Shih Tzu

sellerbarry

Just got the family an 8 week old pedigree shih tzu today.The poor little blither is beside me in her little bed on the floor. Couldn't bare to leave it downstairs on it's first night away from its mother. Anyone got one of these dogs? If so, post up a few tips.
Thanks all.
Will post pic tomorrow;)

ha-ya-said-what

Buy a slicker brush & groom daily

Keep the long hair around the pads of the feet clipped, as it easily gathers mud & will build up like soles on boots!

Clean the eyes weekly or when needs be

Do not feel sorry for the wee mite when she starts whining when you leave the room etc, it's a very, very bad trait that Shih Tzus develop where they will whine & squeal to get their own way. A lot of shih tzu's end up in rescues/shelters for this reason where they continue this habit & try to dominate over their owner & aim to boss them around with the constant whines to demand. Oddly tho 90% of them I've come across for re-homing due to that were male!

sellerbarry

Thanks for the advice. Heard i'll need it with these little monsters:D

sellerbarry

Was awake twice last night. 3 am and 5.30.
At 3.am she woke and i put her on papers at door. She did pee. straight back to sleep.
At 5.30 she went to door herself and did poo. (what a good 8 week old?).

Think i'm doing it right. If not, someone pull me up over it .
Thanks:rolleyes:

cowhands

Im a shih tzu owner and have to say they are such a lovely breed.

Vinny , was fairly easy to house train, we used puppy pads and kept a constant eye on him. We kept the pads near the door and slowly took them away, once he went to the door we let him out to do his business and praised him when he managed to do it outside - it worked very well.

Our little fella prefers to sleep outside in a dog house than come inside for the night :eek: he would cry and cry and cry to be left out if we tried to keep him in.

He is sooooo good with out 15month old daughter, she laughs her heart out at him, and kisses and cuddles him.

He gets very over excited when he meets other dogs though. And can be a bit jealous if my other half gets more attention on the couch than him.

He loves to play football and likes to sit up on high things like the kitchen window sill and look in


I would agree with the other poster than they can be very vappy and whingey and extermely persistant and stubborn!

sellerbarry

Well, here she is SMARTIE (i know, but my 3 year old wants to call her that, and who am i to argue?)

andreac

Hi, congrats on the pup, she is gorgeous.

With toilet training, i would try and avoid paper etc as it can only make training them take longer.

I would recommend Crate training or get up in the night to let her out to do her business. With the paper its only confusing her as you will want her to go outside and you are teaching her to go on paper too so its only going to confuse her as to where you want her to go.

Puppies will have accidents so be prepared for that, its not their fault. A young pup cannot hold it for very long so you need to take the pup out regularly to relieve itself.

This should be after every mealtime, after a drink, a play session and when they wake up from a sleep.

When you bring the pup outside praise it for going, lots of fuss, maybe a treat too, she has to realise that going outside is the way you want and she gets lots of reward and fuss for going there.

Please make sure too that your pups is not brought outside (apart from your garden) until all vaccinations are done as they are at risk of catching diseases like Parvo, Lepto which can be fatal in young pups.

Your puppy should be getting fed at least 4 times a day at the moment, and on a good quality puppy food. Try not to feed stuff like Pedigree etc from the supermarket as they arent the best for them, full of artificial colours and flavours. Your local pet shop should have a good selection of quality dry complete foods.

Hope this helps.:)

cowhands

Awh thanks for the pictures shes soooo cute. Gorgeous little thing!
And Smartie is an excellent name I love it!

I wanted to call mine Gucci but the other half wouldnt have it. Said he wasnt walking anywhere when he had to call "Gucci" to come back.

We settled on Vinny after a while. Think it suits him though.

As a child I had a shih tzu called Rimsky (after a Russian composer) and that got some eye brows raised at the time lol

sellerbarry

HI all,
Just wondering what type of treats can i get for my shih tzu? I haven't given anything else except food and water since i got her. Thanks all.;)

Eibhin

She's still too young for treats so you can use some of her food allowance as a treat if you are trying to train her.

If you go down the road of giving her treats at this stage she won't eat her regular food then, and to be honest a lot of treats are full of junk!

Good luck with her

sellerbarry

Eibhin wrote: »

She's still too young for treats so you can use some of her food allowance as a treat if you are trying to train her.

If you go down the road of giving her treats at this stage she won't eat her regular food then, and to be honest a lot of treats are full of junk!

Good luck with her

Cheers for the heads up.;)

Stacey.x

aww! shes so sweet

sellerbarry

hi again.
My local petshop gave me a pigs ear for her to chew on. Are theses ok for her? She seems to like it. Can i buy a teething toy for her.?

lorebringer

Pigs ears can give young pups a dodgy belly, so I would steer clear. Most pet shops stock things that are designed to be chewed and plenty of puppy toys, unfortunately for some dogs and pups (a few of mine included!) smelly socks are much more appealing than toys :rolleyes:

By the way - she's a cutie!

Eibhin

Agree with above poster. It would be like giving a 6 month old baby a packet of crisps!

Avoid all that stuff for now and just stick to the chewing toys!

andreac

sellerbarry wrote: »

hi again.
My local petshop gave me a pigs ear for her to chew on. Are theses ok for her? She seems to like it. Can i buy a teething toy for her.?

Please do NOT give this to your pup, she is far too young for things like this.

Theres no need for her to be getting any treats like that yet as shes still very young.
Pigs ears are too harsh for a young pup and very salty too so please do not give her the pigs ear unelss you want a sick pup which could end up with the runs.

Sigma Force

I stopped giving my adult dogs pigs ears, I've had them both at the vets because at different times after eating them, dunno what it is about them perhaps they are stored too long in packets (they weren't out of date) or the greasyness but both dogs had fierce runs after them it was deffo. from the pigs ears.

Our pup is a small breed and while he was teething we got him a puppy kong which is brilliant, make sure you get the small one for his size. And Petstages toy, I removed all the material bits but the bone shaped one was brilliant he would chew it for hours and it saved our fingers. Nylabones can work well too. Ice cubes are handy to have and frozen pineapple pieces.

There's tons of puppy toys out there I found the laytex ones were easy to chew bits off. Any of the kong brand are great, puppy version first and as the pup gets older and if you find the kongs are getting damaged got for the red ones.

Only other thing I can recommend is mop and bucket, baby wipes (or the wipes you can get for pooches), allianz or similar pet insurance because puppies can eat anything and everything if he's chipped you get around 6 weeks free cover and puppy classes I don't know how I would of managed without them. Mind you I need to go back again can't wait to start agility when he hits 1.

sellerbarry

Thanks everyone for the advice. Pigs ear is in bin and i'm off out tomorrow for a couple of chewy toys. Funny you might talk about socks. She won't put down my 3 year olds sock at all. And as for the whining, she is downstairs in the kitchen at the moment whining to get upstairs, but i've warned the wife not to touch her. She has all she needs and will bring her out every couple of hours to do her thing.The way she cries, you would swear someone was strangling her. (lol)

andreac

Yeah you really have to ignore the crying, which could go on for ages, but if you give in to her she will learn that crying gets your attention so just be strong and dont give in to her.

If you are tough and dont give in she should settle within a night or 2.

sellerbarry

andreac wrote: »

Yeah you really have to ignore the crying, which could go on for ages, but if you give in to her she will learn that crying gets your attention so just be strong and dont give in to her.

If you are tough and dont give in she should settle within a night or 2.

She has just stopped.

sellerbarry

A few pics in her new jacket.
Has since stopped whining at night too. (thank god!)



Hope you like the pics.
And thanks to everyone for the advice.;)