The Shiba Inu is a beautiful Spitz dog. You will get many compliments and turn many heads, while walking next to a Shiba.
A Shiba can get you a lot of attention, and open doors to many social encounters. Get used to hearing, “He looks just like a fox!”.
In fact, it is this foxy look that often gets Shibas into trouble.
Many people fall in love with the ‘Shiba look’, but are not equipped to handle his larger than life personality.
If you like the Spitz look, there are many other breeds that fall into this group, that may better suit your lifestyle.
The Good
1. A dog that is more like a cat
A Shiba Inu is independent and very clean.
My Shiba Sephy, spends a fair amount of time not just grooming himself, but also helping to groom my Siberian Husky.
Their inborn cleanliness make them generally easy to potty train.
Sephy only had potty mistakes on the first day that we brought him home (10 weeks old). After that, he has always let me know when he needs to go outside. In fact, he naturally dislikes soiling his living space, and even prefers not to go in our backyard.
Shiba Inus like having their humans around, in the general vicinity. However, they are aloof like cats, and do not need or want human affection, much of the time.
2. A good watch dog
A Shiba Inu is not a noisy dog. However, when there are strange people or strange noises around the house, Sephy will bark to alert me. Once I go and check things out, he stops barking.
Sephy also has a great memory, and will alert me if anything is out of place around the house, or in a familiar neighborhood. One day, he started barking at the fence, because somebody had put a piece of wood on top of it – amazing!
3. Graceful, agile, and high energy
A Shiba Inu is graceful and agile.
He can leap tall fences in a single bound, and can scale walls like Spiderman. If properly directed, his super powers can be used for good. However, when left on his own, the Shiba will likely turn towards the Dark Side.
Sephy is a great hiking buddy, and is always up for a new challenge. He can easily learn and conquer an agility course, but he will only do it, if I make it worth his while.
A Shiba running is a sight to behold, and a Shiba at play is poetry in motion.
4. A doggy Einstein
A Shiba Inu can learn many dog obedience commands, and he can learn them very quickly. He also thinks that he is much smarter than you, and will only obey you when it suits him.
Sephy can quickly solve complex interactive dog toys and puzzles. I am always trying out new ways to deploy his food in toys, because he figures things out so quickly.
A Shiba will challenge us and keep us sharp and on our toes!
5. A larger than life personality
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
~~[ Aristotle ]
A Shiba Inu may be small in body, but he has a ginormous personality. If a Shiba were a person, he would either be an extremely successful egomaniac or in prison!
Sephy always surprises me and makes me laugh; at least when he is not making me cry.
He has this one move, where he puts his head down on the ground, with his butt sticking up in the air – it is just too precious.
The Bad
1. Bold, strong willed, and stubborn
A Shiba Inu has a “Never give up, Never surrender” attitude.
He will not back down from a challenge, and will often fight back when he perceives a threat. Because of this, many Shiba owners face aggression issues with their dog, including food aggression, dog to dog aggression, and people aggression.
To successfully live with a Shiba, we must be extremely patient, and have a good sense of humor.
Turn a Shiba’s annoying habits against him.
For example, a Shiba gets bored easily. If we ignore him and give him nothing to react to, he will quickly lose interest, and move on to something else.
Sephy can also be very competitive. If he sees another dog getting praise and rewards, he will want to strut his stuff and show that he is better.
Work with a Shiba’s innate personality, and use it motivate him in the right direction. Passive resistance and reward obedience training, work best with my Shiba.
A Shiba will hand you many lemons, which is good if you like lemonade. Otherwise, just cut one up and squirt it on his muzzle.
~~[ just kidding! ShibaShake ]
2. A sly, rougish intelligence
A Shiba Inu is super intelligent. He will most often use his brain power to “push your buttons“, and get what he wants.
Sephy is always trying to figure out how he can outsmart me, and all the humans around him. A trainer once told me that Sephy was spending the weekends, “Devising new strategies to defeat her”.
In another life, my Shiba was probably a Catholic priest. He can guilt me into doing almost anything for him.
Beware the Shiba look – it is one of his most powerful weapons, and he will use it to great effect, if he senses any weakness in you. Before you know it, your Shiba will have gotten you trained to fetch, stay, and rub tummy.
- Remember that a Shiba will do whatever he wants, if he can get away with it.
- If he cannot get away with it, he will figure out another way to get what he wants.
- When he gets caught with his nose in the cookie jar, he will give you the innocent, “What did I do?” look, and then come over to lick your hand.
As soon as you turn away, he is back in the cookie jar!
3. Like the evil, black Spiderman
A Shiba Inu is capable of great feats of agility. However, if left untrained, he will use his powers to destroy and cause great havoc in the household.
If bored and lonely, he will escape by jumping over or burrowing under your fence. He can squeeze through small holes, bite through leashes, and achieve amazing great escapes, that will make Houdini proud.
If not properly supervised, Sephy will pull down items from counters, and shred them to pieces. He may even eat some of those pieces. Once, I left him unsupervised for about 10 minutes. In that time, he pulled down a phone headset, dismantled it into little pieces, and arranged them in a strategic pattern all over the floor. Luckily, he did not swallow anything.
A young Shiba Inu has a lot of energy.
It takes a lot to keep him occupied, and away from trouble. Supervised play sessions with friendly dogs can help. Another alternative is to put him in dog daycare, or to employ the services of a dog walker.
