One April evening, my parents surprised us with a small dog. A shih tzu. Everything went smoothly that night. We were ecstatic. We never had a small dog before, except for labrador puppies which are still in the bigger breed of dogs.  But as midnight grew nearer and nearerr, we realized that the pup was abnormally coughing and sneezing.  I couldn't sleep that night.  I felt sad for the little pup.

As soon as Tuesday morning came, my parents were nowhere near the house.  They went to Davao for a business trip.  The little puppy (whom we love) was still sneezing and coughing uncontrollably but this time she didn't even bother eating her food.  Finally, some genius (secretary) thought of calling the pet shop.  Yes, we called this dog "defective" at first.  They sent a vet and said this dog had the WHEEZING COUGH (whatever that is) but I felt scared for "my baby" because shse super had a hard time breathing.

We put her in antibiotics and all. BTW, she also had so many rashes on her skin that irritates her more. I spoon fed her food and her electrolyte drinkbut I wasn't complaining.  We couldn't even give her a bath until two weeks later cos she was sick. But a week later, she did improve.  She was back to her almost-healthy state. 

When the vet gave Pepper (the dog) a check up he said she was having allergies of some sort.  It could've been the CHICKEN meal that the pet shop was giving the dogs.  So we switched to lamb.  However, Pepper refused to eat the lamb meal which costs 800pesos, mind you.  She ate our big dog's BEEF MEAL. It was until we discovered that she didn't like her dog food MASHED (dog food + hot water = puppy food), she wanted it plain.  So she ate it.

We still haven't solved her allergy issues. Until 5 days before this post, she was still itching.  The pet shop recommended the use of baby powder (for people) to put on her when she gets stinky. Only to find out, this was the REAL reason why she itches and scratches.  We bought dog powder to find out ( which was extremely expensive cos I'm kuripot).

So, don't trust all pet shops.  Make sure your dog is healthy before buying it.  I think it's better to buy from breeders because they put MORE care.  Don't be too confident that your dog is healthy if you bought your pet from a well-known establishment, i.e. Bio Research (there I said it). After this experience, I'm pretty sure, I will have to examine the pet really well before buying it.

Disclaimer: We don't buy all our dogs. They're usually given to us or  we personally look for a good breeder of dogs.