9781422279403

Chaos in China Breeding was confined to the palace, and gifts of royal Shih Tzu were much coveted among foreign diplomats. By the early 1900s, a few had been obtained by Europeans. After Cixi died in 1908, the palace eunuchs became careless with their breeding programs, and there doubtless were mixes with other types of lion dogs in the royal kennels. They also began selling Shih Tzu on the black market. When the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1912 and replaced with a republic, the royal kennels were disbanded. In 1923,, the China Kennel Club was formed in Shanghai and classed all small lion dogs as either Lhasa Terriers or Tibetan Poodles. In 1934, the Peking Kennel Club called them all Lhasa Lion Dogs, and separated them by dogs over and under 12 pounds (5.4 kg). The Shih Tzu breed was no longer firmly established in its homeland. Af- ter the Communist revolution in 1949, purebred dog breeding came to an end. Coming to the West Meanwhile, Shih Tzu from the foundation stock of the palace in Beijing ended up in Europe, brought there by diplomats. These dogs included three imported by Lady Brownrigg in Great Britain for her Taishan kennel, and six other imports, which came into the U.K. be- tween 1933 and 1959. British foundation stock in-

cluded two additional dogs, Aidzo and Leidza, who were both given to the Queen Mother in 1933. These dogs came from Mrs. Henrik Kauffman of Den- mark, although they were both born in Beijing. In Britain the breed was

Dogopedia: Shih Tzu

10