The Misadventures of a Shiba Inu

Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:08:00 +0000

For the first time since we've moved out to the east coast, we're going away on vacation and will have to leave our dogs behind. When we lived in California, we simply dropped Loki off at his breeder's. This gave us great comfort. Not only was our breeder obviously familiar with the breed and dogs, but she also had some emotional attachment to Loki. Now on the east coast, we don't have her as an option. And we are noticeably more anxious about leaving them behind.

Our first and best solution was to have my sister house sit for us, but unfortunately, she has a life. Our second solution, which was what we decided upon, was to hire our dog sitter. We had hired her from time to time for just mid-day trips. This is the first time we'll be using her for a vacation. She'll be coming three times a day for them. I think that keeping them at home is better than kenneling them, but they will be dreadfully lacking in human companionship. Poor pups. As a testament to my anxiety, I wrote up a two page document detailing all my instructions for the dogs. I had already told her all of that information in person, but I wrote it all up anyways.

I hope they will be okay without us for a week.

No more apple pie

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:00:00 +0000

On Saturday, we invited a couple to watch the Michigan v. Illinois football game with us. They brought a beautiful and delicious apple pie, homemade from apples that they picked themselves. Yummy!

On Sunday, about a quarter of the remaining pie was sitting on the table. We left to go grocery shopping, and when we returned...

...there was no more apple pie.

Allergy Evidence

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Juju is apparently still having allergy issues. She has these tiny scabs in a bunch of places. Now that she's shedding, the scabs come off with her fur.

We don't know what's causing her allergies. We originally guessed that it was chicken. But she has now been on fish for the past few weeks, and her condition isn't improving. It's possible that she has seasonal allergies. I know that we definitely did not see this the last time she shed in the spring. I'm afraid to furminate her this time around, because doing so will pull out all these scabs. And that seems like it would definitely hurt her.

Poor Jujube.

Jujube's Sleeping Places

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Jujube resting on our bed:

And here she is under our dining room table:

The problem with some visitors

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:05:00 +0000

Being social and having lots of visitors has been great for Loki. As I previously reported, he's now really wonderful and friendly with all our human guests. The dogs are great. They aren't the problem. Sometimes it's the visitors who are the problem.

This past weekend, we had a very upsetting incident, when one of our visitors left the front door open for too long and Jujube escaped. I was upstairs in the bedroom at the time. I looked out the window just to to see her bolt across the street and out of sight. We live in a townhouse community, so the street she crossed is residential and fairly safe. But there is only a short a brick wall that separates our townhouse community from a very busy street with a speed limit of 45 mph.

Jujube ran past the townhouse buildings across the street from us. To me, it felt like she was gone was forever. But I suppose in reality it must not have been that long, for by the time I got dressed and put my sneakers on, someone already had scooped her up and she was on her way back to us.

Needless to say, I was furious at this visitor's carelessness, and greatly upset by the whole incident. Dogs are simple. Humans on the other hand can be so difficult.

Adventures in Uncrating

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:27:00 +0000

In the dead of the night during one of our early days with Jujube, sometime between last January and April, Loki and Jujube got into a fight. Both Yun and I were sound asleep when it happened. Since that incident, we kept both of them crated at night.

We put Loki in the wire crate and Jujube in the plastic one.

Now, because the two of them have been behaving pretty well (only one fight) since we hired our behaviorist in May, I figured that they have displayed sufficient good behavior to warrant trials in being uncrated at night.

Jujube always sleeps in our bed. Always. There's no keeping her off of the bed. She's very persistent. Even if you constantly tell her to get off, she'll sneak back on after you've gone to sleep. Loki, on the other hand, sleeps everywhere. Sometimes, he'll sleep in his crate:

Sometimes he'll sleep in Jujube's crate:

Sometimes he'll sleep on the bed:

Apparently he thinks all sleeping spots belong to him.

