Customer Reviews

Shih Tzu: A Complete Owner's Manual

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a first-time owner of a Shih Tzu puppie. I found this book extremely informative - from choosing your puppy, to crate training, to feeding, to what to expect from your puppy when you first take it home. It also details the breeding process and whether or not breeding is for you. The book is well worth the price.

I truly hate to give a book a bad review, because I know the work that goes into one, but this book truly .... It could pretty much be about any breed of dog, it has such a paucity of information about the shih tzu. I bought it because I had just adopted a shih tzu and wanted any help or tips I could get about the breed, and I learned nothing. Please don't waste your money on this book.

No matter what the rest of the information in this book is like, the mere statement that "Well-run pet shops generally obtain their puppies from good breeders (page 9)" earns the book one star only because there's no way to give it a minus-10 rating. NO good breeder will sell a puppy to a pet store. Pet stores obtain their puppies from puppy mills; now that a lot of people know how appalling the puppy mills are, pet stores will tell people pups come from "local breeders" which just means a LOCAL puppy mill. I could not understand why the author would write such a thing until I read his bio. He works for a manufacturer of pet products. Never, never, never buy a dog or a cat from a pet store unless you enjoy supporting a traffic in animal cruelty.

I am in the process of purchasing a Shih Tzu puppy, and for that reason, this book WAS helpful. It was helpful in a generic sense about the pros and cons of puppies vs. adult dogs, purchasing from a responsible breeder, the expense associated with a puppy, etc., all of which I've seen in other general dog guides. The book outlines roughly the history and orgin of the Shih Tzu, but I found it a bit sparse and was dissapointed. However, there was a very good section on very basic dog training that is sensitive to the Shih Tzu breed. The photos and drawings in the book were a very good bonus. The one thing that I recoiled from was the almost harsh, scolding nature of the author as to who is qualified to add a Shih Tzu to their home, almost using scare tactics and extreme scenarios to frighten people away from the breed. While it is a valuable point that has it's place in any dog breed book, I found it was a bit much. I appreciated the clearly designed chapters and the sections on housetraining and health maintainence.

Thank you for the great service. The book arrived in perfect condition. Thanks for being so prompt in getting it to me. :)

This is a great little book that explains everything you want and need to now about this delightful breed.

This book had a wealth of information that proved helpful and also reinforced lessons already learnt

This is a very informative book. Geared more toward the show dog owner, but has information useful to the pet dog owner, too.
Many great photos.
I am sure we will refer to it often as we raise our new Shih Tzu.