Tag Archives: shih tzus

Shih Tzu Week 34: Feb. 16 (Day 232) – 22 (Day 238)

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Shih Tzu Day 233: Friday, Feb. 17

The chewing of Dentley's sticks is a familiar morning sound.The shih tzus are definitely looking shabby. Not that they care. It doesn’t seem to matter what we do with Flower’s face. It seems like two days after trimming the hair above her eyes, it’s falling down again — she looks like Dennis the Menace. After I gave the shih tzus their beloved Dentley’s wrapped rawhide sticks this morning, Flower jumped up on the Nigel side of the couch to wait for me to sit down. However, she dropped her stick, and it was a free for all, as Nigel raced to steal it and Flower to retrieve it. The chewing of the rawhide sticks is a familiar sound in the mornings. They are all chewing away now, except I think someone took Candy’s. One moment someone will be chewing away, and the next, a stick has mysteriously disappeared. Then, hours later, one of the shih tzus, usually Nigel, is chewing away. I think he steals them and hides them for later.

Shih Tzu Day 234: Saturday, Feb. 18

I realized this afternoon how nice it is to leave the house without putting the coach cushions up, and not have a wet spot when I get back. Flower seems to be cured of her need to relieve herself on the couch when I am gone — or when I am here. I think I could probably start putting the cushions down on the other couch, but I am so used to having her sit on my couch that I hate to lose her to the other one. One independent doggie (Candy) is enough. What Flower does now instead is chew on anything she can reach. Well, I take that back. I know some dogs chew on shoes, but she doesn’t. I was doing taxes this morning, and she grabbed an envelope I had on my laptop table and started chewing on it. She loves chewing on paper, and she loves chewing on plastic. At last! We got Nigel, Flower, and Dottie trimmed, although they still do need a bath. Candy isn’t looking too shabby, so we skipped her for today. What a productive day! Getting taxes done and trimming three shih tzus! And they were all so good. I am particularly happy that Flower and Nigel were so good on the table, since it took a long time to get all that fur off. I don’t think I will consider trying to grow their fur long again anytime in the near future.

Shih Tzu Day 235: Sunday, Feb. 19

Flower was sitting on the Nigel side this morning, and John sat down. At one point, she would have ran. This time, she moved closer to me, but she did let John pet her for several minutes. Poor Nigel doesn’t seem like he feels well. Every once in a while, he will yelp, but we can’t tell why. My guess is it could be his teeth, or maybe an ear problem. I realized we didn’t pull the hair out of their ears yesterday, so we need to check and see if that might be causing the problem.

Shih Tzu Day 236: Monday, Feb. 20

We pulled the hair out of Nigel’s ears, and he seems better today, although he did yelp a few times for no apparent reason. He has been very active today, although he mainly wants to be on one of our laps. Flower followed the lead of Nigel and Candy and ran right up to the door when John came home, but then caught herself, ran back by me, picked up a brown dog on the floor, threw it in the air, like Candy does, and then jumped on the couch next to me. Strange children we have. I guess she was excited, but wasn’t quite sure why. Of course, Dottie, our bump on a log, just sat on the couch. She doesn’t like to move much. I hope I can get her used to activity when it warms back up.

Shih Tzu Day 237: Tuesday, Feb. 21

Flower came to get loving from Dad twice this morning. She got about a foot and a half away and stared at him. Then, she let him touch her chin and pet her ears. It’s probably good that Mom is busy on the computer and Dottie is on one side and Nigel on the other. She has to reach out to the Man. He loves it, since he hated thinking they wanted him to move out. I imagine I’ve said that I think my little shih tzu tribe is adorable. They are all so different. We have begun calling Candy our shih tzu kitty, because she is aloof like many cats, and pounces like cats. Nigel can be so mischievous, and then he climbs his stairs and plops down as close to Mom as he can get, depending on where the laptop is. He can rarely squeeze into my lap when I am working, but he does often put his head on it and go to sleep. There are probably plenty of dogs who regret the invention of laptop computers. Thank goodness he gets Dad’s lap when he is home, and that the girls aren’t lap dogs and don’t fight him for it. Every once in a while, he’ll tip his head way back and look at John or me. He’ll just stare for several sections, and then lay his head back down. I would love to know what he is thinking. I think Flower would be by my side all the time, if big sister and little brother weren’t there. But, she does come to see me often. Just now, she put her paw on my arm, reached up and licked my lips and nose quickly, and then back away. Of course, John doesn’t encourage letting them lick my mouth, but it happens so rarely, that I think it’s adorable. I had to go to the store this afternoon, and Candy was outside, so I knew that would be a problem. We have never raised a hand to her, so her fear must still be a learned reaction to her puppy mill days. As usual, I opened the door to ask her to come in, and she ran and hid under the trailer. Since I put Angels Eyes on thinly sliced turkey for Dottie and Flower each day (for their tear stains), I thought I could lure her in with some. I held it out to her, and she tentatively came to the door, but wouldn’t come in. Finally, I just had to leave her out there, like I have had to do a few times. I told John we need to put her on a leash when we let her outside, so we can reel her in, like his sister does with their cat. It doesn’t help sometimes, because I get exasperated after unsuccessfully trying to lure her in, and sometimes my voice raises, which makes her retreat further. I just have to plan it better, where I let her outside only if I know I won’t need to leave. When I came home, Candy came in, but it was Dottie’s turn to act odd. She went outside and wouldn’t come back in, which is strange, since her couch is inside. I finally had to go out in the grass and get her. She cowered down, so I was able to pick her up. I hate when they act frightened. Sometimes, too, they seem a little confused. I heard chewing coming from Shih Tzu Central this afternoon, and I looked around to see what paper or plastic product Flower stole from me. I was surprised to see she was chewing on a Christmas cane shaped rawhide treat. I wonder where that has been hiding for the last two months.

Shih Tzu Day 219: Snow Day

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We woke up this morning to lots of snow. There was a little area on the porch relatively snow free, so I still fed the female shih tzus outside and Nigel in the kitchen. The snow reminded me of the first snow day we had with the shih tzus, when I put them in their sweaters and sent them out to explore. They are used to snow now, so they ate and came right back in.

Con-Way called John at about 7 and told him that he had the day off. Even if they could get the trucks out to make deliveries, a lot of businesses would be closed. John was very happy. So was Nigel. He got to sit on John’s lap off and on throughout the day.

Since it was a snow day for John, and there was too much snow to tempt us from going anywhere, we watched movies off and on. I did some work that didn’t require a lot of concentration.

Nigel and Candy, the most energized of the four shih tzus, provided some entertainment with their play fighting. At 2:50 p.m., Candy decided it was food time and started prancing around and barking. Then, Nigel ran up to John’s knee, put his paws on it, and growled his protest of their starvation. Dottie and Flower looked a little curious, but didn’t join in. I made them wait, because we were having an early steak dinner. They got a few small bites.

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.