Puppy Obedience Training 1
Set up a schedule and carefully supervise our puppy.
The little puppy is very curious and will get into trouble every chance he gets.
To save ourselves a lot of pain and to save our puppy from stress, we want set up a fixed schedule which includes crate time, play time, walk time, as well as handling and grooming time.
When our puppy is out and about in a non-dog-proof area, we need to supervise him closely. Close supervision will give us the opportunity to teach puppy right from wrong, without too much damage to our furniture and belongings.
If I do not have the time,
- I usually crate puppy, when he is home alone, or
- I put puppy on a tie-down, when I am home but unable to supervise.
If you are concerned about crating your puppy, here is what the Humane Society of the United States and the American Dog Trainer’s Network have to say about dogs and crates.
When I am away for a long period of time (> 3 hours), I put puppy in a long-term enclosure. This can be a secure puppy pen or a safe room (e.g. kitchen). I make sure there is nothing in the enclosure that my puppy can destroy. I also put in some bedding, a water bowl, puppy pads, and safe chew toys.
As a general rule, the longest time to crate a puppy is (age of dog in months + 1) hours.
An 8 week old puppy can be kept a maximum of (2 month old + 1) = 3 hours in a crate. Note that this is just a general guideline for the maximum crate time.
Most puppies need to go outside more frequently than that, for exercise and potty training. I take my puppy outside as soon as he wakes up, and right after any kind of vigorous play. In the beginning, Husky puppy Shania needed to potty after about 10-15 minutes of play.
At night, I crate my dogs in the bedroom. Sleeping together helps with the bonding process, and shows them that they are part of the pack.
Puppy Obedience Training 2
Keep a drag-lead on our puppy.
I put a drag-lead on puppy when he is roaming freely in the house.
This will help us control our ball of energy without resorting to chasing games. When puppy tries to run away, all we need to do is step on the drag-lead.
It is important to use a regular, thick (1 inch wide), flat collar and not a training collar (choke chain, prong collar). I make sure to cut off the loop on the leash, so that it does not catch on anything around the house. I start with a longer (6 feet), light leash, and then shorten it depending on my puppy’s behavior.
Once puppy matures and is better behaved, I switch to a leash tab or remove the drag-lead altogether.
It is best to use a 6 foot leash during puppy leash training and not the flexi-leash. The 6 foot leash gives us better control of our puppy, and is necessary to keep him safe when he decides to go chasing after dogs, cats, or squirrels.
Puppy Obedience Training 3
Start with reward obedience training.
It is most effective and least risky to start our puppy with reward obedience training. I started out with aversive techniques, and it made my Shiba puppy develop additional behavioral issues, including aggression. Even aversive based dog trainers will not use pain based techniques, such as leash jerks and alpha rolls, on dogs that are younger than 6 months old.
Today, I prefer to use reward training because it is more effective at motivating my dogs, stopping undesirable behaviors, and building a strong bond.
With reward training, we establish ourselves as the pack leader by controlling our dog’s resources through the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program. This simply means that puppy has to do something for us, for example a Sit, before he gets any resource (e.g. food, toys, affection, freedom) in return. Any bullying will be ignored, or will result in the removal of that resource.
Many people make the mistake of equating pack leadership with the use of aversive training. Aversive dog trainers say that difficult, strong-willed, dominant dogs require stronger, punishment based methods in order to show him who is boss.
This is not true.
One of my dogs (a Shiba Inu) is extremely strong willed, and can be quite difficult, but he responds much better to reward training.
Be careful of advertisements for 10 minute puppy obedience training programs and the like. There are no miracle cures in puppy training.
Puppy Obedience Training 4
Bite inhibition training.
Puppy biting is common because puppies are naturally curious, and want to examine everything with their mouths.
The good news is puppies do not have the jaw strength of an adult dog, and will not do much damage to us when biting. Because of this, puppy-hood is a good time for bite inhibition, or soft mouth training.
One of the best ways to train a dog to have a soft mouth is through hand-feeding.
I hand-feed my puppy at least some of his kibble every day. If he bites too hard when getting his food, I do a sharp ouch or yelp and ignore him for a few seconds. Then, I retry the exercise. If he takes food from me gently, I praise him and continue feeding without any breaks.
We can also combine hand-feeding with obedience commands, and dog grooming sessions. Hand-feeding also helps with food aggression issues, so I continue with it even through adulthood.
Ian Dunbar’s book After You Get Your Puppy, gives a good overview of bite inhibition, and how to best train our puppy to have a soft mouth.
A puppy, and ultimately an adult dog who has a soft mouth is a great asset. Because my Shiba Inu has good bite inhibition, we were able to solve many of his behavior problems, which would have been difficult to deal with if he were biting at full strength.
Puppy Obedience Training 5
Practice calm and assertive energy.
