Category Archives: Behavior & Emotions

Shih Tzu Day 75: The Lion Dog Queen

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Who Do You Think You Are? The Queen of Sheba?

I have started calling Dottie the “Queen of Sheba.” I do think she has signalled to her half sisters, through growling or just dirty looks, that the couch, and for that matter, Mom, is hers.

two shih tzusI love that she always wants to be by me, especially when I sit on the couch, but I would like the other girls to come up and join us. I don’t know why Flower comes up several times during the day, puts her paws up on the couch, stretches, stares at me and then goes back to the rug or Shih Tzu Central. But I do think Dottie has something to do with it.

Dottie usually leaves several inches between us, but today, she was very close to me, wiggling and squirming on her back, and even putting her head on my leg for a few minutes. She probably was just scratching herself on the blanket, but it was cute.

shih tzu on red blanket.Later, Candy spent a lot of time near my feet, playing with her Oinkies. Dottie remained by me. For some reason, instead of sleeping, like she sometimes does, she just kept staring at me. I started singing “Charmer,” the Kings of Leon song to her: “She’s such a charmer … She’s always looking at me.” We actually sing that to the girls quite often. Flower casually hung over the edge of her couch, making sure she didn’t miss anything.

Stranger at the Door

Tonight when John got home, none of them — even Candy — acted like they knew him. It probably was because he took the Jeep to work and came in through the garage door instead of the front door. I guess they really are creatures of habit.

Dottie wouldn’t take treats from him outside, although Flower and Candy had no problem with that. Once inside, though, Candy sat near his feet on the rug, watching him. Later, he opened the door and she and Flower went outside. When John went outside, Candy was very playful, running back and forth on the porch, being cute and doing her circular paw thing, which John calls her “wax on wax off” move.

Shih Tzu Day 72: Cats and Scary Noises

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shih tzu – cat excitement

two shih tzus at a kneeOur new morning schedule is going well. John got up at 4:30 when he heard jingling in the hall and went downstairs to see which shih tzushe could get to go outside. He only succeeded in getting Candy to go out. I got up a little before 7.

two shih tzus at a kneeA big grey cat and a black and white cat added excitement to Flower’s breakfast. The other shih tzus kept eating obliviously, but the guard shih tzu had to keep running and checking the backyard.

I had to throw a dirt clod near the feline visitors to make them scatter, so she could finish her breakfast.

home alone

A <em srcset=shih tzu close up” width=”300″ height=”225″ />I left the shih tzus alone for about 6 hours while I took mom shopping. As I expected, they were excited to see me when I finally came home. I took them outside for their apple and sweet potato treats. Although I saw her relieve herself outside, about an hour after we came in, Flower squatted down on the carpet.

shih tzu with squished face.

 

I told her no, but by the time I pushed my laptop and table out of the way, she had already peed and scrambled under the table. I don’t know if this is what you’re supposed to do, but I blotted the spot with a paper towel, sat the paper towel on the training pad and pointed to it, since I couldnt’ reach her. I got out one of Cesar’s treats and lured her out, then took her to the pad. Who knows if she understood or not.

scary noises

Later in the afternoon, the dogs heard noises outside and rushed into the middle of the living room, barking like crazy. A little later I noticed that someone had pooped on the carpet. My guess is that it was Flower, since that’s what she does when she gets scared. I moved the poop to the training pad, hoping they would get the message.

The girls were all excited when John got home. Once we had finished giving them treats, he picked Candy up and held her for awhile. She seemed very relaxed.

Shih Tzu Day 69: Canned Dog Food and Lap Dogs

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canned food test

Shih tzu on red blanket. We continued our experiment of shutting the bathroom and bedroom doors again last night, to see if our shih tzus would let us sleep longer. I could hear someone barking at 5:00. However, the barking stopped, allowing me to stay in bed until a little after 6:30. When I opened the bathroom door, three happy and excited shih tzus rushed me.

We have never fed them canned dog food before, and John wanted to know how they would like it. We picked up a can of Priority beef dinner and I gave them each a tablespoon with their dry food, instead of cottage cheese. They definitely liked it. Dottie ate hers in one bite and before I could stop her, rushed over to Candy’s bowl and scooped the tablespoon out, eating it, too. I told her sternly that she couldn’t eat Candy’s food and then went and got Candy another tablespoon. I can see why Candy only weighs eleven pounds and Dottie and Flower weigh fourteen. I have to watch them diligently to make sure they don’t steal her food.

lap dog?

shih tzu in dog bed.After the shih tzus went into the yard to do their business, Dottie came back and put her paw up on my leg. I thought she might want me to hold her, so I picked her up and sat her on my lap. She sat there peacefully, so I guess I was right.

Although shih tzus are supposed to be lap dogs, these dogs haven’t got there yet. I think this was the first time Dottie ever acted like she was asking me to pick her up. Flower acted like she wanted to sit on my lap once when we were outside, when a noise scared her, and Candy has never indicated she wanted to be picked up and held. I hope that changes over time.

excited dog and jealous dog

excited shih tzuIt was a quiet morning, with each of our small dogs in different beds. I left the house at 11:00 and didn’t get home until after 4:30. Once again, the shih tzus were yappy happy. I took them out to do their business and gave them a small sweet potato and chicken treat.

