I recently brought home a 9 week old Pomeranian puppy. My wife and I would like to be able to reward him for good action, but he will not take treats from us (he looks at the treat like he doesn't know what to do with it). Sometimes he will eventually eat it, but he's never really excited about it. We've tried a couple of different kinds, and he is pretty indifferent about both of those.

We are trying to build his prey drive with a rope that is about as big as he is, and a miniature tennis ball on a string. We have him chase the tennis ball, as well as the rope. We also use the rope to wrestle with him. We don't let him bite our hands. If he gets to the point where he is really happy about one or both of these toys, I can see how this can help supplement his food drive. It doesn't solve any immediate need for a reward that he loves.

We praise him when he does something good, but he doesn't seem too impressed with that either.

So here are my questions:
- Does the lack of desire for the treats have to do with his size and age? (he only weighs 2.25 lbs.)
- Should we even be training with treats on a puppy this small?
- Should we only work on training him right before it's time for him to eat? If so should we just use his regular food, instead of a treat?
- Should we keep trying different types of treats until we find on that he's crazy about?

We don't want him to be a show dog, and Poms are not exactly cut out to be a defense dogs. We just want him to be a good, happy pet. We want him to come every time he is called, even with distraction. We want him to NOT act like an idiot when people come over or be yappy. Also, we want to be able to reward him for doing things like being calm in his crate. (He is starting to hate it less anyway, but I'm sure we would see better results if we could find a way to reward him more effectively.)

Thanks All!

Try a little tiny squeaky toy! The catch is that the only time he gets to play with the toy is with you. When the "training session" is over the toy is put away.

Calm in the crate requires ignoring him for bad behavior while in the crate.....you may have to have some earplugs but, he will get better. Never ever let him out when he's acting up only when he is still and quiet.

What exactly have you used for food rewards?

try hot dogs cut into teeny tiny pieces, sliced roast beef or turkey, cheese,left over pieces of steak etc. when I say tiny pieces, I mean 1/2 to 1/4 the size of a pencil eraser.

I bet you can find something that gets him excited. Use your imagination.

when I am trying to motivate any of my dogs, I use whatever works and it may not be a prepackaged dog treat. You want something soft that he eats and swallows immediately.

Hi Bart - Congrats on your new Pom!!

My family just lost our Pom of 17 years this March - it was really hard to let him go, but he was an old guy... he was an obnoxious and poorly trained little toy, but I was only 13 when we got him, and my parents certainly didn't know any better - he got away with everything because he just wasn't big enough to scare us with his aggressiveness. GOOD ON YOU for starting from square one to make YOUR little one a GOOD DOG - being tiny and cute is no excuse for bad behavior. He may not have high drives but Poms are quite smart, so that will work in your favor.

For the most, our Pom was not a very drivey dog - as he got older he fostered a degree of prey drive for chipmunks and critters in the backyard, but he was mainly a sniffer and a pee-er (intact his whole life). He WAS all about FOOD though, but only PEOPLE FOOD. We free fed him kibble and he'd eat one nugget at a time, transferring it to the rug in another room before chewing, but if you were in the kitchen making a meal, he was right underfoot, dancing around and crying for a tidbit.

My suggestion is to use human food for treats - find something easy to cut up into little pieces (our Eddie was really fond of cheese and bits of cooked meat). Yes, keep trying till you find something he's crazy about. And yes, it's ok to be training a puppy with treats, just go easy on how much you're feeding him and keep your sessions short and positive.

Poms are good little dogs - and great little dogs when they're trained correctly (Eddie had wonderful spunk and personality wonderful, we just failed him in the obedience department and he consequently could be quite a little s*#t when he felt like it).

Hope this helps - good luck!
~Natalya

Thanks for the replies. Your suggestions are all things that I had considered, but wasn't 100% sure on.

Natalya, I grew up with a Pom that sounds very similar to yours. We had a hard time getting him to come, and had to chase him around a lot. He knew what we wanted him to do, but we didn't know how to train him properly. He was still a great little dog. When my wife wanted a little, cute dog she chose a Pom, because she knew and liked my family's Pom before he died.

