I got a comment recently from Shiba Monty, a.k.a. Montasaurus about his adventures at the beach, including a new game called beach-tag-ball.
Shiba Sephy was exactly the same way when I took him to enclosed dog parks. He was not interested in playing fetch, but very interested in stealing fetch balls from other dogs, and then starting a fun game of catch Shiba if you can!
Not surprisingly, the other dogs got annoyed with him, started chasing him, and tried to correct him.
This got all the dog owners to join in and Sephy never had more fun in his life!
I decided soon after, that the unstructured environment of an enclosed dog park just did not suit a dog like Sephy. He was also starting to pick up more bad dog habits. In particular, he would get over excited, and redirect his frustration onto us when we tried to stop his Shiba craziness.
In addition, it was unfair to the other dogs because they would not only lose their fetch-ball, but also get alpha rolled by their owners for chasing after Sephy or showing aggression.
We kept a very close watch on our Thief Shiba but supervision alone was insufficient.
Once Sephy figured out that he can easily steal a ball to start a chase game, he just kept repeating that behavior. Since we cannot run as fast as a Shiba, the game continues for a while before it can be stopped, which rewards Sephy’s thieving behavior.
Using a long lead is unfeasible in an enclosed dog park because it will easily get tangled on dogs, bushes, and trees; ultimately becoming a safety hazard.
What worked best for Sephy is to let him play in a more structured environment, with fewer dogs.
I started going to my local SPCA, which had a nice enclosed play area. Sephy would get supervised play and training sessions with friendly SPCA dogs; one at a time. In this way, he got to socialize and exercise, but if he started showing any bad behaviors, play would stop and he would have to go on a mini time-out.
This worked very well for Sephy.
He started playing a lot better, he stopped redirecting his aggression onto us, and he controlled his level of excitement. Best of all, he still had a lot of fun, especially with younger dogs that liked to wrestle.
I also learned more about Sephy’s dog friend preferences.
- He does not like dominant dogs. Sephy does not try to dominate other dogs, but he will not submit to them either; however large or fierce.
- He easily overwhelms smaller dogs or dogs of his own size. Therefore, he prefers playing with larger dogs who are not intimidated by his more rough and tumble play style.
Shiba Sephy also had some fun one-on-one play sessions with Kai, an awesome dog who lived across the street from us. After we moved to a different neighborhood, I have not been able to find as good a neighbor as Kai, but happily, we have expanded our pack to include a second and third dog.
There are many ways to keep an active dog occupied.
Sephy enjoys working on interactive food toys, playing a game of flirt pole, singing, attacking pumpkins, and much more.
Find activities that your dog can not only enjoy, but also learn from.
Learning is fastest and lasts the longest when combined with a good dose of fun.
Hi Shiba lovers.
I’m Australian and have lived in Japan for 20 years. Shiba-ken (Shiba breed) or Shiba-Inu (Shiba dogs) are obviously a hugely popular breed here and very very highly revered. Every nightly walk we come across at least a half dozen other Shibas.
Each night as I walk my Chai-Chai I get comments from passing by Japanese about how much they really love this breed.
As with most dog owners in my neighborhood I live in a high rise so most local dogs are about the size of a rat. Chai Chai is a big dog here, ha!
If anyone has any questions about her behaviour I’d be happy to answer. Japanese dogs seem so damn passive and calm. Pretty much like the people are,
Hello Sheridan,
Yeah, this technique (also called the alpha roll) did not work well on my Shiba at all. Today, I very much regret using it because all it did was make my Shiba even more aggressive and sensitive to handling/grooming.
Dogs often show aggression wrt. food because they have learned that when people come near them, they lose their stuff. But when they show aggression, people usually back away and they get to keep whatever they have.
Although a bit counter-intuitive, what has worked best for Shiba Sephy and food/toy guarding is to re-associate people coming near him with positive experiences rather than negative ones. Here are some of the things that I did –
1. I set Sephy up for success by removing all really high priority items so that he doesn’t feel the need to guard anything. The less he practices guarding, the less it will become a habit.
2. I made him work for all of his food through obedience training and interactive toys. Associating obedience training with rewards was a good way to help get rid of food aggression issues with Sephy.
In this way he learns that food comes from people and most importantly, he has to work for food by first doing what I want. I cut the food up into really small pieces so he had nothing to guard and would stay focused on me and the training.
