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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 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 140: Nov. 16 (Catch Up)

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welcome committee

I heard the pitter patter of the feet of the welcome committee in the hall a little after 5:30. I wasn’t sleeping, however. I brought my laptop up last night and had been working on it since 3:30, doing some catch up. I stayed in bed a little, because I am trying to train them to eat closer to 6:30, but I got up a little after 6, since Dottie’s whining was getting louder.

I opened the door before I started getting their bowls together and Flower and Candy went out. They stood at the door and growled at me for their food. They are so cute to have vicious growls. After they ate, Nigel and Flower had a face off in the dining room, while Candy rested on the porch.

wild ones

A bunch of wild ones today. Candy barked and I opened the door to see if she wanted in; Flower and Nigel flew out, had a quick round, flew in the door and then flew back out. Candy stayed outside, but just watched their carousing. When Nigel and Flower came in, they tore around the living room and dining room for a while.

After that, the wild boy came up to me and started growling, and, at the same time, sneezing at me. How many dogs sneeze when they get agitated?  I couldn’t tell what he wanted. He just kept staring at me with those red, devil eyes.

Boots and Barkley

Boots and Barkley bully sticks are more of a hit than Cadet. Flower and Nigel inhaled theirs. Dottie enjoyed hers for quite a while, making loud, weird noises as she gnawed away. John called her an old lady, and Flower was looking at her like, “Wow, yours must have really been good!” I would still like to find a good bully stick that comes in a value package!

couch buddies

Flower and Dottie sat on the couch for a while. Flower doesn’t seem to care anymore if the Man is on the couch. Maybe they are getting more used to him because when he is home and up, he gives out the treats, following the advice of dog trainer Victoria Stilwell.

Candy the kitty dog

I call Candy our “kitty dog.” She acts as much like a cat as a dog. She pounces on things and bats them around with her front paws like cats do. She also really reminds me of the Persian cat, Goo Goo Doll, that we had years ago.

four on a couch

While John and I watched the X Factor, Nigel lay between us and Dottie on my side. Candy wandered up and looked around at everyone, so I lifted her up. Then Flower jumped up, resulting in all four shih tzus on the couch with us, which is very uncommon. Dottie must have thought it was too crowded and jumped down, but I moved Candy to dad’s lap and Dottie came back up. I would love it if all four of them sat with us more often.

Shih Tzu Day 139: Nov. 15

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thrashing shih tzu

Somebody threw up in Nigel’s bed and on the floor near it before I came downstairs. I threw it in the laundry and checked breath, but couldn’t tell who might have done it.

Once I settled down on the couch and Dottie came up, she started thrashing around, making a whining sound. I couldn’t tell if she was in pain or not. She was on her side, and she put her front paws together and moved them up and down on the sofa. I scratched her ears in case that was the problem, and when I went to move them, she lifted her head and touched my hand with her mouth, so I kept doing it. When I stopped, she had stopped thrashing.

the green dog mystery

Flower ran up to the couch a little later, Nigel in hot pursuit. After she jumped up I noticed that the green dog was lying on the floor in front of me. Either Flower had it, and that’s why Nigel was chasing her, or he brought it as a gesture of peace. I imagine it was the first scenario.

Once Flower jumped up on the couch, she kept staring at me, so I figured she wanted her haunches rubbed. She loves that the most. She always raises her head and then moves it from side to side when I give her a massage, her eyes looking bigger than normal.

Nigel ventured back to the couch for the green dog, and then ran out the door with it. When I ended Flower’s massage, she jumped down and followed him outside. She came back in with a rawhide flip in her mouth; I think Nigel smuggled it outside earlier. Nigel ran in after her, but then did his roadrunner beep beep routine, running into Shih Tzu Central and then back out and out the back door. I couldn’t tell if he had something in his mouth, but he was probably stealing something else.

Flower’s partial escape

When we brought the female shih tzus home, we made a makeshift fence so they couldn’t get up on the landscaping tiers and escape into the backyard of the neighbor behind us. Flower found she could get through a small entrance, though, and when I looked out, she was on the bottom tier, making a dash in the direction of the squirrel, high above her head. I had to get up on the landscaping tiers and chase her down. John will need to secure it a little better.

Paws up

Candy and Flower both came and put their paws up on the couch this afternoon, their cutte, little faces next to each other, moving from side to side. Looking for treats, I presume. I am still not used to Candy doing that. It always makes me smile to see both of them there.

Later, Candy came up to the Nigel and John end of the couch and put her paws up on it and looked at me and at Dottie and Nigel. I picked her up and she sat down for several minutes before crossing over me to sit next to Dottie. She let me pet her for a while, and then she moved next to me and curled up and stayed there for a while. She surprised me again by going up to John later for petting and sniffing his boots.

