wow, thanks a bunch! i just got a new puppy, I’ll try these things out, he’s biting the crap out of me! :’(

i don’t know if this counts im only twelve and my parents want me to train the lab that we got i want 2 BE A vet when i grow up and is this trick going to help me (the yelp trick)with my black lab puppy

Hi. I have a 1 1/2 yr old Male Shiba, and he loves chasing my cats. This is a big problem because his favorite cat to chase was a feral kitten I found outside, and she’s still just starting to be confident indoors, but I can see her reverting from being chased. I’ve had him for about 4 months now, and I’m still not really seeing any change. He gets put in time-out whenever he chases, but I can tell he doesn’t really understand why he’s in time-out, or even that time out is bad (he’ll just sleep a lot of the time) and then he’ll oftentimes just go right back to chasing as soon as he’s off time-out. I use the command “No, Leave it!” when he chases, and it seems to bring him back out of the chasing mode (most of the time), but how can I get him to not even start to chase in the first place? He has no problem with the cats, it’s not an agressive chase by any means (when he’s tired, he’ll curl up on the couch next to the cats without a problem) and he’s a very sweet boy, just loves chasing. What am I missing?

HELP! i have a 12 week old shiba named keiko. I got him at 8 weeks and he is terrible! i dont know what to do. He just bites and bites! He bites everything; hands, feet, face! Hes a smart boy and he knows 4 tricks already. He’s also terrible on the leash, he pulls a lot! Im loosing all hope and starting to feel extremely overwhelmed and upset. Please help!

Hi! We got a shiba two weeks ago, he is 10 weeks old now. So far so good, but he really is biting a LOT. We tried redirecting him onto a toy, but he always likes to get in a few last bites before he moves on to a toy. Saying “No” or making a high pitch yelp only makes him more excited, and he bites harder. Turning away from him when he bites doesn’t really work, since he will just bite the back of me instead of the front. Moving completely away and ignoring him doesn’t quite work, because he will follow me and then make a lot of puppy gremlin noises and bite objects near me. Also, his puppy teeth appear to be serrated, is this normal? Any suggestions for the crazy biting?

We broke out the first interactive feeding toy day before yesterday. He’s already mastered it – and the work to get his food (he’s SO food motivated it’s just hilarious) keeps him out of trouble for about an hour which is nice.

What age did Sephy start humping at? We haven’t seen that yet, so I’m wondering when to expect it to happen. He’s being such a good puppy with only minor crises that I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Thanks. Another Sibe, wow! Three doggies must make for a crazy house some days. We’re trying to decide if puppy number two (in about a year) will be a girl Shiba or a Sibe.

Kiba’s doing better with the nipping. We did start using his puppy play pen for time outs. Sometimes he ends up in time out three or four times in a row, but it’s starting to make him shape up.

Really, he’s not too bad for a Shiba I think. Time will tell, but he’s now 12 weeks old and only makes us a little insane.

We started playing the kibble chase game to help him get some energy out. At meal times, since he’s not quite ready for interactive toys (hasn’t figured them out), we take a piece of kibble, ask him to sit, then fling it across our house (our living room/dining room/kitchen are all one long room) and let him chase after it. About half a cup of kibble and we have a tired and calm puppy!

He’s got sit and wait down pretty well and starts puppy obedience school in two weeks.

Kiba’s finally remembered he’s a Shiba Inu and is getting an attitude. He’s started nipping in the following scenarios:

1.) If I pet his hind quarters when he’s hyper – he doesn’t like this, but an anti-mark will usually make him let it be. He’ll still open his mouth and shake his head at me, but he won’t make contact with his mouth.

2.) When we’re sitting on the couch with our feet on the ottoman – he’ll bit the backs of our calves. Nothing seems to help with this behavior except closing his mouth firmly while anti-marking.

3.) When he gets hyper playing – redirecting or stopping play will USUALLY work.

I like the time out idea, but the only appropriate room downstairs is a bathroom with a cabinet he could (and would) eat. We have an upstairs laundry room, but even at a brisk walk, it takes about 45 seconds to catch the puppy, climb over the baby gate, go up the stairs, and stick him in. I’m worried in that time he’ll forget why he’s even going.

Any suggestions? What about a second crate that’s put in a quiet, low light area just for time out?

