Shih Tzu Day 210

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I brought Candy up to sleep with us last night. She curled up on the bed and didn’t peep all through the night. However, at 6 o’clock, we heard her retching. She vomited bile on the bed and on the floor. I haven’t noticed the dogs doing that lately, since I read they sometimes do that if they go to bed on an empty stomach and have been trying to give them a little food before bedtime. She seemed okay throughout the day, though.

Flower follows me down to the basement whenever I go to put anything in the wash. She sniffs around the exercise room and the spare room. I haven’t caught her peeing on the carpet again, but I do try to keep an eye on her when she wanders into a different room. I am glad that she is becoming more comfortable with the different areas of the house and doesn’t seem as fearful as she did a few months ago.

Crazy shih tzus

The dogs have seemed a little lackluster lately, but today, all four of them were jumping each other. Flower was being a little too aggressive with Candy. She acted like she was mad at her. Candy was standing up to her, but I finally said Flower’s name firmly and when she looked up, told her “No!” She came up to me shaking her head from side to side, and I shook my finger at her. She came up further and put it in her mouth, backed away and then came back and put her mouth on my finger again. It was more like gumming than biting. They are way too cute.

Nigel decided it was her turn to be picked on, and tore after her, so she went running. They are getting a little crazy these days. They ran too close to the TV tray stand holding my water and knocked the water on the floor. Thankfully, it was a plastic Starbucks glass with a tight lid.

Later, Flower jumped up on the couch, pawed at me, and then cocked her head back towards the dining room, as if to say, “This way. We need a treat!”

I got my laptop back after being without it for three weeks! Now that I won’t be using a loaner laptop, I need to transfer pictures to it and start putting them up with my posts again. I know they have been very bare without any.

Shih Tzu Day 209: Old Shih Tzu Habits

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Old shih tzu habits die hard

Candy started barking at 4. John turned the flashlight on and pointed it down the stairs to get her to stop. She started again about 5. I ignored it and stayed in bed until 6, when Dottie started whining.

I am learning that just because the shih tzus are getting better, it doesn’t mean that old habits won’t resurface. Flower, Dottie and Nigel often go into the spare room with me when I have to use my backup PC. They wander around, try to find things to chew on, or just sit there and wait for me. No one had been pooping or peeing on the carpet, so I stopped barricading the door during other times of the day. But this morning when I glanced in the room, I saw that someone had done number one and number two. The barricade has gone up again.

When I went downstairs to get laundry, I heard Flower coming down the stairs. I walked out of the laundry room and started to cheerily say, “Hello, Flower!” but then saw her squatting on the floor. She was mid-stream when I hollered her name! Sigh.

shih tzus in need of grooming

I hate to admit it, but the dogs haven’t been groomed since the end of December. We have to catch up, so we decided to bathe one dog and do some grooming on as many as we could. John groomed Nigel’s face and trimmed up his paws and cut his toe nails. He did the same with Dottie and Flower. He was having trouble with the clippers, and I think that’s why he cut one of Flower’s toe nails too short. She was being very good, but that frightened her. Still, she was so much better than the days when she would poop on the table whenever we sat her on it. She just pulled her paw away, but then let us do the grooming on her face.

Dottie wasn’t quite as good, but, again, not nearly as bad as she used to be. I noticed this morning that she appears to have dog dandruff, so we decided she would be the one to get bathed. I have to keep an eye on that and figure out if something is causing it, besides the fact that she hadn’t had a bath for a few weeks.

Shih Tzu Day 208: The Shih Tzu Bone Thief is Back

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Things never seem status quo when you have four shih tzus running around. I have been saying how Nigel has been so good lately, and today I keep getting frustrated. I bought them real bones from the local grocery store, and when I passed them around, he tried to round them all up for him. This afternoon, he keeps going over to Shih Tzu Central, for what I am not sure. Now he looks like he is trying to corral Flower back to her corner, but she escaped and jumped up on the couch, breathing heavily.

I think that the winter is making them bored. I leave the door open whenever I can, in hopes that they will go outside and play, but they rarely do, even though it hasn’t been very cold. They mainly seem to wait around to see when the next treat will be delivered.

Nigel was licking his paw earlier, and I noticed it was bleeding. John was having trouble with the nail clippers, so I might have to invest in a new pair. I’m glad Lea at Gentle Grooming had put styptic powder on the “must have” list for grooming.

Shih Tzu Day 205: Shih Tzu Improvements

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shih tzu memories are secure

It has been quite a month. A computer crash and backup hard drive problem at the same time caused me to lose all my data. Although professionals told me I couldn’t get it back, persistency and lots of computer research led me to do just that. Yesterday, I got to the point where I had even recovered my DayOne files, where I kept my Shih Tzu journal. I am so happy to get back a few lost weeks that I hadn’t transferred to my blog yet. I also recovered ALL of my videos. I was heartbroken that I thought I had lost all those firsts with the shih tzus. I was kicking myself for not having put any up on my site or on YouTube, because I hadn’t yet figured how to edit them. Now everything gets backed up on a backup drive and elsewhere!

attitude adjustment

One of the biggest things I have noticed over the past few weeks is Nigel’s changed attitude. He still gets rambunctious and still has to be corrected, but ever since I brought the “dog house” inside and put him in it when he was picking on the girls, he has not been nearly as possessive of things and doesn’t bully them to where it is unbearable.

Another improvement has been in the “tinkle” department. I got tired of putting the small carpet I put under their two training pads in the washer and dryer, because I could always smell the rubber backing, and it was too hard to wash it by hand. Instead I have been using an old dish drying mat as the base and putting one pad on top of it. For the most part, they are hitting the mark, although I do have to clean up the hardwood floor in the morning, because of whichever dog seems to squat on the edge. The best part is at least they seem to be really trying! I am not sure, but it seems like Flower might be waiting to go outside in the morning.

shih tzu amnesia

Flower and Dottie seem to develop amnesia every morning. I have been coming downstairs at 6 but John usually doesn’t come down until 7. When the dogs hear his footsteps on the stairs, they act like he is an intruder and bark like crazy, throwing in a growl here and there, even when they see who he is. But there is hope. He can now come up to them and pet them and assure them that he is not an intruder, and they do stop barking.

Shih Tzu Day 202: Shih Tzu Lost in Time

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Hello everyone! It is impossible to think that it is January 17. I know I haven’t written a word all year, except to say that I had a computer malfunction. I won’t talk about it very much, except to mention that it has been a nightmare, but things are finally getting back to normal.

As for the shih tzu sisters, and Nigel, however, we grow to love them more every day! The winter months have slowed us down, practically into hibernation. Of course, they rouse periodically from sleeping to seek out food or treats. This afternoon is typical. As I type on my computer, wondering where the time went, Dottie snores beside me. Nigel is lying on the other side, not snoring, so I can’t tell if he is asleep. Flower goes back and forth between the couch and Shih Tzu Central, where she is right now. Checking on the dogs made me realize that Candy has been outside for probably an hour.

Dottie and Flower have taken a cue from Nigel, and now know how to “knock.” Dottie frantically tapes her front paws on the sliding glass door. Flower does too, but when she is really impatient, she backs up and jumps at the door, hitting it with her front paws and then doing it again. Candy, however, sits on the porch until someone realizes she is waiting. Half the time, even when you do notice she is missing, when we go to let her in, she runs back out into the yard. Strange child, that one.

More soon, both forward and backward in time.