Is the shihtzu a good dog?
I've had a ShihChon female for nearly a year now, who in and of
herself is the younger sister (by a litter) of my Mother's
ShihChon; they're adorable little dogs, curious, occasionally
naughty (but this really seems to be determined by the dog), and
rather intelligent. My Mother's ShihChon really settled out of the
hyper-active "puppy phase" by about 8 months, whereas my puppy,
Morrison, has what my boyfriend and I have dubbed "crazy puppy
night" every evening at roughly 8pm, where she does a repeated
circuit of our living room furniture for roughly 10-15 minutes
before collapsing in complete exhaustion.
My Mother's dog, Moose, is more of a lapdog than mine; Morrison
likes to have her own way and is constantly exploring, causing
mischief, or clowning around, so I don't mind much. Usually at
about 9pm she settles for the night, at which point she becomes an
11lb stone on my abdomen until I declare that it's time for bed.
Mom and I both have females, so I can't really speak for the
personality of the boys, but I can't expect that they would be that
much different.
These little dogs have HUGE personalities. Moose absolutely
HATES squirrels and has to chase them whenever she sees them
outside; Morrison, on the other hand, has what we call "mortal
enemies" and only flips out when she happens to catch sight of our
neighbor's two pugs. She's pretty easy to maintain, but she needs
regular grooming (their 'fur' gets pretty tangled between the inner
and outer coats) which usually costs about $100 a month (for two
grooming sessions); she's obsessed with cheese, continually steals
my food (if I leave it on the coffee table - my own fault, I should
know better! LOL); but it's all worth it when I go to bed and she
curls up on my pillow with me.
And nothing is better than your alarm clock waking you up by
licking your nose.