Comments on: Puppy Obedience Training – How to Care for a Puppy

By: Rosana

Rosana — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:45:19 +0000

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!

By: shibashake

shibashake — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:14:16 +0000

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

By: Danielle

Danielle — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:59:04 +0000

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)

By: shibashake

shibashake — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:21:47 +0000

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.

By: Pitie lover

Pitie lover — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:08:14 +0000

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

By: shibashake

shibashake — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:23:31 +0000

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

By: jennifer

jennifer — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:47:54 +0000

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.

By: shibashake

shibashake — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:37:54 +0000

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.

By: Michele Smith

Michele Smith — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:07:50 +0000

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

By: shibashake

shibashake — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:54:19 +0000

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