Set up a schedule and carefully supervise our puppy.
The little puppy is very curious and will get into trouble every chance he gets.
To save ourselves a lot of pain and to save our puppy from stress, we want set up a fixed schedule which includes crate time, play time, walk time, as well as handling and grooming time.
When our puppy is out and about in a non-dog-proof area, we need to supervise him closely. Close supervision will give us the opportunity to teach puppy right from wrong, without too much damage to our furniture and belongings.
If I do not have the time,
- I usually crate puppy, when he is home alone, or
- I put puppy on a tie-down, when I am home but unable to fully supervise.
If you are concerned about crating your puppy, here is what the Humane Society of the United States and the American Dog Trainer’s Network have to say about dogs and crates.
When I am away for a long period of time (> 3 hours), I put puppy in a long-term enclosure. This can be a secure puppy pen or a safe room (e.g. kitchen). I make sure there is nothing in the enclosure that my puppy can destroy. I also put in some bedding, a water bowl, puppy pads, and safe chew toys.
As a general rule, the longest time to crate a puppy is (age of dog in months) hours. For example, an 8 week old puppy can be kept a maximum of (2 month old) = 2 hours in a crate. Note that this is just a general guideline for the maximum crate time.
Most puppies need to go outside more frequently than that, for exercise and potty training. I take my puppy outside as soon as he wakes up, and right after any kind of vigorous play. In the beginning, Husky puppy Shania needed to potty after about 10-15 minutes of play. Here is a more detailed table of maximum crate time.
At night, I crate my dogs in the bedroom. Sleeping together helps with the bonding process, and shows them that they are part of the pack.
2. Keep a drag-lead on our puppy
I put a drag-lead on my puppy when he is roaming freely in the house.
This will help us control our ball of energy without resorting to chasing games. When my puppy tries to run away, all I need to do is step on the drag-lead.
I use a regular, thick (1 inch wide), flat collar or harness and not an aversive collar (choke chain, prong collar). I make sure to cut off the loop on the leash, so that it does not catch on anything around the house. I start with a longer (6 feet), light leash, and then shorten it depending on my puppy’s behavior. I only do this while I am around to properly supervise my puppy.
Once he matures and is better behaved, I switch to a leash tab or remove the drag-lead altogether.
It is best to use a secure 6 foot leash during puppy leash training and not the flexi-leash. The 6 foot leash gives us better control of our puppy, and is necessary to keep him safe when he decides to go chasing after dogs, cats, or squirrels.
3. Start with reward obedience training
It is most effective and least risky to start our puppy with reward obedience training. I started out with aversive techniques, and it made my Shiba puppy develop additional behavioral issues, including aggression. In fact, my aversive based dog trainer said that it was inappropriate use pain based techniques, such as leash jerks and alpha rolls, on dogs that are younger than 6 months old.
Today, I prefer to use reward training because it is more effective at motivating my dogs, stopping undesirable behaviors, and building a strong bond.
With reward training, we establish ourselves as the pack leader by controlling our dog’s resources through the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program. This simply means that my puppy has to do something for me, for example a Sit, before he gets any resource (e.g. food, toys, affection, freedom) in return. Any bullying will be ignored, or will result in the removal of that resource.
Many people make the mistake of equating pack leadership with the use of aversive training. Aversive dog trainers say that difficult, strong-willed, dominant dogs require stronger, punishment based methods in order to show him who is boss.
This is not true.
One of my dogs (a Shiba Inu) is extremely strong willed, and can be quite difficult, but he responds much better to reward training.
Be careful of advertisements for 10 minute puppy obedience training programs and the like. There are no miracle cures in puppy training.
4. Bite inhibition training
Puppy biting is common because puppies are naturally curious, and want to examine everything with their mouths.
The good news is puppies do not have the jaw strength of an adult dog, and will not do much damage to us when biting. Because of this, puppy-hood is a good time for bite inhibition, or soft mouth training.
One of the best ways to train a dog to have a soft mouth is through hand-feeding.
I hand-feed my puppy at least some of his kibble every day. If he bites too hard when getting his food, I do a sharp ouch or yelp and ignore him for a few seconds. Then, I retry the exercise. If he takes food from me gently, I praise him and continue feeding without any breaks.
We can also combine hand-feeding with obedience commands, and dog grooming sessions. Hand-feeding also helps with food aggression issues, so I continue with it even through adulthood.
Ian Dunbar’s book After You Get Your Puppy, gives a good overview of bite inhibition, and how to best train our puppy to have a soft mouth.
A puppy, and ultimately an adult dog who has a soft mouth is a great asset. Because my Shiba Inu has good bite inhibition, we were able to solve many of his behavior problems, which would have been difficult to deal with if he were biting at full strength.
5. Practice calm and assertive energy
This is something that is always emphasized by Cesar Millan (the Dog Whisperer) and it is extremely important; especially for a hyperactive puppy.
If we interact with a dog using nervous, submissive, fearful, or otherwise weak (non-assertive) energy, the dog will sense that and start acting out even more.
Anger, impatience, frustration, and all other non-calm energies will only excite our puppy, and cause him to exhibit even more extreme behaviors.