This is something that is always emphasized by Cesar Millan (the Dog Whisperer) and it is extremely important; especially for a hyperactive puppy.
If we interact with a dog using nervous, submissive, fearful, or otherwise weak (non-assertive) energy, the dog will sense that and start acting out even more.
Anger, impatience, frustration, and all other non-calm energies will only excite our puppy, and cause him to exhibit even more extreme behaviors.
In order to achieve calm, assertive energy, we must first overcome whatever fears we may feel toward our dog, and become his pack leader. This is much easier to do if we have achieved good bite inhibition.
Puppy Obedience Training 6
A busy puppy is a good puppy.
Puppies have a lot of energy, and will get into trouble if we do not keep them busy.
I make my puppy work for ALL of his food. Instead of presenting everything to him in a silver bowl, I use his daily kibble and treats for obedience sessions, bite inhibition training, handling, and grooming. If there is food left over, I put it in interactive food toys.
I also schedule play time with my puppy. Some games that my dogs like include flirt pole, the water hose game, and sometimes soccer.
When I start with a new game, I make it fun by handing out lots of treats for effort. Once my puppy understands the game, I switch to only treating his more stellar performances.
Make sure to always have control of a puppy’s play-time. This means that we own all the toys, and we decide when to start and stop the games. Play-time can be very useful in training our puppy to calm down, and to pay attention to us even when he is excited.
I also schedule two or three short obedience training sessions (10-15 minutes) with my puppy every day. This helps to establish me as the leader, gives my puppy some mental exercise, and provides a good bonding experience.
Other good ways to exercise our puppy include neighborhood walks, walks in the park, dog playgroups, and dog sports.
Puppy Obedience Training 7
We are not alone.
The most important thing to remember while bringing up a difficult puppy is that we are not alone!
Our puppy journey will be filled with a lot of joy, but there will also be challenges and pit-falls. Sometimes, we may feel discouraged by our puppy’s behavior, or with his performance in dog obedience class.
We are not alone!
There are many support groups out there where we may post our questions. I also find it helpful to visit these groups when I feel discouraged, or when I feel like my puppy is some mutant strain of devil dog.
Do not think that you are a bad dog owner or trainer when your puppy behaves badly. Many other dog owners are facing the exact same problems. Also remember that with proper rules and training, our puppy’s behavior will improve with time.
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What a Great article!! Thank you!
My husband and I just got a Shiba inu puppy last week thursday and he is a joy. He is 8 weeks and full of energy. I do watch a lot of Cesar but I’m afraid that some of the methods we are using it wrong and my biggest fear is because of using these methods wrong we will get him to be agressive.
What is the best thing to do for example when he is trying to jump up on the couch or trying to bite through our shoes? I normally do the “Tshhh” and sometimes a little touch on his side, but then he goes nuts… he runs all around, and start barking at me with his body completely down on the floor and his tale up. I’m not sure if that is playing or trying to set his ground. Do you have any comments for us?? THANK YOU!
Hello Rosana,
Congratulations on your new Shiba puppy!
1. Jumping
When Sephy jumps or even nears the couch, I no-mark him (say Ack-Ack, No, or Tshh). If he gets onto the couch, I give him the “Off” command (which I have pre-trained). If he ignores me, I bring him down using his drag-lead, body-block him away from the couch, and get him to do something else.
As you have observed, Shiba puppies are very energetic, so when Sephy was young I did a lot of activities with him. The more time he spends with me, doing scheduled sanctioned activities, the less time he has to come up with his own ‘Shiba’ moves.
http://shibashake.com/dog/hyperactive-dogs-how-to-calm-a-hyper-dog-or-hyper-puppy
2. Chewing
When Sephy was young his big thing was chewing on books. He would always go over to the bookcase, pull out some books and start chewing on them. When he goes near the bookcase, I would no-mark him (Ack-Ack). If he ignores me, I body block him away. If he keeps going back, I put him in a time-out. This teaches him that if he can’t behave in the house, then he loses his freedom to roam.
I also kept him on a very fixed schedule that includes sleep time in his crate. In this way, I have short breaks throughout the day and do not have to supervise him all of the time.
As for Cesar Millan, what you say about his methods are very true. Some of them can be risky, and are difficult to apply. Here is more on Cesar Millan’s techniques-
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/hub/Cesar-Milan-Dog-Training-the-Dog-Whisperer
Here is a general article on puppy training that may also be of interest-
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/hub/Train-a-Puppy-Obedience
This is a great site and its answered a lot of my questions, save for one- When I try to discipline my Shiba, such as pulling him out of places hes not suppler to be in or telling him no, ect . . He fights back. If I pull him out from under the couch and tell him no, he runs right back under. We would repeat this several times till I got frustrated and put him in his room (he gets the back bedroom to himself). He also snaps and barks at us when we verbally repremand him. He listens to commands for treats, but as far as correcting bad behavior, we might as well be talking to a wall. Is this just a stage? (Hes 10 weeks)
Yeah I think Shibas tend to be very stubborn. Sephy is certainly a very stubborn little guy. He totally drove me nuts when he was a puppy.
