Puppy Shih Tzu Care
How Adopting Helps Shih Tzu Rescue’s Limited Resources
With its beautiful coat, its bratty charm, and the way it holds itself, the Shih Tzu has been regarded by many as a regal pet. People new to this breed imagine how soft the coat may be, and are simply blown away by just how softer touching the actual fur is. It’s no wonder so many people love this small dog breed. Imagine brushing that coat for hours on end – the Shih Tzu has been cited many times as a regal dog not just because of how it looks at behaves, but also because of easy it is to carry around.
If you’re used to bigger dogs you can play fetch with and wrestle with on your living room floor, you better not get a Shih Tzu. This breed can be mistaken for a stuffed toy, and may get crushed like one. As many pet owners have noted, it’s not easy to train a Shih Tzu to do what you want – it has to want to do that activity, you have to make it want to do it. This breed ranks high in the loyalty and companionship department – unlike other dogs, a Shih Tzu can stay on your lap for hours on end.
It’s downright unthinkable for some pet owners how someone could abandon these dogs that end up in a Shih Tzu rescue – but the reality is that finances become tight, people move to other cities for a better job, or the home situation may not be conducive to taking care of such a dog. Once in a while one of these orphaned dogs walk up to the shelter’s staff in the parking lot, but most of them are found on the streets, usually cold and malnutrition.
Most of the dogs house in Shih Tzu rescue are already adult ones; sometimes though you can get lucky and chance upon puppies ready for adoption. Although you stand to get a better bloodline puppy with a reputable Shih Tzu breeder, you stand to help more when you adopt an adult dog from a Shih Tzu rescue.
There is a lot of money to be made in selling puppies designed for whimsical owners with cash – but instead the shelter’s staff are providing a halfway house for these abandoned dogs, some of them injured and traumatized. You have to keep this in mind, along with the other fact – many dogs get put down by shelters because of the limited resources shelters have to contend with. Other orphaned dogs can use the facilities and care of the staff when you adopt a dog from the shelter; the staff trusts you with the dog so you’d be best be sure your can provide a good home. Let your home be the place they can recover, and your company be the nurturing one an orphaned dog needs.
Shelters make use of foster homes, where dogs live in a family environment, different from the shelter’s; the dogs live in these homes until the shelter can find a suitable home for them. Having spent some time with the dogs and owing to their experience with the breed, the shelter staff can generally provide relevant information about the dog or dogs you want to adopt.
