Shih Tzu

HDB-APPROVED · DOG BREED GUIDE

Also known as Chrysanthemum Dog, Lion Dog, Shih Tzu Kou.

Beneath the Shih Tzu's luxurious coat lies a dog that's perfectly content with a leisurely stroll rather than a marathon, an excellent match for Singapore's pace, until the humidity gives them a reason to dial back.

At a glance

Size category

Small

Weight

4 to 7 kg

Height

20 to 28 cm

Lifespan

10 to 16 years

Energy level

●●○○○ 2/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Shedding

●○○○○ 1/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Heat tolerance

●○○○○ 1/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Barking

●●○○○ 2/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Trainability

●●●○○ 3/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Grooming needs

●●●●● 5/5 (editorial, unvalidated)

Origin

Tibet / China

The Shih Tzu was bred to sit in Chinese and Tibetan palaces looking magnificent and requiring nothing much of anybody, and it has never really updated the job description. Energy is rated 2 out of 5, barking 2 out of 5, and it is on HDB's approved list. For a small flat with a quiet household it is close to ideal.

Two numbers on this page pull the other way, and they are the ones this guide spends its time on. Heat tolerance is rated 1 out of 5, the lowest we give. Grooming is rated 5 out of 5, at S$1,700 a year.

Personality and temperament

Affectionate, steady and companionable, with none of the nervous edge some small breeds carry. It is rated good with children and good with other dogs, and beginner friendliness is high.

Barking at 2 out of 5 is genuinely low and is a real asset beside a shared corridor. A Shih Tzu is not much of a watchdog and does not pretend to be.

Trainability is rated 3 out of 5, which reflects a dog that is bright and unbothered rather than eager. It will learn what you teach and see no urgency about it. Housetraining is the one that most often frustrates new owners, and it responds to boring consistency rather than cleverness.

The breed wants company. It was never a working dog and has no independent streak to fall back on, so long days alone suit it badly.

Exercise in Singapore's climate

Heat tolerance rated 1 out of 5 comes from two things stacking. The coat is long, dense and double, built for a Himalayan plateau. And the muzzle is shortened, which reduces the airflow a dog cools itself with. Heatstroke is on this page's health-issue list.

Singapore's daily maximum of 31 to 33 degrees Celsius with average relative humidity around 82% year round (Meteorological Service Singapore) gives this dog very little margin and no cool season to recover in.

The saving grace is that 2 out of 5 energy makes the schedule easy to keep. Two short outings a day, fifteen to twenty minutes, before 8am and after 8pm, in shade, with water. That is genuinely enough.

What is not negotiable is the middle of the day. Think about what your flat does between 11am and 4pm with nobody home, because for a flat-faced dog in a heavy coat a closed-up unit is a welfare problem rather than a discomfort. Plan for a cool room, a fan at minimum, and air-conditioning on the worst days.

Learn the early signs and act on the first: breathing that becomes noisier and does not settle within a minute or two of stopping, a wide dark tongue, stumbling, or a dog that lies down and will not continue. Cool the dog with water and get to a vet. Do not use ice water.

Coat and grooming in the humidity

Grooming is rated 5 out of 5 at about S$1,700 a year, one of the highest lines on this site, against shedding rated 1 out of 5. That is the trade, and here it is also a heat decision rather than only a tidiness one.

The floor-length coat the breed is shown in is not a realistic proposition for a pet dog in Singapore. It mats, it drags, it holds moisture against the skin in 82% humidity, and it makes an already heat-limited dog hotter. Keep the dog in a short practical trim, often called a puppy cut. Almost every sensible Shih Tzu owner here does, and the dog is markedly more comfortable for it.

Even short, comb to the skin several times a week, behind the ears, under the collar, in the armpits and around the back end. A double coat mats from the base outward, so the surface tells you nothing.

Book a groom every four to six weeks and ask for the face to be kept workable. Hair falling into the eyes is an avoidable irritation on a breed where eye conditions lead the health list, so either tie it up or trim it back.

Then the drying discipline, which on this coat is the whole game. Dry to the skin after every bath and every wet walk. Hot spots are on this page's health-issue list and a damp double coat in this climate is exactly how they start.

Diet and feeding

Food runs about S$900 a year. With energy at 2 out of 5 and a coat that hides the waistline completely, this is a breed that gains weight quietly. Assess by hand rather than eye and ask your vet to body-condition score at every visit.

Weight matters more here than the number suggests, because extra mass on a flat-faced dog is extra heat to shed through a system that is already limited.

Weigh the food and count treats inside the daily total. Use a slow feeder if the dog gulps, since shortened-muzzle breeds tend to swallow air with their food, and never exercise straight after a meal.

Dental health is on this page's list and it is the standard shortened-jaw problem: the same number of teeth in less space, crowding, trapped food. Over a life that can reach sixteen years, daily brushing is the difference between a comfortable old dog and a sore one.

