Shih Tzu Day 122: Ideal Shih Tzu Morning

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Di Freeze

shih tzu morning miracles

This was quite an ideal Saturday morning. I didn’t hear Dottie on the stairs until 6:37. I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until 7:10, when Candy barked that it was time to come downstairs.

John had a neck ache so he got up when I did. When I opened the door, Dottie and Flower started to rush in, but stopped short when they saw the Man. The shih tzu sisters still danced around me, but only in the hall. The Candy Committee was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for our hand and toe biting session. Dottie snuck a few toe bites in as well.

a female <em srcset= shih tzu on an animal print throw” width=”300″ height=”225″ />And, miracle of miracles, Flower ran over and peed on the pee pad, as if to say, “Look, Mom. I waited to show you that I could.” She probably wants her couch privileges back. I sprayed puppy training spray on the pad, so maybe it is working. If so, I should have bought it earlier.

Flower, Dottie and Nigel waited in the kitchen for me while I put their bowls of hamburger, rice and veggies and Taste of the Wild kibble together. No one succeeded in stealing Candy’s food. Either she is eating faster or my image in the doorway continues to keep the other shih tzus away. Flower sauntered over by the bowl, but didn’t do anything.

a black and white <u srcset= shih tzu on an animal print blanket.” width=”300″ height=”225″ />After they ate, I let Nigel out for the kibble scavenger hunt. I went in to clean up dishes from last night and none of the shih tzus instantly came to the door to be let in. Flower, Candy and Nigel all roamed around the yard. I think Dottie did her business and then just sat on the porch watching them.

While I worked on the computer this morning, John watched YouTube videos on his iPad. Dottie gave up her couch end position to Flower, I think to avoid having Flower sit by me.

a <em srcset= shih tzu with a pig ear treat in his mouth.” width=”300″ height=”225″ />The most excitement to the morning was when Nigel decided to rest in one of the girls’ dog beds, and then decided he also wanted Candy’s red and white rawhide treat. I decided not to interfere. She yip, yip, yipped, but eventually gave the treat up to the bully. Those things are pretty popular. The pig ears I bought are also popular with the shih tzu gang.

Shih Tzu Day 121: Further Housebreaking Dilemmas

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Di Freeze

shih tzu cat alert

Candy woke us up barking at 6. John went downstairs to investigate and said there were cats fighting in the backyard. Our guard shih tzu sounded the alert about three times.

Our housebreaking dilemmas continue. When I came downstairs, there was a big, wet spot on John’s end of the couch. My guess is that it was Flower. I hate putting pee pads on the furniture, but I did.

When I talked to someone at PetSmart, he told me that we might have to just do what people do with puppies and kennel train her. I hate to do that. To be fair, I feel like I would have to only do that with Flower. I imagine her in her kennel watching her shih tzu sisters running around enjoying their freedom.

I’ve considered blocking off our couch or putting the cushions up before we go to bed. I think Candy and Flower like sleeping on it, so that would end that. Also, we could shut them all up in shih tzu Central at night. I like to give them the freedom to run around and to come up the stairs in the morning. I’ll have to think about it more.

dog bed habits

When the shih tzu sisters came to live with us as foster dogs, BFF Rescue let them bring a blue and white dog bed and a grey dog bed with them. The grey dog bed was getting a litter tattered on the bottom, so I replaced it recently with a pink and white one. Candy normally lies in the pink one, but since she also likes lying down in the corner in the dining room, I put the grey bed over there. She has been getting use out of both of them.

Flower continues to spend some of the time in the blue dog bed and an equal amount of time “behind” the dog bed, resting her head on it. I’m not sure why she does that. Maybe she just feels “safe” behind it?

will the shih tzu sisters be lap dogs?

When I interact with the shih tzus, I sometimes think of Delores at BFF saying that they will get in our laps at some point. I have serious doubts about that. They seem perfectly content at arm’s length. Nigel, on the other hand, likes to cuddle up next to me, which makes it hard to work. He definitely wants to be a lap dog. He climbed up on my lap today, and surprisingly, the way he was laying, I could actually reach the keyboard, so I let him stay there a while.

false alarm

I’m not sure what was going on outside this afternoon, but the shih tzus heard a noise and they all ran to the front door, I guess thinking it was the Treat Man. Candy was shaking her tail feather. About ten minutes later, they heard it again, and Flower, Candy and Nigel ran to the door together. It was so cute.

something even more disgusting

So, there might be something more disgusting than your shih tzu peeing on the couch — your shih tzu pooping on it. Yes, I know. Gross. But Flower managed to do it today, and since she wouldn’t clean it up, I had too. Since the spot had to dry off, there wasn’t much dog property. Dottie sat with me after the clean-up job. Candy lay on the floor, watching us. Nigel was chewing on a treat contently in his dog bed, and Flower sat next to the bed, watching him.

