I see so many posts or hear stories of poms being lost due to accidents. These guys are small and fragile, and as anyone who has lived with one knows, they have zero sense of self-preservation. When I was young, we had an indoor-outdoor kitten who went out one day and never came back. I think it was that early experience that taught me how fragile life was, and how what seems like a mundane decision (allowing the cat the freedom to roam) can have life altering consequences. Once that little life is snuffed out, it is gone.
For that reason I have always been hyper vigilant about my poms’ safety. My siblings can attest that when we first brought home Foxy from the humane society, I put up signs saying not to let him go up and down the stairs. He was never allowed off leash outside of a fence. I obedience trained him, so in the rare instance where he snuck behind someone going out of the door I could recall him right away. I had waited what seemed like forever at the time (I was 16) to have a pom and I wasn’t going to let anything happen to him.
Years later when I bought my house and became a breeder/exhibitor, I took pains to set up my house to be as safe as possible. No jumping on/off furniture. I have a gate inside the house to keep them away from the front door, so there’s no risk of them darting out. I spent money on interior fencing inside my privacy fence and, when it became necessary, a brand new privacy fence in the height of the post-COVID lumber shortage. I never put them on a table or chair without holding on to some fur for dear life. I NEVER let them off leash, and I’m reluctant to trust strange fences I haven’t fully inspected. I am cautious about leaving anything on the floor, making sure I clean up after cooking and that I don’t drop any medications. I keep the trash inaccessible, I keep all cables and wires out of their reach. I crate them or pen them when I am not awake or home to supervise them. I don’t let them run around hotel rooms after a friend’s pom was poisoned by rat poison at a hotel. And so on.
That said, I have still had incidents. I had a girl electrocute herself by chewing on a heating pad (I now have their pens set up so they can’t reach them at all). Two broken legs in 14 years (within 12 mo of each other) costing me $4000 apiece (I now have crash landing pillows at the bottom of the 3 steps in my house!) And the odd close-call jumping off the top step, a grooming table, etc. And last spring, I tragically found my heart dog on her back in the process of dying from what appeared to be some sort of accident in a flat yard out of the clear blue sky on a beautiful day. This is with being very, very careful.
Look, accidents can happen to anyone, anytime. But try to avoid the avoidable. Stop letting your dogs off leash, even if it’s just to the mailbox, the end of your driveway, just out on your (unfenced) back deck. If you have a fence, check periodically and make sure it’s secure. Don’t leave your dogs on grooming tables unattended, don’t let them climb up and down whole staircases, climb on the back of your couch and jump off, etc. Sure, it’s been fine the last 99 times – but it’s not worth that 1 time, when a preventable accident kills or injures your beloved pet. Be mindful of what your pet can chew on or eat that could harm them.
The worst calls I have ever received were a new puppy owner telling me her husband had just tripped over the 3 mo old puppy I trusted them with because they did not heed my advice to keep him penned unless he was being watched like a hawk. (The accident was fatal). Or the one who called to tell me his dog was hit by a car in the apartment parking lot, because he thought it was harmless to just let the dog follow him (off leash) while he retrieved something from his car real quick. After all he was a good boy, who would never stray or go anywhere. And now he never would again. This is AWFUL both for these owners and for me as a breeder, because I loved and raised each one of those babies with they hope they’d live a long happy life. I can’t imagine the guilt and sadness they felt, which is why I encourage all of us Pom lovers to do whatever we have to do minimize the chances of preventable accidents.
These dogs try hard enough to get themselves into trouble, we don’t need to help them.