YOUR SHICHON PUPPY  OR SHIH-TZU  PUPPY AND SMALL CHILDREN

Our shichon or shih-tzu puppies do very well with young children as long as a few guidelines are set in place.   The children MUST be taught to understand the puppy and handle him properly.  Play time between our shichon or shih-tzu puppies and children must be 100% supervised for the first couple months until the puppy gets older.  If you think about it ~ you wouldn’t allow your 2 or 3 year old to take your two month old baby into the other room to play with, would you?  Then please don’t allow them to take your new shih-tzu or shichon puppy out of your sight.  Play periods must be kept short.  If you’ve been playing with the puppy for 10-15 minutes, then place the puppy back in its pen or crate so that it can have some rest time also.  Just as an infant, a new shichon or shih-tzu puppy needs frequent rests.

Have your children sit on the floor so that they are at the puppy’s level.  Let the puppy come up to the children rather than the children going up to the puppy.  A child moves quickly and sometimes rather clumsily, and this could frighten a shih-tzu or shichon puppy and cause it to nip in self defense.  A child should never run or shout while holding the puppy, as this also would cause the puppy to become frightened.  A shih-tzu or shichon puppy will grow and mature just as a child grows and no longer needs as much supervision.

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