While I was watching her, I was noticing how much her eyelashes have grown back. I’m not sure if they were bothering her eyes, so I think I will let them grow back for a while. She is such a cute little Maybelline baby again. I call her Marilyn, but I know Marilyn Monroe didn’t poop and pee on couches and carpets!

Shih Tzu Day 118: Strange Shih Tzu Behavior

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Di Freeze

is that normal shih tzu behavior?

Dottie didn’t start whining until 7 a.m. That was an hour beyond when she started trying to wake me up yesterday. I haven’t been letting the shih tzus in the bedroom, because of past accidents, but I decided to give them the benefit of a doubt. I left the bedroom door open while I brushed my teeth, and Flower ran into the room and started circling. That was my cue to usher her out so she wouldn’t pee on the carpet.

Dottie, Flower, Nigel and I worked our way down the stairs towards the Candy Committee. They did their morning dance and I tried not to fall down the stairs while they did it. During the next part of the ritual, while I was allowing Candy to bite my hand at the bottom of the stairs, Flower jumped up on the couch, which she sometimes does in the middle of her dance. But, instead of jumping right back down, she squatted. I had never seen her do that on the couch, but I knew what usually came after squatting, so I hollered, “Flower!” and tried to get there on time. Too late. She left a big wet spot before she jumped back down. Sigh. Back to housebreaking 101.

I had towels under the red blanket, just in case, but it went through everything. I took the cushions off, sprayed cleaner on them and put up a gate around the couch. Flower lost her couch permissions for the day. She can still come up on our couch, but I have to keep an eye on her.

John thought the problem might have been the newspapers I put down when I ran out of training pads yesterday. Candy and Dottie seemed okay with it, but I have noticed that Flower doesn’t do well with change. John said maybe she hadn’t yet associated the newspaper with where she is supposed to pee.

One of the other shih tzus was acting odd today. While I was talking to Dottie this morning, she started flailing around on the couch. I could not see that anything was wrong with her. She was rubbing her face against the blanket on the couch at first, and then against my side. I thought her ear might itch, so I tried to help her itch it. When I went to move my hand away, she lunged to bite it; not in an aggressive way, but play bites. I petted her a while and then she settled down. Still not sure if she just wanted affection.

shih tzu squirrel! alert again

Candy has been alerting us to the squirrel again. I assume it’s the same squirrel, but maybe not.

Our own personal squirrel, Nigel, has been irritating Candy and Flower today. They have been yapped at him a lot. I am going to have to start yapping at him too. I can’t wear socks anymore, because he insists on taking them off my feet. My feet get cold, but I have to admit that his sock fetish is darned cute.

Nigel continues to irritate Dottie. She leans in close to his face and growls at him when he comes to her side of the couch and puts his paws up on it. I am afraid she might hurt him, so when she did it earlier, I went to move her back and him away and managed to knock my coffee over onto the couch. Well, at least the red blanket will have a companion in the washing machine.

Nigel irritates Candy the least, I guess. She didn’t push him out when he went to lay in her dog bed with her today. It was a very cute sight.

something good

I have this bad habit of forgetting to refill the shih tzus’ water bowls late in the day. Today, after I filled one of the bowls up, I went to put it down and two of the shih tzus excitedly ran over to it. John laughed and said they thought they were getting “something good.” When I sat the bowl down, though, they started lapping up the water. I told John it was “something good” after all. All that play makes the shih tzu quartet thirsty.

shih tzu beggars

Sorry to say, our shih tzus are officially beggars. Flower in particular jumps up on the couch at any hint/smell of food. Tonight it was Carroll Shelby chili, however, so I didn’t share.

Shih Tzu Day 114: Housebreaking Setback

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Di Freeze

back to housebreaking 101

I said yesterday that we had accomplished a housebreaking goal by moving the training pads by the back door. The pads went back into the dining room this morning because two incidences demonstrated a housebreaking setback.

First, thinking that housebreaking was at a different level, we let Dottie and Flower come in the bedroom, and someone took the opportunity to pee on the carpet. Also, when I went downstairs, I saw that Flower had peed on the red blanket on her couch. They are again barred from coming in the bedroom, and Flower got couch privileges taken away. So we are not as far along in our housebreaking as we thought. I should have appreciated our accomplishments in housebreaking Joey. There is a big difference in housebreaking a Yorkie puppy and puppy mill dogs.

