TINYTOTSHIHTZU.NET

Almost There!

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:37:00 GMT

It has been a busy week for us.

First of all, I am pretty sure Gemma is pregnant! She is always a cuddlebug, but seems to be even more cuddley and attached to me than normal. We will know for sure in a few weeks.

I groomed Juicy, Bam Bam, and Bopsy over the weekend. I am really hoping that helps Juicy go into heat soon......waiting is so hard, especially when you know it will be here at any time now. I know many of you are also anxiously waiting. I promise to let you know as soon as more starts to happen.

I have one class left and my English class will be complete!!! I did a lot better than I thought I would on my ten page business report and I delivered my presentation tonight, so all of the hard stuff is out of the way! I have one more assignment to complete and I will be done. :0)

No, new progress on our renovation, but I hope to have more of that completed over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more updates on that!

News! News! News!

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:27:00 GMT

This has been an awesome week!

Gemma and Bam Bam were bred this week, so we will be expecting new babies in April. We are still waiting on the others to come in, but it shouldn't be long as they are all due to come in now.

My English class is coming along nicely. I have 2 weeks left, so I am on the downhill slope now! I have a 10 page paper that I have been working on and is due on Thursday, so I will be very busy getting the final touches completed on that.

I accepted a new position officially today!!! I will start tentatively March 16th so I am REALLY excited about that. I currently work at John Deere Parts as a Critical Parts Analyst and my new position will be at John Deere Davenport Works. I will be working on the ADT (articulated dump truck) module and am very anxious to start my new position. :0)

This is a weekend to celebrate......but my celebrating will revolve around working on my paper and on our remodeling project!

Have a great weekend and I will post more soon.

Mark your calendar

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:43:00 GMT

Mark your calendar for April 19th! That is the approximate due date for Gemma.
I will know in about 5 weeks if Gemma is pregnant for sure; either by feeling baby balls in her belly or by having an ultrasound. We may see signs of pregnancy before then as well. I will keep you posted on how everything is going.

So we have approximately 9 weeks to complete our project. I am hoping to have it completed in 5, but since Scott and I are both taking classes, it may take us 9. We will get it completed one way or another!

I don't know about all of you, but I am ready for spring! I am hoping it arrives in the beginning or middle of March. I am anxious to see the trees with buds on them, hear birds sing, and just all of the signs of spring. I know it won't be long but I do hope it arrives sooner than later. :0)

Gemma is in heat!!

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:27:00 GMT

Gemma is in heat! In about 1 1/2 weeks she will be bred to Bam Bam. And so the countdown begins....I am super excited!!! Juicy is swollen but hasn't started her heat yet....won't be long though!

The girls are almost ready!

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:39:00 GMT

I have great news! Gemma and Juicy are swollen so it won’t be long until they come into heat!! My guess is they will start their heat right on Valentine's Day. It won’t be long and things will finally start happening around here! I just shaved Gemma down and got her all groomed up so she is all ready! I am very anxious and excited and I know those on the waiting list are also anxiously waiting. :0)

Tinka, Trixie, and Choxie will also be coming in anytime now, they are not swollen yet, so maybe by the end of the month!

Tiny Tot's Imperial Shih Tzu Itty Bitty Boys!

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:30:00 GMT

My goal has changed to write weekly, because I have learned it is impossible for me to write daily; at least for the time being. Every week I will have quite a bit to say!

I have 2 weeks down, and only 6 weeks left to go for my English class to be complete! Our remodeling is coming along nicely and I am so excited for it to be completed. Scott and I keep plugging away at it with a little help from Alex and Maveric. I will post pictures as soon as we get a little more completed. Right now, it looks like a huge room with boards (the studs) up all over and our new heater installed. The next task is the electrical outlets. Then, we will start the messy work-- the drywall and mudding. I am trying to keep us on schedule. My goal is to have it completed before the end of March and before our new fur-babies arrive!

Speaking of fur-babies, it looks like Gemma is starting to swell just a little bit! Gemma and Juicy came in on the exact same day the last time, so hopefully it won’t be long! Tinka came in 2-3 weeks after them and Choxie right around the same time as Tinka. Trixie is also due any time now, but she still may wait a couple months, we'll have to wait and see. Having more than 2 litters at one time is going to be new for me, but with our fur-baby nursery set up it should work out perfect. :0)

We will have lots of excitement going on around here very shortly and spread out nicely! I had to change up a few of the breedings because Zoom is not ready to breed yet. He will turn a year old soon, but because he is so tiny it will probably take him another 6 months before he is ready to breed. Zoom currently weighs 3 lbs. 14 oz. 2 weeks away from being 1! He is a tiny little thing and super cute. I am so happy with my boys….I love them all! They are so tiny, compact, and total love-bugs! Bam Bam is so small (still 4 lbs.) and IN CHARGE….he tells everyone what they are going to do and not do. Then Comet who just turned a year old is 5 lbs. he is super sweet and cuddly...he bats his BIG eyes at me and my heart melts.