Most nights, Jujube sleeps in between Yun and me by our feet, and Loki picks one of the two crates to sleep in. Loki only sleeps in the bed if one of us humans isn't there to claim our spot. He doesn't join the crowd if there are two humans and a dog already on the bed.

In the past couple days, I have been sick, and spent most of my day in bed. Just me and two dogs: one on each side of me. This has given me greater insight into the world of my two dogs. If Jujube is on the bed first, then there are no issues with Loki getting in bed. However, if Loki is on the bed first, then he sometimes growls at her when she tries to jump on the bed. Ah, but like I said before, Juju is very persistent. She will not be deterred from getting in bed. What does our smart little lady do when Loki growls? She climbs into bed under the covers. Yes, she uses her muzzle and burrows her way onto the bed. Once she settles down, no one would ever know she was there. Amazingly, her technique works! Loki's not smart enough to figure out her sneaky antics.

Lastly, here's a picture of our peaceful pair:

Impossible to find poop

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Autumn + rain = many falling leaves

So it's really, really, really hard to find poop to pick up in our little backyard.

Thoughts on redirected aggression

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:00:00 +0000

One type of aggression in dogs that is often misunderstood and puzzling is redirected aggression. This occurs when a dog redirects his aggression from one source to another. We see this during our leashed walks when Loki barks and lunges at certain neighboring dogs. Because he is unable to reach that dog, he redirects his aggression to Jujube. Fortunately, he doesn’t bite her, but he does lunge and bark in her face. She puts up with it and doesn’t react.

I can’t say that I know much about how to deal with it other than managing each occurrence individually. Since the two of them are both on leash, it’s not terribly difficult to hold them back. Then, I just keep moving forward to try to get his attention on something else. I don’t linger around the source of his aggression. I hope this approach is good enough, because I’m not quite sure what to do if his behavior became more severe.

Although it seems like an odd sort of behavior, I can’t help but to relate it to humans. Humans display redirected aggression all the time. This is what happens when one person “takes it out” on another. After suffering from a bad day at work, some adults come home and take it out on their family members. It can range from just being snappier to being abusive. Interesting parallel, isn’t it?

Allergies

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:10:00 +0000

In the past couple of weeks, when we've pet Jujube, we've noticed some bumps. And when we try to dig through her incredibly thick coat, we come up with little tiny black bumps. They looked like dried blood, in other words, scabs.

At first we wondered if Loki and Juju have been getting into fights while we were away at work, and so she had scabs from that. But the bumps were all over her body in places that didn't make sense for any bite marks. Yun thought that maybe she'd been scratching herself so hard to break skin. But why would she do that?

To help solve the mystery, we took her to the vet this past weekend. It turns out that she has allergies, and she must have been scratching hard enough to break skin. The vet explained that when humans have allergies it often manifests as sneezing and watery eyes, but for dogs, it almost always manifests itself on the skin. We don't know what she has allergies from. The vet said it could be seasonal or it could be food. We don't know what it is, but we did have her on California Natural chicken. Prior to that we went through a bag of fish and a bag of lamb. Yun says this was the first time that she was on chicken with us. I frankly don't remember. So now we got a bag of fish just for her. Loki's fine on the chicken, so we're keeping him on that. The vet also gave us some medication for her. This is our first experience in dealing with dog allergies. I hope that it's the chicken and not something else. We'll see what happens in a few weeks. Hopefully, she'll get better.

Crate Marks

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:44:00 +0000

What is that? Do you see it? Loki has these four vertical marks on his side.

What is that?
They are crate marks! He slept in his crate and must have leaned up against the side of his crate. (We didn't even close the crate; he just voluntarily chooses to sleep in there.)

But why these marks?
Ah, because we gave him a bath last night and he must have slept against the side of the crate while still wet.

My poopy memory

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

I thought my memory was bad, but this takes the cake

6:30 pm    Arrive home

6:35 pm    Take dogs out for a walk so that they can do their business. Remembers that Loki didn’t poop this morning, so we stay out longer than usual so that he has ample opportunity to poop.

