New shih-poo owner, I have some questions

[roxydog1]

I have never had a puppy and have always wanted one so last week I went and bought my first puppy!! She is a shih-poo, 13 weeks old and the sweetest thing in the world, I just love her to death already. But of course I have lots of questions. First of all, I took her to the vet last week and they said that she had a yeast- bacteria infection in her ears, and told me that I needed to get the hair cut out of her ears. Is it possible for me to do this or do I need to take her to a groomer? Also, is this going to hurt her, (they said that they pull it out)?
I also noticed that she acts like she is scared of me and my husband alot of the time, is this just her getting used to us or do you think that her last owners were sort of mean to her? When we walk toward her she either runs and hides or she puts her head down like she is scared. We are never mean to her or yell at her, we try to play with her all the time and show her a lot of attention. I just wanted to know if this was normal.
P.S. This website is great you guys are very helpful, Thank you!

[Shineillusion]

For the life of my I do not understand vets who tell owners the dog needs to have the hair removed from it's ears, but don't do it themselves.

As a groomer, I will not pull hair from an infected ear. In my opinion, that's a vets job, not mine. If an ear is not infected, I'll clip as much of the hair as possible, and pluck anything that can easily be removed with my fingers. And that's it. Some groomers use hemostats and rip every hair out of the dog's ear. And yes, that hurts. It's also not necessary. All you need to do is pluck the hair that's dead and ready to come out.

As for her behavior, when she puts her head down as you approach her, she's just showing submission. This is a good thing. So tell her she's a good dog. Running and hiding could be fear, but it could also be playing "Catch-a-Puppy", a common tactic puppies use, not only for fun, but to avoid being the submissive one. It's the puppy equivilent of a 2 year old telling you NO all the time. And don't feel you have to play with her and shower her with attention all the time. Eventually this will give her an over-inflated opinion of herself.

She needs rules and boundries. And she needs leadership. Start now, teaching her simple things like sit and stay as part of your play sessions. Have her sit and stay for her dinner, for a toy, for a treat. Teach her patience by telling her to wait when she wants to play. She doesn't need to wait for hours, just a few seconds at first. But make her wait. It'll remind her that she's not the one calling all the shots.

If you can, get a copy of "Mother Knows Best; The Natural Way to Train Your Dog", by Carol Lea Benjamine. It'll answer a lot of your questions, explain your puppy's natural instincts and behaviors, and how to use those instictive behaviors to train her, and make her an emotionally healthy, happy pup.

[roxydog1]

Thank you that was very helpful, thanks agian for replying to my post!!