I don’t allow snapping, so if he snaps at me, he goes to time-out right away. His time-out area is the laundry room, where it is boring and there is nothing to do. He really likes his freedom, so timeouts are pretty effective for Sephy.
Are you using a drag-lead? I found it to be very useful when Sephy was young (use only with a flat collar and not a training collar). He used to like chewing up books. I would tell him no, body block him away, and get him to do something else for me, e.g. obedience commands. If he goes back to the books, I would just use the drag lead and walk him away. And then he has to stay with me for a while on a partial-timeout.
If he starts misbehaving with me, e.g. biting, he goes to real timeout in the laundry room and loses all his freedom.
Having a very fixed schedule for him also really helped a lot. He is calmer when he has a routine and knows exactly what to expect. Otherwise, he gets stressed and somewhat hyper.
Another key thing is to always stay calm. Sephy is very sensitive to what people are feeling and he can tell when something is getting under my skin. When he was young, we had a dog walker take him out on group walks at the park. He quickly figured out that doing Shiba screams really got under her skin. From then on, he just kept on with the Shiba screaming when in her company. If I am calm, and consistently show him that his Shiba hijinks will get him nowhere and does not bother me at all, he will stop his bad behavior. But consistency is very important with a Shiba. If I let him get away with it even one time, he will keep trying and trying to see when he can get away with it again.
Here are some of the things I learned from Sephy-
http://shibashake.com/dog/shiba-inu-training-secrets
love love your site, I own two pitbulls; a four year old girl and a 8 week old boy. I’ve been looking for tips on positive training my boy and your site was just what I was looking for. thanks
Congratulations on your new puppy! Definitely share some pictures with us when you have the time.
Happy Holidays and big hugs to your girl and boy.
I have a 5 year old male shiba and he is practically perfect. When he was a puppy, he was stubborn but I was consistant and calm with him and crate trained him. He never had any accidents in the house except one time we were playing fetch and after about 10 minutes he started peeing, but that was my fault for not stopping to let him out. I just got my second shiba a couple of days ago, and she is much more stubborn than he was. She does not like to be crated at all. She will scream, as I expected she might, but unlike my other shiba, she will not stop even after being ignored for hours. She does it all night long, I get no sleep and I am afraid the people who live underneath me will start to complain. I put a blanket over the crate and do not reward her for screaming but I wonder if there is anything else that can be done. I was wondering if it might help to use a calming dropper or supplement before bedtime at least so that my neighbors can sleep.
Hello Jennifer,
Does the new puppy sleep close to your other Shiba? How do they get along? It could be that sleeping near the other dog will help her feel safer.
Several other possibilities-
1. My male Shiba also would not stop screaming when we first crated him at night. What helped him is to move the crate into our bedroom. He is happy to sleep in his crate as long as he is also close to us at night.
2. With my puppy Lara, I started by tethering her to the crate. I put weights in the crate so that she couldn’t pull it around. In this way she had a bit more freedom, and she can go into and out of the crate on her own (I propped the door open). She has started to sleep inside the crate on her own now.
Desensitization exercises with the crate may also help.
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/hub/Dog-Anxiety-Fearful-Dog#mod_16001226
In terms of calming equipment or scents, I have not tried them so I am unsure how well they will work. Some common ones that I have read about include heartbeat pillow (or clock), DAP scent, lavender or other herbal scents, and apparently, music.
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/hub/Dog-Anxiety-Problems#mod_15652414
I have a almost 11mo old male shiba named nakia, He is haveing difficalty getting past the fear of strangers. I have done puppy prek star puppy and now we are doing agility we go to different areas for walks and we go to a locale dog park but if he sees a even a person that he has meet a couple of times he starts running back words barking at them in complete fear his heart will be pounding out of his chest but when he see’s someone with a dog he just ignores the person and wants to play with the dog.
I have asked a few different trainers but nothing they have sugested has worked any ideas. Thank you
Hello Michele,
Have you tried distance desensitization exercises with people?
Both my Sibes were fearful of certain things during puppyhood, e.g. people on bicycles, people on skateboards. What helped was to slowly desensitize them to each of these things using distance and focus sessions.
1. I would start off in a quiet and enclosed area.
2. I have my dog on leash with me and a friend of mine is on a skateboard a distance away. She is far enough away that my Sibe is calm and not reacting to her. Also I make sure that she is not moving and that she is totally ignoring my dog.