7:20 pm    Return home

7:30 pm    Feed dogs

7:40 pm    On the phone with Yun. About to tell him about how I’m furious at Loki for not pooping, but I didn’t get the chance.

8:30 pm    Dinner discussion with Yun about Loki not pooping. I know… it’s a wonderful topic of conversation for dinner.

8:33 pm    Then I say to Yun, “Oh wait… Loki did poop. We went on a walk. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for him to poop. And finally he did poop! But then I forgot that he pooped and was mad at him all evening for not pooping.”

Peek-a-boo

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:23:00 +0000

A real fox

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:18:00 +0000

This is what a real fox looks like. Not quite the same as a shiba, but still very cute.

At Cape May Zoo

Socialization with visitors

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:49:00 +0000

Since moving to the east coast and buying our own home, we’ve had both the pleasure and the pain of hosting A LOT of guests. This summer was so busy that I felt like we were running a bed and breakfast. Once I even had to ask my sister to strip the linens off the bed and stick them in the washing machine as she left, because another guest was arriving that evening and I had no time to do the wash myself.

From the beginning of June through the end of August, we had:

7 friends
3 from my side of the family
+ 3 from Yun’s side of the family
----------------------------------------
Total: 13 unique out-of-town visitors

To be accurate, 2 out of the 13 did not actually stay overnight, but the remaining 11 did. And a few of them visited multiple times.

The benefit in this overkill of visitors is that Loki and Jujube are now both very well-accustomed to visitors in our home. Loki still is our guard dog in the sense that lets me know when people are arriving, but he’s quite friendly and loves our visitors. Sometimes, he gets so overly excited that he pees in the house. This is annoying to clean up, but for some reason, I also find it funny and endearing.

With so much socialization with human visitors, we have no problems now with service people or contractors who come to do work on the house. Still, sometimes we put the dogs away because not everyone loves dogs and they can get in the way.

I think in order to properly socialize your dogs to humans, you have to also be social. Back when we lived in California, we didn’t have nearly as many visitors, so it was much more difficult to get Loki accustomed to them. But now that we are more social, it seems that visitors are no longer a problem!

Actually, the biggest problem we have with visitors is Jujube’s sneaky ability to slip around all us and bolt out the front door. Luckily she’s never gotten too far, and usually wants to come back anyways to greet the visitor. But my gosh, she sure does love to bolt out that door.

Shiba Meetup: Hike at Great Falls

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Our hike at Great Falls was a pretty good success. We had a total of 5 shibas.

Loki:

Delia:

Shibe:

Gibson:

And unfortunately, Jujube didn't get her own picture.

One interesting thing was that there was some sort of rescue or practice rescue operation being done at the time. So we got to see this helicopter come down very low into the gorge. Look! It made a rainbow with all the water it caused to splatter up.

All in all, it was a pretty good meetup.

The Dog Park

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:38:00 +0000

When we first got Loki, we made a concerted effort to socialize him. We took him to puppy socialization classes. We enrolled him in a basic obedience class. We took him to the dog park once a week.

He did fairly well at the dog park for about a year. And although he never did get used to dogs sniffing his butt, he was pretty well-behaved.

Then we had a couple of dog fights.

Afterwards, I made a concerted effort to slowly reintroduce him into the dog park by making use of the small dog area. I was fairly successful with that.

Then we moved across country. Our lives became busier, as I took on a full-time job. We weren’t able to take him to the dog park once a week anymore. He got to go once last fall, and that was about it. Then we got Jujube.

And now, Loki is no longer a well-socialized dog, at least not with other dogs. (He’s gotten much better with people and visitors, but that’s for another blog post.)

He can be aggressive on-leash as well as off-leash. It started very slowly and gradually increased. At first, I thought it was just with large, black dogs. Then one day while on-leash, he snapped at a small, black dog at a pet store. I thought, maybe it’s just all black dogs. A few months later, he snapped at a golden retriever. So maybe it’s not just black dogs. I don’t know what it is any more. He’s not reactive 100% of the time. He still has his good moments with some dogs, but the bad moments outweigh the good.

