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Once you accept a Shih Tzu into your life, you marvel at how vivacious and friendly they are. They can help you cope with your problems by helping you take a different perspective - theirs. After a couple of years, you begin to wonder how you ever could have existed without a Shih Tzu, because they bring you so much and ask for so little in return. Once you get to know one Shih Tzu, you can’t help but care for the welfare of all Shih Tzus and all dogs.

If you love dogs, then you should never buy Shih Tzu puppies (or any other puppy) from a pet store. You should not even buy any supplies from those shops. Why? Well, here’s the Shih Tzu information your local pet store that sells puppies does not want you to know - they buy all of their puppies from puppy mills. These are deplorable places where highly sensitive, friendly Shih Tzus, through no fault of their own, are treated in conditions worse than death.

Even Hitler didn’t deserve to live in a puppy mill (well, maybe), let alone innocent dogs that never committed a crime or bore anyone a grudge. If you want to stop puppy mills, then you have to do certain things. You can write to your local politicians demanding the end to puppy mills. You could support charities fighting to bring about the end of puppy mills. And, you can bring down puppy mills in the nicest way of all - buying your next puppy from a Shih Tzu breeder or adopting one from a Shih Tzu rescue.

Sometimes Shih Tzu rescues and your local animal shelters might have Shih Tzu or Shih Tzu mix puppies for adoption. Six to nine months of age is one of the times dogs are most abandoned. They’ve passed their really cute puppy stage and cold reality is setting in. If you bought a puppy on impulse (which often happens in a pet store), then you may be saddled with a dog that you are not compatible with.

If you remember only one thing from this article, please remember this - ALWAYS buy your Shih Tzu puppy (or ANY puppy) from a reputable Shih Tzu breeder. Puppies are not like fish or mice which are very social and don’t need a lot of exercise.

The pet store employees usually have so much work to do that they cannot give the puppies the individual attention they need at this critical time. A puppy learns best from eight to fourteen weeks of age. When they miss this window, they will have a hard time learning to be a good pet.

Puppies are highly impressionable from two to four months of age. Whatever they learn during this period usually stays with them the rest of their lives.

This is the perfect time for them to be house trained, leash-trained and trained for all the things they need to know for their lives as companion animals. With Shih Tzu breeders, the puppies get the education they need at such a critical time.