Shih Tzu Day 110: Dog Play and Dog Treats

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Experimenting with dog treats again

a shih tzu near a dog bed.I experimented with dog treats again today. I still haven’t quite figured out which dog likes which dog treats. I threw several out on the floor, to see who would go for what. Flower and Nigel seem to be the most versatile as far as dog treats go. They all seem to like pig ears, and Nigel and Flower really like the bully sticks. It’s touch and go with the Greenbrier Kennel Club mini red and white rawhide bones, pressed rawhide bones and retriever rolls from the Dollar Tree. Sometimes these dog treats lie around for days, and then someone picks up one and begins to chew on it and all the other dogs want it. Then it’s back to bone wars.

a shih tzu pulling a sock off. Today, the other three grabbed a Beefeaters pig ear strip, but Candy chose a red and white rawhide bone. Dottie usually likes the rawhide bones too. Nigel doesn’t seem to discriminate between dog treats. He likes anything, and is expert at unraveling the Oinkies pig skin twists, but something has to be eliminated from his diet, because he has been stinking up a storm. My guess is the rawhide dog treats, which I have debated giving the dogs, because I have heard such mixed opinions about rawhide.

Overall, at the top of the dog treats list is a good-old fashioned, real dog bones from the meat department with real marrow in the middle. I bought some this week. Five minutes after I passed them out, Flower had collected three in her bed, so I had to confiscate two and redistribute. They are a little pricey where I found them, at five dollars for five small bone pieces. Not bad if you have one dog, but giving them to four dogs makes a difference!

A different life

a dog stretched out on a couch.I was thinking today how different life is from a year ago, when I edited or wrote alone in my quiet house, sometimes with the TV on in the background. Now, it’s normal to have to pet a dog on each side between making editorial corrections. I also used to worry about forgetting to take my eyes off the computer screen for long lengths of time.

a shih tzu chasing another shih tzu.Jumping up dozens of times a day to open the door when Nigel scratches at it, to either come in or go out, changes that. Plus, watching the shih tzus when they start playing also gives my eyes the opportunity to rest from the computer. Definitely, I laugh and smile more than I used to, because how can you help it with so much cuteness around?

My couch gets more and more use these days. While I worked on my laptop this afternoon, Nigel rested on one side of me and Dottie and Flower on the other. Dottie seems to be getting used to the fact that she can’t always have the very end of the couch. She didn’t growl today when Flower sat there. Flower stayed on the couch for some time. Their body language is so different. Dottie lies down, her head down, Nigel cuddles up right next to me and Flower looks like she is always on guard.

Nigel still seems a little put off at times that he can’t always get them to play with him. He especially can’t understand that when I get up in the morning, they want to play with me. That is “our” time, from when I walk out the bathroom door until when I go into the kitchen and start putting their breakfast together. He lunges at Candy and then Flower, but they ignore him or yap at him. I always think of Rudolph not being a part of the “reindeer games.”

Since the girls were ignoring Nigel this morning, and I had gathered up all the dog treats, he decided to look for attention elsewhere. He sat at my feet and began pulling a sock off my foot. Sometimes I let him take them off, but sometimes I stop him. Today, I allowed him to pull one off before I retrieved it.

Candy and Goo Goo Doll

I was watching Candy trot across the floor today. With her fur longer, she reminds me a lot of the Persian cat we used to have, Goo Goo Doll. They could have been good friends.

two shih tzus on a couch.We got Goo Goo Doll, named after one of my favorite bands, at the same time we got our Yorkshire terrier, Joey. About a year later, we brought home a Rottweiler for my teenage stepson, who was living with us. Bo, who came from a farm, seemed like he got along with both Joey and Goo Goo Doll. However, our son kept him downstairs in the day when we were gone. One day, however, Bo got loose. Goo Goo Doll was dead when we got home. It broke my heart, and Bo went to a home without cats.

I think Goo Goo Doll even had the same type of temperament as Candy. After thinking about the similarities, I picked up Candy, hugged her and carried her around a while, and then I sat down and put her on my lap. She lay there for a while before she got restless.

I knew she had answered Nigel’s call to play a little later when I heard a rapid pitter patter of little paws and looked up to see her running by, Nigel behind her, with Candy’s tail in his mouth.

Flying Flower

two shih tzusI have a lot of nicknames for Flower, but John gave her a new one: Flying Flower. He calls her that because of the way she flies across the floor and leaps up on the couches, and because of the way she leaps and dances when I come down the stairs, when she is going to get breakfast and when I come home from somewhere. Sometimes she twirls around in the air in a complete circle before touching her feet to the ground again.