10 Great Shih Tzu Haircuts & Styles in 2026 (With Pictures)
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View 2 More +If you have recently brought a Shih Tzu into your home, you probably have many questions, not the least of which is what kind of haircut you should get for them. Shih Tzus are prone to overheating and heatstroke, so trimming their hair is a vital part of keeping their body temperature balanced so your pet can stay healthy.
We rounded up every Shih Tzu hairstyle that we could find to help you get an idea of what you might want your dog to look like and what is best for their health. Join us as we discuss each haircut, how you can achieve it, and the time of the year that it’s best suited for.
Maintenance Between Grooming Sessions
If you want to keep your dogs' new style fresh between trims, invest in a gentle yet effective dog shampoo. A regular at-home grooming schedule will keep their dander and shedding at bay in addition to hydrating their skin and keeping their fur fluffy.
Our Favorite Products
Bathing your dog may be challenging, but selecting the right shampoo can help make the process a bit easier. Our favorite products come from Hepper's Shampoo product line, offering natural, pet-friendly solutions meticulously designed to gently cleanse your dog's skin and coat without any risk of irritating or drying them out. These formulas are free of harmful additives such as dyes, soaps, sulfates, and phthalates. The Deep Cleansing Shampoo is a great option for pet owners who have difficulty neutralizing tough doggy odors. Hepper's Oatmeal Pet Shampoo is a great way to treat your pet to aloe vera and oatmeal's calming benefits while you revel in the delightful and refreshing scents!
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The 7 Best Summer Shih Tzu Haircuts
Let's take a look at Shih Tzu haircuts better suited to summer weather.
1. The Puppy Cut
The Puppy Cut is one of the most popular Shih Tzu haircuts. It is easy to perform, easy to maintain, and perfect for summer weather. To create the Puppy Cut, you trim all hair to a length of 1 to 2 inches, usually closer to the 1-inch mark. With the coat trimmed in this way, it requires very little maintenance and reduces the amount of hair you'll find around your home.
2. The Long Ear Puppy Cut
The Long Ear Puppy Cut is very similar to the Puppy Cut, but the hair on the ears is left long. This cut is still suitable for summer, but it has a slightly softer and more feminine appearance.
3. The Lion Cut
The Lion Cut one of the most popular Shih Tzu haircuts that requires trimming the hair over the body to 1 inch but leaving the fur on the head intact. The result resembles a lion! It's perfect for summer weather and easy to maintain.
4. Short in the Middle, Long on the Ends
Another relative of the Puppy Cut is the Short in the Middle, Long on the Ends cut. As you may have guessed, this haircut requires removing the hair from the middle of the body, leaving the hair on the face and tail uncut. This haircut can help cool the dog while still retaining a few of their long-haired features. This style tends to need more grooming because the hair on the face can start to get tangled, especially if the dog prefers wet food.
5. Cone Paws
With the Cone Paws haircut, the hair is removed from the body but left on the head, tail, and legs. You then style the legs to look like cones. It's an attractive haircut that gives the dog miniature horse-like qualities.
6. The Teddy Bear Cut
The Teddy Bear Cut is only referencing the head's shaping and has nothing to do with the rest of the body hair, which is up to you to decide how to style. A Teddy Bear Cut can be present on a short-haired dog and a long-haired one. With this cut, you trim the Shih Tzu so their telltale beard is missing, giving them a round face and a teddy-bear-like appearance.
7. The Practical Top Knot
The Practical Top Knot is another haircut that only refers to the dog's head and not the whole coat and is popular in summer and winter. With this style, the hair on the head is left long and tied up with a bow so it can cascade back down. This cut is functional and attractive because it helps to keep the hair out of the Shih Tzu's eyes and mouth.
The 3 Best Shih Tzu Haircuts for Winter
These are the Shih Tzu hairstyles better suited to winter.
8. Medium-Length Puppy Cut
First on the list of the best Shih Tzu haircuts for winter is the Medium-Length Puppy Cut, it’s the same as the standard one, except the hair is allowed to be a little longer. These coats can be 2 to 4 inches and are best suited to the northern states with strong winters. This haircut is only slightly more difficult to maintain, but your dog may leave more hair around your home.
9. Teddy Bear 2
Many people like to pair the Teddy Bear Cut with 2- to 3-inch hair on the body and long cone-style hair on the legs. This longer hair does contribute to the teddy bear appearance, but it also adds to how much work is required to maintain the coat each day. It will also increase the dog's temperature, so it's only well suited to cool climates.
10. The Top Knot Show Cut
The Top Knot Show Cut is one of the most recognizable Shih Tzu haircuts.. The long hair reaches from the back to the floor, and it will completely cover your dog's eyes and face, so you must keep it in a top knot. To maintain this coat, you will need to brush your Shih Tzu several times a day to keep the hair shiny and free of tangles and knots. The long heavy coat can also overheat the dog, so they always need to stay in a temperature-controlled environment. Since it's such high maintenance, you are only likely to see the Top Knot Show Cut on show-quality dogs.
Accessories
Dog haircuts are great, but you're limited in how often you can change your pet's look. Accessories can help you modify your pup's appearance much more frequently. There's no shortage of things that you can buy, from the subtle to the extravagant.
Pros
- You can purchase several types of outfits.
- Dog bows and ribbons are always winners.
- A necklace is a perfect accessory for most dogs and can double as an ID tag.
Cons
Pros
- You will need an electric razor with several trimmer attachments.
- Use a number-one trimmer to move with the grain from the crown of your pet's head to the back of the neck.
- Gently move the ears, and trim down each side of your pet's face.
- Comb the hair over your pet's eyes, and trim it with scissors so they can see.
- Comb the beard so it's even, and cut it straight across.
- Shape the beard by following the curve of the cheeks to round the face.
- Gently shave the bridge of the nose.
- Remove any stray hairs with the scissors.
Cons
Conclusion
The shorter your dog's coat is, the more they will like it because the Shih Tzu breed quickly overheats. We recommend the Puppy Cut for most people, at least to start with, and then you can allow more hair to grow as you see how your dog tolerates it and how well you like to keep up with the maintenance required. You'll find that your dog's coat knots and mats very quickly, so if you're like us, you'll be trimming it down so you can do something other than brush your dog all day.
Here are a few related reads:
Featured Image Credit: Neramitevent, Pixabay
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Ollie is a zoologist turned freelance animal writer living in South Australia with his partner Alex and their mini zoo consisting of their eldest, a rescue dog named Pepper, many aquatic creatures, and their cat Steve. Ollie has a Master's degree in wildlife biology but became a freelance animal writer in 2020 and hasn't looked back. He loves sharing what he has learned with pet parents around the planet.
