Kerislc

Congratulations!

Scout is 7 months and only has access to the kitchen unless he is with me. He sleeps in his kennel with the door open next to our bed. I guess I thought that anything left on the table in the kitchen was out of reach(aka the newspaper). Apparently not. So, he doesn't exactly have full reign. Although I have to admit, at 6am on a Sunday I was more concerned about sleep than where Scout was. BTW, the reason I am so frustrated is becuase he is normally so well behaved. He stays in his kennel until we wake up, he plays in the kitchen when I need a break and he has never destroyed anything (except his toy duck). Can you tell I am feeling super guilty now? I'm getting a little defensive about my puppy parenting :oops: . I thought it was funny because it was like he woke up on Sunday and thought "Oh, I am going to be naughty today." Then, last night, he went to bed and woke up as a good dog again. Thus, I am asking why the multiple personalities episode? :-?

We have strict NILIF rules in our house and normally he is very good, but he is learning that even negative attention is better than no attention. I should take him for walks more often though. We play in the backyard a lot, but a change of scenery for his excercise might help.

Ok, I know we all love our dogs like crazy, but do they ever just drive you nuts? I finally had to take Scout to my mom's yesterday because he was being sooo naughty. He woke up at 6 am (usually he will sleep until we get up) and jumped on the bed and would not stop licking my face. He finally got off the bed and I heard a strange noise in the living room. I had made hot chocolate the night before and left a little bit in the glass on the coffee table. Scout had jumped up there and was licking the outside of the glass precariously close to the edge. I took it away right before it fell. Then, I tried to read the newspaper, but he would sit down right in the middle of it everytime I turned the page. When I took a bath, he kept trying to jump in with me so I shut the door and he cried until I got out. I went to church and came back to the newspaper totally torn up and scattered everywhere and the dog was sitting on the kitchen table! I got the dog off the table and he ran in my room and got the water bottle off of my night stand and chewed the lid off of it. He then carried it into the living room leaving a trail of water. I tried to take a nap and he sat and looked at me and cried and everytime I would nod off, he would bark at me. I did not feel well, so I decided that my mom would have more patience. I took him up there and after daying hello to everyone he took off running down the street. I called him and he just ran faster. I finally caught him about a block away. I put him in the house and told my mom that Scout was having a sleep over and left. I called her later and of course, Scout was behaving perfectly. Is he turning into a teenager or something. Why does he have certain days where he is so naughty? And what do I do about it? Sorry this is so long, but I am so frustrated, yet for some reason I can't halp but laugh at all of the things he did yesterday :D . Any advise on discipline?

Where I live, Yorkies are a hot item right now. Everyone is breeding them and they are selling for upwards of $1000. My inlaws friend bought one out of the paper and it took her 6 weeks to get a dog before the whole litter was sold. She had to call as soon as she got the paper and be there by 7 am. The thing that frustrates me is, because of this, everyone is breeding Yorkies. They are creating a population of poorly bred puppies and when these dogs go out of style, what is going to happen? Oh, it makes me mad :madgo:

I have found that incorporating a hand signal for the command worked very well for Scout. He learned the signal before the word. Once you find a technique to teach him, use a signal along with the word. I hold my hand flat, palm down. Now, if Scout sees that, I don't have to even say anything and he will lay down.

And besides isn't one of the best parts about getting a puppy is finding one that you connect with? I would never want someone else to pick out a dog for me! Wrapping up supplies with a gift certificate is a great idea!

