Tear staining is very bad with light colored doggies like shih's and maltese. It used to drive me nuts with my shih when I had him. You definitely need to clean the boogies regularly with a rag with warm water and another good thing to do is trim the hair there. It pokes them in the eyes thus causing the tears and the staining. I had noticed it a lot with lex when his eye hair was getting long so I am getting him used to me trimming it. What I learned this week becuase he hates when I get near his eyes is while I have him in the sink soaking wet I take the hairs by the eye there and sort of twirl them so then I can sneak in really fast with my little palm clippers and get the hair off. When it's dry it is harder to do because you have to go slower. While it was wet and clumped up it was easy with one little swipe. It also went fast because he loves his bath/spa time so he was super duper relaxed and in a fog.
Good luck...I hate the stainign and seeing the boogies too.
__________________  Lulu will always be in my heart  |