One other thing – When his nipping gets really annoying and he isn’t responding to anti-marks or stop of play, I’ve been holding his muzzle closed. He doesn’t think it’s a game (he really hates it) and it will make him stop most of the time.

Hello! my name is Ivan and my family has a shiba-inu as well. His name is Juno and i would just like to know if there is a way to make him more social with other dogs because when he sees other dogs, he gets very aggressive and very scary to the dog and to me. I don’t really know how to make him calm and just get along with other dogs. We got Juno when we was 6 months old already, so I don’t know if it is because he was not trained with other animals when he was a puppy or is it because he is a shiba-inu, since we all know, stubbornness is a shiba-inu trait. We love out little Juno and can’t wait to celebrate his 1st birthday very soon. thank you for this website since I have learned so much from it. you are a life-saver!!

Hello Meaghan,

I also considered using a shock collar on my Shiba in the beginning because he was so out of control. After doing some research into these collars, I decided against it. Here are some of the things I found -
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/dog-shock-collar-good-bad

What worked best for my Shiba in terms of his biting -
1. Having a drag lead (only with a flat collar) on him at all times when he is outside of his crate and I am around to supervise. The drag lead allowed me to more easily control him without playing his favorite catch me if you can games.

2. Time-outs – Biting on people is a time-out offense. Every time he bites, I non-mark him (ack-ack) and if he does not stop I say time-out and put him in the laundry room where it is very boring and there is nothing to do. This way he learns that if he bites – he loses his freedom and his ability to be with his pack.

3. Bite-inhibition – This trained him to have a soft mouth which really saved me later on when he started going crazy with leash biting.

4. Following the NILIF program – This simply means Shiba must do something for me first before getting anything in return including all food, toys, affection, freedom, getting out of time-out, everything.

5. Consistent set of rules, consistent enforcing of those rules, and controlling my own energy.

Here are two more articles that may help -
Puppy Obedience Training

Pack Leader to an Aggressive Dog

It is important to set rules and boundaries within the house so that the dog understands what is acceptable behavior and what is not.
Another important aspect is the energy of the people in the house. If people are fearful or nervous around the dog, it will cause the dog to be fearful and nervous as well which may then result in aggression.
It is probably best to get a professional trainer to come visit so that he can observe your dog and come up with a program that everyone in the family can follow. Your dog is still very young so now is the best time to re-train these behaviors and redirect him into positive activities.
A good professional trainer will be able to help you do that.
http://www.apdt.com/po/ts/default.aspx

Haha – yeah Shiba Sephy is very stubborn as well. What works best is to convince him that it is something he wants to do anyway Also, when I interact with my Siberian, Sephy will get all interested and want to show that he can do commands as well – lol. Competition works very well with a Shiba.
“By the way your shiba is very gorgeous i think my puppy will turn out that color but she still has puppy fluff ”
Thanks! Haha- I liked the puppy fluff. It is interesting that Sephy had a dark muzzle when he was a puppy but it got really light when his adult coat grew in.
Would love to see your furball so post some pictures for us when you have the time.

Hello x.xToxIC_LovEx.x,
It is no bother at all Asking questions is a sign of a good dog owner.
My Shiba Inu used to try to eat everything as well. It is a very common puppy behavior because everything is so new and puppy wants to examine everything. Some things that helped -
1. Teaching my puppy the Leave-It and Drop commands.
2. Teaching my puppy the Object Exchange game.
3. Being very vigilant initially and preventing puppy from getting the thing in his mouth.
Here are more details on these techniques-
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression
To discourage pulling during walks, here are some techniques that helped with my dogs -
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/leash-training-your-dog

Good luck!

Congratulations on your new Shiba puppy. Yeah the running around is a common Shiba move. Shiba owners call it the Shiba 500
What helped most with my Shiba is a lot of exercise as well as some well-defined rules and boundaries at home. Here are some things that helped with my Shiba puppy -
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training

lol – Flash sounds like a happy puppy.
In terms of your mother-in-law, here are some things that may help based on what you describe -
1. Energy
Dogs are very sensitive to the energy of the humans around them. When I am nervous or fearful, my Shiba would pick up on that energy and get nervous/fearful/excited and therefore escalate his hyper behavior. It was very difficult for me, but once I started controlling my own energy things improved significantly with my dogs.
One thing that may help is for you to be there for several sessions together with your mother-in-law and Flash. Show her some of the training techniques that you use on Flash when he misbehaves and show Flash that it is not acceptable to misbehave with your mother-in-law.
I was able to stay more calm when I had a plan of what to do in response to my dog’s craziness.
Also get her to do obedience training with Flash and to practice the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program.

