Category Archives: People Food

Shih Tzu Day 84: Mommy, Come and Play!

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shih tzu a.m.

two shih tzus on a couchI don’t usually eat cereal for breakfast, but I have had Frosted Mini Wheats the last few days. Flower always jumps up on the couch to see what I am eating and if she can talk me out of any. I know I should discourage this, but it’s tough. I gave her half of a mini wheat. She stayed on the couch with me for a while. I was busy updating our blog, but I realized that the shih tzus were waiting for some time with me, so I stopped and gave them some attention.

shih tzu afternoon

shih tzu on a blue and grey dog bedAfter the shih tzus had their early afternoon treat, Flower and Dottie came in with me, but, as usual, Candy, our independent shih tzu, stayed outside. She sat on the porch steps for awhile, and then went and sat by the trailer. I don’t know why she is such a loner. I’m glad she likes it outside though. I wish Dottie and Flower would stay out more, because they get so bored inside.

I had some leftover pasta for lunch. Dottie was already sitting by me, but the smell of food brought Flower running. I gave them a few small pieces, but Candy stayed in Shih Tzu Central. Flower sat on the couch with us for a while before jumping down to find something more excited to do, like lying on her dog bed staring at us.

shih tzu and she really wanted one. She asked me if there was a shih tzu rescue in Colorado. I told her about the Colorado Shih Tzu Maltese Rescue. I told her that their adoption fee is $300, but also told her about BFF Rescue and that they have a lower adoption fee: $175 versus $300.

I told her about Nigel and that BFF Rescue gets other shih tzus in from time to time. However, she is like I was at first. She wants a dog under a year who is housebroken, healthy and has no big issues. I told her that might be a little harder to do. I also told her that our girls were definitely problem children when we got them, but we had worked out some of the kinks.

Candy and the couch

Itwo shih tzus on a couchn my campaign to get Candy to be one of the couch dogs, I picked her up Candy and put her between John and me after we finished eating. She stayed there for probably 20 minutes and then jumped down. However, about five minutes later, she came towards the couch; I thought she looked like she was thinking about jumping, and I held my breath. Then, she jumped up! Except for the day when a noise scared her weeks ago, this is the first time she jumped up on the couch with us on it. She lay down between me and Dottie and stayed for probably another half hour. I don’t think Dottie knew what to do initially. She tried to sit on her when Candy first lay down, and then lay down next to her.

Shih Tzu Day 76: Grooming Is Not So Scary

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Another Good grooming Day

We aren’t doing well with our plan for the girls to go outside in the morning with John, and then for him to come back to bed and get a little more sleep. Again, none of the dogs would go out with him, so he just came back upstairs. I got up a little later, and opened the bedroom door to three excited dogs.

groominggrooming lately. Flower still looks shabby, so we but her up on the grooming table after breakfast. Her paws were too dirty from running in the wet grass, so John just worked on trimming up her face a little more and clipped her body a little with the scissors. She was very good again, except that she got startled when John’s arm hit a treat bag, and she managed to jump off the grooming table. I caught her and put her back up for a few minutes. Then, we sat her down and gave her hot dog pieces.

We also gave her a bath. That went well too. I didn’t blow dry her. I just towel dried her and let her go back to their corner.

I decided I wanted to work on the computer outside, so I dropped a blanket down from our bedroom balcony for some shade from the sun. It ended up falling down a few hours later. Candy had a good time rolling around on it, leading Flower to do the same.

The girls were a little better when John got home.

 

 

Shih Tzu Day 73: Candy Takes to The Street on a Leash

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untrained shih tzu on a leash.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.

untrained shih tzu on a leash.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.

shih tzu being trained on a leash.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.

shih tzu being trained on leash.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.

 

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 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.