Last Modified: 10/13/08

The proud Stud in my kennel is Toto Happiness. He was born in Peoria, Arizona on 5 August, 2001. He is a registered stud with the American Kennel Club and the Continental Kennel Club and carries a DNA Certificate of his parentage.

My little man loves to play. He is the first to notice company and is sure to make me aware of them. He loves meeting new people and other animals. He is a very comic fellow and enjoys making us laugh. Since he is obviously the leader of my band, and knows it, he tends to take the ideals of my cat and follows instructions only when he believes he will benefit from it. Of course, my cat’s head sits above his but we are careful not to let on as this may hurt his feelings. Toto loves children and loves to play games with them, "CHASE" being one of his favorites.

Toto has been a very efficient and excitable stud since he came into puberty at the age of 6 months. His first stud service brought his first successful litter. He was 7 months old. He had weaved around everything I had tried to bar him against Annie and she gave birth to a litter of three two months later. Rather than running the risk of over-exaggeration, which I am seriously prone to and not on purpose, I am going to try to remember to update this page with current information of his activities. In other words... I will try to keep a correct tally of all his puppies. They stand so far thus:

Total puppies- 174 Total litters- 45 My Litters- 20 Stud Litters- 25 Total males- 92 Total Females- 81 All Male Litters- 6 All Female Litters- 4 Mostly Male Litters- 13 Mostly Female Litters- 11 Equal Male/Female Litters- 10

Toto is the type of stud that is ready to mate with a female in heat on the first day of her heat, which leads to separating my heating females from him until I am ready for them to mate. Three times in my six years of breeding he has managed to impregnate a female when I have tried to keep them apart. The longest it has ever taken him to mate with a first time female is five hours and he was two years old. The fastest time for mating with a first time female is 10 minutes. The longest he has taken with an experienced female is 20 minutes. His fastest time is less than 1 minute. That record happens to exist with one of the females that I was trying to keep separated from him. Toto's one fault is that he tends to believe that any new female coming into my home must be in heat, as 99% of the time that is true. So, for those who are not in heat they either suffer under his attention until he calms down enough to realize they are not heating or they fight until he backs down. I admit that this behavior is not entirely deplorable for me as it means he will mate with females that other pickier studs believe are too late for mating.

Toto has, overall, great health. He gets his shots when I feel they are necessary and has plenty of activity and attention. He rarely leaves my home and has never been sick. It is not uncommon for breeders to test their males often for STDs, which can happen in dogs. I have not felt such testing to be necessary since Toto is only with females whom I have approved before mating and they are, generally, first time females or those returning to him. If you really want to use a stud whom has been tested you are welcome to visit Other Shih Tzu Breeders for a breeder in your area whom might be able to help you.

I thought this information might be useful to give you an idea of how his sired litters might turn out and what you can expect when you bring your female over for mating. Toto is a stud and a friend beyond anything I ever hoped for. I found him at a time when finding a puppy with certified and registered parents was very difficult and to this day I still cannot understand how I managed to pay for him when he cost me over $700. At the time I had only $400 on hand. I do know that I and my husband suffered financially for a few months after I brought Toto home and I have never regretted it.

You will notice that I do not list prices of any of my services or adoption fees. I do this to ensure that there will be no arguments when I am forced to raise my prices to meet with rising costs. I am careful to keep my fees as low as I can. I remember when I had one female and I was trying to buy another and pay for stud fees for the one I had. I always had trouble pulling together the necessary funds for a stud and my females always seemed to heat at very difficult financial periods for my husband and I. Since I purchased Toto I have tried to keep this in mind when setting my own prices. If, for any reason, my costs do change I ask you to forgive me and know that all those whom I have an agreement with (by word or written) will only be required to pay the previous price. To inquire about my fees please call or email.

If you would like to meet Toto or make an appointment for services, please contact me. He is available for stud services with approved females. I do not want to be in any way responsible for undersized and underbred puppies, increased chances for future health problems in unhealthy bitches or adding to the list of bad breeders. I hate to have to say this but if I feel you are breeding purely for monetary gain and are unconcerned for the health and current/future comfort of bitch and pups, I will be unwilling to work with you. I am a firm believer in my instincts and I would not be able to continue to speak out against poor breeding if I did not do my best to keep Toto from adding to the problem. I do not want to scare anyone away; if your female is in good health and within weight standards for her breed and I feel you are and will provide her and her pups with a wonderful home I will not turn you away. I will work with females who are registered with different registries as many of them will allow you to register the litter; simply contact your registry to learn if they will allow a litter whose sire is registered AKC or CKC to still be registered. If your dog is NOT AKC you will not be able to register the litter with the AKC. If your dog is NOT CKC you have the option to request registration for her, prior to the birth of the litter, at CKC.org and clicking on the registration link. I am also not biased against mixing breeds. I am careful about which breeds I will allow Toto to mate with but I feel that I do not have the right to impose my views on this matter when there are many healthy mixed breeds in the world. Know that I will not allow access to registration for the pups if I know or feel your dog is not a pure bred Shih Tzu. I realize that the registries, in which many of you belong, will allow the registration of mixed breeds, but I stand firm. Please be aware that I will not allow him to stud with shipped females or with females whose owners I have not met. ALL inquiries are welcome.