During your meals, you need to train your Shih Tzu dog to sit and stay in a specific area when the family is eating. This may take some time but eventually they will remain in a sit position until after your dinner is over and then of course you should praise their actions by offering them up a nice hot meal that they can eat in their own food bowl, but only after everybody else is finished eating.
Shih tzu dogs are extremely smart and reactive to their environment and that includes us as pet owners. Our body language plays a major part in how they act, both positively and negatively. Displaying the proper body language will rapidly stop you shih tzu from any signs of negative behavior.
As with any animal, sometimes our shih tzu’s actions will upset us. Some pet owners chase their animals around the house yelling and screaming. You should not do this under any circumstance. Your shih tzu will only think you a playing with them and will continue to run.
When it comes time to give commands to your shih tzu take note of your posture. You should stand almost like a marine with your chest out and head back. Also, speak in a firm voice. This will let your shih tzu know that you mean business and the shih tzu will have more respect and also be slightly intimidated. This will help in the training process.
Shih tzu’s tend to get wound up like a top easily and your reaction to that will determine whether or not this behavior worsens or improves. If this occurs make sure you act the opposite by moving slowly and using the same behavior that you want them to display. This will relax the shih tzu and start to change their behavior almost immediately.
Retrieval training is also a fun task to take on. The best way to take care of this first step is to use little bits and pieces of dog food or dog snacks. Take out the food and just sprinkle two or three treats on the ground. Do not let your Shih Tzu dog run to eat the food too fast. In fact, you should first train him or her to sit and stay until released, and then you point to the ground and say “pickup”, “pickup”.
Now repeat the process and every time you drop a piece of food simply use the same command to “pickup” and your shih tzu will quickly associate that with putting something in their mouth. This training usually doesn’t take long at all especially when using things your shih tzu loves to eat. Try doing it when they are hungry to speed up the process.
One other thing to keep in mind is when your shih tzu is less than one year old, never allow them to roam around your house freely. Instead confine them to one room with a gate. If you do not do this then you will be unpleasantly surprised when arriving home from work.
