Blog
Bringing Home Your Shih Tzu Puppy
The first night, the first week and the first few months. What to expect, what to have ready, and how to make the move from our home to yours an easy one.
Before your puppy arrives
A little preparation makes the first days calm for everyone. Have ready:
- A small crate or a playpen, with a soft bed inside. A Shih Tzu stays small, so the puppy size is the adult size.
- A pin brush and a metal comb. A minute or two a day from the first week is what keeps the coat easy later on.
- Food and water bowls, small and shallow.
- Small-breed puppy food. Your puppy comes with some of what it is eating now, plus pee pads, a collar and lead, its blanket and toys, so the first days are covered.
- A vet appointment booked for the first three days. Our one-year health guarantee starts with that check, and it is a lovely first outing.
The first night
Your puppy has just left its mother and littermates, so a little crying on the first night is completely normal. Put the crate or pen beside your bed with the blanket that came with your puppy inside it, and when it whimpers, a quiet word and a hand through the bars is enough. A puppy that can hear and smell you settles quickly; a puppy shut in another room learns that nights are lonely.
Take it outside or to the pad last thing, and expect one trip in the night for the first week or so.
The first week
Keep the world small. One or two rooms, the crate, the garden or the pad, and the people who live in the house. Give your puppy three or four quiet days before friends and family come to meet it; the puppy you see in week two is the real one, confident and curious, and the quiet start is what gets it there.
Your puppy arrives already started on potty training: our puppies begin with us before they leave and know the basics of the pad. Keep the same routine going: out or onto the pad when it wakes, after every meal, after play, and last thing at night. Shih Tzus take a little longer than big dogs to finish the job, so patience and praise win. Accidents are cleaned with an enzyme cleaner rather than anything with ammonia in it, which smells like urine to a dog.
Change food gradually across a week, three quarters of ours to a quarter of yours and then step by step to all yours, and feed little and often: three or four small meals a day at eight weeks, down to two by six months.
Weeks two to four
Now your puppy knows the house and it is time to widen the circle. Visitors, car rides in the carrier, the sounds of a normal home, gentle handling of feet, ears and mouth every day so the groomer and the vet are never a fright later on.
Your vet will give the next round of vaccinations at ten to twelve weeks. Until the course is complete, keep your puppy off the ground in public places and away from dogs you do not know; carry it in your arms or a carrier instead, and it can still see the world.
Start brushing properly now, a few minutes a day down to the skin. It is far easier to start the habit at nine weeks than at nine months. Grooming a Shih Tzu, in full.
Months two to four
The final vaccinations fall at fourteen to sixteen weeks, and the rabies shot around the same time. Once your vet gives the all clear, walks, puppy classes and the wider world are open, and a well socialised Shih Tzu will take it all in its stride.
The first professional groom happens around sixteen weeks: a bath, a tidy, nails, and a gentle introduction to the table. After that, every six to eight weeks for life. Teething means chewing from about twelve weeks, so keep cables out of reach and toys within it.
By four months you will have a small, confident, affectionate companion who knows your routine and follows you from room to room. That is the Shih Tzu at its best, and it is what our puppies are raised for.
We are here the whole way
Every Royal Silk puppy goes home with its health documents, food, blanket, toys, treats, pee pads, a collar and lead, a care guide, our one-year health guarantee, and us on the end of the phone for as long as you have your dog. Questions about food, about the coat, about a first night that did not go to plan: ask. We are happy to help.
Ready to bring one home?
See who is available and send us a message about the one that has caught your eye.