3. I get my Sibe to focus on me and reward her for staying calm and focused.
4. I move one step closer to my friend and repeat step 3.
5. If my dog is calm and everything is ok, I just keep slowly moving forward, getting her focus, and rewarding. Sometimes I also throw in simple commands, e.g. Sit.
I make sure to keep sessions short and rewarding. Once I move close enough, I also have my friend throw my Sibe some yummy treats (still with her ignoring the dog though).
Then if all goes well, I slowly let my dog go sniff my friend (still no talk, no touch, and no eye-contact). Only do this if 100% sure the dog is not going to bite out of fear.
Once my Sibe is totally comfortable is a non-moving skateboarder, I repeat the exercise from the start with a moving skateboarder and so on.
I wrote out a comment earlier and then somehow erased it before I pressed post comment, so I hope I’m not sending the same thing, if I am, sorry.
Anyways, I am getting a new shiba inu puppy next week and just had a question. When I am not home I plan to leave my puppy in his crate unless its longer than 3 hours, and if it is I plan to leave him in my bathroom where he can’t chew much and its okay if he has an accident on the floor. I plan to gradually give him more areas to be when I’m not home when he is older but for now the bathroom is it. My question is, (by the way I live in a one bedroom apartment) If I am using the bathroom and as place to keep him while I’m away, I probably shouldn’t use it also for a time-out area. The problem is I don’t really have any other area that would work for time-out since the only other option would be locking him in my room where I’m sure a bed to lay on would not make the area to terrible to be in time-out in.
Hello Georgia,
Congratulations on your upcoming Shiba puppy!
In terms of time-out another possibility is to tether the puppy in a quiet, low stimulus area. When Shiba Sephy was young, he would chew on the tether, so I got a chew-proof indoor tether from my SPCA which worked pretty well for him. I only use tethers for very short timeouts and when I am home to supervise.
I only used the tether with a body harness to prevent choking. DO NOT use with a training collar, e.g. choke chain, prong collar, martingale collar, etc.
I asked about time-outs somewhere else too, but for getting him to the time-out place, what do you do? Once Marcus has figured out that we’re heading there, he buckles down and won’t budge. I don’t want to drag him by force, but you bring up good points about keeping handling / restraint positive, so how do you get Sephy to go to time-out without a big struggle?
Sephy is on a drag-lead and I use that to get him to timeout.
Sometimes he will pull back or do alligator rolls in order to prevent me from taking him to time-out.
Sound aversion techniques can work at this point depending on the dog and his temperament. For example, with Sephy, I put some pennies in an empty soda can and tape up the opening. Then I just shake the can. He does not like that sound and would get up on his own. When I am outside and do not have the can, I would scrape my shoe against the sidewalk. He also does not like the sound and gets up on his own.
If the sound does not work, then I just lift his chest up so that he is standing on his front legs and then move him along at a fast clip. If he mouths on me when I try to lift him with hands, I put some straight up tension on the lead which he absolutely does not like, and that gets him moving.
In this way, he learns that if he escalates, the consequences escalate as well. Also, it is important to tailor the training to the temperament of the dog. Be flexible and tweak the techniques based on the likes and dislikes of your pup.
When I got Sephy, I also got some private training sessions from a professional trainer. That really helped a lot because the trainer could observe Sephy and let me know what are some of the better ways for dealing with his own particular brand of stubbornness.
Hi my Shiba is 6 months old and has a TON of puppy energy.
Do you take Sephy to the dog park and how do you make sure the energy level stays at a respectable level? As you know, Shibas tend to play rougher than other dogs, which in my case, scares away some dogs and their handlers. However, I know that all he wants to do is play but is unaware that his playing may appear scary…
However, he was recently chased on his walk, by an unsocialized offleash dog up the street. Ever since then, he’s been acting up and amping up at the dog park. So much that I’ve resorted to pulling my dog away when he starts to amp up, which is rather quickly.
How do you deal with Sephy at the dog parks? I’m trying to socialize my dog as best I can, which means he goes to the dog park around 4 times a week to run/smell/make friends…
Thanks!
Hello Terry,
I used to take Sephy to the dog park but I stopped after a few months. He displayed many of the behaviors you described and would often overwhelm many of the dogs there. Sometimes people would let their little dog into the big dog area and little dogs really do not enjoy Sephy’s company. His favorite playmates were young pit-bulls who have the same play-style and energy.
Sometimes we would have really good dog park visits, but it is so highly dependent on the mix of dogs there. Also, Sephy really dislikes dominant dogs. If a dog tries to dominate him, he will not back down or surrender even if the dog is much larger.
Another thing that Sephy liked to do was to go steal a ball and then start a chasing game. Some of the dogs there just wanted to play fetch with their owners and they would get aggressive if Sephy tried to join in on their ball games.
