Shih Tzu’s defensive aggression at groomers. Do they have a reputation?

by MikeB · March 29, 2022

An angry Shih Tzu goes from aggressive to adorable during his session at a dog grooming parlour in the Philippines. It’s The Pet Spot grooming salon in Bulacan province. The dog’s name is Bangs. You can see the video below from the Metro.co.uk website. You will probably have to go through an advert before you see the transformation from defensive aggressiveness to belly up enjoyment.

Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which stops it working here. I have no control over this.

When I saw the video, I wondered whether Shih Tzus have a reputation for being defensively aggressive. There are lots of people asking about aggressive Shih Tzu dogs on the Internet. And on YouTube there are several leading videos of Shih Tzu dogs being particularly aggressive at professional grooming parlours ?. Is this a normal behavioral response for this small dog?

Ther does seem to be an issue with this dog breed. I don’t know what it is but perhaps it is a defensiveness when around strangers. And when a dog is thrust into a grooming parlour they are essentially thrust into the hands of a stranger. Perhaps this dog breed is slightly more nervous than average and the nervousness is expressed as defensiveness which in turn comes out as aggression.

Bangs is initially aggressive at the groomers but quickly settles. Screenshot.

In the video you see Bangs barking angrily and snapping away at the clippers while the groomer tries to do his work. In under 60 seconds this aggressive little dog is on his back with his paws in the air.

The manager of The Pet Spot tells the tale as she said that “This dog went from aggressive to clingy as soon as he started to get to know us.”

There lies the problem, as stated. It seems to me that professional groomers can be slightly scary places for dogs and cats. I guess if a dog or cat has gone back to the same place several times they get used to the experience and the people but initially I foresee stress.

An issue with grooming parlours in many countries including in the West is that they are often unregulated. People don’t know how professional they are. There have been accidents resulting in injury and even death. This can occur if the animal is injured when placed in a professional blow-drying box of some sort. Or there is a mixture of dogs and cats in the same facility and they unfortunately meet because of a lack of proper policy or procedures. This can lead to the dog attacking the cat.

If the Metro video stops working, here is another about a different dog of the same breed who was also aggressive.