Category Archives: Animal Welfare

Shih Tzu Day 49: Laughter is the Best Medicine

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Flower’s Fixation

Mom says we look like the Billy Goats Gruff. Must be before our time!I am not the main attraction any longer when the shih tzus come upstairs in the morning. Dottie and Flower come to my side and do the usual routine, with Dottie barking maybe a few times and then whining and Flower barking, both of them scratching at the bed, to try to get me to acknowledge them.

Look at this face. How could I do anything bad?You take the head, I'll take the legs, and pull real hard!Now, however, Flower stays on my side for a minute or so and then runs to John’s side of the bed, barking like crazy. He puts his hand down, and instead of the small bites they give me, she backs up, charges towards him, nips at his hand and does it all again … and again and again. After visiting that side of the bed, however, she seems a little more aggressive with her nips when she comes back to me. I have to keep telling her to be gentle. I am not sure what that behavior means.

Dottie follows Flower to that side of the bed sometimes, or else she just sits quietly and waits for me.

Candyland

I'll save you! Candy made the trip up the stairs this morning again. Her sisters tend to push each other around, but push her around even more, so she stays at the back while they are scratching at the bed and vying for attention. When I peeked over the side, Candy got up on her back legs and excitedly waved her paws in the air, like a dancing bear. I don’t like being woken up this early in the morning, but I can’t help but laugh, and, what do they say? Laughter is the best medicine.

Muddy Buddies

The shih tzus definitely get dirtier now that we have opened up the yard to them.The grass is wet a lot of the time, so when they come in, their paws are muddy. It’s definitely time to give the carpets and hard wood floors a big cleaning!

Quiet Time

I heard the bag crinkle, and that means treats, right?The girls were quiet for most of the day. Flower spent a lot of time chewing on her firemen. She mangled two of them pretty badly. I am considering going back and getting her the policemen and the military men, but it might not be socially acceptable for them to maul them, plus I still am not sure if the small pieces of plastic Flower swallows are very bad for her. I do throw away the parts after she disengages them from the bodies.

Dottie sat with me on the couch for quite a while. She seems to be content just to lie or sit there while I work on the computer.

Did Shiloh Teach You That?

I don't know who Einstein is, so how could I look like her?I heard a commotion earlier today and looked up to see Candy and Flower play fighting. Well, they were play fighting, but it wasn’t like the other day. What Candy was doing was pretty funny, but I don’t know if it is normal.

She had Flower pinned to the ground and she had her head between Flower’s legs. Then, she jumped up, and somehow, Candy positioned herself where she was sitting on her face and made the strangest gyrations. I don’t know how to read up on that to see what it’s supposed to mean! I do know that Shiloh exhibited similar sexual behavior to both Flower and Candy, and those advances looked like that, so maybe Candy thinks it’s just another way to play. And, I tend to forget that they were puppy mill moms. Hmmm. It is hilarious to watch them.

 

Shih Tzu Day 45: Foster Dog Difficulties

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our foster dog

I am still waiting for my forever home. We have been talking to Delores for a while about BFF Rescue finding Shiloh a more suitable dog foster home. I think that he would make someone a wonderful foster dog or “regular” dog. I don’t, however, think that we’re a good fit as dog foster parents for him.

Anyone who has come to visit over the three and a half weeks that Shiloh has been here has liked our foster dog. Everybody loves the fact that he is so playful. I like that he is playful, too, although I don’t like that the playfulness causes lots of scratches on my legs and arms.

This foster dog loves attention, and it is hard for me to divide my attention between the shih tzus and him. He also loves to ride in the car with me, but pet-friendly places are out, since he barks aggressively at other dogs. I like the fact that he wants to sleep with us, since the shih tzus haven’t shown that desire, but it does make for tension in the morning when I am trying to play with the shih tzus when they come upstairs and he jumps into the middle in his clumsy and playful way.

Delores agrees that the girls have waited for a good forever home for a while, and that things might be better without a foster dog around. She suggested we take him and another BFF Rescue foster dog, Oliver, to the farmers market in Golden and walk around, with the foster dogs in their “adopt me” harnesses, to see if anyone might be interested in adopting one of the rescue dogs.

It was a good idea, but Shiloh was the wrong foster dog to bring. He exhibited dog aggression, barking at random dogs. Delores suggested he might be barking at non-neutered dogs, and it did seem like that was mostly the case, although not all the time. We decided our foster dog wasn’t making many friends and ended up putting him in the car for a while. I think Lia is right in that Shiloh could benefit from discipline classes. Oliver, on the other hand, displayed a sweet disposition, and a few people stopped to inquire about him.

Dotty fights the leash again

Being at the farmers market and seeing all of the amiable dogs wandering around made me more determined to teach the shih tzus to walk on a leash. I brought Dottie out back and put the leash on her. She did go a few steps, in her attempt to get away from me, and then fought me. Candy was next. She actually ran around the yard a little, again, trying to escape, but making me believe that she might be the first leash dog. If it had been cooler out, I would have tried a little more, but I thought that was enough practice for the day.