http://shibashake.com/dog/nothing-in-life-is-free-dog-training

2. Food Guarding
When my Shiba was young, he started to guard his toys. It was mostly because he would always pick up trash from the street and I would forcefully take those things away from him. In this way he started associating me and people in general to having his stuff/food taken away.
Here are some things I did that helped with my dog’s food guarding behavior -
http://shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding

3. Bite inhibition and then No Bite
What really helped with my Shiba was to do bite inhibition exercises. This will help a dog learn to control the force of his bites, so that when he does bite – it will not even break skin.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition

Then later on, I consistently enforced a No-Bite rule with my dogs. No nipping at all – if they do they go to time-out.
Here are some other things that helped with my Shiba puppy-
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
Good luck and let us know how it goes. Happy Holidays to you and Flash

Hmmm, since there are multiple methods here, perhaps you could say which methods you tried and what did not work.
Some of the methods did not work well for my Shiba either. Time-outs worked best for me.
But if things are getting worse, it is probably best to get a professional trainer who can observe your dog and implement a training program together with you.
Good luck.

Thank you so much for your advice, I will read up on all of it as soon as my daughter and Shiba go down for their nap. I really hope one of these things will help. Thanks

Hello Mia,
Shibas are really stubborn and will keep doing something if they think there is even a small chance that they can get away with it.
If she bites, non-mark her (No or Ack, ack) and put her in time out. Put a drag lead on her so that you can more easily control her and take her to time-out. When she comes out, if she bites again, then put her back in time out, but for a longer period. If you keep repeating this, and are consistent, she will learn that any biting gets her put in time-out which is really not fun at all.
She could also be teething – so get her some safe chew toys to use.
Finally, you definitely want to do bite inhibition exercises with her.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition

Here are some other techniques that helped me with my Shiba when he was a puppy -
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training

Also, try and exercise her a lot more with walks. That way she gets rid of excess energy and will be easier to train and handle while at home.
It is important not to fear your Shiba as that will cause her to misbehave more. Shibas are very sensitive to human energy, and what helped me the most was to stay calm at all times. This article on techniques I used when my Shiba was acting out may also be helpful -
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog

Let me know how it goes.

First of all, all you advice on shibas has been so insightful and very helpful.

My Shiba Dexter (9months old) is coming along nicely. He used to nip badly but now goes and grabs a toy to show everyone when people arrive at my home or when i come home, the funniest part is that he does it of his own accord! XD

The only problem i am having with him is the small mischief he causes as soon as a back is turned. He has (on two occasions now) eaten a pumpkin shaped candle which belongs to my fiance’s parents. They are very intolerant of him seeing that he is a shiba and needs discipline while they let there dogs have free reign and never have problems (yeah right).

Anyway, i am at a loss at what to do since when i come into the room the deed is done and he is already off frolicking. any advice?

thanks

Thanks for the suggestions. We got a 7 week old black lab 2 weeks ago. She gets very excited when she sees us and jumps up and bites. We are trying hard to break the habit but some days are worse than others. I’m hoping that once she’s had her 2nd innoculation in 2 weeks and we can start walking her that it will calm her down. We’ve tried timeout which is quite successful but sadly we haven’t anywhere particularly boring for her!

Hi John,
Re food aggression:
Here are some things to try:
1. Don’t give him any bones or other high priority items such as raw meat etc. You want to set him up for success and reduce the number of instances where he is showing aggression over food.

2. If he shows any aggressive behavior, you should non-mark him (No or Ack-ack). If he continues, remove him to timeout. Make sure you are safe at all times though, so wear thick gloves if necessary when you are taking him to time-out. This way he learns that aggression gets him nowhere and that if he is aggressive with people, he doesn’t get to be with people.

3. If he is not overly aggressive over food, you can try hand-feeding him. Only do this if he is not overly aggressive and will not just go for your hand right away. If you are able to hand-feed him, then you can start training him on bite inhibition exercises.

4. I would also start to make him work for all of his food. Use food for training, grooming, etc. Put the rest in interactive food toys so that he has to work for everything. Also follow the NILIF program – this means he has to do something for you first (e.g. Sit, Down) before he gets anything in return – including opening doors, getting a toy, getting any food, etc. This will show him that you are in control of all the resources, and the fastest way to get what he wants is to do what you want first.

