A palace dog crossed with a court dog
The Shih Tzuillon puts together two breeds that spent their entire histories indoors with people, several thousand miles apart.
The Shih Tzu came out of Tibet and took its modern form in the Chinese imperial court, where the palace kennels turned it into the small, long-coated dog we know. The name means lion dog, and the resemblance to the carved lions at temple gates was the whole point. For most of its history it did not leave the palace walls. The breed as it exists today traces back to a handful of dogs taken out of China in the 1930s and bred on in England and Norway, and the American Kennel Club recognized it in 1969.
The Papillon is European and considerably older on paper. It descends from the dwarf spaniels that sat in laps across Renaissance Europe — the épagneul nain — and you can find them in paintings by Titian, Rubens and Fragonard, tucked into the corners of court portraits for four hundred years. The erect, heavily fringed ear that gives the breed its French name, butterfly, is the more recent of its two ear carriages. The older dropped ear is still bred and still shown under the name Phalène, moth. The AKC recognized the Papillon in 1915.
So both sides are companion breeds in the fullest sense of it. Neither has a working history to speak of. A Shih Tzuillon wants to be in the room with you, and it is at its best in a household where somebody usually is.
Why littermates come out different
There is no standard for this cross, no registry writing down what one ought to look like, and the two parents differ in almost every visible feature. Put those two facts together and you get the defining characteristic of the Shih Tzuillon: littermates vary, sometimes a great deal.
The Shih Tzu has a dense double coat that keeps growing, a broad round head, a short muzzle and dropped ears. The Papillon has a fine single coat that lies flat, a fox-like head, a longer muzzle, and either the winged erect ear or the dropped one. Every one of those features sits on a spectrum in the cross, and they do not travel together — a Papillon head can turn up over a Shih Tzu coat, or the other way around.
Ear carriage is the part people ask about most, and the honest answer is that you often cannot tell in a young puppy. Up, down and one of each all happen, and a set that has just gone up can come down again for a few weeks while a puppy is teething. It generally settles by the time the adult coat arrives.
The practical upshot is the same advice you would give about any cross without a standard: judge the puppy in front of you, not the name on the card.
Size, colour and build
Papillons generally run five to ten pounds and Shih Tzu nine to sixteen, so most Shih Tzuillons finish somewhere between six and fourteen pounds, standing around eight to eleven inches at the shoulder.
Build matters more than the number. A Papillon-leaning dog is fine-boned, light on its feet and quick — the sort of small dog that turns on a coin. A Shih Tzu-leaning one is stockier, lower and surprisingly solid to pick up for its height. Both are portable, and they feel entirely different in the hand.
Colour is wide open. The Papillon is always parti-coloured — white with patches of any colour, usually with a blaze between the eyes — while the Shih Tzu comes in essentially every colour dogs come in, often with white on the head and the tip of the tail. Cross the two and you get markings nobody could have predicted, which is half the pleasure of looking at a litter.
Whichever coat turns up
A Papillon-leaning coat is long, fine, silky and single, lying flat along the body with the length concentrated in the fringes: the frill on the chest, the culottes on the back legs, the plume on the tail and the ears themselves. A Shih Tzu-leaning coat is longer, denser and double, and it grows on rather than dropping.
Either way the routine is the same shape, and it is a small job once it is a habit. Comb rather than brush, and comb in sections right down to the skin, because a slicker over the top of a long coat only tidies the surface. Every day or two through the friction points — behind the ears, under the front legs, the fringes and the trousers — keeps the whole coat easy. Most of these dogs settle on a lap and doze once the rhythm starts.
Then a groomer on a regular cycle. Plenty of owners keep the coat in a short even trim, which suits the weather here and turns the daily comb into a two-minute job. Plenty of others keep the length and enjoy it. Either is fine, and you can change your mind about it every few months. Keep the hair around the eyes short so the dog can see out, and handle the face early and often so that part of the routine stays uneventful. Nails a little and often on a dog this size, ears wiped while you comb, and teeth brushed from the first week.
The topknot is a Shih Tzu inheritance and it turns up in a lot of these puppies. A small band or a trim — both look good, and it is another decision you can revisit whenever you like.
Character, and what a day looks like
Bright, affectionate and often more capable than owners expect. The Papillon side brings a busy, interested little dog that notices everything; the Shih Tzu side brings the lap. Most Shih Tzuillons land somewhere useful in between, which is a dog that will happily walk around the block twice and then spend the evening on somebody.
Exercise needs are modest and the interest in going out is not. Two short walks a day suit one well, and the walk is more about the news than the distance. In a Florida or Tennessee summer the early and late hours are the good ones, and a shaded route is worth going out of your way for.
Indoors, this is a dog that fills the gaps. It will follow you from room to room, take up a position where it can see the front door, and turn a rolled sock into an event. Five minutes of fetch down a hallway does as much for a dog this size as a long route march, and a food puzzle or a treat hidden under one of three cups keeps the brain occupied.
They are lively company for adults and a great deal of fun for older children who enjoy a dog with opinions. Short absences are worth building into the routine from the first week, with a chew to work on and no ceremony on the way out or the way back in.
Training a small dog properly
The Papillon is one of the most trainable toy breeds there is — a fixture in agility and obedience rings, working against dogs many times its size — and even a strongly Shih Tzu-leaning puppy enjoys short, food-based sessions.
Small dogs are often taught less than large ones, simply because it is quicker to pick one up than to solve the problem. It is worth resisting that. A small dog that will walk on a loose lead, settle on a mat and come when called is a dog you can take everywhere, and this cross has the brains for all three.
Keep sessions to a couple of minutes, ask for one thing at a time, and finish while the dog is still keen. House training goes best when it is boring and predictable: out first thing, after meals, after naps, after play, and a proper celebration every single time it goes right outdoors. Spend the first months getting the puppy comfortable being handled, combed, held and having its nails done, because a dog that enjoys the grooming routine makes the next fifteen years easy.
Socialization is the rest of it. Take the puppy out through the first year to meet ordinary things — different floors, umbrellas, wheeled bins, people in hats, calm dogs going about their business. One that has met a hundred ordinary things by six months finds the world a very manageable size.
Come and meet one
With this much variation between individuals, the puppy in front of you is the whole story. Coat texture, ear carriage, build and manner all register in about four seconds standing next to one, and none of them come through a screen.
Our Shih Tzuillon puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you how a particular puppy has been getting on. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor and let a puppy come to you before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.