No, not Shih-Tzu - Shiatsu!!

My partner Tracy is just months away from qualifying as a Shiatsu practitioner, and around the same time that she qualifies it will become regulated (which means no more 'shiatsu' massages in hairdressing salons etc - but that's another soapbox). You can read more about Tracy's exploits and experiences here. Anyway, this means that on most Thursday nights she has clients in for treatments as you have to treat so many people each year during training, plus it helps build a client base before you fully qualify. Last night one of them cancelled, so I got lucky and got a treatment.
Now, Mollie has become fairly good when there's a treatment happening, if I'm not around to distract her she'll normally sit in the hallway and moan occasionally, or she'll just go to bed. Historically, when I've had a treatment, however, she's not only had to watch but also intervene on occasion (wet nose and a moan or a strategically placed paw) if she thinks Tracy might be hurting me, which is quite sweet but does get dog hair on the futon! But last night, although she snuck in, she lay down quite nicely in the doorway for the whole treatment!! Afterwards, when we told her what a good girl she was, she just crept forwards on her belly until she was close enough to be kissed and cuddled, then she curled up between Tracy's knees and said 'hrrmph' and got a mini treatment herself. Because of how badly she used to pull on the lead, she had quite a bent spine but regular shiatsu has helped to straighten it out - it also helps enormously with her escaping kneecap ("luxating patella") and calms her down when she gets overexcited.
All this means that, when Tracy finally starts working from home more and more, Mollie will be able to cope much better and not get in the way too much. Of course, most of Tracy's current clients want Mollie cuddles after their treatments, which probably also helps her to not be so scared of strangers coming into the house.
You can read more about Shiatsu and details of practitioners in your area at the British School of Shiatsu-do website and also the British Shiatsu Society website.

I slept really well last night, incidentally - and so did Mollie dog. Shiatsu does leave you wonderfully relaxed...

Note: for a while, we did consider getting a shih-tzu. In fact we came very close to getting a cross from a rescue but the 24 hr trial really didn't go well. A lot of people, when they hear 'shiatsu', say "isn't that a small dog?" and obviously think this is really really funny. Would've been good to get the dog to walk up and down their backs if they then asked for a treatment... oh well...