love your page 🙂

I agree that the best way to help our dogs understand their place in our “pack” is by controlling resources. This doesn’t harm, frighten or induce aggression in our dogs and is a sort of “natural consequences” approach.

I like the way you emphasize that training and play time should be integrated into your daily routine, that you don’t necessarily have to have a strictly set aside time every day. Much training can take place just while going about our usual day to day activities.

I also love the beautiful images of your lovely dogs. It is clear that they are happy, well, adjusted and beloved friends.

Thank you for this wonderful site.

Jan

With my Shiba Inu, I did dog-to-dog desensitization exercises to help him be more calm and relaxed around other dogs.

As for dog parks, they can be a high excitement and high stress environment for many dogs. The ones that we visited were usually very high stimulus, with very little structure and supervision. As a result, Sephy got very reactive whenever he visited, and his behavior with other dogs and also people started to degrade.

Sephy does much better in smaller and more structured play-groups, with a lot of supervision. Therefore, I organized very small play-groups at my house, I would supervise very closely, and I set up very clear play rules, e.g. no stealing, no bullying, no humping. In this way, he has fun but also learns positive play behaviors. I manage the excitement level of all the dogs (by doing frequent play-breaks), so that nobody loses control and everybody has fun.

More on my dog park experiences.

Protecting the water-bowl and other objects sound like resource guarding behavior.
More on why dogs guard resources.

Thanks for all the valuable and helpful information on this wonderful site!

Please let me know if you have a favorite animal charity that I can donate some money to to ‘reward’ you for your excellent behavior. 🙂

Our dog Molly is a beautiful mix of probably greyhound or whippet and yellow lab. I like to call her a ‘whipador’. Molly is the first mixed breed we’ve had in a long time our last two dogs were labradors we always adopt or rescue usually from the Humane Society or a rescue group. My wife actually found Molly on craigslist.

Molly was a puppy probably not more than 2 to 3 months old when we Got her. The story goes that she was placed in a dumpster at Walmart in a box, taped up, not with holes poked in it, buy an evil person. A very nice person who worked at Walmart heard her cries and rescued her from the dumpster. They owned a dog already and living in apartment so couldn’t keeper and listed her on craigslist and that’s where my wife found her. She was probably about two months old when we got her and now she is about two years.

So, finally the issue: Molly is a wonderful and sweet dog very high energy loves to search for and chase squirrels. The only issue is that sometimes she becomes dominant aggressive around new dogs and or people, not always. She does good generally at play days but but has been put in time out a few times for protecting the water bowl type issues. At the dog park she hangs around us and seems to be sort of protective.

I believe she has some anxiety issues but not separation anxiety she does great at home alone. When we took her on leash to a craft day fair she did great until she spotted another dog and then became somewhat dominant aggressive and I was unable to calm her down.

I could go on anon because I’m talking into my phone and I can talk a lot. Again thank you so much for your website, do you have any feedback comments or suggestions for me?

-Motch

I prefer to use the word “authoritative”, because many people associate the word “dominance” with aggression. (I think that a word can have different meanings, and that there is nothing wrong with the word “dominance” in itself. As a lover of Latin, I know that its Latin roots are quite cool. Still, it brings up negative associations to many people )

I think a majority of dog behavior problems are associated with lack of exercise. The dog has to get enough exercise, first and foremost. Only after that, can we look at the social hierarchy thing.

With Sephy, his muzzle area definitely got lighter.

Here are some of Sephy’s puppy pictures. There was a lot of black on his muzzle.

Here is Sephy a few months later. His muzzle has gotten a lot lighter. I think his coat also got *a little bit* lighter, but it wasn’t significant; at least not that I remember, or see from the pictures.

Sephy is not a pure red Shiba. His mother is red sesame and his father is a red. I think he takes more after his father though. He does not have much black on his fur.

Here is a thread on the Shiba Forum about red sesame vs. red –
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/6022/how-to-tell-if-pup-is-a-red-or-red-sesame/p1

Did you see the puppies’ parents? Are they both red? Is the breeder on this list of registered breeders?
http://www.shibas.org/breeders.html

Firstly, thanks for running this site/ blog, it has been a vital source of information for us. We are looking to get a shiba puppy. We are just concerned about colouring. We went to see a litter of pups yesterday (at a registered breeder), and the pups she claims are “true reds” are so dark. She said they will lose it and white will replace it, but I just find it hard to imagine. I have done some reading and people are saying that all pups are born with the black muzzle and that it will lighten to white, but these puppies have black everywhere, even over their backs and tummies.

What has your experience been? Do you know if these pups are likely true reds?

Thanks in advance,
Sherrie