place to wee, and that's always been the main problem. No matter how long she's outside, whether it's to toilet or play, I almost never see her wee outside. I'm sure we'll get there eventually because all my past pups did. I'm probably in too much of a hurry because I want to leave the intense heat outside.

I agree that she doesn't realise she's supposed to toilet outside, but I'm not sure what you mean that she's rewarded for going inside. Most playtime is during the day and is quite separate from going outside to toilet. She tears around the yard off the leash during playtime and runs so fast when we play fetch that she often does somersaults! She's already very attached to me and I've tried various things in an attempt to make her realise that when she's on the leash it's not to play. My plan is to ultimately not use the indoor loo. She has a doggy door but I have to make sure she can't open it at night because 1) we have a lot of possums in our area and she'd charge at one if she saw one. You can imagine how dangerous that could be, and 2) we also have plenty of owls and some are very large. I don't want her to become dinner for one of them. Finally, we have a pair of wedge tail eagles that fly overhead twice a day and they make me very nervous because she's still so tiny. At the moment, the eagles have a baby and they're always on the lookout for food. I just feel that I can't let her out of my sight day or night at this stage. I'm not one of those over-protective mummies, it's just that there are real dangers around my neck of the woods and I don't want her to come to any harm. This is my 7th Pom so I'm quite used to their ways. This little pup is unlike any of the others and is totally fearless, hence my concern. Do you feel I should continue keeping her on a leash for outside potty? That's what I've always done in the past and it worked. I'm happy to try anything else you suggest. Where there's a will there's a way.

When I take her outside to potty, that's not when we play and have fun. She's on a leash and I take her to the spot where I want her to go. She just walks around sniffing the ground but that's it. I tried a second spot but the end result was the same. Yes, I take her outside as soon as she wakes. She sleeps 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, and because there's always a wee on the floor when she wakes, I thought I should give her another opportunity outside. I do take her out last thing at night. I have tons of time and plenty of patience but I still haven't been making progress. Maybe she just needs to mature more. I know it can take around 6 months, it's just that she learns everything else so quickly and I haven't had so many puddles with other puppies in the past. Maybe my memory isn't as good as it used to be.

We have a 12 week old Pomeranian who sleeps in an extremely large laundry which has a baby gate. She has an inside toilet tray with artificial grass on top of kitty litter which she took to instantly for poos from the time we got her when she was aged 8 weeks. Every morning I'm greeted with a poo in her toilet tray and 1 or 2 wees on the floor. The laundry and the entire back of the house has a tiled floor so cleaning up her wees isn't a problem, but getting her to potty outside isn't working out well at all. Since she was 10 weeks old, I've been taking her outside on the lawn for 15-30 minutes but she just wants to play and bite her leash. I take her outside as soon as she wakes, about 15 minutes after meals, immediately before she has a nap and I play outside with her for about 30-60 minutes each morning and afternoon. She rarely does anything while she's outside but will invariably do a wee shortly after coming inside, and often does a very small wee 5 minutes after a normal one. I tried taking her toilet tray outside but that didn't work at all. She's an extremely high energy little dog and is very strong-willed. Her other training, sit, stay, down etc is coming along brilliantly and I was able to get her to do those things after only 1 to 2 days with the aid of tiny treats and thought that would work, but no, she just holds on until she's back inside no matter how long we're outside. She never gets in trouble for her "mistakes" but it's hard to praise her because we rarely catch her doing anything. I'm running out of ideas and would be really grateful for any suggestions.

Thank you all for your most helpful replies. I won't get the double-sided ones. In fact I may even hold off getting any thinning scissors at all for the time being. I've only used plain scissors on all my previous Poms, and as I'm not showing, I can probably still get a nice enough look with careful trimming using plain scissors.

Thank you so much puggy puggy for your excellent response. I'll start making subtle changes tomorrow.