Since Candy was nicely groomed and all ready on her leash, I picked her up and carried her next door, where the neighbors were having a post-wedding party. I didn’t set her down on the ground while we were there, but I did keep her there for about ten minutes. She didn’t seem to be nervous or afraid. I set her down when we got ready to leave, and she trotted back home behind us. Too bad I didn’t have my camcorder or camera handy.

When we came back home, I noticed that we had a call. Delores had talked to another foster parent and she was willing to take Shiloh in for a while. She came by and picked him up at 6. She asked if she could take the safety gate back that we had taken from Barbara’s. We had hooked it to ours to keep the dogs from climbing up the landscaped area in back and getting out of the yard, but we realized that Shiloh was the only one who could or would try. We unhooked it and rearranged the fencing

When Delores left, John cooked up the rest of the steak from last night’s dinner and used it for quesadillas. We shared a little of it with Candy and Dottie. For some reason, Flower wouldn’t come to get any. She is acting afraid of John again. When he called them, they ran right to him; she ran out of their safe zone with them, but ran right past, and then turned around and ran back to Shih Tzu Central. Some times I wonder if she’s just a little bit off — in a very cute way, though.

Shih Tzu Day 41: Gentle Grooming, My Paw!

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What’s Up With Shiloh?

I'm glad Mom hasn't been making me wear a harness or leash!Be patient, please, because Mom is still teaching me how to talk about my thoughts. First off, I don’t know what was going on with that dog named Shiloh that has been staying here. He usually sleeps with Mom and that man Mom says we should call Dad. Well, maybe Father.

Anyway, last night, Mom said Shiloh couldn’t sleep in their bed. Someone told her that Shiloh probably thinks he’s the Boss — I think they call it a Pack Leader — because he sleeps in their bed. I don’t know what that means. Oh well.

I do know that when they put Shiloh in his kennel, across the room from us, he moaned and barked. Big baby. They put him in the basement and he made so much noise that they moved him into their room, and just had him sleep in his kennel. Flower and I were happy about that, because when we went to wake up Mom, he didn’t jump off the bed and interrupt us, trying to get her attention too. In fact, he didn’t get out of the kennel until Father let him out at 7:30, so we had two hours with Mom without either of them.

I’m not sure why, but Flower didn’t bark when Father came downstairs. She usually does.

Mom is still making us walk around wearing a harness and sometimes she makes us drag a leash behind us. We don’t know why. We think it’s silly though.

Strange Place

I don't think Mom knows what she's doing!Mom took me on another car trip. But I wasn’t the only one. She picked up Candy and Flower and put them in kennels in the back of the Jeep. I got to sit in the front with Mom because I’m a good dog. When we got to where we were going, Mom took me inside. It kind of looked like where we used to live a long time ago. There were some dogs in kennels against the wall. Mom put me in one of the kennels and went out to get my sisters.

Do you think it's too short?When they came in, she talked to a strange lady for a while. Then, they picked me up and put me on a tall table. She told Mom she was going to teach her how to groom us. She said the first thing was to “rough us in.” That sounded like a bad thing to me. Well, Mom read the sign to me and it said “Gentle Groomer,” and as far as I know, rough is the opposite of gentle!

The lady, whose name was Lia, used those loud things on me; I think they are called clippers. I stood there quietly and watched as my fur fell off. She gave the clippers to Mom, but Mom couldn’t figure out how to hold them. It sounds like Mom wants to be able to groom us, so we don’t have to go to strange groomers. I guess I don’t care either way, because I’m braver than my sisters, but I know Flower and Candy probably do.

Don't say a word, Candy! At least I'm not dragging that thing around.My sisters sat in the kennel and watched them use me as a “guinea dog,” as Mom says. When we left, Lia told Mom that she had homework. She said she had to use the clippers on Flower and Candy, and that she especially had to clip their face and paws. She also said she wanted her to work on the “anal area,” whatever that means. She also told Mom I had leaky “anal glands” and that she should feed me pumpkin. That doesn’t sound good!

When we got home, Mom wasn’t good. She couldn’t figure out how to show Dad the video of the lesson, so he couldn’t help her with the homework. I heard her tell Dad that she really wants him to groom us; she just wants to help. She thinks he’d be better at it. I don’t know what I think about that. Candy and Flower probably won’t let him touch them with those loud things though!

 

 

Shih Tzu Day 34: Flower Makes a Record Jump

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Flower Gets Jumpy

Dottie and Flower came “Sesame Streeting” up to the bed at 6 this morning. They came and left several times, with Shiloh jumping up and down off the bed constantly. I finally told John this morning that when he gets up in the early morning hours to take Shiloh out, I’d like him to put him in his kennel until after the morning greetings with the girls are over.

This morning, however, since that hadn’t started yet, when I felt paws land on the bed, I thought it was Shiloh jumping up from the floor. When I opened my eyes, both Shiloh and Flower were sitting on the bed.I couldn’t believe Flower had made that jump, with those legs. Down, I’d believe, but not up. She must have just done it to prove she could, because she only sat there for a few minutes before jumping back down.

