Nigel, the shih tzu bone king

Candy and Nigel had a long romp session outside this morning. After they came back in, they were squabbling so loudly over a rawhide chew flip that it frightened me. I thought for sure they were killing each other. I yelled (bad habit!), grabbed Nigel by the scruff of his neck and pointed him towards his dog bed. The demon shih tzu worked very hard to terrorize the female shih tzus today. He finally tired himself out and crawled back up onto the couch and snuggled up next to me to get some rest, while Flower and Dottie rested on the other side and Candy wandered around. If we had a slightly bigger couch, would all four shih tzus sit up here more often? I’m not sure.

After all the shih tzus had rested, Nigel was back on the prowl, growling at Flower like a ferocious  animal. I think that was over a red and white mini rawhide treat. He is under the impression that anything on the floor belongs to him, even if he has to take it out of another shih tzu’s mouth and put it on the floor. He was fixated on Flower and wouldn’t look at me when I scolded him. Either he is slightly deaf or has selective hearing. Not ever having more than one dog before, I have no idea if it’s normal for dogs to growl so often at each other over bones and couch positions. ?

I decided to move all the treat-type bones to shih tzu Central since Nigel is being so possessive. He definitely didn’t like it. He flew outside when I opened the door, and then he flew back inside, then back out and back in again, before finally jumping up on the couch and settling down. A little later, the three youngest shih tzus roamed around the living room, glancing my way every now and then, probably wondering if I was going to break out any more treats. After a while, Flower and Candy trotted by side by side, back to Shih Tzu Central.

Candy, Flower and Nigel were very excited, as usual, when John got home. They all started running around, but again, as usual, Flower hung back while Candy and Nigel ran to the door. Nigel did it with a rawhide treat in his mouth.