Newbie to Forum, please help!

[kewlgimp07]

I have a shih-tzu yorkie mix and he will be 4 months old on april 14th. I just wanted to ask some questions about training my puppy. His name is Buster. We have two cats, and one of our cats hates the dog, will growl at him and hiss and meow. The other cat is older and he is more tough than the other and doesn't really care about the dog. The trouble is that the cats look alot alike, both black and white, the bigger one just being fatter and long hair. Well Buster really wants to play with the cats, and so whenever he sees them he chases them and barks at them, won't bite them or anything, just chases them and barks at them. The older one just walks and lets the dog bark like whatever, go ahead and bark. The problem is that before we got buster, melvin (the younger cat) was my baby and so I think that he just feels horrible. On top of that, we moved a couple weeks before getting Buster, and Melvin HATES moving! What should we do about Buster and the cats? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Another thing is Buster really likes to chew and bite and when you are trying to pet him, he wants to chew on you, replacing your hand with a toy, only works for a short time. And telling him no, doesn't work at all. When you are sitting with him on the couch he is just a complete spaz and when you tell him no and give him a toy he will start barking at you and leap at your face and nip at your face. Are all puppies like this? One more thing, are shih tzu or shih tzu mixes hard to potty train? Seems like he's not getting it! But we love him!! Please give suggestions!!

 

[Renee750il]

For the biting, when he's on the couch with you and does his biting and barking thing, put him on the floor and ignore him for awhile. Don't let him back up on the couch with you for several minutes. When you do let him back up, if he does it again, put him back down - this time for a longer time. Even the most stubborn dog will get with the program after being consistently ignored for unpleasant behaviour. The key is to be consistent.

Same thing works when he bites while you're petting him. Stop and walk away from him, ignoring him completely.

As far as the cats go, well, cats are going to work things out in their own way, in their own time, lol! A little catnip probably wouldn't hurt the inter-species relations though, and some extra attention for Buster, an occasional sardine for the cats, etc.

When it comes to housetraining a Shih-Tzu - I'll leave that to the other li'l critter owners - they seem to have different issues from the big 'uns like mine.

 

[Khristine]

i'm not too fond of shih tzu's .. but out of experience with yorkie mixes (Oreo is a Yorkie/Pomeranian mix) .. it only took him 1 week to be fully pee-pee trained.. and another wee for number 2.. so 2 weeks in total for him to be pottytrained..but i got him when he was about 7 or 8 weeks old..

but for Ginger, i got her at 4 months old, she sometime's gets it and other times doesn't.. i just always have to put her on her wee-wee pad everytime she misses and tell her to go potty on there..

i have a co-worker who has two female shih tzu's and it took her a while to train them both.. i guess it just depends on how well you train, or i guess how often you train and stuff like that.. cause with oreo, i wasn't working yet and was with him 24/7! so he learned quickly! but whatever the case may be.. i wish you the best of luck!

 

[i'm_sofa_king]

i have a male Shih Tzu. we at first started to potty train him to go on the wee-wee pads, cause it was still winter time when we got him. now he goes outside. he can be a little thinkheaded and stubern at times. he gets along great with our cat. our cat out-weights him and will probably always out weigh him, 19lbs and stands 14 inches high at his back. they play all the time, or rather the dog always wants to play with the cat. at first the cat would just takle him and hold him down for a minute and then let him up, as if to say "had enough?" of cause he hadn't had enough and the puppy would go right back for more. here recently the cat has started to chock him. he holds him down and bites his neck. if your not watching them at all times you have to be listening for the dog to start couching and stuff. but once you get them apart, he goes right back for more.

he used to do the attach of the face thing. we just told him "no" and bobpt him on the nose lightly. he's getting better about not biting now. just be persistant, and patient.