Category Archives: Grooming aka Bath & Body Work

Shih Tzu Day 83: Just Another Tuesday

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More Grooming for Candy

shih tzu on carpetWe did a little grooming on Candy. She is still the worst one on the grooming table. She bites at the clippers and squirms and wiggles. She seems to do a little better when she can’t see the clippers. She had a short session. She ran off as soon as we let her down, but then she came back and got her hot dog pieces. At least she isn’t so traumatized she can’t eat.

As soon as John left, Flower and Candy came out of their corner and started wandering around. Flower came up on the couch looking for food. I know I shouldn’t, but I gave her half of a frosted mini wheat, so then had to give one to Dottie and Candy too. Flower stayed there while I petted her, but got down shortly after I helped Dottie up.

Looking Guilty

shih tzu on a carpetI haven’t put my beautiful cowboy area rug back down, because we need to clean it again. After we clean it, I guess we will only put it down when we have company. I miss it, but I have to break them out of the habit of peeing on it. I know they liked to sit on it, though, so I put their red blanket from their couch on the floor. I had it down for a few hours before I noticed a wet spot! My guess is that is was Candy and Flower. When I pointed and asked who did it, both of them looked guilty; also, both of them scampered under the dining room table.

A little later, I went into the spare room to print a coupon. I don’t let Candy go in there, because I think she’ll pee on the carpet, but I did let Dottie come in with me, because she is so good with the training pad — and she peed on the carpet! I know I am not supposed to raise my voice, because puppy mill dogs particularly are fragile dogs, but I couldn’t help it. I chased Dottie out of the room, stomped downstairs, pointed toward the door and told them to go outside.

Fall Wardrobe

I didn’t want the girls to think I was angry with them, so I made sure to kiss them all goodbye before leaving to run errands. While I was out, I went to PetSmart, and then next door to T.J.Maxx/HomeGoods. While I was looking at the pet stuff, I found three adorable sweaters for Dottie, Candy and Flower. I don’t want summer to end, but at least I have their fall wardrobe!

When I got home, I took the girls outside to give them their apple and chicken snack, and then left them out for a while, hoping that if anyone needed a potty break, they would take care of business. The bad thing about leaving them outside when I go inside is that I don’t know who took that opportunity. A little after they got in, however, Candy ran upstairs. That often means she’s looking for a place to relieve herself, so I quickly followed her up there, and she ran back downstairs. I asked her if she wanted to go outside. She did, and she did her business, so that spared us one spot to clean up. As soon as I remember to buy some, I’m going to try to train them to ring jingle bells when they need to go outside.

Flower Loves Lovin’

shih tzu on carpetCandy was excited when John got home, although Dottie and Flower acted wary. They warmed up to him again by the time we went outside and he produced the treat bag. We also gave them a teeny bit of our Noosa yogurt, in three separate little bowls. We hadn’t given them any in a while. They love  it.

We are one of those couples who usually eats our meals on the couch, in front of the T.V. Tonight, we had leftover roast. Flower quickly caught the scent and leaped up onto the couch, hunting for the source. That prompted Dottie to jump off the couch without even begging for any roast. Flower stayed for about 10 minutes after I gave her a bite, waiting for me to finish eating so I could scratch her chest and pet her. Then, she lay down for awhile, staying there until John came back into the room. I am glad that she’s learning how to be loved. I still recall very vividly when she ran every time I tried to get near her — and pooped!

Shih Tzu Day 77: Visit to the Denver Dumb Friends League

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More Grooming For Dottie

We put Dottie on the grooming table this morning. Surprisingly, she wasn’t as good as Flower was the last few times. We couldn’t get her to keep her head still, when we were trying to groom her face, mostly. Also, she kept wanting to sit down, so I had to keep sitting her back up and tickling her tummy to try to get her to stand.

shih tzu on a makeshift grooming table

Dumb Friends League Visit

I left the house when John did, to take my mom to the Dumb Friends League has waived their fee temporarily on cats over one years old. Cats between six months old and a year are $50, and kittens under six months old are $120.

You can see kittens playing when you first go to the cat area at the Dumb Friends League. I fell in love with a tabby named Spot Collins. Mom liked a small black and white kitten, but someone else did too, because they pulled it out for someone while we stood there.

We were told that some of the cats were in a confined area because of a highly contagious upper respiratory infection, but that we could still look at them. We put down the numbers for three of the older cats, plus Spot Collins, and then waited to visit with the pet counselor.

shih tzu on makeshift grooming tableAs it turned out, two of the cats we wrote down had the URI, and Mom didn’t want to affect her other cats, so we crossed them off our list. I founded another cat, 8 months old, and already neutered, whichI thought Mom might like, so I had the counselor bring him into the room so we could visit with him. He was black and white and named Panda. She liked him, so we started looking for a friend for him. We brought an orange tabby in, but he didn’t seem very friendly, so we ruled him out.

I talked Mom into visiting with Spot Collins, and he passed inspection. We brought Panda home, but Spot Collins, 3 months old, needed to be neutered, so I will have to go and pick him up at the Dumb Friends League tomorrow. I would have liked to take him to our home, but I don’t know how the girls would react. Maybe at a later date.

