[AllenS]

Labman - aren't most puppies soft? Lol jk I will try that. Gizmo likes hanging about the living room while I'm in the kitchen. The kitchen and living room are connected so the kitchen has no door just and open space going into where a wall could be put if needed. So he's bound to wander by the door occasionally. I'll keep an eye out for that.
My Black lab, Luke, always goes straight to the door. But he learned that on his own. He always knows when we're going fishing too.as soon as some one ulls the boat to the front yard, he's already at the door! :p

Bushg- indeed is is good he's young. Many people think training a dog is easier as they get older, as they remember a bit more. But if you start them too late, they already have their behavior etched into stone by then, making it, at times, even harder to train them.
I think pups' are MUCH easier to train.
I've noticed almost ALL of the poms I've seen or met have the same twist/circling technique.
I've always been curious as to why they do that? Must be a breed thing ( though I've seen many other breeds do this, it seems more popular with poms to me... )
I guess it comes naturally for them, as fetch might with a lab or sports/hunting dog.
What is your pom mixed with? There are a lot of mixed poms around here but many are Shi tzu mixes. Those are very popular, only they tend to look much more Shi' then Pom. =\ cute nonetheless!

[labman]

I have had a number of soft, easy puppies. I have always started training my puppies early. As I have posted before, my puppies training starts on my way out of the kennel with them. The younger the puppy, the shorter the attention span and the shorter the sessions must be. Do a couple of sits while waiting for the next AMHD page to load.

My daughter's 4-H leaders used to talk about how it takes 90 hours to teach basic obedience. For the kids that bring a 1-2 year old dog to 4-H, yes. Their point was to practice a little every day and wait until the week before the show to start. I can't imagine the few minutes here and there adding up to anything near the 90 hours they say.