Basement and School

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:01:00 GMT

The next 7 weeks are going to be really busy for me. We are working on the basement and I am also taking an English class that is 8 weeks long. The first week is down and I have 7 to go!!

I am still anxiously waiting for the girls to come into heat. I am very happy to know I will have another class completed and hopefully the basement finished before puppies arrive. I will write as time permits and definitely when the girls come in. I just groomed Juicy so hopefully that will help her come in a little bit faster! She is such a beautiful girl with the sweetest personality.

I have to share a funny story. We have two pot bellied pigs (Angel and Abagail). One of my winter coats is a vest / coat. The zipper to my sleeve broke off so I took both sleeves off. Angel took one of them and has confiscated it. She runs around our living room showing it off in circles and will topple over the sleeve and roll over on her side. I put the other sleeve on the floor to see what she would do and she took that one too and does the same thing. She is a very mischievious pig that likes to try and be sneaky. When she thinks we are not watching her she will get into trouble just to make sure we are paying attention. She likes to sneak into Maveric and Alex's rooms to find stuff she can play with. She is one funny pig. :0)

Busy Busy

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:06:00 GMT

We have been really busy here at Tiny Tot. We are remodeling the lower level of our house just for our fur-babies and myself! This is a project we started on this last summer and are now working hard to get it completed. I will post pictures as soon as it is complete. I am really excited about getting this done! This will keep us busy while we are waiting for our girls to come into heat and prepare for new babies.

Breedings

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:10:00 GMT

I am a little bummed the breeding with Poppy and Comet did not take.....so Comet is not proven yet and we are not expecting any new babies this month. :0(

The good news is....everyone will be coming into heat soon and it will be alot of fun waiting and watching as things happen here! I am going to breed Juicy and Gemma again this time and then rest them. So this will be their last litters until 2011. I was so happy with how their babies all turned out so I am excited to see what they will have this time around. I am hoping to start using Comet and Zoom, but it may be awhile before they are ready. We will see how everything goes!

More About Dog Food

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:38:00 GMT

I spoke to Dr.s Foster & Smith yesterday and I was very unhappy with the responses I received to my comments I had about their new formula. The more they spoke the angrier I became because it is very frustrating when companies think we the consumers do not know anything.
Since the dog food poisoning dilemma happened, I have had to become educated on dog food. I think they would be quite surprised by how many people have done research to find the best food they can feed and they can not just "pull one over" on us to save or a make an extra dollar at our fur-babie's expense.

Dr.s Foster and Smith advised me:

The crude protein, fiber, and carbohydrate has not changed.
They have “Vets” that formulate their food.

I told them and want you all to know crude protein, fiber, and carbohydrate is just about the same in all dog foods that is NOT and should NOT be our main concern. It is something to look at, but is not our main focus. Our main focus is the ingredients that make up the crude protein, fiber, and carbohydrates. Corn or any form of corn is a Carbohydrate and should NOT be in any dog food, but many companies still put it in the dog food and I highly recommend staying away from dog foods with any form of corn in them. Dr.s Foster and Smith does not put corn in their new formula, I was only using that as an example. I am working on an ingredient comparison and once I have it completed I post it.

The other comment Dr.'s Foster and Smith made "having vets that formulate their food". My comment back to them was, Science Diet is recommended by many vets and that food is one of the worst foods anyone can feed their fur-baby. It is a horrible dog food. It is rated as a 1 star on the pet food review and it was only given a 1 star because there was NOT a lower rating they could give them. If they could have given it a lower rating, they would have. Granted Dr. F&S is not even close to as bad as Science Diet, but they have lessened the quality of their food by adding more fillers and taking out good quality ingredients to save money / make more money.

I also advised them, I was using Merrick, which is one of the best foods on the market before I switched to Dr. F&S's old formula because it was very comparable and it was about 1.30 / lb. I would rather pay 2.00/ lb. and have a higher quality dog food, so that is why I am switching back to Merrick. If you can save money, I am all for it, but not at the expense of our fur-babies.

The other thing that made me very angry with Dr.s Foster and Smith is every 10th shipment is supposed to be free. Well, January was my 10th shipment - of course they shipped the new formula. They shipped it on Monday and Scott told me they billed us for it. In December I had to call them because they doubled billed us, they advised their was a glitch in the system and they did not charge us for the November shipment. I was okay with that after I looked at our records and we were not billed in November. So when I called them yesterday, they tried telling me they had a computer glitch in OCTOBER and I was not billed in October - which I know I was - we looked and we were billed. I was furious....seriously, how many glitches can one company have? I can see it happening once but Oct. Nov. Dec??? We are now in January and they are telling me now about a supposedly October glitch. I advised them, I am refusing the shipment they just sent me and they are refunding me the charges they just billed us for. After going through a couple people they finally agreed to this.

