Shih Tzu – Teach Your Shih Tzu To Respect You As The Pack Leader

The basis of training any shih tzu is winning its trust,
confidence and respect. True training cannot begin until the
shih tzu has accepted you as its leader, respects you and
entrusted you with his or her confidence.

The mistake many shih tzu puppy owners make is mistaking love
and affection for respect and confidence. While it is certainly
important to love your new shih tzu puppy, it is also very
important that the shih tzu puppy respect you and see you as his
leader. Dogs are naturally pack animals, and every dog looks to
the lead dog for advice and direction. Making yourself the pack
leader is vital to the success of training any dog.

Failure to gain the respect of the shih tzu can create a shih
tzu who is disobedient, out of control and even dangerous.
Problem shih tzu are dangerous, whether they are created through
bad breeding, owner ignorance or improper training. It is
important to train the shih tzu right from the start, since
retraining a problem shih tzu is much more difficult than
training a shih tzu puppy right the first time.

It is important for any new shih tzu owner, whether working with
a 12 week old shih tzu puppy or a twelve year old shih tzu dog,
to immediately get the respect of the animal. That does not mean
using rough or dangerous handling methods, but it does mean
letting the dog know that you are in control of the situation.
Shih Tzu need structure in their lives, and they will not resent
the owner taking control. As a matter of fact, the shih tzu will
appreciate your taking the role of trainer and coach as you
begin your training session.

When working with the shih tzu, it is important to keep the
training sessions short at first. This is particularly important
when working with a young shih tzu puppy, since shih tzu puppies
tend to have much shorter attention spans than older shih tzu
dogs. Keeping the training sessions short, and fun, is essential
for proper training.

Beginning training sessions should focus on the most basic
commands. The heel command is one of the most basic, and one of
the easiest to teach. Start by putting the shih tzu dog or shih
tzu puppy in a properly fitted training collar. Be sure to
follow the instructions for fitting and sizing the color to
ensure that it works as intended. Begin to walk and allow your
shih tzu to walk beside you. If the shih tzu begins to pull,
gently pull on the leash. This in turn will tighten the training
collar and correct the dog. If the gentle pressure is
ineffective, it may be necessary to slowly increase the
pressure. Always be careful to not over-correct the shih tzu.
Using too much pressure could frighten the shih tzu and cause it
to strain more. If the opposite problem occurs and the shih tzu
lags behind, the owner should gently encourage it until it is
walking beside the owner.

Most shih tzu figure out the heeling concept fairly rapidly, and
quickly figure out that they should walk beside their owners,
neither lagging behind nor pulling ahead. Once the shih tzu has
mastered heeling at a moderate pace, the owner should slow his
or her pace and allow the shih tzu to adjust along with it. The
owner should also speed up the pace and allow the shih tzu to
speed up as well. Finally, walking along and changing pace often
will reinforce the lesson that the shih tzu should always walk
at the heel of the handler.

>From heeling, the next step should be to halt on command. This
halt command works well as an adjunct to heel. As you are
walking, stop and watch you shih tzu. Many shih tzu immediately
realize that they are expected to stop when their handler does.
Others may need the reminder of the leash and the training
collar.

After the halt on command has been mastered, the handler should
encourage the shih tzu to sit on command as well. Once the shih
tzu has stopped, the handler gently pushes on the shih tzu’s
hindquarters to encourage the sit. Usually, after this walk,
halt, sit procedure has been done a few times, the shih tzu will
begin to sit on his own each time he stops. Of course, it is
important to provide great praise, and perhaps even a treat,
every time the shih tzu does as he is expected.