Jett w/ bulldog

Jett met several bulldogs on his outing. He loved & licked them all. This is a picture of him after the grooming that I talked about too. He doesn't look the same, but it is keeping him cooler & was probably a good thing that they had been shaved during that camping trip.

Camping

Bruce & Jett are always ready to get out of the house. They get so excited when they see me get the leashes. They never know where they are going, but the exitement remains. Lately, it seems like they have only been to the groomers or to the vet & didn't care for either one.
Jett is only a little over a year old, so he has only been to the park for fun. We decided to take them camping. Bruce has had many adventures, but this was the first for Jett. We took them to Skidaway Island near Savannah Ga. This was a nice place & the campgrounds were some of the biggest & most private that I have seen. Usually campgrounds tell you which lot you will camp on, but this place lets you choose. They also have activities going on each night. This could have been the worst camping experience of our lives, but it didn't have much to do with the campground. It was the rain & the bugs. I did take some avon bug lotion, but it didn't work. My son noticed that it expired in 2002, so that probably had something to do with it.

Bruce acted whiny, which surprised me & campgrounds expect dogs to be on the leash at all times. Bruce doesn't understand that. He probably considers himself to be just as polite as any human & just as smart. He knows that he would never bite anyone.

Jett was good on the leash. Once I did take it off, so that he could run a little & he ran over to the guy that rides around on the scooters making sure that dogs are on their leashes. Just my luck. I start telling the guy about how my tent had a giant centepede in it. This is all true, but it had nothing to do with Jett not being on his leash. It was obvious that the guy was wondering what was wrong with me, so he left without giving me the park rules- which is what I was hoping for. I already knew them. I was really hoping that he would get the centepede out of my tent. It was as big as a small snake. Jett had a good time seeing the campfire for the first time & meeting people. We took him on riverstreet & he met many dogs that he had never seen their kind before. He loved it. Especially bull dogs. He met this one giant bulldog that was making this loud noise. I think that he needed water. I'm not sure, because I don't know anything about bulldogs except that they are cute. Jett loved him & was licking his nose.
Both of our shih tzus are great at travelling.

Cut ear

The last blog that I posted, I was wondering why Bruce kept hiding after his haircut. He may have been embarrassed, I don't know- he seems fine now. I did notice after posting that blog, that he had a pretty deep cut on the inside flap of his ear. Maybe that was the reason for hiding- who knows. It had to have hurt. I know that mistakes happen, but I won't be going back to that groomer again.

Grooming

Bruce has been groomed a few times but Jett just had his 2nd grooming. I really try to keep them mat free at home but it is hard. Jett chews on Bruces ears, so they get matted really bad. They run & play outside a lot, so the mats had gotten out of control. I took them to the groomers & they don't even look like the same dogs.
Jett had never been shaved, his first pro grooming, they just brushed it out since it wasn't so bad. This time, he was shaved. He's still adorable but doesn't really look like a Shih tzu anymore to me. Just a cute dog. I can't even put my finger on what he does look like.
We thought that Bruce had gotten fat because his fur was soooo thick. It didn't seem to be growing down like the show Shih tzus, but just everywhere. He looked like a ball of fat fluff. Unfortunately, there were many mats to the skin underneath the fluff. Now he looks tiny- tinier than ever. I think part of it has to do with the fact that when he has been shaved in the past, there was still fur on the ears.
Jett seems fine with his new look but Bruce is still hiding, 3 days afterwards. Bruce was hiding after his last grooming as well but never before that.
I wonder if he thinks he's ugly, because he isn't & i'm giving him extra attention. My friend said that she thinks that since he is such a good dog, that maybe he feels like he did something wrong & the grooming was a punishment. She said that they have to strap them down, muzzle them, etc. in order to groom. I can see why that would be needed but it does make me feel bad for Bruce because he is the type of dog that always wants to please. When I groom him at home, he stands very still for me. Maybe she has a point. I'm not sure. I am going to try better to keep up with brushing them enough that maybe we can avoid the groomers. That has always been my plan in the past, but maybe this time I can do a better job of it.