Housebreaking isn’t the only difference between Joey and the shih tzus: licking is another. She used to lick faces, arms, hands. Not the shih tzus, though, but the surprise me at times. Flower came up once today and licked my feet, then quickly walked away. No idea if that was affection or what. Maybe she was apologizing for the housebreaking problems.

The morning frolic

I try to keep the shih tzus outside as long as possible, as part of the housebreaking plan. I think Candy wanted to play after breakfast, but Nigel ran in with the other girls. I opened the door later and she started to come in. Nigel started to go out the door, paused and then turned around and got behind her. I guess he was going to push her in if she changed her mind.

Then the morning frolic started near the dining room table. When I started to clean off the table, Nigel wandered over to his dog bed and started loudly chewing on a bone. Flower rivaled the noise playing with Yellow Bear. Actually, she wasn’t playing with it. Yellow Bear has a round plastic thing attached to him, and Flower likes chewing on plastic, so that’s what was causing the noise.

While they chewed, Candy sat under a dining room chair making peculiar noises. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong. I got the impression she might have been trying to get Nigel’s attention, but I doubt if he could hear her over his loud chewing.

grooming goes better than housebreaking

At least we seem to be doing a little better with grooming than with housebreaking. We got the kids’ faces and paws trimmed today. We are growing out their hair a little, so we didn’t get out the clippers. They were much easier to manage because of that. We also cleaned all of their eyes.

Candy ran to hide under the trailer after we were done, Dottie acted as if it was business as usual and Flower ran back to Shih Tzu Central. Flower used to get so stressed out after getting on the grooming table, but that must not have been the case, because she immediately started chewing on something.

Nigel discovers the basement

two shih tzus playing.

I had to make a trip to the basement after my discovery that Flower needs a lot more housebreaking work. My washer and dryer get quite the workout these days. Nigel never used to know where I went when I went to do laundry, and he used to scamper upstairs to look for me, not understanding that the basement stairs and other stairs are in opposite directions. However, he finally followed me far enough to see where I was going. He ran downstairs when I went down and wandered around until it was time for us to go back up.

Shih Tzu Day 111: Candy and her Boy Dog

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Di Freeze

The trouble with boy dog friends

Candy and her boy dog friend have been frolicking again, inside and outside. I know she enjoys playing with Nigel, but there are times that she does not want his attention. I always know when that is the case, because she yips loudly and looks like she wants to bite his little boy dog face off. I have had several stern talks with him that when a lady says “no,” it’s not “maybe,” and he has to stop and not force her to play. If he learns that, she might like him better and go out on more dog play dates. Of course, it would also help if he stopped stealing her bones and the other girls’ dog treats. Then they might all like him better.

Nigel and the cable guy

I had to have Comcast send a cable guy out today because of trouble with my cable box. Nigel greeted him at the door with his tail wagging and was practically sitting on his lap when he sat down on the couch to do some programming. Not my girl shih tzus, of course. I was in the kitchen and heard a low growl. I asked him what happened, and he said, “I don’t know! All I did was make eye contact!” It was actually kind of funny. My girl dogs are definitely different than our boy dog.

I don’t really think it’s a case of girl dogs or boy dogs, however. It’s more likely because of their time at the puppy mill. From Nigel’s behavior, he probably had a good home at one point before ending up at a shelter, so he has a lot better social skills. He definitely wouldn’t make a very good guard dog!

A boy dog in Shih Tzu Central

After the cable guy left, I took Nigel for a walk to tire him out. I sure don’t have a lot of stamina since I stopped taking regular bike rides. Running up the hill beside him tired me out! When we came back, I had the back door open for the dogs and a bee came in. I was trying to figure out where it went and looked over at Shih Tzu Central; it was flying around near Nigel, and he was trying to bite it. I was thinking that he looked funny trying to bite at it, and then I realized something. He was “at Shih Tzu Central” trying to bite it. He was actually lounging on the blue dog bed.

Flower and Candy didn’t seem to think anything about having a boy dog in one of their beds in their private corner, although Dottie seemed slightly put out. They all mainly just ignored him. Since that was the case, I thought I’d work on a little bit of togetherness and moved his bed in there as a test.

He lay in there for a while without any reaction from the girls. However, he didn’t stay very long and seemed lost without his dog bed being in the living room, so I moved it back out.

Dry training pad

The training pads I have down were dry all day. It’s possible that the girl shih tzus are learning how to hold it until they go outside. I didn’t find any evidence that they had gone anywhere else in the house. My fingers are crossed.

Same Shih Tzu, Different Day

Journal of Three Former Puppy Mill Mothers / Shih Tzu Sisters … and Nigel

Category Archives: Housebreaking Dilemmas