Category Archives: Training

Shih Tzu Day 60: Back on The Leash Again

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5:45 Wake Up Call

My furry alarm clocks aren’t going off at the same time these days. This morning, my wake up call came at 5:45. I stayed in bed too long, because one of my ladies left a puddle on the bedroom carpet.

My experiment this morning was feeding them and then rushing back to bed before I became too wide awake. My fantasy was to maybe get at least another hour of sleep before we had to get up and get ready for church.Sunday morning leash lesson 2

The girls weren’t having it though. They followed me back upstairs. Dottie kept scratching at the side of the bed and whining. Flower kept barking. I tried to tell them calmly to let me sleep, but my voice got louder when they wouldn’t stop. I guess we’ve created little monsters. I should make them sleep in Sunday morning leash lesson 3kennels and just let them out when I come down. I hate to think of my life being ruled by these cute, little furry creatures.

Finally, at about 6:30, John said he’d get up and go downstairs. There was a good chance that his appearance would scare them and they would let me sleep. However, I was wide awake by then and Sunday morning leash lesson 4thought turnabout was fair play. I came downstairs, calmly put a leash on Flower and carried her into the kitchen. I must have looked serious. It took only that much for her to poop on the floor, missing my clothes and feet, thankfully.

I carried her out, sat her on the grass, and gently tugged on the leash. No go.  One of the people at PetSmart had told me that Sunday morning leash lesson 5sometimes people put puppies in harnesses, pick them up, lean over and walk them “above” the ground, so they get the idea and then start touching their feet to the ground until they walk. I tried it a few times, but it didn’t work.

I finally just told myself not to look, and took some firm steps away from her, knowing she had to follow me or fight the lease. She fought the leash until John told me to let him try again. This time, I brought out one of the black harnesses, hoping we had tightened it enough that she couldn’t get out of it. As expected, she fought him for a few minutes and then did get out of her harness.

I decided the leash would have to do. I came up to her, now in her inside Safe Zone, and she sat there as I put the leash back on her. This time, I grabbed a hot dog on the way out. I coaxed her with it until she finally took a couple of steps towards me. Candy and Dottie were both outside and came running, either to see what was happening with her sister, or because they smelled the hot dog.

I don’t know if this is the right way to train, but I decided that every time Flower  took some steps, they would all get a piece of hot dog. We walked back and forth across the yard several times. I hope that all the dogs’ brains register that they will get a treat when one of them is on a leash.

My method seemed to work well. When I was done, I just let go of the leash, so Flower would drag it around a while. She came right up to the porch and sat by me. She didn’t even seem afraid of John, who was sitting next to me.

Sometimes it seems overwhelming when I think of all that we need to accomplish. We need to teach them to walk on a leash, to ride in a car, to not be afraid of being groomed, to not be afraid of people, to not poop and pee on our hardwood floors and carpet. Life with three former puppy mill dogs is definitely not boring.

Shih Tzu Day 59: Running From Love

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Sleeping In Until 6

The shih tzus didn’t come up to get me until 6:00. At least it wasn’t 5:00, but for a Saturday, I would love to at least get to sleep until 7:00! I have to figure out a way to reprogram their inner clocks.

Since I didn’t want them to leave puddle on the carpet, I dragged myself out of bed. My idea was to have them go out and pee, but not feed them just yet. They danced around on the porch, thinking their meal was coming,  and then stood there staring at me for a while, before deciding that if I wasn’t going to feed them, they might as well run around the backyard for a while.

I brought them in, confused, and then went back upstairs. They weren’t about to let me alter their schedule, however, so they followed me up to make sure I wouldn’t forget them. I How can I be Mom's companion, if she keeps getting off the couch?gave up and went back down and fed them, giving John a few extra minutes to stay in bed.

We spent several hours setting up the connections to a castoff TV from John’s sister, Lynda. That meant that Dottie, Candy and Flower didn’t get much attention. When we were done, John took them outside and threw them some hot dog pieces. They enjoyed them much more than the rawhide treats I got them. If only hot dogs were good for them.

Candy Runs From Love

I'm still trying to figure out if I like this lap thing. Candy continues her tradition of staying upstairs in her room, since her spot in the dining room is no longer available to her.  Dottie spent as much time as she could on the couch with me, and Flower stayed in the Safe Zone, mainly on the hardwood floor, with her head on the blue dog bed. They are so much friendlier when John is at work. I sure wish they would act around John more like they act around me. Maybe one day.