Finally, Sephy started to develop some undesirable behaviors. In particular, he would often be so amped up that he would redirect his energy and his mouth onto us when we tried to calm him down.
For all of these reasons and more I stopped taking Sephy to enclosed dog parks. The environment there was just too chaotic and unstructured for a dog like him. What worked best for Sephy are more structured and smaller playgroups. One of our neighbors at the time had a really sweet and playful puppy called Kai. We would bring her over whenever we could to have one-on-one play sessions with Sephy. We also brought Sephy to our local SPCA to play, train, and socialize with the friendly dogs there.
Here are some stories about my dog-to-dog socialization and dog park experiences -
http://shibashake.com/dog/enclosed-dog-parks-good-or-bad
http://shibashake.com/dog/is-dog-socialization-a-good-thing
http://shibashake.com/dog/socializing-a-shiba-inu-to-other-dogs
http://shibashake.com/dog/my-dog-is-friendly
Okay thanks I might have to try that. She is a Shiba and very stubborn and she loves to be outside. So I would hate to take that away from her.
I was wondering what I can do to stop my dog from digging. She is 5 1/2 months old and this is a new habit she has picked up. We walk her every day play with her but as soon as we turn our backs she is digging. anything you can suggest would be helpful. Thanks.
Hello Michelle,
My Siberians are also big time diggers. To manage their digging -
1. I give them a digging area. There is an uphill area in my backyard that is not landscaped. They get to dig there whenever they want. In this way, they have an outlet for their digging and my yard doesn’t get destroyed.
2. If they try to dig in the grass areas I non-mark them (Ack, Ack) and body block them away. If they are stubborn and come back to continue then I bring them inside. This teaches them that if they don’t listen and continue digging they lose backyard privileges.
3. Sometimes, Shiba can be stubborn and he will start digging in the house on the carpet. If he does that he goes to time-out in the laundry room which is tiled. He does not like digging on tile.
When my Sibe started digging in the backyard, I lengthened our walks which helped a lot. I also increased our number of play sessions.
I really like this article on how to stop dog digging -
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/digging.html
HI,
thank you for your wonderful site. it has been so extremely helpful to me since I got my shiba oliver. I use many of your tricks and have managed to have a fairly well behaved puppy until now. Oliver is 8 month old and much of his training seems to have gone out the window. He is still house trained and knows what the commands mean but he is now starting to choose when to obey them. In addition he has started scratching at the door just because he wants to go out side and not because he needs to eliminate. Oh and he also has started biting me alot, just to get attention. he doesn’t bite super hard, but he bites hard enough for it to hurt. If you have nay tips on dealing with puppy adolescence i would love to hear them.
Thanks!
Hello Stacey,
Yeah Sephy was also very difficult during his adolescence. The worst was his leash biting – it was scary. This article contains some of the things I did with Sephy during his ‘difficult period’ -
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
In terms of biting, time-outs work the best with Sephy.
Hugs to Oliver. Let us know how it goes.
Very informative and interesting site you have.
We added another member to our family after Christmas. We got a Shiba Puppy, Saki, who is now almost 12 weeks old. She is very high strung and my wife is having a very difficult time with her right now. She is displaying what could be aggression when she is corrected but it could also be “puppy” play. She’s quickly becoming very frustrated with the nipping, and back talk when she is corrected. She seems to be good all day long when they are alone but when the kids come home she changes personalities. Any advice or thoughts?
Yeah, Shibas can ramp up on the excitement scale very quickly, and once they get excited, they get nippy because they want to interact. Whenever anybody gets home, Shiba Sephy goes from lazy Shiba to super-charged Shiba in seconds.
What seems to work well with Sephy is to make coming home as low key as possible. I ignore him until he settles down. If he jumps I just fold up my arms and turn away from him. After a bit, he calms down then I give him a command, e.g. Sit, and then I give him affection.
How are you correcting her? Shiba Sephy does not respond well to physical corrections. I started out with physical corrections (aversive techniques) with him, and the results were not good. He just kept fighting back and got more aggressive. Finally I switched to reward training and controlling his resources and that worked out much better for everyone.
Here is an article on some of my experiences with Sephy during his difficult stage -
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
Hi I just want to say how great your site is! I just got my shiba puppy last weekend so I’m currently putting up a fight against his shiba scream and his teeth XD~
I was wondering did your shiba ever put up a struggle when you are walking him? My little boy would decide to sit on the floor and not move at all, I could pull him if I wanted to since he is just 8 weeks old but I didn’t want to cause any troublesome habit that might come back n’ bite me on the butt later on…
Thanks ^_^
Congratulations on your new Shiba puppy!
Very much so! Shiba Sephy and I had a lot of struggles during our walks. The worst was his leash biting phase.
