My Shiba Inu is the most mischievous dog I have ever met.
His favorite activity seems to be figuring out how to push the “right” or in this case “wrong” buttons, and getting a reaction from everyone around him, preferably a negative one.
If you ignore him and are not affected by his “test”; he will stop and move on to the next thing. But he is very clever, so if you only pretend to ignore him, but are inwardly annoyed, he will sense it, and continue being mischievous.
I hate to apply too much human intent to his actions, but it really seems like he is always trying to figure out new ways to be mischievous.
My Shiba often reminds me of Brain in the t.v. series Pinky and the Brain.
In contrast, my Siberian Husky is independent and clever, but when you tell her to stop doing something she will usually comply and go find something else to do.
Mischievous Shiba lives for those moments when you tell him he can’t do something. No means a very interesting challenge, and he will devise all sorts of strategies to subvert you.
In a way, this is somewhat admirable.
After all, don’t we always tell ourselves not to give up even if someone tells us that we can’t do it?
Still, I wish my Shiba would direct his gumption towards more positive activities!
Yeah Shiba Sephy loves playing chase games.
Couple of things that worked well for me in terms of door bolting –
1. Drag lead –
When Sephy was young I put a long drag lead on him (only use a flat collar). This way, when he got in one of his moods and decides to take the t.v. remote and run, I would just step on the drag lead. No chasing games and he gets to go into time-out.
This also helped with door bolting. Only do it when you are home to supervise in case the drag lead gets caught on something.
2. Door manners –
Every time before I take him on our walks I would practice door manners with him. First he has to come to me and sit while I put on his collar and lead. Then he does a stay while I open the door and put on my shoes.
If he breaks from the stay and tries to bolt, I body block him, close the door and he does not get to go on his fun walk. After a bit I try again.
Shibas are super smart so he quickly learned that not bolting = get to go out on fun walk.
Oh god, our Shiba bolts for the front door at every opportunity. She won’t go far (usually just hangs in the driveway) but if i go near her she runs away…very frustrating
LOL – I suppose this is another one of those quirky Shiba traits 🙂 Thank goodness they get bored so easily. Sephy’s latest escapade was messing up our new rug when no one was watching. It seems that he has grown bored of it though after 2-3 days. Yay to Shiba boredom!
Oh yes! Mochi does that all the time, especially when she wants to get our attention. We taught her ‘no biting’, and she’ll listen to it. However, when she wants attention, she’ll pretend to bite on things. She doesn’t actually ‘bite’ on whatever she shouldn’t, but just open her mouth and do the ‘I am about to bite this’ motion. The first time she did that, I immediately told her, ‘No biting!’ and she started to do the run-away-come-and-chase-me thing (she loves to be chased). Even though I’ve learned her tactics, but my natural reaction is tell her not to bite, and that’s how she gets the attention she seeks for. LOL!