From all of this, I am recommending all of my puppy parents and friends who have fur-babies use Merrick. I was VERY happy with Merrick before and that is what I am switching back to. They have been given a 5 star rating and have been in business for over 2 decades. I have read their website several times and am just impressed. Here is the link to their website so you, yourself can see what a great company and the wholesome human grade ingredients they put in their food.

http://www.merrickpetcare.com/

Happy New Year From Tiny Tot Shih Tzu

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:41:00 GMT

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to write daily on our Tiny Tot Blog. I will be writing about all of the exciting things going on here at Tiny Tot or an informative topic about fur-babies. I am always trying to learn more so I am hoping to learn and help inform others on what I learn throughout the year! Please feel free to add comments wherever you like. :0)

Happy New Year Everyone from Tiny Tot Shih-Tzu!!

Dog Food Dilemma

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:32:00 GMT

Unfortunately I am being forced to look for yet another dog food to switch all of my fur-babies too. Dr. Foster and Smith have changed their formula and in my opinion has made it a less quality food....NOT good enough for my fur-babies. I have sent in a request to have dog food review review their new formula to see what they think. They have reduced the bag size from 30 lbs. to 28 lbs. and from what I can tell they have reduced the quality of the food by adding more fillers to save costs and try and make more money. The bag size was not a huge issue for me, but the formula of the food was a good food and there was no reason to change the formula.

I used Canidae before Dr. Foster and Smith and unfortunately they did the same thing. They changed the formula of their food and lessened the quality of the food.

I have been researching more over the last several days and I have decided to change to Merrick's Whole Earth Farms. This is a new food they have recently brought to the market and is an excellent Human grade dog food!

Puppy update - learning how to walk

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:12:00 GMT

Gemma and Juicy's babies get cuter by the day. They are all adorable.
Gemma's babies are learning how to walk, it is quite the site to see. Little Ginger was going in circles to try and get her tail and then when she figured out there was no way that was going to happen she grabbed a hold of her paw. They tumble over trying to play with each other.

Juicy's babies are crawling. They actually get around quite well, they are still eating and sleeping alot they haven't gotten to the playing stage yet. I love watching them sleep. I have been putting Juicy on our living room chair with her babies and sitting with them. They are just so precious.

I will be sending new pictures to everyone and updating www.tinytotshihtzu.com today!!!

Juicy's babies opened their eyes

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:55:00 GMT

This has been a pretty exciting week! On Monday, Colby opened his eyes. Then on Tuesday, Chanel opened her eyes, and today - Wednesday, Mickey opened his eyes!! They are all so cute with their eyes open. These babies are just perfect. They all have VERY flat smooshy baby doll faces. I am really excited about watching them grow!
I will take pictures of them soon with their eyes open. :0)

Grandpa's Honor Flight

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:29:00 GMT

Grandpa who is 92 and a World War II Veteran went on his Honor Flight on Saturday, October 11th. Jan surprised grandpa and a lot of other people by asking Maveric to wear grandpa's Navy uniform, which is 66 years old, to greet and surprise him upon his return. They took Maveric to the front of the line to greet and surprise grandpa as he came through the greeting line, I was there to try and capture the look on his face when he saw him. What an honor it was for Maveric to be able to do this for grandpa and many other Veterans, the comments and responses he received were just amazing. This was an unforgetable memory.

A couple big days

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:28:00 GMT

Yesterday and today were very big days for the Schwindt's and Tiny Tot Shih Tzu! We celebrated Scott's birthday by going to his mom and Jerry's house. Jerry made us his specialty Brick oven pizza with the new Brick oven that he handmade himself. It was delicious and one of the best pizzas we have ever had. Maveric completed Driver's Ed. He now has a driver's license, car, and is driving....today was his first day of driving to school by himself. He is a very good driver, but I am still a little bit...okay REALLY nervous about him driving by himself.

Then to top it all off, Lil' Benny opened his eyes yesterday!!! I will post pictures of Josie and Benny with their eyes open soon. :0) They are both so cute and precious....perfect lil' Tiny Tots!!

Josie has her eyes open

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:19:00 GMT

Lil' Josie eyes are now open! She is such a beautiful little girl. I will take some pictures of her soon and share them.
Lil' Benny's eyes will be opening soon....they have slightly peeped open. :0)

Puppy Updates

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:35:00 GMT

This has been a busy busy weekend. Dino (new name Charlie) joined his new family with Lori and Randy.
Gemma's babies are doing wonderful....no eyes open yet, but it should be within the next day or two. They are so adorable and Gemma is one of the best moms ever!
Juicy's babies are also doing wonderful. They continue to just eat, eat, eat! Juicy is being a great mom and loves her babies. It won't be too long and we will have puppies running around all over! I will be taking pictures today....I know our new puppy parents are anxiously waiting to see the new pictures. :0)

Juicy's babies have arrived!

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:34:00 GMT

Juicy decided it was time to have her babies.....the first gorgeous boy arrived at 5:45 am and the second one is a beautiful parti girl who arrived just a little bit after 7:00 am, and the last adorable boy was born around 8:00 am!

Imperial Shih Tzu puppies

Tiny Tot Shih Tzu — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:18:00 GMT

Here are Gemma X Bam Bam little precious gems at 4 days old. They are perfect little cutie pies. I am really excited about watching these two grow over the next several weeks. I will post more pictures soon!