I love running in the snow!!!

Nappy was no more than 6 months old when he experienced his first snowfall. When he realized that he could run and play in the snow, I couldn’t keep him inside the house.

It was one of those days that the snow hadn’t stopped falling, when Nappy went outside and started running in the snow. In the beginning, he would sniff it. Then he would stick his tongue out and taste it. When he realized that it was cool to the touch, he sniffed, pushed it with his flat nose, licked and ate the freshly fallen snow. When the snowflakes fell on him, he raised his head up towards the sky and with his eyes blinking, he just sat there and licked every little snowflake from his lips or as far as he could stretch his tongue on his face.

On such a day, I decided to let him outside, and since it was close to Christmas, I tied a red ribbon on him. He looked like a Christmas present. As soon as I opened up the door, he went outside on the deck and started to run around. I took my camera and took a few pictures of him. Not much longer afterward, he tired out, came inside and almost immediately he sprawled on the floor and fell asleep.

When summer rolls in, he forgets about the snow, and loves running on the grass. But as soon as the first snow falls, he is outside and with the first sniff, he starts licking the freshly fallen snowflakes.

Winning a Trophy

It had been almost a year since we got our little shih tzu. He was fully trained but he still had the puppy aggressiveness that some of the little dogs have. At night, as we would sit down to watch TV, he would start to nip at us, because we didn’t pay any attention to him. We tried everything to make him stop. Nothing worked.

As the days went by, I received the local adult education magazine and noticed that they were offering a training class for dogs from 6 to 12 months old. I decided that it would be a good idea to take him to this class. So I went on ahead and registered him.

The first day came when I had to take him to the school for the training. The class was held in the gym of the school. The first day that we got there, he basically, jumped up into my arms and was afraid to go into the gym. There were a lot of other dogs there, small, medium and large. Little Nappy was quite afraid being there. The instructor told me that I am not supposed to hold him in my arms during the training class. So I put him down on the floor, but he didn’t’ leave my side. He was practically trembling from fear.

We started the exercises and he was doing well. In the beginning, of course, he wouldn’t do all the exercises and he would put his front paws up on my legs for me to pick him up. The instructors helped me along, and eventually, he started to obey and did all the exercises. Of course, he was always afraid of the other dogs, and if any of them came close to him, he would hide behind my legs.

On the second to last day of the class, we had to do a little exercise, in which the dog that would do it first would get a trophy. We had practiced this exercise in the previous classes but with a leash. This time it would be without the leash. We had to walk around the gym with the leash over our shoulders, tied to the dog, but we were not supposed to pull on it or show any type of discipline through the leash. As soon as the instructor shouted “STOP” the first dog that would sit on his behind, without any pull from the leash, would be the winner. So, we went around the gym and as soon as the instructor shouted “STOP” little Nappy put his behind on the floor and sat. I was looking around to see which of the dogs sat down first, when I heard the instructor to say that we had a winner and she pointed at my little Nappy. I was flabbergasted. I didn’t expect him to do it. I never thought that he would get a trophy.

All excited, I picked up his trophy at the end of the class, went home and happily I announced the good news to my husband. Our little Nappy was an obedient and well trained dog.

Since the last class was close to Halloween, I ended up dressing him up as a Super dog and took his picture with his trophy on his side.

Nappy, the Conehead

Nappy was almost 4 months old when we had to take him to the vet to be neutered. It is very difficult for Shih Tzu’s to give birth to puppies. It is better to have them fixed. Their bodies are so small, that any pregnancy will tire the mother and it’s not certain that all the puppies will survive.

Since we heard about these complications, we did not want to be the ones to contribute to this affliction. We arranged with our vet to have our little shih tzu neutered. The day came when we took him and left him with our vet overnight. Even though we only had him for a few weeks, the night seemed endless. We missed having him home running around us with his tiny little feet. The next day even seemed longer. I couldn’t wait to receive that phone call from the vet so that I could go to pick him up.

At last, around 4:00pm I received that call. I anxiously got into my car and drove as fast as I could to get there. He was already awake and ready to come home with me. He circled around me, until I picked him up in my arms. The vet asked me to leave the cone on his neck, just in case he licked his wound. I thought I’d better leave it off. I didn’t expect that my little Nappy would lick his wound. I treated him like human even though he was still a puppy and a dog, to top it all off. Well, not having the cone on, didn’t help. I had to put it back on, since every chance he got he would lick his wound and it would bleed.

We left the cone on for about two weeks. We had to feed him by hand. His face is so flat and the cone was so wide, he couldn’t put his nose in his bowl to get his food. He healed quite nicely, and a couple of weeks later we removed the cone. He grew attached to it though, and wanted to keep it with him at all times. Gradually, I took it away from him and hid it, afraid that he might bite it and swallow some of the plastic pieces.

The days and the months went by and he forgot all about his little ordeal as any dog would. He is still as active as any puppy or any two year old dog would be even though he is neutered. But we don’t mind. We like having him running around and playing with us. When he doesn’t we think there is something wrong with him.