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.
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.
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 the other side
of the house. Today, I was working in the back yard and left the 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 as usual. We just did Trust,
again. This time she was never more then ten feet from me at any time.
Since you are here, scroll down and check out some of my books. Help me pay for dog-food, vet bills, and the new Pom-Room.