5. Make sure to remove all resources when you have guests over. This will keep things safer while you are re-training him, and it will also reduce the number of aggression episodes. The less he practices it, the less it will be a habit.

Here are more food aggression techniques:

http://www.shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding

Re classes: You are right in that private classes will be very helpful. Initially I attended both group and private classes.

The private classes I mainly used to come up with strategies for dealing with bad behaviors at home.

The group class is also useful because it helps you practice getting your Shiba’s attention in highly distracting environments. It also helps with dog-dog socialization, which is very important for a Shiba because they tend to get dog aggressive as they get older. The techniques you learn in group class will also be very helpful in the private sessions when you are trying to troubleshoot particular issues, for example food aggression issues.

In this way you can just focus on the problem behaviors during the private sessions, rather than learning how to do specific commands.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.

Hi Mona,

I love the look of the Norwegian Elkhound! I have been thinking of getting one. How old is yours? When did you get him? How is his temperament? He sounds like a sweetie.

The “ack-ack” works well for my Shiba too. Finger pokes worked initially, but only for a very short time. In the long-term, redirecting onto a toy, or withdrawing my attention (time-out lite) seems to work better for my Shiba.

Hahaha! Exchanging is not possible. Hehe!
Sure! Images I can do! I’ll photoshop a coffee in along with Haruki’s naughty face! ^_^

Thanks for the reply!
Haruki is doing much better now! He understands very well the meaning of the quiet room! He’s not so aggressive towards my hands and only nips….but mostly he knows he’s not allowed! Thanks to you, he’s much much better. He’s finally acting like a puppy! I have guests over and everyone is saying that he’s great and calm! I really can’t thank you enough!
He’s only three months, so I know there’s going to be the “challenging phase” lets hope it doesn’t come, but if there’s anymore concerns, I’ll definitely turn to your blog for more info!
You’re so great for sharing your experiences! Really appreciate in what you are doing! If there’s any way that I could send you a coffee, please let me know!

if anyone knows anything about how to stop dog biting I would be happy to listen to it I know ginger is a good dog but she has a bad habit of doing it PLEASE HELP by telling me what I should and should’t do then please tell me Im crying because I don’t know what to do Sarah age 14

*Poke* – Don’t make me come over there and seek my dogs on you!

In any case, I still think you are a dog lover at heart. If you are willing to do Mission Impossible type stunts to feed your landlord’s dog; I can only imagine what you would be willing to do for your own dog

Hi Jeannie, From your description, it sounds like it could be a case of excess energy. Dogs are crepuscular, and tend to be very active in early morning and late evening. One thing to try is to take him out for a walk during those times (before he starts his crazy, aggressive, behavior). Another thing that I do is make my dogs work for all of their food. I stuff it in all kinds of toys and they have fun digging it out. At the same time they get some mental stimulation while figuring out how to get at the food. Here are some of the toys that I got for my dogs:

http://www.shibashake.com/dog/best-dog-toys

Playing games can also help with bonding, energy release, and stress release.

http://www.shibashake.com/dog/dog-play-fun-games-to-play-with-your-dog-or-puppy

Note however, that you are absolutely right in not allowing him to escalate his aggression. It is best to try and reduce the number of aggression displays with exercise and obedience exercises, but if he does get aggressive, it is important to stop him from escalating. Time-outs work best for my Shiba Inu but different methods may work better for different dogs depending on their temperament. To make it easier to catch him, you can try putting on a drag-lead. That way when he runs, you can just step on the lead. Make sure to cut off the loop on the lead so that it does not catch on anything, and make sure to only use a flat collar (NOT a choke, prong, or any other training collar). Good luck. Let us know how it goes with your little guy.

Hi Asherlééi.

The situation you describe is actually a pretty common one. It happens when different people in the house treat the dog differently. As a result of this, the dog may see us and him as belonging to the same pack, and our parents as being in a different pack, i.e. outsiders. The dog may growl or show aggression to protect his own pack from outsiders (our parents). He may hump because he does not know that the behavior is undesirable by us.