At this point in Loki’s life, I don’t think he can safely go to dog parks. My view is that, if Loki never gets to go to another dog park again for the rest of his life, that’s fine with me. He has Jujube for a companion. They might not cuddle with each other or be best of friends, but they definitely do wrestle with each other and run around like crazy together. My motivation for bringing him to the dog park was so that he’d have a chance to interact with his species. There’s nothing like watching dogs run and chase each other. It’s quite captivating. But now Loki has Jujube to interact with. Is it really necessary that he go to the dog park? Is this even a goal worth working towards?

Yun’s opinion differs from mine. I think Yun sees the situation as rather sad; he wants Loki to be able to go to the dog park. He thinks Loki needs to be exposed to dogs more, not less, and hence Loki should be brought to the dog park more often. Yun has been an advocate of trying to re-socialize Loki.

So, on Yun’s insistence and my reluctance, we attempted to take Loki to the local dog park a couple weekends ago. To start with some good news, Loki was very well-behaved with a couple dogs. One was a black, female Chihuahua -- at least I infer that she was female since she was decked out in pink clothing. Loki was very interested in her and didn’t mind her being in his face. Loki was also pretty good with a very calm, light-colored spaniel -- I’m not sure what type of spaniel it was.

But other than those two, he wasn’t good with any other dog. We did not get into any fights, but he snapped at a few dogs.

Loki doesn’t have issues with other dogs as long as they respect his personal space. He really starts to have issues if they sniff him up close by his muzzle. For the first few seconds, he’ll tense up. If the sniffing continues, which it almost always does, he starts to growl and show teeth. This will continue for a couple seconds. Then if the sniffing continues, he’ll take a snap.

The interesting observation that Yun made was that Loki does give ample warning before he snaps. He doesn’t snap immediately. There’s plenty of time for the other dog to back away. So my question is why doesn’t the other dog back away? Of all species, wouldn’t other dogs know how to read the warning signs?

For the dog park issue, I’ve basically given up. If he doesn’t get to go to the dog park, that’s fine by me. I do think it’s possible to re-socialize him, but that will take more time and effort than I’m willing to put in. The payoff isn’t worth it to me. The payoff isn’t interaction with other dogs. It’s the incremental interaction with other dogs on top of what he already gets with Jujube. So in my opinion, the costs outweigh the benefits.

And although I say I’ve given up, I am hoping to re-socialize him to some degree. Maybe not full-fledged off-leash socialization, but more controlled on-leash socialization. Our shiba meetup tomorrow is a hike. We are taking both Loki and Jujube. Hopefully, Loki will get to socialize with the other shibas while on-leash. The leash will give us better control, and allow him to walk with all the other dogs. The last time I tried a shiba meetup hike, I met up with only one other shiba and Loki was well-behaved the entire time. I’m anticipating more shibas this time, but I hope it will be a good experience for him.

Loki and Jujube running

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Labor Day weekend was definitely a dogs' vacation at our home. They got to go to the park each day of the three-day weekend. We sniffed out two new parks near us, and what fun parks they both were! Lastly, we let them run free for a little while.

In the video, you can see that Loki's tail extended. It reminds me of a squirrel -- you know, squirrels use their tails to keep balance while they leap from tree to tree. Jujube always keeps her tail tightly curled. I just love seeing the joy on their faces when they get to run through nature.

Deshi Dishes with Jujube

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:37:00 +0000

Jujube was interviewed today by Deshi on the Deshi Dishes Series over on the Dogster Forums. I've copied the interview here to share with you.

My interview with Jujube - 951723:

Tell me a bit about your name and how you got it.

My full name is Kari-on’s Essence of Tenju. In my old home, they called me Essie. My new mommy picked out Jujube because it sounded fun. My daddy agreed because a Jujube is a red Chinese date. Red and sweet. Yep! That’s me!