In order to achieve calm, assertive energy, we must first overcome whatever fears we may feel toward our dog, and become his pack leader. This is much easier to do if we have achieved good bite inhibition.
6. A busy puppy is a good puppy
Puppies have a lot of energy, and will get into trouble if we do not keep them busy.
I make my puppy work for ALL of his food. Instead of presenting everything to him in a silver bowl, I use his daily kibble and treats for obedience sessions, bite inhibition training, handling, and grooming. If there is food left over, I put it in interactive food toys.
I also schedule play time with my puppy. Some games that my dogs like include flirt pole, the water hose game, and sometimes soccer.
When I start with a new game, I make it fun by handing out lots of treats for effort. Once my puppy understands the game, I switch to only treating his more stellar performances.
Make sure to always have control of a puppy’s play-time. This means that we own all the toys, and we decide when to start and stop the games. Play-time can be very useful in training our puppy to calm down, and to pay attention to us even when he is excited.
I also schedule two or three short obedience training sessions (10-15 minutes) with my puppy every day. This helps to establish me as the leader, gives my puppy some mental exercise, and provides a good bonding experience.
Other good ways to exercise our puppy (after full vaccination) include neighborhood walks, walks in the park, dog playgroups, and dog sports.
7. We are not alone
The most important thing to remember while bringing up a difficult puppy is that we are not alone!
Our puppy journey will be filled with a lot of joy, but there will also be challenges and pit-falls. Sometimes, we may feel discouraged by our puppy’s behavior, or with his performance in dog obedience class.
We are not alone!
There are many support groups out there where we may post our questions. I also find it helpful to visit these groups when I feel discouraged, or when I feel like my puppy is some mutant strain of devil dog.
Do not think that you are a bad dog owner or trainer when your puppy behaves badly. Many other dog owners are facing the exact same problems. Also remember that with proper rules and training, our puppy’s behavior will improve with time.
Hi, You have a great website and some fantastic advice and photographs!
My Shiba is now 15 weeks old and just does not come on command – its as if he doesnt know his name but now I am starting to think he is just being stubborn!
Is there anyway to make him come to you when calling him? I have tried treats and toys but he is either to interested in what he is doing or just sits and stares at me.
Thanks Laura
Heh, yeah Shibas are not known for their recall. This thread on the Shiba Inu Forum is hilarious –
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/6619/recall-tips/p1
Here us what I do with my dogs for recall. My Sibes are actually much better than my Shiba, because they are much more food focused. However, they all have high prey drive, so I do not let them off-leash in unenclosed spaces.
http://shibashake.com/dog/hyperactive-dogs-how-to-calm-a-hyper-dog-or-hyper-puppy/comment-page-1#comment-20671
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!
Hello Rosana,
Congratulations on your new Shiba puppy!
1. Jumping
When Sephy jumps or even nears the couch, I no-mark him (say Ack-Ack, No, or Tshh). If he gets onto the couch, I give him the “Off” command (which I have pre-trained). If he ignores me, I bring him down using his drag-lead, body-block him away from the couch, and get him to do something else.
As you have observed, Shiba puppies are very energetic, so when Sephy was young I did a lot of activities with him. The more time he spends with me, doing scheduled sanctioned activities, the less time he has to come up with his own ‘Shiba’ moves. 😀
http://shibashake.com/dog/hyperactive-dogs-how-to-calm-a-hyper-dog-or-hyper-puppy
2. Chewing
When Sephy was young his big thing was chewing on books. He would always go over to the bookcase, pull out some books and start chewing on them. When he goes near the bookcase, I would no-mark him (Ack-Ack). If he ignores me, I body block him away. If he keeps going back, I put him in a time-out. This teaches him that if he can’t behave in the house, then he loses his freedom to roam.
I also kept him on a very fixed schedule that includes sleep time in his crate. In this way, I have short breaks throughout the day and do not have to supervise him all of the time.
As for Cesar Millan, what you say about his methods are very true. Some of them can be risky, and are difficult to apply. Here is more on Cesar Millan’s positive and aversive techniques.
Here is a general article on puppy training that may also be of interest.
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)
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 an aversive 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
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 🙂
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.
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.
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.com/dog/how-to-calm-a-fearful-reactive-dog#crate
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.com/dog/dog-anxiety-problems#calm-equipment
HI,
I have a question for you. What age is it appropriate to train your puppy? My breeder says I am doing to much and that I am causing an over hyper puppy down the road. All I am trying to do is spend his energy so that I can spend time and love him, and have my schedule at the same time. I made a play toy like you suggested in one of your articles and we played like for an hour. My puppy didn’t want to stop because he loved it at least I thought so. The breeder says, that’s too long and that it should play time for five minuets. Then she said that training my puppy at 11 weeks of age at pet smart was too much. All I hear from the trainers is that the earlier you train the better off you are and that 11 weeks is a good thing. Is this true? Am I over doing it? All I want is a well behaved husky puppy and grow into one as an adult…She also says that I am smothering the puppy with too much stuff and things to do. Is that true? We wake up and go potty, in the play area outside till breakfast for me and my family is done, and then I play and then let him be for an hour and half or so, and then play with him and try to train on a leash one step at a time for like ten minuets or until he gives the sign Im tired of my leash, and let him romp on his own with other dog, then he sleeps, and then dinner, and let him relax and groom and then off to bed. Is that a too busy schedule? What should I do then? He’s already crate trained when we got him, and doesn’t howl at night, but just has bounding energy. What do you do with it? Am I going about this the wrong way? please am I over exhausting the puppy like the breeder said?
