Get to know your
Shih Tzu.

What is inside the Shih Tzu

This edition combines three parts in one file. The total page count includes general content, the breed-specific section and the planner; it does not refer only to breed-specific text.

1. General foundations

A reading foundation covering home preparation, everyday care, nutrition, training and life together. These chapters are shared across the collection and provide context before the breed-specific section.

2. A section devoted to the Shih Tzu

History, profile and breed-specific care topics organized into ten chapters. Browse the list below and read a short history excerpt to get a feel for the writing style.

3. Printable planner

Pages for your records, details, dates and memories within the same PDF. Print only the sheets you need. This is not an app, and fillable form fields are not advertised.

Your breed-specific chapters

1. Breed history and origins
2. Breed profile and characteristics
3. Health predispositions discussed in the guide
4. Feeding by life stage
5. Energy and activity
6. Temperament and life together
7. Physical care and coat
8. Care calendar
9. Observations organized by body area
10. Training and socialization

A short excerpt to begin

From the history chapter in this edition: a short reading sample.

The Shih Tzu did not emerge from a single deliberate breeding programme the way many modern breeds did — it crystallised at the intersection of two great imperial civilisations. The breed's deepest roots lie in Tibet, where small lion-like dogs were kept by Buddhist monks and associated with the Tibetan Buddhist God of Learning, said to travel accompanied by a miniature lion dog capable of transforming into a full-sized lion. Records of short, square, 'under-the-table' dogs in China date as far back as 1,000 B.C., but the lineage recognisable as Shih Tzu-type coalesces during the Ch'ing (Qing) Dynasty in the 1600s, when Tibetan monks began gifting these dogs to the Chinese imperial court — an act of diplomatic reverence rather than trade.

Excerpt from chapter 20 · History and origins