When I heard John’s truck in the driveway, I started telling the girls, “Daddy’s home,” in hopes that I will one day train them that it’s a good thing. When he opened the door, they barked and ran to hide under the dining room table. When he told them hello, Candy cautiously came out, and then did her tail wagging, hello dance.

Once outside, John passed out their chicken jerky. Candy and Dottie came up to him readily. Flower came up to him, grabbed her piece quickly and leaped off the porch, a safe distance away from whatever she thought was going to happen.

When we came inside, Dottie took her usual seat on the couch by me. When Flower jumped up to join us, Dottie growled at her. She did that a couple of times, and John said that I should correct her because she was beginning to think she owned me. I shook my finger at her and told her to be nice, but I am not sure how to correct that behavior.

Shih Tzu Day 68: Furry Alarm Clocks

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furry shih tzu alarm clock switch

Although I felt sorry for our little shih tzu princesses, we did something last night to try to keep the furry alarm clocks from waking us up at 4:00 a.m. We shut our bedroom door and the bathroom door, so they couldn’t come up to the bed.

That isn’t as easy as it sounds. I personally love the jingling sound of their dog tags as they fly up the stairs, and the scratching of little paws on the bed. However, I would love to sleep in for once. I guess many people would say you sacrifice that right when you get pets. I just want to know if all dogs get up as early as our shih tzus.

<u srcset=shih tzu face off” width=”300″ height=”225″ />I heard the frantic barking at 4:00 a.m., and was tempted to get up. How can I train them to not wake us up so early, though, if I do that? Intermittently, I heard barking and whining, until I got up at about 6:30. I think that Dottie and Flower were outside our bedroom door, while Candy barked from downstairs, asking her sister shih tzus what was taking them so long to get us up. Flower and Dottie flung themselves at me excitedly when I finally opened the door, and Candy joined the celebration once we came downstairs. That’s good, since I thought the shih tzus would all be mad at me.

I can’t say that we caused this whacky schedule. At the foster home where the shih tzus lived before coming here, the man went to work at 4:00, so I imagine they got used to that schedule. I would just like to know how to get the shih tzus un-used to it and on our clock.

shih tzu sistersIt also doesn’t help that they get a treat almost every time that they go out, which makes them feel cheated when they don’t. That means that when I try to get them to go out merely to do their business, I’m not successful. I need to quickly learn some training habits before they get any older and more set in their ways!

time out

Last summer, I rode my bike nearly every day, and John and I made long bike trips on the weekend. However, this summer has been devoted to our adopted dogs. This morning, however, we made a three-hour, 30-mile journey. We came home tired, knees aching, and all we wanted to do was sit on the couch.

The shih tzus didn’t mind the lazy afternoon, once they got their sweet potato and chicken treats. Flower and Candy mainly lounged in their dog beds, while Dottie rested beside her mom.

Shih Tzu Day 67: Scaredy Dog, Cats & Grooming

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scaredy shih tzu dog

I got up with the shih tzus this morning to let them out and feed them so John could sleep. For the next few hours, I worked on some ad copy for a client, with Dottie beside me and Candy and Flower at shih tzu Central.

When John got up, we took the shih tzus back outside. Flower was sitting on the porch when a motorcycle started up. Our scaredy shih tzu jumped up and ran for the door, pushing it open to get inside as fast as she could, with Dottie not far behind. As usual, Candy had the opposite reaction. She stood where she was, looking towards the fence, an inquisitive look on her face.

Flower gets an “A” on the grooming table

shih tzu after partial grooming. We put Flower up on the grooming table, because I’ve been noticing how wild she’s been looking lately, particularly her face. We went through the routine with the hot dog, letting her smell it to associate it with grooming. She didn’t take a piece, but when John started clipping her, she stayed completely still. We don’t have a grooming arm yet, so I held her in one place, but she didn’t fight me or John during the grooming process. We clipped a lot of her body and tidied up her face. The next time we groom her, we’ll work on her paws again and clip her nails. I was very proud of her. It was quite different from when she got kicked out of grooming school or our earlier attempts to groom her.

Backyard Intruder

shih tzu looking at cat in backyard.John and I went out to lunch and to run some errands, including looking for a new carpet to replace our beautiful, western carpet, from which we can’t seem to extract the urine odor. We decided to look for something cheap and small that we could stick in the washing machine. We found one we both liked at Kohl’s. I wasn’t sure about the size, and when we got it home, I thought it was way too small. We talked some more, and we decided to cover ever inch of our western carpet front and back with pet cleaning solution and then rinse it with the hose as well as we could.

three shih tzus chase a cat away.While we were outside, Flower spotted an intruder in the backyard. A stray cat was sitting on the landscaping timbers, putting her out of Flower’s reach. We put up a fence to prevent the dogs from climbing up into the landscaped area and possibly escaping out of the fence between us and our backyard neighbor.

Flower got as close as she could and barked like crazy. The grey cat just sat there aloofly, staring at Flower. Her barks finally pulled Dottie and Candy away from what they were doing, and they came running. That moved the cat to cross into the neighbor’s yard and the girls finally calmed down.