I just think a well trained Pom will be worlds cuter than one that is always yapping and/or begging, so we're going to do our best to make him a good dog. Besides he is good to practice on, because if we mess up, he is still just a little guy and can't do much harm.

I have one question in response to your reply. If you start using people food, (like sliced meat) how do you keep him from going crazy and begging when you are trying to make yourself a sandwich?

Thanks again ... I'll probably be picking the collective brain of this community a lot over the next few months.

 Quote:

have one question in response to your reply. If you start using people food, (like sliced meat) how do you keep him from going crazy and begging when you are trying to make yourself a sandwich

Never EVER feed the dog while you are making or eating a sandwhich. It is not a good time for training anyway. If the dog is never rewarded for begging at these times, it won't beg. Whole family needs to be on board here.

 Quote: Jennifer Coulter

 Quote:

have one question in response to your reply. If you start using people food, (like sliced meat) how do you keep him from going crazy and begging when you are trying to make yourself a sandwich

Never EVER feed the dog while you are making or eating a sandwhich. It is not a good time for training anyway. If the dog is never rewarded for begging at these times, it won't beg. Whole family needs to be on board here.

Jennifer's right on - it doesn't so much matter what you treat the dog with vs. what you eat (and whether it's the same food item) it's the CONTEXT that makes the difference. If you only feed him human food from a treat pouch on your belt (as an example), and only during training sessions (most likely OUTSIDE the kitchen) then your dog will not associate you making dinner with getting treated - even if it smells the same Strongly discourage him from even being in the same room while you're cooking in fact - if he gets even one dropped piece of food, he'll have all the incentive he needs to hang around ALL the time, and probably beg. Ditto on the whole family being on board - this is key...

~Natalya

 Quote: Natalya Zahn

 Quote: Jennifer Coulter

 Quote:

have one question in response to your reply. If you start using people food, (like sliced meat) how do you keep him from going crazy and begging when you are trying to make yourself a sandwich

Never EVER feed the dog while you are making or eating a sandwhich. It is not a good time for training anyway. If the dog is never rewarded for begging at these times, it won't beg. Whole family needs to be on board here.

Jennifer's right on - it doesn't so much matter what you treat the dog with vs. what you eat (and whether it's the same food item) it's the CONTEXT that makes the difference. If you only feed him human food from a treat pouch on your belt (as an example), and only during training sessions (most likely OUTSIDE the kitchen) then your dog will not associate you making dinner with getting treated - even if it smells the same Strongly discourage him from even being in the same room while you're cooking in fact - if he gets even one dropped piece of food, he'll have all the incentive he needs to hang around ALL the time, and probably beg. Ditto on the whole family being on board - this is key...

~Natalya

Cool ... I didn't mean I would feed him while I'm eating. And my wife is 100% with me on that (we don't have kids). I was just concerned that he would associate the smell or sound of me getting the sliced meat out with him getting sliced meat.

I guess I could think ahead and prepare a treat bag well in advance of doing any training with him.

Just wanted to offer an update:

He has figured out that he LOVES sliced turkey! At first he treated it the same way he treats every other treat I've tried to give him. But after he at the first little piece I gave him he gave me a look like "where did that stuff come from?"

We even started working on "sit". I don't think he made any real connections to the word the action and the reward, but he will. I don't think I can make the training sessions very long, because I don't want to over feed the little guy. It's probably better that way anyway (so he won't get board by long training sessions).

Thanks to all who gave advice!

Thats great Bart!!

Our old Pom loved turkey too - especially when my mom would make turkey soup and boil a whole bird, the meat that came out of the stock pot was like HEAVEN to him. You can also try cheese, in very small pieces (and not large quanitites in total), little licks of peanut butter, and we discovered that Eddie really liked baked tofu too!!

Sounds like your training sessions have started out beautifully, and keeping it short and sweet is definitely the way to go. Good work!

~Natalya