At least they no longer have trouble taking treats from him. In fact, when John went outside with the sweet potato treats, Flower started to do her food dance, but stopped short. I think she forgot that she didn’t trust him and that it wasn’t me. Dottie and Flower came in when he did, but Candy stayed in the grass, sniffing around.

He ended up going out to get her. She ran around the yard, slowly, keeping out of his reach. Finally, however, she stopped a

nd crouched down, waiting for him to pick her up. He stayed outside with her for a while, sitting on the porch with her in his arms. He said she’s running from love, but I know we’ll catch her, sooner or later.

New Blog Header

I finally took a semi-decent picture of the girls sitting on their colorful blanket, so I have updated the blog header. Dottie gets my vote for most improved hair cut!

Original blog header

Shih Tzu Day 58: What’s “Fetch”

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that bright light!

a shih tzu with a toy Dottie, Candy and I ran upstairs to get Mom and that Man out of bed, because they’re being lazy again. Mom was holding that little box again, which kept shining a bright light at us and making clicking noises. That was weird because she usually does that downstairs. She must have carried it upstairs with her last night.

She wouldn’t get up, and we got tired of waiting, so we all tinkled on the carpet. Of course, we each picked a good spot. One of us did number two, too, but Mom didn’t know who did it. We’ll never tell. We all looked at each other when we heard her say, “Great. They think our bedroom is a potty box.”

fetch?

That Man gives us good treats, but I am still suspicious. We finally got to go outside and eat! That is always so exciting. Mom brought this round thing outside afterwards and threw it, asking us to “fetch,” whatever that means. Dottie and I weren’t interested, but Candy chased it, grabbed it, carried it a little way and then dropped it. I wonder if that is fetching?

Dottie looks funny wet! the table where bad things happen    

Things were going great, but when we came inside, Mom picked me up and sat me on that table where bad things happen!! However, she didn’t pick up that thing that makes a lot of noise and cuts off my fur. Instead, she gave me a treat and petted me, then she put me down. That wasn’t bad.

Candy looks even funnier!Later, Mom gave us this flat, white thing that was fun to chew on. She said it was something called a Flip. It didn’t have much taste, but it was fun.

scary man

We were all cozy in our area, and then that Man started talking to us and then came over to our private area, uninvited! We know Men want to hurt us, so we ran like crazy. He tried to pretend he was nice, by giving us hot dog pieces, but we know he has something very sinister in mind. I jumped on the couch so Mom would protect me. I couldn’t help it, though; when he held out more hot dog pieces, I took them.

Candy is a baby! She's afraid of that grey thing that makes noise.Still, I don’t trust him! Or any man! In fact, I don’t trust anyone, except I trust Mom just a little. While I was running away from that Man, I couldn’t help it. I did number two on the floor. Well, it’s his fault. I heard Mom say that I need a counselor. Is that true?

Shih Tzu Day 57: Shih Tzu Askew

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Lessons Not Learned

Mom calls this my "frog dog" position.John and I watched the first night of grooming class, since we were going to Lia’s this afternoon. We decided to trim Flower. Too bad we didn’t start with the paws and private areas. We started with the easy part, clipping the body and then switched to pulling hair out of her ears, which we accomplished.

She was doing so good that we decided to take her collar and leash off, to trim her neck better, but she got crazy, tried to jump off our makeshift grooming table, and succeeded.

We should have stopped there, but Cesar says to stop training sessions on your terms. I think that would include teaching them to be groomed. I tracked her down and put her collar and leash back on her. I should have probably just put her back up on the grooming table, but instead, I decided she could have another walking lesson.

She pulls out of all three harnesses we have, so the leash had to do. She wore herself out fighting John and then pulled out of her collar and scampered across the yard wildly for several minutes. I opened the door to lure her inside, but when she came in, she saw I had blocked her flight into the living room. She ran back outside and in several times, until finally she gave up, panting heavily.

John sat down by her on the porch and stayed there for several minutes. I went inside and cut up some hot dog pieces. She took them from me when they came in. She also came up to visit me on the couch several times, even after the grooming and leash incidences.  I think I should be the one to try to get her to walk next time. We might have better results, and John won’t look like he’s always the bad guy.