Mostly, my pawrents call me Juju… doubling the last syllable of Tenju.

I read on your profile that you moved to your forever home when you were three years old. What was it like when you first moved in? Did you and Loki get along right away?

It was kind of scary when I first moved here. My new mommy and daddy were nice, but everything else was scary. The car ride was scary. Loki was a big mean bully, who didn’t want me touching any of his stuff. It took awhile before Loki and I got along. He still doesn’t like to share.

Do you have a favorite toy? If so, what is it?

My ultimate, favorite chew toy was Mommy’s underwear, but she was a meanie pie and took that away from me. Boo! Now my favorite toy sits on a high shelf. One of these days I’ll figure out how to get to it.

Tell me a bit about the place where you live. Your profile doesn't mention it all all. What is the scenery like and is the weather nice there?

I live in a nice three-story townhouse. There are lots of stairs, which is so much fun. I get to zoom past everyone on the stairs – Mommy, Daddy, and Loki are all slow-pokes. The weather here changes all the time; I don’t mind. Sometimes it’s hot and humid. Sometimes it’s rainy. And sometimes we even get a little bit of snow. Loki balks at the rain, but it’s all good to me. And I love the snow! So much fun to prance around in.

Have you ever been on a long road trip? If so, what did you think about it and where did you go?

Long road trips used to really stress me out. But after going to New Jersey a few times now, I learned that it’s not so bad. Once we get there, Loki and I get to bark at the cat and eat its food. That’s kind of fun.

Do you have any allergies?

Nope. Luckily, none for me.

What kind of food do you eat? Do you always eat all of your food or are you a picky eater?

I get California Natural. Sometimes I get chicken. Sometimes I get lamb. And sometimes I get fish. My pawrents like to switch it up. I inhale all of my food in thirty seconds flat. Better eat fast lest Loki steals my food. What’s there to be picky about? I’ll eat anything and everything. And no delicate chewing for me either. I could beat all the boys in an eating contest.

What is your favorite place to go for walks? Tell me a bit about it and what makes it so great.

I love being FREE. My favorite walk is any walk where I’m FREE. I try to get FREE as often as possible. Sometimes I escape out of the smallest crack in the front door, and sometimes I’ll gnaw on my leash to chew my way to freedom. If I’m really, really lucky Mommy will let me off-leash in a secluded, wooded area. That’s the best.

Do you like getting baths? What kind of shampoo are you bathed with?

Who likes getting baths? Of course I hate baths! I try to jump out of the bathtub as often as possible. Unfortunately, I get slathered in Oatmeal Shampoo. It smells yucky. I much prefer the smell of mud and dead animals.

Are you a very talkative shiba or are you a quiet girl?

I wouldn’t say that I’m a talkative shiba, but I do gently remind my Mommy with incessant whining when it’s time to feed me, and when it’s time to walk me, and when it’s time for me to pee, and when it’s time for her to wake up, and when it’s time for her to pet me. Sheesh, she’s so lazy!

Oh, and I’m the loudest belcher in my family. I bet I could win a burping contest among both humans and dogs.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with the dogs on the shiba forum?

It’s been lots of fun getting to know all of you pups on this forum. Smiles and tail wags to everyone!

My dog has had more life experience than me…

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:12:00 +0000

It occurred to me the other day that my dog has had more life experience than me. Before she was a part of our family, Jujube was bred. I’m not sure how many litters she had, but I think it was at least a couple. (Click here to see one of her pups.) Jujube’s already gone through the whole experience of motherhood, whereas I haven’t. She’s already given birth and gone through the experience of taking care of her helpless babies. She’s had her boobs tugged at, become completely misshapen, and then shrink back to normal. Although she had the help of humans through the process, she instinctively knew what she was supposed to do.

Will I know what I’m supposed to do with my own baby? I guess I’ll find out soon enough, but the uncertainty is slightly terrifying.

Fur Dent!