Ants in Candy’s Pants

I didn’t get home until late in the afternoon. Of course, the girls were excited, to see me, and I’m sure, to get their afternoon treat. Candy seemed to have ants in her pants later on. She jumped and danced all over the carpet, and then went under the table and started growling, at seemingly nothing. It is possible that she saw a mouse that we have seen a few times. That’s another good reason to bring a cat home.

Flower kept coming up and putting her paws on the couch. I think she would want to sit with me, if Dottie wasn’t always there.

It rained, so when John got home, he gave them their evening treat from the couch. Dottie and Candy eagerly took theirs. Flower eyed him warily, ran up, took one, and then ran around in a circle on the carpet. I really wish I knew what causes her erratic behavior.

While John was out of the room, I put Flower on the couch, on the other side of me. She stayed for a while, but jumped down, so I went and got Candy. She seemed relaxed. She put her head on my leg and stretched out. She was there for probably 15minutes. When John came back into the room, he sat on the other side and petted her. She didn’t get up until he got up about ten minutes later.

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 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.

Shih Tzu Day 63: Just Another Shih Tzu Day

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Early A.M. with the Shih Tzus

We have no control over our furry, shih tzu alarm clocks. Flower came up at 4, accompanied by Dottie. Sure would love to ask Flower a lot of questions, including why she thinks we would want to get up that early in the morning. Waking us up early had the opposite effect of what she wanted, though. I slept intermittently between her barking spells, and didn’t get up until after 6:30.

Although I mention food a lot, I always forget to mention “how” these dogs eat. At mealtime, Flower gobbles her food down as quickly as possible, jumping back at any noise, no matter how slight. When she is almost done, she rushes over to Candy’s dog bowl.

I have started trimming off a little each quarter cup of kibble, and holding it back in reserve. When Flower makes a move for Candy’s bowl, I call her name and lure her to me by hand feeding her pieces of the dry dog food, one at a time, to let Candy finish her meal without interruption. Dottie is nearly as slow as Candy, because she is missing some of her front teeth. When she eats, a lot of the pieces fall out, and she has to search for it on the porch. Once Dottie and Candy do finish eating, I feed them the kibble bits I have left over, so they don’t feel left out.

Candy and the Grooming Table

Shih tzu being groomedAfter the girls ate, I went upstairs for something and found dog poop and a urine spot on our bedroom carpet. I had heard Candy jumping around up there earlier, and should have known she was doing her “after pooping” dance she does after eating. They were outside for at least twenty minutes after they ate, so I don’t know why she did that. I cleaned it up and announced to John that she was the shih tzu going on the grooming table today.

Shih tzu face.Although she was trying to nip at the dog clippers at first, she relaxed enough for John to clip quite a bit of her body and to even clip a little of her head. Since our goal is to just get her used to the grooming table, we stopped when we thought we were ahead. I tried to give her a Vienna sausage as a reward while she was on the table, like I had learned in dog grooming school, but she wouldn’t take it. She also wouldn’t take it from John when we sat her down on the floor, but she came back and took it from me.

Candy stayed in the living room for longer than I thought she would, after facing the grooming table, but she did run upstairs to regroup. She had to sit in the hall, though, because after she used our bedroom as a potty box, I closed both doors.

More Housebreaking Contraptions

While we’re on the subject of dogs who aren’t house broken, my latest training contraction hasn’t worked out either. This one was a simple tray that you put a training pad on. Then, you snap a “frame” over it that is intended to hold the training pad in place. No one used the training pad while it was on the tray. However, one of the shih tzus was interested. I caught my plastic lover, Flower, trying to gnaw on the edge.

I still have a few options. I can try a dog training spray that is supposed to tempt them to do their business where you spray it, or the spray that is supposed to prevent them from doing their business where you don’t want them to. I also need to investigate dog litter, which I saw at PetSmart. (If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!)

Afternoon with the Shih Tzus

When I came back from grocery shopping, one of the shih tzus had pooped on the training pad. That almost makes me feel that we are getting somewhere in the battle to housebreak our doggies!

The girls didn’t come alive this afternoon, like they sometimes do. Candy stayed upstairs for awhile. Dottie sat beside me, but Flower spent most of the afternoon in the Safe Zone. It’s possible it’s because the hardwood floor keeps the dogs cool.

So Happy to See You!

Shih tzu jumping for treatWhen John came home, Candy didn’t just wag her tail; she nearly wiggled her butt off. Flower barked like he was an intruder. Candy let him hold her after treat time. I am happy about that. I keep reminding them that they should be nice, since he supplies a good deal of their dog food and treats. Flower continued to stay distant, going back to her corner immediately after getting her night-time treat.

I stopped by to visit the girls on the way upstairs. They were all so adorable, lying in their dog beds, I had to scrunch their faces between my hands and sing a chorus of the Stevie Wonder song, “Isn’t she lovely, isn’t she wonderful,” to each little darling dog.