Hello Sarah,
Sounds like you and your puppy are having a blast! 😀
In terms of training, I usually start as soon as I bring puppy home. I only use reward training, so there is little stress placed on puppy. However, aversive techniques, e.g. collar corrections, should generally not be used on a puppy until he is much older.
With Shania, I also enrolled her in a positive puppy class when she was about 10 weeks old. The important thing with puppy class is to make sure that all the other puppies are also up to date on their shots. Other than that, we had a good time, and Shania was very much the teacher’s favorite demo puppy.
Perhaps your breeder is most concerned about changes in schedule? My dogs really like to have a fixed routine. Whenever there are any significant changes in their routine, for example if I get busy with work, friends, or unexpected emergencies, they get stressed, and unhappy.
For this reason I set up a regular routine with puppy Lara very early on. I made sure that it is something I can maintain every day, even after puppy has grown up.
Maybe this is what your breeder is concerned about? Have a chat with her and see what she has to say.
Hugs to your puppy! Husky power! 😀
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
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.
Hi there,
we own a 9 year old Shiba inu girl and a Great american jappense akita boy who’s aged 8.
Our akita looks upto our shiba inu as his mother since they was both raised as puppys together! but recently were excperincing a few problems with our shiba inu..
When there in the garden, and our akita walks past our shiba, shiba goes mental and hangs of akita’s mane, the neck, with her teeth out.. she’s doing more for some reason, She’s also growling if akita walks past her, or comes near the water bowl or food bowl! everytime she growls or attacks him, we put her straight into her bed! She’ll do all this more when my step father the head of the house, which she knows he is, isnt around. but when its me and my partner, she plays up big time. We’ve tryed moving her food bowl away so she has her own personal space, yet we have no problems with our Akita. She’s also gone for my hand when i stroke her chin, and its quite scary for me. Any help would be a huge help for us! Thankyou 🙂
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
Hello ShibaShake! Our family got a miniature schnauzer about three months ago and she is now 5 months old. We have quite a bit of trouble leaving her at home because she always senses that we are leaving and would go crazy in her play pen and scream, ignoring the treats we have left in there for her. Does the fact that we always worry for her when we leave her at home alone have anything to do with it? Or are we doing something wrong? We would always leave a light and the TV on when we go out, and a million toys in her pen with her.
Hello Angela,
It sounds like separation anxiety.
My two Siberians are not too anxious when they are left alone but my Shiba Inu, Sephy, used to get really stressed when we left the house. He really likes his routine so anything out of the ordinary causes him a lot of anxiety.
What helped him deal with the situation is to slowly desensitize him to being alone. In the beginning we would just go through the regular ritual of leaving, but then not leave. We kept repeating that many times every day until he became comfortable with it and was no longer reacting. Then we would leave, close the door, and then come back in right away. Once he was good with that, we slowly lengthened the time that we were away.
I started really slow, maybe lengthening the time in minutes so that Sephy could handle the situation. The more positive or non-negative experiences that he had, the more confident he became.
Maturity also helps because as he got older, he also got more confident and established more trust with us. Here are more of my experiences with separation anxiety –
http://shibashake.com/dog/separation-anxiety-dog-why-how-reduce-dog-stress
It may. My dogs are very sensitize to what I am feeling so if I am stressed, they get stressed as well. Shiba Inu, Sephy is especially sensitive and high-strung. He will amplify my stress or fears by at least two orders of magnitude.
I wrote out a comment earlier and then somehow erased it before I pressed post comment, so I hope I’m not sending the same thing, if I am, sorry.
Anyways, I am getting a new shiba inu puppy next week and just had a question. When I am not home I plan to leave my puppy in his crate unless its longer than 3 hours, and if it is I plan to leave him in my bathroom where he can’t chew much and its okay if he has an accident on the floor. I plan to gradually give him more areas to be when I’m not home when he is older but for now the bathroom is it. My question is, (by the way I live in a one bedroom apartment) If I am using the bathroom and as place to keep him while I’m away, I probably shouldn’t use it also for a time-out area. The problem is I don’t really have any other area that would work for time-out since the only other option would be locking him in my room where I’m sure a bed to lay on would not make the area to terrible to be in time-out in.
Hello Georgia,
Congratulations on your upcoming Shiba puppy!
In terms of time-out another possibility is to tether the puppy in a quiet, low stimulus area. When Shiba Sephy was young, he would chew on the tether, so I got a chew-proof indoor tether from my SPCA which worked pretty well for him. I only use tethers for very short timeouts and when I am home to supervise.
I only used the tether with a body harness to prevent choking. DO NOT use with an aversive collar, e.g. choke chain, prong collar.