Before we got Scout, my husband made me research every single breed that I was even thinking about. At first I wanted a yorkie or a silky (a friend had one that was darling and well-behaved) and I tracked down almost 15 people that had one and decided that that wasn't the dog for me. My husband wanted a pit, so we took care of a friend's for the weekend, and I didn't think that was for me either. I know that some of the behavioral issues begin with the breeding of the dog, however, I don't think people give near enough importance to understanding a breeds tendencies and controling that through often strict training. I decided that I would not own a dog unless I had the time and energy to make it a great, well-behaved, happy dog. My aunt and uncle have a border collie, which has been talked about a lot in this post. They have a trainer that comes to work with their whole family once a week and also takes the dog up with 2 others into the mountains above their house to run almost all day. Because this dog has that strict training and time to excercise, he is an incredible dog. Thank goodness they knew their obstables with a border collie and were wiling to put in the time, enery, and MONEY to make a happy dog. If people would only spend a little more time doing research, we would have far fewer problems. I researched and looked for almost a year and some people, sadly, spend 5 minutes.

What a great thread! It is fun to see everyone's animals. Being kind of new here, it gets hard to remember which dogs go with which person. I have a one dog house. Someday it will be more, but my puppy is just too high maintenance right now to add another into the mix. [b]Scout[/b] is a 6 month old 7 lb. shih tzu/maltese who has become my baby. My husband calls him "Grommet" and I tend to affectionatly refer to him as my "Bubby." Don't ask me why. We are super proud of him because he just learned sit-stay and down-stay last week. My "other baby" is 23, dark brown hair and eyes. Aquired at 16 :o legally at 23 (7 months ago). I think I will keep him.

I know this is kind of a late reply, but oh well. This last week, Scout learned to "wave." I tell him to "wave bye-bye" when ever we leave my mom's house and he does it perfectly. I can't believe how quickly he learnes things as soon as I figure out how to teach him -- which for me is the hardest part.

Oh, that is the frustration of my life! Scout only does it when he really wants our attention. Then he will go in my room and pul our a bra or underwear from the laundry basket and stand in front of me and look at he with this "ha ha" face. He knows it gets my attention. I decided to stop chasing him around to pry it out of his mouth when one day he ran out the doggie door and zoomed around the yard with my bra in his mouth :oops: ! Now we are working on not paying any attention to him when he does that or distracting him with another toy. It hasn't worked yet, but I guess I will just have to be patient and keep trying.

Thanks for the suggestion TGD. I assumed the the chemicals would be gone after it had been used. Maybe I will trade him for a kleenex. He probably won't know the difference.

That sounds like the story of my life! Very funny!

My dog knows that as soon as my husband's alarm goes off, he is allowed to jump up on the bed. He lays a the foot of the bed until my husband gets up (he always pushed snooze twice) and then Scout knows he can come cuddle with me. It is so funny though, because he comes up and gets under the covers and lays his head on my pillow, usually on his back, like me. We should have named him Pinochio (sp?) because he thinks he is "a real boy" :D .

My dog and I have a deal. He will leave me alone if I let him rip the dryer sheet to shreds while I am folding laundry. I don't think he really eats it though. He has never had a problem with it though. Hope your pup is ok. I am sure he is.

I have a 6 month old shih tzu maltese mix that I have the same problem with. I finally gave up and took her to the groomer. I have been letting him grow and Petsmart will give him a bath, trim his face, feet, and rear end, and clip his toenails for $13. To me, that is worth it. However, I just took him there last week to have his whole body trimmed. I didn't want him shaved (I love their hair long!), so she said it would cost extra. Wow! I got the bill for $45! :o That is more than it costs me. I guess the cost of Scout's haircuts will forever be a secret to my husband :oops:. And I think I will look for a cheaper place next time. . .or just keep trimming his face.

My poor husband has been having a problem finding his socks lately. He is very maticulous about matching them up and putting them in his drawer. Well, while he was out in the yard this weekend raking leaves, he noticed a white pile behind the shed. Lo and behold, Scout had been taking them our the doggy door and stacking them behind the shed. Ther were at least 15 socks. How did he do that without us knowing!? Does anyone else's dog collect things?

I love the look of Weimeraners. We had one in Scout's class and he was so beautiful. They are so sleek.

Glad to see there are other shih tzu owners on Dogo! Cute dog. How long was his hair? I have been letting my dogs grow and only trimming his face and feet. I think it is so cute, but lots of grooming. Luckily, he loves it (as long as he has something to chew on).