Nowadays, he is a lot better but he still likes to sit and look at the scenery. I usually don’t let him get into a lying down position because then, he really doesn’t want to up. Some things that have worked for me in terms of getting Shiba Sephy to get up –
1. I slide my shoe on the concrete sidewalk. This creates an unpleasant sound that startles him and makes him get up. I only use this sparingly, or Sephy will get used to the sound and it will no longer work.
2. As soon as he tries to lie down I non-mark him and start moving forward at a fast clip. It is much easier to get him moving again from a sit position. I only let him lie down when I am ready to let him stay in one spot for a while.
3. When he is lying down, I will usually push his body up and lift the collar at the same time to get him up. Sometimes he will do alligator rolls, so I make sure to hold the leash very close to his collar for good control, and use my leg to stop him from rolling.
Big HUGS to Shiba puppy!
Hi guys,
I just wanted to say that your site rocks…I swear I have read through the whole thing
. So creative and insightful it makes me think that my future pup and I will be just fine!!!
I am getting a new pup Febuary 12th, that is when I can bring her home and have been researching everything I can to make our new member of the family feel as comfertable as she can. I am too excited and it feels like the day will never come.
I just wanted to say thanks and your pups are just beautiful
Molly
Thank you very much Molly.
Congratulations on your soon to be new family addition! Take many many pictures and share them with us. They grow up very quickly; one blink of an eye, and they are all grown.
Hello! I’m gonna be a first time, actualy dog owner this christmas. I’ve always loved dogs and the Shiba Inu definitly caught my attention from the start. The way it looks and where it is from and how it acts. I’ve been doing a lot of research about this dog, because I want to be the best dog owner for my new puppy when I get it. All of your information has been so helpful!! Thank you so much for putting up all of these things. I’ve even kept your site as a favorite! But there is one thing I’m curious about….Since this will be the first time I’ve ever had a puppy, I’m going to need to poty train it. Is there a specific way to training a Shiba Inu where to go to the bathroom and where not to? I kind of have an idea of how it should be done, but I just want to make sure I have the correct idea.
Hello Ashley,
The good news is Shibas are generally very clean dogs. When I got Sephy at 10 weeks old he was already potty trained by his breeder. He got stressed and made some mistakes in the house on his first night with us but on the next day he went to the front door and asked to be let out. I was very impressed with this particular aspect of him!
This is something you can ask the breeder about. I would stick to established AKC breeders with health certifications for the parents. Shibas breeders usually check the parents for hip dysplasia.
Shibas naturally do not want to soil their living space but it is still necessary to take them out pretty often, especially in the beginning to do their Shiba business.
Here is an article on potty training.
I wrote this after potty training my Siberian Husky. I didn’t need to do much (in terms of potty training) with my Shiba but I did take him out 4-5 times a day (in the beginning) to potty. I also stopped giving him water and food after about 7 p.m. so he wouldn’t need to pee in the middle of the night.
Hello!
I was just wondering what you meant by giving it a time out when it bites on it’s leash. When you put him on time out won’t he just chew on the leash during that time out? Do you remove the drag leash when you place him in time out? What if he comes out and starts chewing on it again? I just worry that if I do this time out thing enough, i’ll end up sending him to the restroom (the time out spot) 100 or more times a day! Lol.
Hi Will,
That is a great question. I usually save time-outs for more serious offenses like biting on people and not stopping when I tell him to. Humping is also a time-out offense. Biting on the leash when I am holding it also results in time-out. In general, if Shiba Sephy can’t behave well with me or other people, then he doesn’t get to be with people.
In terms of chewing on the drag leash that is probably more like a play move rather than anything else. Some things that may help –
- You could try spraying it with bitter apple. Dogs dislike the taste of the stuff and will usually stop.
- Redirect puppy onto something else, e.g. a sanctioned chew toy. When he redirects, make sure to reward him well with play, affection, and food rewards. In this way, puppy will learn that certain objects are better and more rewarding than others.
- Be very consistent with what he can chew and what he cannot chew. Puppies usually just don’t know what is chewable and what is dangerous. To a puppy everything is new and they learn about new things by putting them in their mouth for taste and manipulation. It will take puppy a bit of time and a lot of consistency to learn the rules of the house.
- Structured activities will also help a lot. For example, walks, obedience exercises, or structured play sessions. Structured activities help of channel a puppies mega energy into positive avenues, teaches him to listen to you, and helps build a good bond.
You can also remove the leash as you suggest, then put it back on before you let him out. Make him do a sit and stay calm, put on the leash, then let him out. This could also be a good training exercise where he learns that if he is calm and does what you say – then he gets what he wants.
Hello Ana, Thanks for dropping by.
In particular, the drop command and object-exchange game will help with getting him to give you items voluntarily.
