Tag Archives: grooming

Shih Tzu Day 71: Country Dog, Shake It For Me

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the shih tzus and the unwelcome guest

John went downstairs at about 4:30 to let the shih tzus out, but Candy was the only one that would go outside. After that, they were perfectly quiet. Their sharp doggie ears heard me get up at 6:45 and go in the bathroom, and the shih tzus started barking. When I opened the door, they rushed me excitedly.

<em srcset=shih tzu on dog bed looking bored.” width=”300″ height=”199″ />After I fed them and brought them inside, the shih tzus sat on the carpet staring at me, as if to say, “What now?” I usually leave them to themselves after they come inside, and start my work. This morning, I sat on the carpet with Candy and Flower for a while, rubbing those cute little shih tzu faces between my hands. I am trying to follow a Twitter friend’s website advice and give them daily, planned “love time.”

<u srcset=shih tzu eying a treat” width=”300″ height=”199″ />two shih tzus watch another get a treat.My stepdaughter Candace came over mid-morning to help me organize some papers. The dogs didn’t immediately growl at her, because she didn’t stop at Shih Tzu Central to say hi. The shih tzus did growl at her later, however, when she walked too close to them. After she’d been here about an hour, I ushered Candy, Flower and Dottie outside to see if they would let Candace give them a treat. I am starting to think Dottie will take food from anyone; she eagerly approached her. Candy and Flower stayed in the yard, staring at the treat and at Candace, but only taking a few steps towards her, then moving back. She ended up throwing them some chicken jerky, which they picked up and ate.

shih tzu getting jerky from porchAfter we came inside, Candy went up to her room to hide. When Candace and I left for lunch, I put the gate across the door, to prevent Candace from going in there and peeing on the floor, not knowing that she was already in the room. When we came back, I looked around the dining room and living room and couldn’t find her. I looked in the spare room, just in case, and found her sitting in the closet, resting on a purse.

shih tzu hiding in closet.Flower jumped up on the couch to see me several times in the afternoon. On one of the occasions, she brought her Oinkies pigskin treat with her. I thought I’d try the Hartz brand this time, because it has a sweet potato center. They seem to like it better than the other brands of that type of treat.

shake It, country dog

shih tzu shaking her buttI realized that we have been lazy this week — no grooming, no trying to get them on a leash. The only training I have been doing is still trying to get them to pee on the training pad and not on the carpet.

shih tzu shaking her butt in excitementWhen I came down this morning, there were three yellow spots on the two pads I put down, and even some poop, so someone is trying. Candy continues her habit of napping on it and chewing on treats on it, so I doubt if she is using the training pads for their intended purpose.

shih tzu shaking her butt in excitementBut good news. It’s official. Candy now gets excited when John gets home. Country singer Luke Bryan has a song called “Country Girl (Shake It For Me).” That is my theme song for Candy, only I sing to her, “Country Dog (Shake It For Me).” She is just so adorable when she shakes her little bootie.

Flower is getting better. She isn’t where Candy is, but when John got home tonight, she did act halfway excited. They now know that treats quickly follow after he comes home.

Although Dottie hung back, not one of the dogs growled. Outside, all three of them came up to him for treats readily, with Flower not giving a second thought to putting her paw on his knee. John held Candy for a while later. She seemed content. He also pet Dottie, and she let him, but she looked the other way the entire time.

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 57: John’s Grooming Class

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grooming class for John

I'm running out of firemen! I need more toys!We arrived at the Gentle Groomer at 4:30 for John’s short grooming class. Lia had told us he could practice dog grooming on her Springer Spaniel. She talked to him a while first about questions he had from the dog grooming class video. She clarified some things we should be doing, such as the body areas people most often cut when grooming — including the Achilles tendon — and how to position the clippers for the pads of the feet.

Once his personal dog grooming class started, Lia said John was a natural. I knew he would be. I’m glad, because after his dog grooming class, I am hoping I will be relegated as his helper when it comes to the shih tzus’ grooming.

While we were at dog grooming class, we had a lot of dog talk with Lia. We were discussing different breeds and Lia mentioned that shih tzus were bred to be companions, as well as “alert dogs.” She said that it is common for shih tzus to alert larger dogs of potential danger. She also asked if any of the dogs want to be by my side all the time, because of the companion part. I told her that Dottie was the only one in that role at the moment.

We told Lia about our problems with the grooming table. She said to pick up Flower, or one of the other shih tzus. Then, put her on it at least once during the day, but at first, to merely give her a treat, show her love, and then put her back down, to get her used to the fact that if she gets up on the table, she will get a treat and love. Later, she said, do some type of grooming for just a minute or so, give her a treat, and put her down, until she gets more comfortable. We’ll try that.

Before we left, Lia pulled out a flat rawhide treat called Flips to give to their five dogs. I was fascinated by the excitement from the dogs. I have heard mixed things about rawhide, but I guess I’ll give them a try. It has to be better than plastic firemen.

back it up

All of the girls were excited when we got home. They ran to meet me, but backed up quickly to the safe zone when they saw that John was with me.

We don't trust that Man, but he has been giving us tasty treats!He is the new treat person, to get them to like him, so we ushered them outside and he handed out the new treat I got from Costco, Kingdom Pets sweet potato and chicken treats. I personally think they don’t smell nearly as good as other sweet potato and chicken treats I’ve bought, but the shih tzus love them. Flower ran up to him readily, and the other two followed her lead. He gave them extra treats; I think he feels bad because of their reluctance to trust him.