Just wanted to give an update on Scout. I took him home Saturday afternoon and he is feeling much better. He is still wearing the cone around his head but other than that is acting normal. The vet that I went to owns the hospital and has been a vet for 30+ years and that is why I took my dog there. He called and talked to me personally and I was given a very sincere apology (not that that helps Scout). He admited that he did make a mistake, which is always nice. He then called about every 4 hours to give me an update. They didn't charge me for anything and gave us two big bags of food to take home. The vet even called on Saturday evening from his house to make sure that everything was going well. I still will never take Scout there again. That whole experience was way to hard on both of us. And the poor guy still had to wear his bumble bee halloween costume. :D

Has anyone heard of this or had this happen? I took Scout in to be neutered on Wednesday. They called me at about noon and told me that everything went well and he was resting. I got a call from the vet about two hours later and he told me that they had to redo the stiches so he was going to be pretty bruised and sore. I was in a meeting and I think I wasn't listening very well because that was only part of the story. I guess that after they tied his blood vessels off and stiched him up, the sutcher (sp?) came off and the blood vessels came untied. They had to go back in, redo the sutcher and stich him up again. They said this is rare, but it does occasionally happen because there is not foolproof way to tie off the blood vessels. I didn't know any of that until the next day. Well, not having anyone really explain the situation to me, I took him home that nightonly to have him cry all night long. I think I got about 15 minutes of sleep. I tried putting him in his kennel and after and hour I couldn't take it. I put him on our bed and he was fine for about an hour as long as I kept rubbing his belly. This went on the entire night. My husband took him back in at 7am and let the Vet Tech have it. That is when they called me and explained the whole situation. They told me that he needs to stay really still and needs to be on an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic. I left him there last night and called today and he is doing better. Should I leave him there another night just to be safe? Sorry this is so long! I am just so worried about him.

Wow, it looks like I started quite a discussion. After reading the posts there were a couple of things I wanted to bring up. I only paid for the vet bills for this puppy. I have seen ads in the paper in SL for hundreds of dollars and I agree that that is excessive The second thing is I did look on Petfinder every day for at least 3 months and even drove 350 miles to look at a dog in Southern Utah, which turned out to have some health problems that I did not feel I could accomodate. I also had wanted to train my dog in the READ program in our city and thought it would be best to train a dog as a puppy if they were going to become a therapy dog. Scout is training for that right now. I guess mixed breed or not is beside the point now. I am a great dog owner and am better informed to make a more responsible decision in the future. At this point that is by far the most important thing.

I have been reading through the breeding posts and have started feeling like a very irresponsible dog owner. I knew I wanted a little dog, probably a shih tzu, and didn't really care if it was pure bred or not. I didn't want to show or breed, I just wanted a companion dog. I looked for [b]months[/b] at the sheters and could not find any small dogs that weren't snippy or old. That was my ideal place to get a dog, but I just couldn't find what I was looking for (and I am allergic to most dogs, so that enhanced my troubles). Anyway, The couple that I ended up buying my dog from bred their AKC shih tzu with their daughter's shih tzu/maltese mix. The puppies all turned out to be darling and not knowing what I do now, that was the most important part. I adore my dog and don't really second guess getting him. I guess my question is, is purchasing a mixed breed frowned upon mainly because of overpopulation? Just curiuos.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I like the idea of putting the board horizontally on the gate. I think I will try that and see how it works. If not, it looks like I will be buying another gate. :wink:

Thanks for the suggestion. I come home everyday at lunch time for an hour and various friends and family tend to drop by during the day to play outside with him. He is crate trained, but I have noticed that he is SO much happier being in a place where he can get a little bit of exercise during the day. There is a night and day difference in his behavior when we leave him crated (which we still do if we are not going to be gone too long). Our kitchen and patch of the yard where he can go is totally puppy proofed, and I would prefer to leave him in that space.