Yeah my Shiba used to eat everything as well. To some degree, this is puppy behavior. Dogs don’t have any other way of manipulating objects except through their mouths. Puppies tend to be most curious and will want to put everything into their mouth to check it out. It is their way of learning about their environment, because everything is so new.
Now that my Shiba is older, he is not longer so mouth happy.
When my Shiba was young, I very carefully managed his environment so that there wasn’t anything bad/dangerous for him on the floor. Outside – I will carefully watch him and stop him from getting bad stuff before he gets it in his mouth. It is best to stop them before it is in the mouth because once it is in the mouth, then Shibas in general, will not want to give it up, especially if they see that you are trying to get what they have.
When it is something dangerous, I will go in his mouth and take it out but you don’t generally want to do that because it will make Shiba be more protective of his belongings.
Here is an article on food guarding – most of the techniques in food guarding can be used to help manage the eat-everything-on-the-floor behavior
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
Another thing that really helped me a lot with my Shiba was bite inhibition training. I learned it from the book “After Getting your Puppy” from Ian Dunbar. The idea of bite inhibition is to train your Shiba to control the force of his bites, so that when he does his used mouth on instinct, he will do very little or no damage. This helped me a lot when I was taking bad stuff out of his mouth.
Here is more on bite inhibition -
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
Congrats on your Shiba puppy! They are difficult at first but it will really get better
Hi!
I’m enjoying your blog a lot, I have a shiba puppy, my first dog and she’s putting me into many troubles I really don’t know how to face, but reading you helps a lot.
Have one question, I have a problem with foot: mu shiba eats everything she finds in the floor (food basically, not smokes for example) and sometimes even other dogs’ shit. Any ideas on how to stop this behavior? I don’t know what else can I do.
Thank you in advance and congratulations for the blog and for your beautiful dogs. I love shibas and huskies!!
Hello Yoshi,
Make sure the time-out area is very boring and away from everything else. Whereas, make the crate into a good, safe, place that is around where you are.
“Will putting him in a different area for time out still work, since he spend a lot of time in the pen?”
Yeah the time-out still worked well on my Shiba, even though I also kept mine in his crate a fair amount when he was young because he would get into trouble every chance he got
“I let him sleep my my room in the crate now. hopefully we can create a better bond and trust. ”
You have a very lucky Shiba
Hi
Your hub is so useful and full of answers and comfort. I have my puppy for three weeks now. He is being kept in the pen. I take him out for walks three times a day. We wanted to wait before we let him roam around the house so he wont’ be chewing on furnitures or accidents on the carpet. I also put a different toys in his pen area to keep him busy.
Will putting him in a different area for time out still work, since he spend a lot of time in the pen?
The few times i let him in the house, he pee and poo on the carpet because I was not fast enough to stop him. I let him sleep my my room in the crate now. hopefully we can create a better bond and trust.
Hello Derik,
– my Shiba used to do that.
Just non-mark him and put him in time-out. Ignore all screaming during time-out and do not let him out of time-out while he is screaming. After a bit he will realize that his behaviors are not getting him any good results and stop.
When you let him out of time-out, it is best to not give him any attention. He will probably want to go off and sulk anyway
Try and set him up for success as much as you can, so it is best to interrupt play very often with obedience exercises so that he does not get himself into an over-excited state. Start with more low-key playing, then as he learns to control himself more, you can slowly increase the energy of play. Play should always stop when he gets over-excited and is no longer following play-rules.
Let me know how it goes.
Any tips on when a puppy becomes unhappy and let’s out the Shiba scream and begins biting at your hands in anger? This happens especially when I try to reprimand him for mouthing after he gets excited and I try to calm him down.
Wow! This was great! I dont have a dog , but im probably gonna get one, and this helped a ton! Thanks!
Thanks for visiting Anaaa. If you are thinking of getting a puppy – the ones with the best temperament and health can be gotten from reputable breeders or from adoption agencies.
http://shibashake.com/new-dog-new-puppy
Post us some pictures after you get your new dog
Hi there,
we own a 9 year old Shiba inu girl and a Great american jappense akita boy who’s aged 8.
Our akita looks upto our shiba inu as his mother since they was both raised as puppys together! but recently were excperincing a few problems with our shiba inu..
When there in the garden, and our akita walks past our shiba, shiba goes mental and hangs of akita’s mane, the neck, with her teeth out.. she’s doing more for some reason, She’s also growling if akita walks past her, or comes near the water bowl or food bowl! everytime she growls or attacks him, we put her straight into her bed! She’ll do all this more when my step father the head of the house, which she knows he is, isnt around. but when its me and my partner, she plays up big time. We’ve tryed moving her food bowl away so she has her own personal space, yet we have no problems with our Akita. She’s also gone for my hand when i stroke her chin, and its quite scary for me. Any help would be a huge help for us! Thankyou
Hmmm, it is possible that it could be a physical issue. Dogs sometimes get stressed and feel more vulnerable when they are in pain (perhaps joint pain, tooth ache), or when they experience other physical issues such as impaired hearing or eyesight. Because they feel more vulnerable, they may feel the need to protect themselves more. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary with your Shiba in addition to the growling? It may help to take her to the vet for a check up to rule out this possibility.