Of course, none of it was on video, since none of the shih tzus appear to want to be on camera.

Dottie kept pawing at the bed, but when I tried to pick her up, she wouldn’t let me. She finally did, and she stayed on the bed with us for several minutes.

Bath Time Again

The girls weren’t happy to find out that it was bath day. I had been threatening to bathe them again, and told John this morning that since we were up a little early, I thought it was a good day.

It’s the first time John and I washed all three of them together. We had it all done by 8. The bathing went pretty smoothly, except Flower bolted when John first started helping, then she calmed down.

We did Flower first, since she is the pack leader, then Candy, since Dottie does better.
I should have taken time in between to try to comb them a little while they were on my lap. Flower might have done okay. Dottie sat on my lap patiently and let me comb her. I love how soft they feel when they’ve had a bath. When I tried to approach Flower again, she ran like crazy. Candy let me pick her up but fought when I tried to comb her. I gave up on that idea. I also didn’t try the blow dryer. I’ll see what Lia teaches me about that.

Dottie and Flower liked the Cesar Softies filet mignon treats I gave them afterwards. Candy tried a few, but spit it out each time. Shiloh didn’t get a bath, but he got the treats anyway.

Shiloh Makes a Friend

It was cool in the evening, so I took Shiloh to Bed, Bath and Beyond and left him in the car for about five minutes while I went inside. When I came out, a guy who had pulled up next to me was saying hello to Shiloh, who was standing up in the passenger seat, looking out the window. The guy said he was very sweet. I should have said, “And he’s looking for a home.”I think I should ask Delores for one of those “Adopt Me” harnesses, to call attention to him.

I gave the dogs each a couple pieces of Pup Corn after I got back from the store. To continue trying to get them used to John, he gave them small pieces of Milo’s Kitchen beef jerky outside. We were pleased that Flower didn’t bark, so they were all more relaxed. Also, Flower came up to him more easily for her treat than usual.

Shih Tzu Day 31: One-Month Anniversary With the Shih Tzu Sisters

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Look Mom! Don't we look like a two-headed shih tzu?

one month with the shih tzu sisters

It is the one-month anniversary of when the shih tzu sisters came to live with us as our foster dogs. John and I went out to a diner for breakfast and then went to Best Buy, in search of a small camera that will take videos. I want to capture the dancing shih tzu sisters and their feisty behavior with Shiloh, plus I don’t want to do any further training with any of them without documenting it. We can also start taking videos of the children and grandchildren when they visit.

Some days it is so boring here!I intended to get a Nikon, but chose a Canon instead, knowing I have two weeks to decide if I want to keep it. We also went to Wal-Mart to buy some different Milo’s Kitchen treats. PetSmart has been running a special that if you buy three bags of a certain size of Milo’s Kitchen, Pup-Peroni or Milk Bone products you get a bag free. I figured out that would be approximately $60 for four of the size bags I buy; at Wal-Mart’s prices, if I buy four of the 18 to 20 oz. bags, at regular price, it’s less than $50. I bought the chicken jerky, which is a staple in our house, as well as chicken meatballs and beef jerky pieces.

We gave the girls a sampling of the two new treats and, of course, they loved them. John commented that it smelled good enough for us to eat. I agree that Milo’s has some good-smelling dog treats.

Chinese Food for the Chinese Dogs

John and I had Chinese food and wine. He joked that since they were Chinese dogs, they’d probably like the food. Although the Mongolian beef would have been too spicy, they probably would have loved the sweet and sour chicken, but I didn’t give them any. I did give them a couple of noodles from the combination lo mein, which they loved.

How Far We’ve Come

When we first brought the girls home, they spent a lot of time huddled together in their pen. We will never know why they were so afraid, but I know that is common in puppy mill dogs. They still huddle together in the corner, but not as often and usually not out of fear. I think it’s comforting, and they like each other.

Maybe I'll be more comfortable in this position.

Now, however, they basically just have a divider, behind which they can feel secure, when they need to, but they can exit it quickly as well. This afternoon is a good example of how far we’ve come. At one point, Flower was on her couch, Candy was on her chair and Dottie was next to me. Dottie seemed content and sleepy. Candy and Flower looked bored.

Dottie sat beside me for quite a while. Flower spent a little time flirting with Shiloh. While I was writing that in my dog journal, she ran up and jumped up on the couch, as if she knew I was writing about her.

Flower sat with me and Dottie on the couch for a while. They were sitting one on either side, until Flower jumped over by Dottie.

Later, Flower was lying on her couch. She made me laugh because she had her chin on the front edge of it, and her face was so scrunched up. Then I looked at Candy on the chair, and she looked the same way. Flower got so bored with life that she ignored the fact that John was on the couch next to me and came up and rubbed against my feet, and then put her paws up on the couch, before lying down at the edge of the carpet.

Shiloh, aka Rover, lounged in his kennel for a while. I’m not sure what was going on over there, maybe a fly invading his space (he hates flies!), but he growled and scared the bajeebers out of Flower, causing her to jump down from her perch on the couch.