Training

An unhurried dog trains on patience and food. Three priorities:

• Grooming tolerance, treated as the main project. Combing several times a week and a groomer every four to six weeks, for up to sixteen years. A Shih Tzu handled kindly from week ten will lie still for it; one that was not will fight, and an owner who loses that fight ends up with a shaved dog and a skin problem.
• A harness, never a collar. Pressure on the throat of a shortened-muzzle dog is the wrong idea. Use a Y-front harness.
• Housetraining, done boringly. Decide the system, be consistent, and do not let a puppy pad become a permanent arrangement by accident.

Health

The UK Kennel Club recommends eye testing using the BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme for the Shih Tzu. It places the breed in Breed Watch Category 1, and states that "currently no points of concern specific to this breed have been identified for special attention by judges, other than those covered routinely by The Kennel Club's breed standard".

Ask for the eye certificates on both parents. Eye conditions lead this page's own health-issue list, which agrees with the one scheme the Kennel Club names, so that is where to concentrate.

The eyes deserve a practical note beyond the certificate. A shortened muzzle tends to come with shallower eye sockets, leaving the eyes more prominent and more exposed. A Shih Tzu can scratch a cornea on something a longer-faced dog would never have touched, and hair falling into the eye makes that likelier. In practice a squinting, weeping or cloudy eye is an appointment today rather than a wait-and-see.

Beyond eyes, this page lists dental health, ear infections, heatstroke and hot spots. Three of those four are managed by routine rather than medicine: the coat kept short and dry, the ears checked weekly, the teeth brushed daily, and the heat respected.

There is no screening scheme covering the airway, so use your ears when you meet the parents. Noisy breathing at rest is the thing to notice, and it is not a breed characteristic to be charmed by.

Routine veterinary care runs about S$1,400 a year. Arrange insurance in the first weeks, before any eye, ear or skin note is on a clinical record to be written back as an exclusion. None of this replaces your own vet's assessment of your own dog.

Housing and space in Singapore

The Shih Tzu is named on HDB's published list of approved breeds for flats, which runs to 61 named breeds plus a cross of any two of them. Confirm the current position there before you commit, since HDB maintains and updates the list.

Ownership limits come from AVS rather than HDB. Under AVS's rules, an HDB flat may keep a maximum of one dog of an approved small breed plus up to two cats, and no dog on the Specified dogs list; private property may keep up to three cats or dogs in combination. Every dog needs an AVS licence. Licence fees depend on sterilisation status, age and the number of pets. One-time and three-year licences are different options. Check the current AVS fee table before paying.

With 2 out of 5 energy, floor area is close to irrelevant. Temperature is the whole housing question. Give the dog a cool tiled place to lie out of the afternoon sun, keep it away from west-facing glass, and plan for the hours when nobody is home.

Care and cost in Singapore

On this page's figures: about S$900 a year for food, S$1,700 for grooming and S$1,400 for routine veterinary care. Grooming is the dominant line and it is not discretionary, because in this humidity a neglected coat becomes a skin problem that costs more than the appointments would have. Run the ten-year picture with the cost calculator.

Getting a Shih Tzu: buying and adoption

Ask for the AVS dog farm licence number and the eye certificates for both parents. Then listen to the parents breathe, at rest and after they have moved about, because no certificate covers the airway and thirty seconds of listening tells you more than any assurance will.

Ask what the breeder does about the coat and the heat if they are local. Anyone keeping this coat in this climate has had to solve it, and a clear answer about clipping and drying tells you they keep dogs rather than produce them.

Adoption is realistic and this breed comes up often. Shih Tzus and Shih Tzu crosses come through SOSD, Causes for Animals and Mercylight, and the grooming commitment is a recurring surrender reason, which is worth reading as information about the coat rather than about the dogs. An adult also arrives with its breathing and its eye history visible rather than hoped for.

What to skip: any seller who calls this a low-maintenance dog because it does not shed. Low-shedding and low-maintenance are opposites here.

Life stages: puppy to senior

Puppy, to about 12 months. Start combing daily from week ten while there is barely any coat, so the habit exists before it is needed. Fit a harness from the first walk. Begin daily tooth brushing and keep hair out of the eyes from the start. Set the cool-hours pattern now. Insurance in force early.

Adolescent, roughly 9 to 18 months. The adult double coat arrives and the workload jumps, often within a few weeks. This is where most Shih Tzu coats are lost to matting. Increase combing now and make the clipping decision deliberately rather than as an emergency at the groomer.

Adult, roughly 2 to 9 years. Undemanding once the routine holds: coat short, teeth daily, ears weekly, weight checked by hand, walks in the cool hours, company most days.

Senior, from about 10 years. Lifespan here is 10 to 16 years. Move to twice-yearly vet visits. Older dogs with any airway restriction tolerate heat even less, so shorten the walks again. Watch the eyes for cloudiness and dryness, and the mouth for one-sided chewing. Keep the coat short for comfort and grooming sessions brief and frequent rather than long, and keep the flat cool.

See dog-friendly cafes and parks in your region → | Run the 10-year cost of a Shih Tzu in Singapore →

Tags: small-breed, brachycephalic, low-shedding, lap-dog, apartment-friendly, first-time-owner, heat-sensitive

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