If not physical, then it seems to be food and resource guarding which is common with Shibas. However, it is strange that the behavior would suddenly appear after 9 years. Has anything changed in her environment or in her routine? Usually behaviors like that are triggered by something.
Here are some of my experiences with food aggression and resource guarding with Shiba Sephy -
http://shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
Hi Vince,
It is normal for puppies to be exuberant in this manner. You should however let your puppy know what is acceptable behavior and what is not. When he gets *too rough* with your older dog, non-mark him (Ack-ack) and stop the play briefly.
Let your puppy calm down for a bit before letting them resume play. You can also make him do some obedience commands in the meantime. It is generally good practice to stop play from time to time anyway because puppies do not usually have a stop button of their own
Note that dogs play a lot with their mouths – their mouths are like our hands and that is what they use to manipulate objects. That is why bite inhibition training is so important.
Another thing you can do is to separate the dogs for at least a few hours every day so that your older dog gets some rest time. Puppies have a lot of energy and may tire out the older dog. Definitely separate them if you see that your older dog is tired and needs to rest.
To do this you can either use a puppy pen or you can be there to supervise and make sure that your puppy does not bother the older dog when the older dog is resting. Just non-mark him (No) and body block him before he can get into the older dogs space.
Providing alternate activities for the puppy will also help out a lot.Play games with him and get him some good and safe chew toys.
new puppy is mean towards my older dog, bites, runs after the older dog, will not leave the dog alone, what should i do
lol – I know what you mean. I was extremely happy when my Siberian Husky went a bunch of days without any accidents.
Don’t get too discouraged if there are some slip-ups though, they really just can’t control their bladder very well at that young age. My little girl was trying really hard, but especially after playing, she sometimes couldn’t make it fast enough to the door
I pretty much took her out after every 5-10 minutes of play whether she had to go or not – lol – good times.
Lots of good tips here. Thank you.
I have had my Yorkie puppy 2 months now and she has been so much fun. At first I thought she would never be house-trained, but I haven’t had to clean up a puddle in 2 days!
Great article, will try to adapt all of them. Thanks for sharing it.
Hi Ada, It is great that you are starting to train your puppy early. Here are some things that worked for me:
[Biting]
Handfeeding works really well. First start with some good, yummy, food. Put the food in your hand and make your hand into a fist. Then feed the food to your puppy slowly. If your puppy bites hard, then yelp loudly, and stop feeding for a short duration. If your puppy eats properly, praise him and keep the food coming. Just keep repeating this. This way your puppy learns that biting hard makes the food stop, but eating nicely keeps the food coming. I still do this with my dogs because it helps maintain their bite inhibition.
Here are some other methods for dealing with biting:
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop-puppy-biting
[Potty Training]
What you want to do is establish two consistent words with your puppy. A mark (Yes, Good) and a non-mark (No, Ack-Ack). When your puppy does something undesirable, non-mark him with the same word consistently (No), and take him outside. Go outside with him and if he continues going outside, mark him (Yes). and reward him with something really good. The reward for going outside is very important because he will learn that going outside gets him really good stuff, and this will make him prefer to go outside. Always supervise him when he is free in the house so that you can show him what is desirable and undesirable. Take him outside when you get him out of his crate, when he wakes up, or after vigorous play.
My Siberian Husky was difficult to house train and she made many mistakes when she was young (8 weeks) because she had poor bladder control. I had to take her out after 10-15 minutes of play because she would get so excited that she would just pee right there. Just be consistent with the rewards for peeing outside and your puppy will learn that he gets more peeing outside than he does peeing inside.
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/dog-potty-training-facts-and-myths
Good luck! Hope this helps.
My puppy is about 8 weeks old and he bites hard So bad a bleed I tell no bite and he won’t for a while then the does it again.
also hell go out and come right into the house and “p” and I tell him bad baby and put him back out. But he’ll do it again
Thanks Puppy Whisperer. Reward based training is especially important for puppies because you can start training right away. It is not appropriate to use aversive/punishment techniques on puppies (including leash jerks/corrections) until they are at least about 6 months old. Before using aversive techniques, it is important to first consult a professional trainer.
Wow – what a great hub page – I was looking for a few tips on how to train my new puppy, but didn’t expect to find this much info – nice one. I like (and fully agree with) the bit about using reward based training techniques – it really does help.