Animals great and small are well known to be wonderful companions. Not only do they offer unconditional love and loyalty, but they can also boost our mental health and wellbeing and help to teach children about empathy and responsibility.
With a third of households in the UK owning at least one dog, it seems that dogs really are man’s best friend. But canines come in a wide variety of sizes and their needs vary greatly from breed to breed. If you are looking to introduce a pup to your family, it’s important to spend a good amount of time researching which breed would best suit your family and lifestyle.
Here we take a look at three reasons to pick a Shih Tzu for your family pet – a small pooch with a big personality.
Highly intelligent
Despite their fun-sized stature, Shih Tzus are remarkably intelligent and easy to train. With plenty of positive reinforcement, you’ll soon have a polite and well mannered pooch that will be a pleasure to take to cafes and well behaved enough for the children to walk.
They are typically very adaptable as a breed, and can equally enjoy long walks and agility classes or be content lazing around with you at home – provided they get at least one walk per day.
Friendly and sociable
The Shih Tzu is a popular breed largely due to their adorable appearance. With their long flowing coats, droopy ears are big eyes, they invoke admiration from everyone they meet. But not only are they incredibly cute, they’re also very friendly and sociable dogs who don’t tend to show much aggression so long as they haven’t had any bad experiences as a puppy.
To ensure your Shih Tzu feels comfortable and confident around new people and other dogs, be sure to take them to puppy classes and socialise them as much as possible when they’re young.
Space saving
At a compact 10” tall, this toy-sized breed doesn’t take up much space in your home. For families with a humble sized garden, the Shih Tzu is a great choice as they don’t need loads of space to be happy. Plus, they’re small enough to easily take with you wherever you go and with their easy-going nature they tend to travel quite happily.
Shih Tzus become very attached to their families, and don’t much like being left alone for long periods of time. Therefore it’s wise to consider how much time you spend at home during the week, and whether or not you’d be happy to have them accompany you and your family on outings over the weekend.
Don’t rush into it
As with any animal you add to your family, buying or adopting a Shih Tzu should be a well researched choice, not a spontaneous decision. Always look through rescue centres first before buying from a reputable breeder, and be sure to prepare for the amount of time, money, attention and training the dog will require.
You may have noticed that Shih Tuzs look a lot like Lhasa Apsos. We’ve got some information on what sets them apart, as well as some reasons why you might want to choose a Lhasa apso as your next pet.
I have two lhasa Apso s as pets and they make wonderful companions they want to be with you all the time I would not be with out mine even though my youngest bark at the tv when animals are on more so dogs.