Who We Are

Ohio Fuzzy Pawz is an all volunteer organization.  We have an extremely dedicated group of volunteers who freely give of their time, money and love to rescue our foster dogs.  We rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home Shih Tzu into permanent adoptive homes. We do adopt outside Ohio, but we do not ship our dogs. Adopters should be prepared to come to Ohio to pick up their new family member. Ohio has a significant number of homeless Shih Tzu, and we are dedicated to reducing and ultimately eliminating Shih Tzu that have to be euthanized due to space in shelters.

Our Foster Dogs

Our foster dogs come from a variety of situations and circumstances. We pull dogs from county shelters who are out of time, owner turn-ins, dogs no longer useful to commercial breeders, dogs left homeless because of the death of an owner. By pulling dogs from shelters, we are saving two dogs because we are opening up space in the shelter so that will not have to euthanize a dog that day. As space allows, we take in dogs from owners who can no longer, for a variety of reasons, care for their dog. Some of the commercial breeders will cooperate with rescue and not kill dogs who are no longer useful to them, instead they will send them to rescue.

We do not have a shelter, we operate as a foster-home based organization where our foster dogs are treated like members of the family. We vet our foster dogs and treat any medical issues they might have. All of our dogs are spayed/neutered prior to adoption, update vaccines and test for heartworm disease and start them on heartworm and flea prevention. The dog is then assessed to determine which home setting will set the dog up for success. It is our goal to place each of our foster dogs in the last home they will ever need.

Every dog in rescue has had a tough break and some rescue dogs may have some behavioral or medical issues. We do our best to fully advise potential adopters of issues or quirks that we find while in rescue. These dogs are often very scared, and unsure of where they belong. There may be some training needed or some bad habits to correct. However, rescue dogs usually have plenty of love, affection and gratitude to give back. Most of all, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped save a life.

What we look for in an adoptive home

*All pets in your house must be spayed/neutered and current on vaccines and heartworm test before we will place a Shih Tzu with you. (The only exception to the spay/neuter would be if you are showing the dog in conformation shows, or due to a substantiated medical reason.)

We also cannot hold dogs--we do not have the space available.  When your application is submitted, please be prepared to adopt from the date of submissoin of your application.  We do indicate that it can take up to 2 weeks for processing but that is more the exception than the rule.

What does current on vaccines mean?

Current Vaccine Protocol consists of Rabies, DHPP, and bordetella (recommended), heartworm test, and heartworm prevention

*Adoptions to families with children under the age of 8 are done on a limited case by case basis.  Preference will be given to families with children if you currently have a dog in the home. Our primary concern is for our foster dog. Many dogs are turned into shelters and rescues because of problems with young children. We do not place young dogs into elderly homes as there stands too much of a risk for injury to the person and the dog. We do, however, always have an abundance of dogs in the 4-8 year old age range looking for wonderful homes. They are the perfect age for most any household and especially senior adopters.

*Our application requests 3 personal references, and we do call them.

*We also conduct a home visit for every application.  This is an opportunity to meet all members of the family.

*Adopters must be over 21 years old.

*We do adopt to renters, but you must list your landlord as an additional 4th reference.