** Note – timing is very important. Never reward a dog with food, affection, or whatever else when he is showing undesirable behaviors, such as aggression. When Sephy escalates his behavior with me, he goes to time-out (boring laundry room).
3. I trained Shiba Sephy to have good bite inhibition which was very useful because later on, when he started leash biting, I was able to handle him without shedding any blood.
4. I made sure to follow the NILIF (Nothing in life is free) program. Sephy has to do something for me before he gets anything in return- including food, affection, backyard access, etc. This reinforces that I am the source of all his resources and to get what he wants he first has to do what I want.
Here are more of my experiences with food guarding –
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/resource-guarding-shiba-inu
We have a 5 month old Shiba-inu named Mia.
She is a good girl mostly, but lately has been showing a little Food aggression, and today some aggression about a item she had.
My wife gave her a chicken strip the other day, and my oldest son came near her, and she growled first…then eventually jumped up and barked.
I was shocked, came over to see if she would do it to me, and yes she did….even snapped at me. I grabbed her..took the food…..held her down by the excess skin in the back of her neck…..but she refused to submit and snapped again. I shook her by her skin a little to shock her and she finally calmed down.
We gave her another treat later that night to see if she would repeat….and she did….but not quite as bad.
Ok…….what should I do?? A friend told me to lay her on her back and grip her throat as if I were a alpha wolf….and hold until she totally submits. Hmmmmmm………..she is a little demon when she gets pissed.
Thoughts……..suggestions?
Hahaha – that is awesome. Shibas are always trying to push the envelope and if they can get away with something they will keep pushing 🙂
So glad to hear that Shinji is doing well. Sephy got better once he realized that he couldn’t get away with his hi-jinks, but he still continues to test his boundaries from time to time.
Shibas are really like scientists! I can almost imagine them having a notebook where they are writing down all their observations and results – lol.
I went ahead and tried some of the things you mentioned in your leash biting post. I have a better understanding of some of his triggers now, so I was prepared when it happened again and was able to remain calm. What seemed to work best was to stand in place with my back turned and ignore him, even when he was trying to jump on me or nip at my jacket. I walked in the opposite direction that he was pulling to show I had control over the leash (this has worked for us before). When he stopped jumping we walked home as quickly as possible. I did not make any eye contact with him or say a word.
When we got home I continued to ignore him for another 10 minutes or so. He tried very hard to show me he was a good boy again lol… I didn’t have to issue the commands I normally do when we were on the elevator or at the door. He followed me around the apartment desperately seeking my attention while I continued to ignore him. He also gets fed after his morning walk, but I waited to do that until I was ready to give him attention again. We’ll see if this has a longer lasting effect. I hope so 🙂
Leash biting used to be Shiba Sephy’s favorite move – lol. I had a lot of problems with that one and tried everything under the sun before I finally found something that worked well for him – after 1 year! Once you figure out a good way to stop them though, the behavior goes away.
I was so happy when that happened. Now walks with Sephy are actually fun.
If you are interested, here are my leash biting trials and tribulations with Sephy. I laugh about it now, but it was pretty horrible at the time. The two most important things that changed things for Sephy and me –
1. My energy – The more fearful and stressed I got, the worse the problem became.
2. Finding an effective way to stop the crazy behavior and at the same time provide an undesirable consequence. In our case, I would just end the walk and march Sephy home at a brisk pace. Since he loves being on walks and exploring, ending the walk is a very good deterrent for the leash biting behavior.
Let me know how it goes with Shinji. Leash biting was the worst issue I faced with Sephy so I am always very interested to hear leash biting stories and techniques 🙂
I love your site! It’s full of really useful information. My husband and I recently got a Shiba Inu of our own, a 1.5 yr old rescue named Shinji. He has proven a smart, capable dog and he (mostly!) behaves himself while in the apartment or in familiar territory. But I had a moment with him today where he took his aggression/frustration out on me because he could not play with some dogs we encountered on a new walking path. I tried my best to be calm when he started to jump at me, growl, and bite the leash, but I wasn’t sure what to do other than take control of his collar and sit with him until he calmed down. He REALLY wants to play with other dogs off leash, but we can’t trust him off leash yet. Plus he gets over excited after it’s over. So I think we will take your advice and see how he does with a ‘controlled’ play environment. Thank you so much for your insightful posts!