The Potty Patch

When I took back the last contraption I bought (Wee Wee On-Target Trainer) with the intention of house training the shih tzus, I asked the girl at PetSmart about the Potty Patch. The commercial says, “Is your house one big doggy bathroom?” Well, it seems like it is, so I was interested. This one looks like grass. A plastic tray sits on the floor, with some type of layer above that and a layer that looks like grass above that. It is supposed to make them think about the grass outside, I guess. I ended up buying one, hoping it would save on the cost of Wee-Wee pads and stop them from peeing on the carpet.

Since the girls continue to get us up early, and John is on vacation, we have been taking naps in the afternoon. For the most part, they let us sleep. Dottie came upstairs this afternoon and sat by the bed. She didn’t fight me when I picked her up and put her on it. She sat for a while and then lay down. When I woke up, she had jumped down.

The Independent Shih Tzu

Candy pauses on the communal doggy bed temporarily.Although Dottie was outside and saw the goings-on with Flower, Candy was upstairs in her room. She alternates between there and the corner in the dining room, but we had to take away her dining room option. We can’t do much about them tinkling on the living room carpet, but we decided to block off the dining room carpet by surrounding it with their plastic gate. That also blocked off one of Candy’s favorite spots, sorry to say.Since things are usually calm, unless we are trying to train someone, I don’t know why she feels the need to be alone so much. Is she trying to escape us and her sisters?

John has a theory that she chooses those places because they are probably cool, and it has been so hot this month, even with the swamp cooler. Also, there is a lamp that puts off quite a bit of heat near their corner in the living room. When she goes in the spare bedroom, she sits between the bed and the wall. John says she might like it there because the swamp cooler makes so much noise that she can’t hear anything else. She is so afraid of most noises, however, especially vacuums, that I would think she wouldn’t like the cooler noise. Maybe she is just used to it. When Candy did come downstairs, she went to her dining room corner and stayed there for a good part of the afternoon.

I have been wondering if I should move their beds to Candy’s dining room area, but that might prompt the other dogs to be more reclusive.

Shih Tzu Day 55: Puppy Mill Reminder

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Good Morning

I told myself before going to bed last night that I would get up early, to give John a chance to sleep in, without the dogs waking him up, but I couldn’t make myself. They ended up being extra playful. I don’t think he minded.

Flower has made it a habit to go back and forth between my side of the bed and John’s. He plays games with her, where she tries to bite his fingers, but he keeps moving them. He was also playing with her with his socks, but Flower kept running off with them.

Candy came up to us both for petting. Dottie went to John’s side occasionally, but mainly sat on my side, whining when I rolled to the other side of the bed to see the play there.

After I fed the girls, Dottie sat with me for a while and then jumped down. Flower jumped up on the couch to take her place. She played with a Pork Chomps treat for a while, and then sat there staring at me with a “come hither” and pet me look. I petted her for at least 10 minutes. Everytime I tried to stop, she’d stare at me. Sometimes when I stop, she gets down off the couch, but this time, she decided to lie down beside me, her head hanging over the edge of the couch, watching Candy smell the carpet and Dottie chew on her treat.

Dottie came up to sit with me for a while later on. This time, she jumped up on the couch without myself, which is unusual. I wonder if Candy will ever come up and sit with me on the couch.

Flower didn’t bark or growl at John when he came down.

Puppy Noises Stir Feelings

Flower jumped up on the couch this afternoon, landing on Dottie. She sat there while Dottie made a “get off me” sound.

John and I went out for lunch and stopped at Home Depot to get a new ceiling fan for the bedroom. We also picked up a dimmer, because I am hoping that if the lights are low when they come up to play, the girls will still be playful, and I can get pictures of them.

Candy, Flower and Dottie were excited when we came home. They started dancing in the middle of the room, but when they saw John come in the door, danced backwards towards the Safe Zone.

John got out treats, and Flower first started to race upstairs, but then realized she was missing out and came back down. After they got their treats, they went back to their corner for awhile. John went outside later and Dottie and Flower came out to greet me, wagging their tails and looking adorable.

We watched a few more episodes of The Dog Whisperer this evening. On one of the episodes, new-born puppies were whimpering, and all of the girls ran to the middle of the floor and stood there, looking around, including towards the TV. I wonder, did it made them think of the puppies they had? It was very touching.