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:39:00 +0000

When Loki was a puppy, he had a fur dent. It was very apparent with his puppy coat. After his adult fur came in, he never had a fur dent again.

But Jujube keeps her tail so tightly curled all the time, that she does have a fur dent!

Shiba Meetup

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:47:00 +0000

The shiba meetup today was a success! We had a great turnout, though I'm not exactly sure how many shibas we had in total.

We've got 7 shibas alone in this picture below.

Curly tail!

We even had one long-haired shiba, named Mortimer. I had never seen a long-haired shiba in person. He was beautiful. I loved the fluffy face and big fluffy tail.

I stayed for about 40 minutes, because it started raining. At least it was nice and cool. Not too hot for an August day.

Here's a video of them running around:

Off-leash Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Lucky dogs! They got to go off-leash two days in a row.

They got to go in the water. These two shibas seem to really enjoy the water. I know other shibas don't, but my two do.

Jujube even went swimming for a few seconds! There are just certain fun things in life that can't be done on leash.

As you can see in the video, the dogs do run quite far away. This might cause some anxiety in some owners, but not me. They always returned to us within a few minutes. Both were easy to leash up this time around. We just stayed in one spot while the dogs ran around us. But for sure I would never ever let them off-leash in any area with other people/dogs/cars around.

Off-leash

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:18:00 +0000

This weekend, we went to visit my parents, who live in a somewhat rural area. This morning we went across the street into a rather woodsy park, and I decided to try my luck at letting them off-leash. I've actually let Loki off-leash before. I wouldn't ever trust him in an area near streets or if there were other dogs or people around. He doesn't reliably respond to the "come" command, but he does stay somewhat close by. I had never tried letting Jujube off-leash, and I was curious to see how she would do.

First things first:

Here you can see Loki in the foreground and Jujube is way in the background. Can you spot her?
Two curly tails:

I didn't feed them any breakfast and had both of their breakfasts in my pocket. I would periodically kneel down and give a passing dog some kibble. Loki was pretty good at this. He knew that every time he checked in with me, he'd get a small bite to eat. Jujube was terrible. She only got kibble maybe two times. The rest of the time she completely ignored me! She also seemed to wander a lot farther than Loki did. It's so funny, because in our home and even in the dog park, she always hangs around us and stays close. I guess there are way too many fun things to explore in the meadow and woods.

One happy Loki:

One happy Jujube. Her face is all wet from running through the dewy meadows.

In the end, I was only able to get Jujube back on leash by sheer luck. She just so happened to squat near me to pee. And so I extended a huge handful of kibble, and then I leashed her up.

Leashing Loki was not as difficult, but we were aided by a jogger. Yep, we actually encountered one jogger. I was hoping not to encounter anyone, since these two are so unreliable off-leash. Luckily, she wasn't afraid of dogs and didn't mind Loki following her, which he did like she was his new owner. So much for dog loyalty! Since he wouldn't stop following her, she was nice enough to jog back to us (with him following her at her heels) so that we could leash him up.

No, I don't recommend letting shibas off-leash. But every once in awhile, I do as long as I can find a rural enough of a place. They enjoy it so much! I just love seeing their happy, smiling faces when they are free to run through nature.

Car Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:20:00 +0000

Loki & Jujube do fairly well on car rides. Loki has always been good in the car. Jujube tends to be more anxious. She used to be really anxious when we first got her. But she has since calmed down.

Here's Loki. He doesn't look too happy, but he settles down pretty quickly.
Here's Jujube. She takes a few minutes before she settles down.

Jujube, the Chewer

noreply@blogger.com (Vi) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:24:00 +0000

It wasn't that long ago that I needed a new leash for Jujube. Here we go again! Good thing Lupine has a lifetime guarantee.

Oh, and apparently, we can't leave the watermelon on the floor. We're certain it's Jujube. When we give her watermelon, she eats through the rind and everything. And when we had only Loki, we could safely leave the watermelon on the floor all the time. Now it has to be put up on the counter.