Can anyone help me with my 8 month old Pomeranian and her habit of running away!?

Renown3286

I'm enjoying everyone's responses and truly appreciate it but I do need to make 1 thing very clear. This dog is over-loved. I live with my mother my father and my two sisters. I'm the youngest at 25. The whole family adores this dog. No one would every hit her or do any harm to her. Its not a fear of being held in my opinion. I believe she just has a lot more fun watching 3 people try to catch her. Nothing excites her more than 3-5 human beings running in circles bumping into each other as she ducks and dips through hallways and under chairs.

You can get her checked out, but I see this so much with little dogs that I doubt it's got a physical cause at its root.  More likely, the dog has realized that *when* she comes you not only pick her up, which can be disconcerting to small dogs (think how you'd feel if the jolly green giant came along and lifted you up 30 stories) AND the fun that she was having STOPS.  That will get most dogs figuring out a strategy to avoid getting caught.  Add a little frownie face or scolding when she doesn't come, or when she darts away just out of reach, and then she REALLY doesn't want to come - after all, now you aren't only going to stop her fun, you are being persnickety about it;-))
The simple solution is rule number one - don't chase the dog.  Rule number two is don't forget rule number one.  For whatever reason, and it doesn't matter why, she has realized that she doesn't have to come, she doesn't have to let you pick her up, and she can play a whale of a chase game with you (which is ever so much more fun than either coming or being picked up).  If you have EVER scolded her, even mildly, for not coming, don't ever do it again.  Instead, run don't walk to the Cleanrun.com site and purchase Leslie Nelson's DVD "Really Reliable Recall" and follow EVERY step just as it is done on the video.  I promise you, if you do that, you have a much better chance of getting her to come when called.  For now, stop picking her up entirely.   And stop letting her go free off leash.  In the house, when someone is home, you can let her trail a drag line.  That way, you simply step on the end and voila, you have your dog.

Oh, and by the way, this is the age when this commonly happens.  Suddenly, puppy is no longer willing to follow you around because the environment has gotten way more interesting to the increasingly independent adolescent.  Welcome to the world of doggy teenagers.  To all you lurkers with puppies - teach them a proper recall when they are 8-16 WEEKS old, and beyond, and this is preventable.   You must teach it - "puppy following behavior" is NOT the same as a trained recall!!!