::A Geek in Korea::

It turns out that we really lucked out when we chose a shih tzu as a pet. We didn’t know a thing going into this whole "pet ownership" deal, but we’ve been mostly happy with the result.

For one, the breed’s temperament is excellent, so Yoshi very rarely barks. The only time he barks is when we are coming home after he’s been alone for a long period of time and gets excited when he hears our keys in the door. Otherwise he’s almost completely silent. Sadly, he spends a lot of time alone when we both work. We feed him before we go, give him some ice and cold water to help him cool down, and make sure he has a place in the shade to relax on the veranda. Other than that, there is little else we can do for his comfort. He’s weathered the heat of this summer very well. I come home to give him fresh water and to feed him on my lunch break, but otherwise he’s alone for a while. He doesn’t destroy anything anymore.

When we take him for walks, he is fairly well behaved compared to some of the other dogs we see. Whenever children approach Yoshi, he sits down and always lets the children pet him. He licks and plays, so thankfully no one has been bitten. It still  make is nervous, so we try to keep a good eye on him and let the children only touch his back, not his face or ears.

Also, since shih tzu have hair and not fur, they don’t shed! I just learned this today. We never have to worry about our dog’s hair being everywhere in the house as long as we give him the occasional shave. That’s awesome.

We’ve found an audible punishment for him that gets him to behave immediately. We have two powerful ellipsoid shaped magnets, confiscated from children at one of our schools. When we have these two magnets attract each other, then "whine" and "chirp" like cicadas. Yoshi hates this sound and will immediately stop whatever it is he is doing and most likely leave the room to the safety of his veranda. Finding something that has such a reaction out of him is great, because it means we don’t need to keep threatening him or leaving him outside if he is naughty.

We’ve begun taking Yoshi for walks by carrying him in the elevator in an over-sized shopping bag. He hated the pet carrier, and we can fold up the shopping bag and sit on it as he romps around the park devouring his daily count of worms. This is more than what the other pet owners in the apartment do. It seems that our particular apartment has always been a little weird about pets, but the letters and warnings are all for show  to give pet owners a hard time. No one is really going to bother us as long as our dog is under control.

Yoshi has recently grown a little stubborn on walks. He’s got a skin allergy related to protein, so we can’t feed him regular snacks. Usually when he was stubborn and refused to walk, we would feed him a treat to keep him walking. Now when he stops, he doesn’t get anything, so he’s being temperamental and just refusing to walk if we leave the grass of the park. All he wants to do is lay in the grass and eat worms all day. Too bad the worms are protein that further aggravates his skin condition. We’ll need to find bite sized non-protein snacks to supplement his no-protein bones and chews.

All around the apartment are stray dogs and barking dogs locked up in apartments that aren’t been treated well enough. We’ve done our part to be responsible for our dog, and we’ve been lucky to get a breed that works well with the confines of a highly dense apartment complex.