Shih Tzu – Train Your Shih Tzu For Desired Behaviors

Teaching a shih tzu proper behavior while it is young is very
important. While playing and having fun with your new shih tzu
puppy or dog is certainly important, it is also important to
teach your canine companion just what is expected – which
behaviors are acceptable and which behaviors are not acceptable.

Teaching these lessons early, while the shih tzu is still a
puppy, is the best guarantee that these lessons will be learned
and retained. Shih Tzu learn quickly, and every interaction
between human and shih tzu is teaching the shih tzu something.
Making sure you are teaching the right lessons is up to you as
the shih tzu handler.

Proper training techniques are important for the protection of
the shih tzu as well as the protection of the family and the
community at large. While shih tzu are loving, protecting
members of the family in most cases, a poorly trained shih tzu
can be dangerous and destructive. Making sure your new addition
is a pleasure to be around and not a menace is up to you as the
owner.

The relationship between humans and dogs goes back for many
thousands of years, and dogs have been domesticated longer than
any other animals. Therefore, humans and dogs have developed a
bond not shared by many other domesticated animals. This strong
bond is very useful when training any dog.

All potential shih tzu owners and would be dog trainers should
understand how dog society works in the absence of humans. It is
important to understand the pack hierarchy, and to use that
hierarchy to your advantage as you train your shih tzu. All pack
animals have a lead animal, in the case of dogs it is the alpha
dog. All other members of the pack look to the alpha dog for
direction and guidance. The alpha dog in turn provides important
leadership in hunting, fending off other predators, protecting
territory and other vital survival skills. This pack arrangement
is what has allowed wolves and wild dogs to be such successful
predators, even as other large predators have been driven to
extinction.

What all this means to you as the shih tzu trainer is that you
must set yourself up as the pack leader – the alpha dog if you
will – in order to gain the respect and trust of your shih tzu.
If the shih tzu does not recognize you as is superior and its
leader, you will not get very far in your training program.

Respect is not something that can be forced. It is rather
something that is earned through the interaction of human and
shih tzu. As the shih tzu learns to respect and trust you, you
will begin to make great strides in your training program. A
training program based on mutual respect and trust is much more
likely to succeed in the long run than one that is based on fear
and intimidation.

A fearful dog is likely to at one point become a biting dog, and
that is definitely one thing you do not want in your life.
Rewarding the shih tzu when he does the right thing, instead of
punishing him for doing the wrong thing, is vitally important to
the success of any training program.

Punishment only confuses and further frightens the shih tzu, and
it can set a training program back weeks if not months. It is
important to give the shih tzu the option to do the right thing
or the wrong then, and to reward the shih tzu when it makes the
right decision. For instance, if the shih tzu chases joggers,
have a friend jog by while you hold the shih tzu on the leash.
If the shih tzu attempts to chase the “jogger”, sit him back
down and start again. You are not punishing the wrong decision,
you are simply providing the choice. When the shih tzu remains
sitting calmly by your side, give him a treat and lots of
praise. The shih tzu will quickly learn that sitting is the
right choice and chasing the jogger is the wrong choice.