Training Your Shih Tzu. J. Walker

is a simply wonderful house pet. If you choose to continue on and train for obedience trials or agility competitions, a goal of earning titles in these sports is also well within the average pet owner’s reach.

      To have success at any level of training, it is most important to get to know the Shih Tzu, learn to love him for his strengths, and learn to deal positively with his challenges. Do this and you are almost assured of owning a charming, well-trained Shih Tzu.

      2 What’s Going on in That Brain?

      When your Shih Tzu looks up at you with his big brown eyes, you can almost see his mind working in overdrive. Though small in size, the Shih Tzu is big on brains. Harnessing the “power of the pup” can be easy if you understand the basics of dog behavior.

      How Dogs Learn

      Entire books have been written on the subject of the cognitive abilities of dogs and how they process information. The subject is fascinating, but perhaps what is most interesting is that researchers may have found one of the reasons why the dog became man’s best friend. Somewhere along the evolutionary line, dogs developed a higher understanding of and ability to interpret what we humans are trying to tell them.

      Research shows that dogs will make eye contact with people to initiate communication and solve problems. Dogs also understand how to follow the direction of a person’s point of the finger, a nod, a bow, or a turn of the head, something even rhesus monkeys cannot do without some training.

      These findings may not sound like much, but it’s actually very cool stuff, considering we’ve probably only scratched the surface in understanding the full extent of a dog’s abilities. What’s really important to take away from this research is that when it comes to living with people, heightened communication skills with humans have been critical to the domestic dog’s success.

       Visual Learning

      So, you’ve probably lain awake at night wondering, “How do dogs learn?” Okay, probably not but, should you be curious, dogs are very much visual learners much in the same way as human infants.

      If you are a parent or have worked with small children, you may already know that babies learn behaviors through mimicry. They watch and repeat the behavior if it makes sense to them. Recent studies have shown the same is true of dogs; however, the mimicry is not limited to a dog mimicking other dogs (i.e., interspecies). A puppy will mimic the behavior of humans as well as other dogs.

      For example, if a dog is crated next to another dog and the other dog knows that pulling on a piece of ribbon releases a treat, the dog that is watching will be apt to try to pull the ribbon, too. The same is true if a dog is watching a person pull a ribbon; however, in the latter case, the dog must figure out how best to mimic this action on his own since he doesn’t have hands. Seeing may not be believing, but it certainly is learning for the dog.

       Body Language

      Dogs depend largely on body language to communicate.

      Ever wonder why Shih Tzu seem to recognize (and play really well with) other Shih Tzu? No one really quite understands it; however, it could be that within each breed’s genetic code, there is something that allows members to more accurately” read” the subtle nuances of body language among fellow breed members.

       TZU TIP

      Physical differences between different breeds may throw the level of comprehension off at times (for example, a dog with prick ears may have a harder time understanding a dog with folded ears thinking that the upright ears are a sign of aggression. A dog with a docked tail may be confused by a dog with a full tail) but for the most part, unless a dog is socially inept, he can understand not only the basics of what another dog is communicating, but the nuances as well.

       Hand Signals

      Dogs are adept at watching and interpreting body language, which can be used to the trainer’s advantage. Often it is easier to teach a dog a hand signal for a desired behavior than it is to attach a word to it. One reason is that when you give a command, such as sit, you may unintentionally say it in many ways.

      “Sit,” spoken in a soft voice could mean “Please sit.”

      “Sit” said with a little more authority could mean “Sit now.”

      Sit spoken with a bit of exasperation could be interpreted as, “I am so tired of you pacing the floor. You’ve got to sit before you drive me crazy.”

      “Sit” said in a cautionary tone might mean, “If you don’t sit right now you are going to be in so much trouble.”

      And, “SIT!” when shouted could be taken to mean, “You are in big trouble!”

      See how confused a dog can become with the multiple nuances of one simple word? And that’s just one word from one person. If a dog lives in a house with other adults or children, imagine how many variations of sit the dog now must understand!

      Contrast the variety of meanings of the spoken sit with a simple hand signal, such as a flat-handed, palms up motion. The hand signal is consistent; there’s no difference in intonations. It is also consistent from person to person. A small child can give the same hand signal as an adult, as can a neighbor, and the dog recognizes the signal as the same from person to person.

      Body language and signals are much easier for a dog to learn than words. With that said, however, dogs are also more adept at learning our vocabulary than was once thought.

       Verbal Comprehension

      At one time, it was a popular theory among some trainers that dogs didn’t understand human language and that it was necessary to speak the language of “wolves.” The theory had pet owners growling at their dogs, scruffing them on the necks, and throwing them into alpha rolls to show dominance. We’re lucky more people didn’t get bitten!

      If humans are poor studies at understanding dog behaviors, we’re probably even worse at trying to speak “dog.” It doesn’t work. We don’t sound, look, or act like dogs.

      Fortunately, dogs are capable of learning enough of our language that they figure out what we’re saying pretty well. Some researchers estimate that a dog can learn at least 200 words and may be able to pick out more than one word from a sentence in order to make sense of what you’re saying or asking him to do. So, asking a Shih Tzu to learn a handful of commands should not present a challenge to either dog or owner. What is important is keeping the commands or words consistent, and keeping the tone and intonation of the commands or words as constant as possible.

      Dogs learn hand signals as, or more, easily than voice commands.

      Key Periods

      There are several key learning periods during a Shih Tzu’s life. Understanding when these periods occur and what the implications are to the Shih Tzu’s ability to learn are helpful to the owner in understanding how to approach training the puppy, young adult, and aging senior.

      Neonatal. Puppies are born with their eyes closed. In addition, they aren’t quite finished developing many of their sensory abilities. Despite this, research has shown that picking up puppies and stroking them gently for several minutes every day can make them more receptive to touch and more social toward humans later in life. Because this period is literally in the hands of the Shih Tzu breeder, it is important for the owner to know what kind of early socialization the breeder has given the puppy to better understand what issues the puppy may develop as he matures.

      Shih Tzu tend to recognize other