playful Dottie

Dottie was in a playful mood this morning. After the shih tzus had breakfast and came inside, she stopped in the middle of the carpet, barked and danced around until I came to her. She had an Oinkies treat in her mouth, so I pretended I was going to take it from her, and we had a short tug of war game.

leash training

In the afternoon, Candy, Flower and Dottie all looked bored. I was thinking that if they were dogs that could walk on leashes, we’d take them for walks. Since that’s not the case, the next best thing was continuing our leash training. I cut up some hot dogs and we ushered all three shih tzus outside. Candy seems to be the most pliable these days, plus she is the most trusting of John, so we decided to leash train with her.

We wanted to see how she would do with just the leash on her collar, instead of the harness. Candy was a little resistant during the initial leash training, pulling away from John, but with hot dog pieces as rewards, she moved forward little by little. I thought she was doing so good with her leash training that I told John I wanted to take her over to a quiet street with a nice, long sidewalk and see how she did.

John carried her out front and let her down. She ran alongside him to the end of the cul de sac and then turned with John, walking the short distance on the street to the sidewalk. She kept looking at John to see what to do, walking sometimes, hopping like a rabbit at others, then running until he reined her in. From time to time, he’d tell her to “heel,” to get her used to the command.

Only one bicyclist went by while we were there, so Candy didn’t have many distractions. We probably went a block’s distance and then cut across the street to go back home. Knowing how far she’s come from being a puppy mill mom, I was very proud of Candy. I can’t wait until we have all three of the shih tzus on leashes, although I know it will take some time.