Shih Tzu Day 41: Gentle Grooming, My Paw!

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What’s Up With Shiloh?

I'm glad Mom hasn't been making me wear a harness or leash!Be patient, please, because Mom is still teaching me how to talk about my thoughts. First off, I don’t know what was going on with that dog named Shiloh that has been staying here. He usually sleeps with Mom and that man Mom says we should call Dad. Well, maybe Father.

Anyway, last night, Mom said Shiloh couldn’t sleep in their bed. Someone told her that Shiloh probably thinks he’s the Boss — I think they call it a Pack Leader — because he sleeps in their bed. I don’t know what that means. Oh well.

I do know that when they put Shiloh in his kennel, across the room from us, he moaned and barked. Big baby. They put him in the basement and he made so much noise that they moved him into their room, and just had him sleep in his kennel. Flower and I were happy about that, because when we went to wake up Mom, he didn’t jump off the bed and interrupt us, trying to get her attention too. In fact, he didn’t get out of the kennel until Father let him out at 7:30, so we had two hours with Mom without either of them.

I’m not sure why, but Flower didn’t bark when Father came downstairs. She usually does.

Mom is still making us walk around wearing a harness and sometimes she makes us drag a leash behind us. We don’t know why. We think it’s silly though.

Strange Place

I don't think Mom knows what she's doing!Mom took me on another car trip. But I wasn’t the only one. She picked up Candy and Flower and put them in kennels in the back of the Jeep. I got to sit in the front with Mom because I’m a good dog. When we got to where we were going, Mom took me inside. It kind of looked like where we used to live a long time ago. There were some dogs in kennels against the wall. Mom put me in one of the kennels and went out to get my sisters.

Do you think it's too short?When they came in, she talked to a strange lady for a while. Then, they picked me up and put me on a tall table. She told Mom she was going to teach her how to groom us. She said the first thing was to “rough us in.” That sounded like a bad thing to me. Well, Mom read the sign to me and it said “Gentle Groomer,” and as far as I know, rough is the opposite of gentle!

The lady, whose name was Lia, used those loud things on me; I think they are called clippers. I stood there quietly and watched as my fur fell off. She gave the clippers to Mom, but Mom couldn’t figure out how to hold them. It sounds like Mom wants to be able to groom us, so we don’t have to go to strange groomers. I guess I don’t care either way, because I’m braver than my sisters, but I know Flower and Candy probably do.

Don't say a word, Candy! At least I'm not dragging that thing around.My sisters sat in the kennel and watched them use me as a “guinea dog,” as Mom says. When we left, Lia told Mom that she had homework. She said she had to use the clippers on Flower and Candy, and that she especially had to clip their face and paws. She also said she wanted her to work on the “anal area,” whatever that means. She also told Mom I had leaky “anal glands” and that she should feed me pumpkin. That doesn’t sound good!

When we got home, Mom wasn’t good. She couldn’t figure out how to show Dad the video of the lesson, so he couldn’t help her with the homework. I heard her tell Dad that she really wants him to groom us; she just wants to help. She thinks he’d be better at it. I don’t know what I think about that. Candy and Flower probably won’t let him touch them with those loud things though!

 

 

Shih Tzu Day 27: In Need of a Dog Groomer

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Flirting with Shiloh tired me out.

Dog Groomer Needed!

After Flower finished her wild romping with Candy and Shiloh, she paid me a visit on the couch. While she sat with me, I called Clear Creek Animal Hospital, to find out how much it would cost to take these little shih tzus in for grooming, even though I don’t want to do anything until the are comfortable in the car. I assume it will be roughly what we used to pay for Joey, times three. Gulp.

The hospital’s dog groomer has been on leave, so they referred me to Lia at the Gentle Groomer in Arvada. I called and had an interesting conversation with her. I asked her if she thought it would be possible for me to stay with the shih tzus if I brought them in, since they were fearful dogs. I know; I sounded like an overprotective mother.

Lia told me that she had been dealing with fearful dogs for years, since many animal rescues refer people who need a dog groomer to her, and that from her experience, it was best to act like there was no problem, and the dogs would follow the lead.

I don't suppose you want to give me another treat?Getting to a dog groomer

I told her that their fear included car rides, so I thought it would be hard to get them to a dog groomer. She said that what works for many people is loading the dog up and taking it to McDonald’s, buying something on the menu and sitting there with the fearful dog, giving it some of the hamburger or fries, whatever catches their attention. She said to do that three days in a row, and the dog will associate the car with the pleasant experience and not be afraid anymore. She also suggested taking a bag of hot dog pieces with you to the vet or dog groomer and having the person feed them to the dog to get rid of that fear.

Lia didn’t have any immediate openings, but she said if I came by, she would talk to me for a few minutes about small ways I could groom the girls in the meantime. I decided I was going to take Dottie to the dog groomer with me, and afterwards, we’d stop at McDonald’s. I’ not sure how good the idea is, since many people would probably say I shouldn’t give them junk food, but I might as well give it a shot.

I was having a great day until you made me wear this harness.Lia and I talked about the idea of me taking a grooming class from her, versus paying a dog groomer the cash (approximately $40 a piece) needed to groom three dogs every six to eight weeks. I am deciding if I want to do that in August. It would be $100 for the dog groomer class, but then I would need to buy the grooming tools. I am also going to contact a mobile dog groomer I heard about. Delores at BFF Rescue had thought that would be a good solution, but if I can get the girls used to the car, I probably won’t have to do that.