Shih Tzu is one of the Chinese imperial temple dogs and were kept for centuries by several royal families in imperial China.  The benefit of using the hair from "temple dogs" comes from the very long and soft fibers that come to a nice thin taper.  When in the water temple dog breaths and pulses like no other hair I have seen or used.  The hair compress's very well, making tying it in quick and easy.  There have been some real horror stories surrounding the harvesting of temple dog fur that came from China or Tibet so until I saw that the Canadian Tube Fly Company was offering ethically harvested temple dog I stayed away.  The hair that CTFC offers is as good as I have ever seen and offers outstanding quality at a great price.  Here are a few examples:

In Sum:  I understand that not everyone is concerned with whether or not an animal hair is ethically harvested, but if we can reduce the amount of suffering in the world (even for animals), then it seems to me that we are in some way morally obligated to do so.  To that end,  the Canadian Tube Fly Company's temple dog offers three advantages over other temple dog hair that I am aware of.  First, is the fact that it is ethically harvested.  Second, the product quality is outstanding!  Finally, the price is great ($8.95 for select and $11.95 for extra long).  You can find the complete temple dog selection in addition to a number of great tube fly supplies from the Canadian Tube Fly Company here:  CTFC

Disclosure- CTFC provided the featured products free of charge for me to review. I was not compensated in any other way for this blog post.