I rarely, rarely do board and trains anymore, but when I do they are most often for puppies. Like B.B.!
B.B. belongs to some long time clients of mine, and came into his board and train with me specifically with toileting, crating, scheduling, and a couple of basic obedience goals. He’s a 15wk old shih tzu puppy they adopted from a local rescue group. BB and his litter were part of a hoarding case, but he got an awesome start in his foster home before adoption. They’ve been doing well with him since they got him, but needed some extra help and support with some of his training.
Today is day 5 into his stay with me and so far he’s making great progress. I know his owners will be thrilled when I see them for their mid-stay lesson today that he now has structured quiet evening hours, sleeps soundly without accident in his crate for the overnight times they requested, and has structured quiet morning times. For their own health and age related reasons really needed to get him on a schedule where he had set quiet hours and a solid sleeping overnight.
We’ve also been working on his leash walking skills, sitting for meet & greets, stays, fetch, learning to take turns, recalls, dog social skills and so much more. He’s a really smart, fun and awesome pup!
I haven’t personally known any shih tzus. I do know a Pomeranian who is a little nut, a Tibetan Spaniel who is totally zen, and two very intense Patterdale terriers. Other than that, I haven’t known many small dogs, but I like all the ones I’ve met.
Neat! Small dogs can be a lot of fun! And super smart, often people don’t give them enough credit for how quickly they can learn and how fun they are to train 🙂
I totally agree. I wasn’t a big fan of micro dogs but when I met one Chihuaha he really did steal my heart. I got a Jack Russell so he’s not big either but with his high spirits he might be mistaken for a Dobbie 😉
Lol! Those jacks are certain big personality in a small package!
I personally have loved all of the Shih-Tzu’s or shih-tzu mix puppies I have in my classes. They are so responsive when they are little and so fun and bouncy! Good luck and have fun, puppies really are a lot of work!
When I used to teach puppy classes I was always encouraged when small dog puppy owners came, so often I was more likely to only see small dogs if/when they developed behavior concerns. That’s awesome you have such proactive small dog puppy owners coming to class! Agreed, the shih tzu pups are super fun!
Yes trying to train a small dog after it has issues is so challenging, we get a lot of those too, I used to get more small dogs as puppies in Massachusetts than Montana but when we get them they are so fun and easy as puppies!!