Socializing Your Shih Tzu With The World Outside
Every shih tzu owner will naturally want their pet to be an amiable companion that can handle a variety of social situations. But in any case, the least reason any shih tzu owner can have for getting their shih tzu well-socialized as a puppy ought to be to prevent the fostering of a fear biting response. Some animals simply mature into mistrustful adults due to many experiences of being afraid. Being dogs, they come to deal with all situations with hackles raised and teeth bared since they are too tense to understand.
Towards the end of a socially-adjusted shih tzu, there are plenty of practical Shih Tzu training tips you can do to initiate contact with other people. An example is to bring your dog to a place that people frequent everyday for the first 3 months since you got it. Even if the place is just a new corner of the same park, what is important is the new smells and new people that the dog gets to familiarize itself with every day. In the long run, your dog gets to realize that new things will always be encountered often, so there is no need for it to get excited.
It is sure that out there, your shih tzu will encounter dogs that are genuine reasons for concern and wariness. But if you are thinking of scooping up your dog away from any bigger dog that passes by, then you need to change this outlook. Babying the dog is among the worst decisions you could posibly make; this gets the dog accustomed to the idea that it is fine to go running, feeling scared or to tense up every time it sees a bigger dog.
In order to have a better control of what may happen, greet the owner of the large dog to have a hint of how friendly they are. If not, you can walk on the other side of the street. Otherwise, allow the dogs to meet and greet as they should.
And what about the noise level? In fact, it is best to simply allow the meeting dogs to make the noise they need to make. Besides, in the eyes of dogs, dominance is not decided through size. Shih tzus are not prone to dominance issues, but males will want to assert their influence on dogs of any size they perceive to be subordinate. So give the two dogs time to think things over as they size up the dominance of the other. But for a dog with shitzu training, it’s basically a question of good manners.
But you should take even more care in case your dog meets the rough-housing type of kids. The case with children is that few of them actually know when the pulling and hitting is getting too much. Thus, children must never be allowed to meet shih tzus without an adult companion. They certainly can become fast friends, but it takes time.