It is probably best to get help from a positive reinforcement trainer. A trainer will be able to observe the dog and accurately diagnose the key issues. A trainer will also be able to give us detailed instructions and show us what we need to do to fix things. Visit this site to find a trainer near you:

http://www.apdt.com/po/ts/default.aspx

To fix this issue, it would probably be most effective if everyone participates. Everyone should have a hand in training, feeding, and doing other activities with the dog so that he sees the whole family as his pack. I usually have a very consistent set of house rules, that everyone applies in the same way. This allows us to communicate more clearly to our dog and prevents confusion. I also make sure to only reward my dog (including affection, food, freedom, etc.) when he is doing something good and desirable. Many people make the mistake of giving affection to a dog all of the time, even when he is misbehaving, and this encourages the dog to keep repeating those misbehaviors.

I also follow the NILIF program to give my dogs a fixed structure and a fixed routine.

http://shibashake.com/dog/nothing-in-life-is-free-dog-training

I also do frequent, but short obedience training sessions with all of my dogs every day.

The best thing though, is probably to get help from a professional trainer.

I would start with having the child toss a treat to him first. Make sure to only do this when he is calm and not being insistent about wanting the food – i.e. nosing, whining, etc. Make sure that the dog never uses aggression to try and “bully” the food from the child.

Generalizing the training to a variety of kids will definitely help, but it is important to only do this with kids who are good about following instructions and who can stay calm, so that the dog doesn’t get distressed during the training sessions. It can often be a challenge to find kids who are willing to do this

Definitely consider getting a professional trainer. The aggression may come from a variety of reasons. A good trainer will be able to read the dog and accurately identify the root of the aggression. Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

I think that most dogs can be retrained, but (why is there always a but?) it may take a lot of time, and the end result may not always be perfection. It is easier to teach dogs when they are young because then, their mind is open to new experiences, and they are very eager to learn. It is also easier to prevent a behavior than it is to break a bad habit that has already been reinforced time after time.

The most important thing about fear aggression, I think, is the energy of the humans around the dog. Usually, when a dog shows aggression, our natural reaction is to become fearful ourselves, and that will make the dog even more fearful and more aggressive – leading to a vicious cycle. For now, you may want to put a basket muzzle on your dog when he is around children. This usually helps to put everyone at ease because there is less danger of anyone getting hurt. Only do this if your dog is not stressed or fearful of the muzzle or it may worsen the problem.

Do controlled desensitization exercises several times, every day. First start off the dog at a distance from the child. It has to be far enough so that the dog is still calm. Ask the child to ignore the dog. Reward and praise the dog for being calm in the presence of a child. It also helps to ask the dog for some simple commands, e.g. “watch”, “sit”, and reward him for doing that in the presence of a child. Then you can *slowly* reduce the distance. If the dog starts acting out, then you have moved too close, too quickly. Move back and restart. Make the sessions short and fun so that your dog starts to associate good things with children, and learns not to be fearful of them. At other times, give the dog a nice quiet area away from children, so that he does not practice his aggression.  

Have you seen the show DogTown on NatGeo? They are a dog shelter, and they often take in many dogs with aggressive histories and then retrain them. I really enjoy the show and it always makes me feel very hopeful. Last season they even took in Michael Vick’s dogs and retrained them. Quite amazing.

I would definitely try desensitization exercises and consult a positive reinforcement trainer trainer on this. In cases of aggression, it always helps to have a trainer observe the dog and identify what exactly is causing the dog distress, and the level of distress. Hope this helps. Please let us know how things go.

Thanks for visiting ellie. How serious are the fights? Break skin? puncture wounds? Do they also bite people in the house? How serious are those bites? What have you tried so far?

If the fights are serious (e.g. puncture wounds) it is best to get a professional trainer, who is familiar with these more dominant, powerful, breeds, to come over and help. There is usually a lot going on wrt. body language, triggers, etc. that may lead to a fight, and a trainer will be able to observe the root of the problem and address that.

In the meantime, it may be best to manage the dogs so that they are always supervised when they are together. In general, I find that it is best to stop my dogs from practicing any kind of aggression. Exercise will also help. The more tired my dogs are, the less frustrated energy they have, which can frequently trigger a fight.

Hi Jim. Thanks for sharing your story. Most dog bites I think are preventable with some training and management. And it is probably not a matter of liking you or not, but rather responding to the type of energy you were projecting. It has been my experience, with my own dogs, that when I project fearful energy, they start acting out.
I think it is really awesome that your past experience did not prevent you from getting a dog of your own. She sounds like a really fun and balanced dog.