# Pomeranian Owners: when do they calm down?



## LittleMoonRabbit (Jan 7, 2008)

As some may know, I own a 9 month old Pom pup. I was just wondering.. when do they calm down???? LOL I love my dog and her puppy energy, but she practically bounces off stuff. She's fast, and she zooms effortlessly from room to room for hours of play. At what point do they grow out of this?


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## Durbkat (Jun 26, 2007)

I believe all dogs start to mature and calm down around 1 year or two years of age. Snoopy wasn't a really hyper dog but he is only 8 months and I can tell he has already started to calm down. But he still loves to go crazy when I play tug of war with this toys.


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## LittleMoonRabbit (Jan 7, 2008)

LOL, see, I don't feel like I can see mine calming down. It's not like she's misbehaving or anything... she's just really hyper. She loves to follow us around and check on EVERYTHING we are doing... especially if we are in the kitchen with food. But, nothing keeps her attention for more than a 1/2 hour, before she's looking for something else to do. We play fetch with her pretty often, and make puzzles for her to solve. I am just looking forward to when she spends more time cuddling with us.


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

Ours is 2-1/2 and still an incredible wild child. She gets a 2 mile walk/hike into the foothills at least once/day during the week and twice/day on weekends or days off. Still she gets the zoomies around the house and yard, plays with stuffed animals vigorously until she kills the squeaker or gets the stuffing out, can chase tennis balls in the hallway until I'M TOO TIRED!, chews on chew toys (when the stuffed animals are all disemboweled!) like a termite, ...

I could go on and on. Ours came from a shelter so I know nothing of her backround. But I know she is pretty equal in energy with my aussie shepherd way back when.


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## Dogstar (May 11, 2007)

I hate to tell outhis, but some never do.  We've got pom friends doing flyball and agility to keep their dogs entertained- and their dogs are 9 and 11!  They're active little guys! 

Unlike some of the really endurance-focused large breeds where more exercise is really required to truly wear the dog out, I'd recommend doing more training. Most poms are GREAT at clicker training and love to learn tricks- plus, learning is tiring! Try doing 2-3 15 minute sessions during the day shaping tricks, random obedience or agility behaviors, or other stuff that will require her to use her brain.


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## Betty (Apr 15, 2007)

I've heard poms _never_ calm down.  My Carolina is only one and sometimes she acts like she eats nothing but sugar. She came across an 8 year-old pom at the dog park and that little dog was all too happy to hop-spin-play with her.

She wears out poor Tanner. Tanner's perfectly happy with limited action and sleeping most of the day. Sometimes Tanner jumps onto the couch out of reach just to get away from her. 

Sometimes she's very good and just sitting while I work at my desk. But if I work for more than a hour without breaking to play, she'll get frustrated and start huffing at me. And that's fine, it reminds me to take a break.


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## LittleMoonRabbit (Jan 7, 2008)

Betty said:


> I've heard poms _never_ calm down.  My Carolina is only one and sometimes she acts like she eats nothing but sugar. She came across an 8 year-old pom at the dog park and that little dog was all too happy to hop-spin-play with her.
> 
> She wears out poor Tanner. Tanner's perfectly happy with limited action and sleeping most of the day. Sometimes Tanner jumps onto the couch out of reach just to get away from her.
> 
> Sometimes she's very good and just sitting while I work at my desk. But if I work for more than a hour without breaking to play, she'll get frustrated and start huffing at me. And that's fine, it reminds me to take a break.


My parents have a bigger dog, and when I take Bailey with us for visits, she completely tires that dog out. you can almost feel that poor dog breathe a sigh of relief when we leave and take Bailey with us, lol. I would love to do some kind of agility with her. I think she would love it. Right now we are working on training... and she's sooo smart. She starts grasping things by the third try or so. The problem is that she's so over zealous... I will try to review commands with her, and she over anticipates... lays down before I even say a word, or "leaves it" before I can even put the object on the ground. Her trainer is like "She's smart, and you can tell she wants to listen to you. But, you should put this dog in a little hamster wheel or something becuase she's got so much energy." I am afraid of her hurting her knees eventually. I know some Poms get Patella problems. When I brought her for her most recent physical, my vet checked her knees and said they were in there SOLID, and that we shouldn't have to worry... he said patella problems can ususally be detected early because there's at least a little shift when pressure is applied. However, this dog is so hyper... she jumps on and off the couch probably 25-50 times a day.

By the way Betty... Carolina is so pretty. I can see her in your avatar.  I love her face... a lot like my dog's face. I prefer the "fox" look over the "teddy bear" face... though some of the teddy bear pom faces are still really cute.


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

Ours is a little foxy faced pom too. Maybe they inherited the hyper gene along with the foxy face! Since I'm new to poms and this one was a shelter dog, are most foxy faced poms generally bigger than the 4 pounders of cotton that I typically see in the ring? Ours is a good 10-11 pounds and barely resemble sthe little ones in the ring. I showed her to a pom breeder at the last show and she said that sometimes their are litters that contain larger pups, a throw back to their origins of 30 pound spitz breeds. I understand they were bred down in size during the turn of the century as royalty wanted companion dogs.

Patella problems are something they are usually born with. The vet has checked both the papillons and the pom up until 1 year old every time we came in. Now he only checks them once per year. Most of the dogs I've seen with patella problems could be identified by the breeder at a very young age, well before 4 months old.


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## Betty (Apr 15, 2007)

Carolina is fox-faced, but she's only 4.5 pounds and fully grown. The other fox-faced poms I've seen are bigger, in the 8-12 pound range. I do like the fox-faces more; they just look so mischievous, which suits their personalities.

It is _so_ funny to see Carolina squeeze under the couch with a toy and tease Tanner with it, because Tan can't reach under there. Tanner gives paybacks by jumping onto the couch where Carolina can't reach her.  

LittleMoon, have you posted a big pic of your pom? I keep looking for it.


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## LittleMoonRabbit (Jan 7, 2008)

I have just submitted some big pics of her in the "Cute Puppy Faces that melt your heart" thread  You can see her puppy pics and her now pics there


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## Dogstar (May 11, 2007)

Re: Fox-faced Poms

The 'fox face' comes down from the bigger spitz. Klein and mittelspitz have a much less exaggerated face (and the breed standard for mittels is significantly different). The size seems to be linked to the less exaggerated features. Liking the fox-face (and the larger size- Lizzie will be around 16 pounds) is the main reason I went with a spitz rather than a Pom. I'm hoping to have some kleins in the future, too. 

Cait


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