Congratulations on your soon to be new family member!

In terms of teeth cleaning, I don’t remember exactly when I started. I think I waited a while until Lara mostly finished with her teething phase. Her gums were more sensitive during this phase, so I did not want her to have a negative experience with brushing. It also gave me some time to bond with her first and gain a little bit of her trust.

In the beginning I focused mostly on simple obedience exercises (Sit, Look, and later Down), potty training, and bite inhibition training. Keeping a young puppy positively engaged with structured games and such was also very time consuming. 😀

My first 10 days with puppy Lara.
Some things that I did to train puppy Lara.
What I did for bite inhibition training.

Puppy socialization classes were also very useful for my dogs. I specifically picked classes that focused on structured play and teaching good social interaction. I also make sure that they check for vaccination records so that there are no sick puppies.

Have fun and take lots of pictures! Give puppy a big hug from me when you get her. 😀

She is a 9 week old german short haired pointer named Almondine (but I’ll call her Ollie most of the time. Almondine when she does something wrong maybe).

Thanks, I look forward to your advice!
Kelsey

this started 2 years ago-before that-she was comfy traveling for hours.

Did something happen two years ago when she started showing this behavior? Is she anxious of the highway noise? the car noise? being in the car? If she goes into a stationary car at the house, is she anxious? If she goes into a stationary car away from the house is she anxious? If you drive her a few houses away, does she get anxious? When does the shaking begin?

For anxiety issues, I usually start by identifying the key source of my dog’s stress. Is it the sound, the movement, the enclosed space, or something else? Once I identify the anxiety trigger, then I can do desensitization exercises, and carefully manage things so that I lessen the effect of the stressor.

More on dog anxiety issues.

More on desensitization and counter conditioning-
http://shibashake.com/dog/how-to-calm-a-fearful-reactive-dog#noise
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/desensitization-and-counterconditioning

Thank you Hannah. Congratulations on your soon to be new family addition!

Do you find there is a lot of difference between the temperament of male and female Shibas?

When I got Shiba Sephy, his breeder told us that females are generally more adventurous and more likely to escape. Here is an article on whether males or females are more alpha. 😀

In my experience, getting a more submissive puppy makes things a lot easier. I specifically picked more submissive puppies for my 2nd and 3rd dogs (Sibes), because Shiba Sephy has a more dominant personality. In my experience, more submissive dogs are easier to train and more affectionate. They also get along with more dogs.

Just more submissive though, not fearful or nervous. For example Husky puppy Lara was happy to come and meet us, and she wasn’t afraid of new people. However, she didn’t try to launch herself at the enclosure fence, and was a bit less hyper. She is a bit scared of new things and loud noises, so we were careful to properly build her confidence and slowly socialize her, so that does not become nervous and fearful.

The breeder can usually tell which of her puppies are more submissive and which are more bold.

If you have any other general advice for first time Shiba owners I’d love to hear it.

With Sephy, two things were really important – being patient and being calm. If I got angry or frustrated, Sephy’s behavior became worse. Things got a lot better once I was able to always stay calm and find humor in his Shiba hijinks. 😀

Forceful techniques also did not work well with Sephy because he would just fight back. Instead, I would just ignore him or take away one of his treasured privileges, e.g. his freedom. Sephy really calmed down a lot after I stopped using forceful methods.

Here is my early Sephy story. We had a very difficult start, but things are a lot better now. He is not perfect, but he is quite well behaved, fun, and occasionally, even comes over to ask for affection! 😀

Me and my partner are looking to have a Shiba pup by next year, once we’ve got a good 6ft fence up! I’ve been quite worried recently as my sister’s boxers had a bad experience when coming a across two Shibas, but your site has cleared all my worries.

We both work full time, but my partner will be returning home at lunch everyday to checwe’ll him/her and we’ll also take 2 weeks off work and help the pup learn to go mess outside or on the pads in the enclosure whilst we’re not home. Another post which was extremely useful.

Do you find there is a lot of difference between the temperament of male and female Shibas? Of course they all have their own personality. Ut I have read that females can be a bit more reserved. Although I’m sure it can vary with the pup’s own developed temperament.

It will be a while before we get our pup yet and it will be a lot of work and patience, but I have no doubt that it will all be worth it! If you have any other general advice for first time Shiba owners I’d love to hear it. My previous dog was a very calm and loving greyhound/saluki and i’m sure a Shiba is going to be a lot different!

A big thanks to you for your site and all the helpful posts, I’m so glad I found you!

Hannah x

I am not sure if this is the same thing, but Shiba Sephy also did not eat his Greenie when I first gave it to him. He would whine, get stressed, and run around the house trying to hide it. The only time he eats his Greenie is inside his crate. I give it to him at night, and I close and lock his crate door. Then he feels safe enough to eat it.

He acts the same way with bully sticks, and other high priority food items that he can’t finish quickly. My guess is that he is afraid he might lose it, so he wants to find a really good hiding spot for it. Meanwhile, he is too stressed to eat, because he is not sure what to do with his ‘gold’.

When his crate is locked, he feels safe that nobody else can get at his Greenie, so I guess that is the only time he feels relaxed enough to eat it. 😀

Shiba Sephy is definitely more on the high strung side of things.

I’ve tried giving my Shiba Inu Greenies and Dentastix but he can’t seem to figure out how to eat them. It’s the same thing with Pizza Crust. Basically, he will sit there with it in his mouth whine very loudly but not chew on it. I suspect he doesnt know how to chew on them? He has done this since he was a puppy. He chews on other hard things like toys but for some reason doesnt chew on food. He will chew his kibble when he eats, but I suspect he does that because it is bite size.

Any ideas?