Shih Tzu

Many documents and paintings dating back to the 16th century have been found with dogs that look at a lot like these Shih Tzu dogs. It is very commonly and often said that these Shih Tzu dogs are the descendants of the dogs that were a result of the crossing of the dogs of the breed Lhasa Apso or the dogs of the breed Tibetan mountain dog with the dogs belonging to the breed Pekingese. These breeds of crossed dogs were found in the city Peking in the 17th century. It is said that the dogs of this bred were famous among the royalty of china. This dog was so highly prized that for years and years, the Chinese people refused to sell or eve trade or give these dogs away in any form.

It was only as late as the 1930s that the dog was first imported to the country England. This import took place when a few English soldiers discovered this dog during the World War 2. The American kennel club however, recognized this dog as a dog of an official breed and set proper standards for the dogs of this breed as late as the 1969. The dogs belonging to this breed are rather small in size. They are also quite sturdy in nature. The lengths of the bodies of the dogs are slightly longer when compared to the height of the bodies of the dogs of this breed. The heads of the dogs of this breed are round. This round heads are also rather broad in nature.

This broad and round shaped head of the dog is quite wide in between the ears of the dog. They have muzzle that is rather square when it comes to their shape. They are also rather short in length. This short lengthens muzzle come to a very well defined and a clear cut stop. They have a very broad nose. This broad nose ends with a pair of well opened and wide nostrils. The noses, lips and the underlying eyes rimes vary in color. They are said to be liver colored in dogs that have a liver colored coat. They are blue in color in dogs that have coat that are blue in color.

On the dog that have coat color other than liver and blue will have noses, lips and the under lying eye rims of black color. The set of teeth on these dogs generally tend to meet to form either a level bite or an under bite. They have large sized eyes. These large sized eyes are round in shape and are colored usually in dark colors. However, this darkly colored eyes are only on the dogs that have do not have a liver or blue colored coat. On the dogs that have blue colored or a liver colored coat, the eyes are lighter in color. They have large sized ears, which are pendant shaped in nature. These ears are set rather low on the heads of the dogs.