4. A Drama Queen
My Shiba will whine, mope, and act like it is the end of the world, when he is unhappy about something (e.g. wearing a harness).
Woe be to you if your Shiba gets hurt, or even just thinks that he is hurt.
Sephy acts like he is close to death’s door, even for small things like getting grass stuck between his teeth.
Woe be to you, woe be to your vet, and woe be to anyone who tries to help.
Shibas are extremely touchy when in this state, and may snap or bite at anyone who comes near them.
In addition, Sephy is extremely sensitive to the energy of the people and dogs around him. If I am scared or stressed-out, he picks up on that immediately, and gets that way too – except with a thousand times more gusto!
5. An accomplished singer
A Shiba Inu does not bark much, but he has a wide range of vocal stylings.
The most well known is the Shiba-scream, which is a high pitched, loud scream, that will make your blood curdle. Your neighbors will think you are torturing your poor little ball of fur.
A Shiba will quickly learn to use his Shiba-scream against you, if you let him.
Do not get embarrassed, and do not give him a reaction during a Shiba-scream. I just ignore Sephy and go about my business. He quickly learned that screaming is not very effective at getting him what he wants, and he stopped doing it. Remember that a Shiba can see your outward appearance, as well as sense your inner energy.
6. Dog royalty
A Shiba Inu does not like being touched or handled.
Cutting nails, bathing, or a vet examination, is never fun for any breed of dog. However, with a Shiba, it can be total hell.
After a lot of desensitization work and management, Sephy still protests to some of these activities. He sometimes throws a fit when I pick him up, and he only likes human contact when the mood suits him.
A Shiba is like dog royalty. He wants his subjects close enough to serve him, but not too close as to sully his royal person.
7. Pretends not to understand ‘Obedience’
Obedience? What’s that?
Shibas Inus think that you should be obedient to them and not the other way around. If you want a Shiba to do something for you, you had better make him a good offer. Sometimes, Sephy bargains with me. He will sit there and wait until I have the acceptable number of dog treats in my hand, before going into his crate.
A Shiba can be a good citizen at home, but he must be properly managed.
Shibas are strong willed, independent, and bred to hunt. Aversive training does not work well on them. Shiba owners need to be creative and flexible when interacting with their dog.
A Shiba is not to be trusted off-leash, unless in a fully enclosed area.
8. Nasty, wicked teeth
For a small dog, a Shiba Inu has very large teeth, and he is not afraid to use them.
Shibas can be very mouthy; more so than many other dog breeds. When I first got Sephy at 10 weeks old, his mouth was all over me. Now, it is in control, but his instinct is still to bite.
Shibas are a primitive breed, and they lose control more easily than other more domesticated dog breeds.
The Quirky
A grass connoisseur
Sephy likes grazing, but he is picky about what grass he will eat. Dogs may sometimes graze when their stomachs are upset, to clear their digestive systems. However, my Shiba just enjoys eating grass, provided it is the right kind of grass.
I recently found an article suggesting that there might be something to this grass connoisseur business after all.
“We at Green Foods believe that dogs and many other carnivores, including cats and bears, eat cereal grasses because cereal grasses contain nutrients not found in meat that are essential for the animals’ good health.”
~~[ Green Foods web site ]
Thanks to all the posters at Shibatalk and ShibaInuInfo for their many humorous Shiba stories that inspired this article.
Hi, i would be a prospective shiba owner i guess, but not for a couple more years. I’d really love to take off the ‘prospective’ and add on a ‘definite future’, but i have some worries. I presently am the very happy owner of a shindiggy 1 year old kitty named Esper. She’s on the small side of the cat spectrum, and tends to take flight if you spook her, which is something i’m trying to help her with. She’s fine with our shih-tzu, who she’s grown up with, but i know a shiba inu is a lot different than a shih-tzu. Esper had also grown up with a cat and is not prone to hissy-pissy-ness, so i think she’ll be able to adjust to a puppy, but i’m worried about the puppy going after her. Especially if she flees.
Another thing i’m worried about is i love our shih-tzu very much and would be exuberant if the shiba could be friends with said dog, but i wouldn’t want to have the puppy be a mean bean to him. If i socialize the puppy well, will these relationships work so they could at least live happy, if not stunningly harmoniously? And i’ve read that the breed can be agressive towards other dogs of their gender. Does this go for cats as well? Because getting a girl so she’ll get along with Poe(shih-tzu) would be a major backfire, as Esper is the one she has to live with.
And if the puppy got along with said mow-mow, than would another cat be an okay idea? I know that animals tend to get along best with other creatures they’ve known their whole lives, but it doesn’t seem the wisest of ideas to bring home a puppy and kitten in the same few months. But will a shiba, in general, let another cat in if they were raised with a cat? Or another dog?
Worry #4: Is it true that shiba’s with certain coat colorings, red for instance, are prone to aggression? I absolutely adore the shiba inu look, but i must say i am slightly partial to the red and cream colorings?
Please reply, as i have been in love with this breed since i was six and my neighbors brought home of their own. He was the sweetest guy you could meet, and you could stick your hands through the fence(kinda of an idiot, i was) and he’d just sniff and lick them. Cutest chappy one could meet to boot. I’ve been researching them this past year, and they sound like great, though not for everyone, dogs. I just hope that i get to be in that wonderful correct minority.
Esper sounds like a very good kitty. Love her name.
Unfortunately, I do not have much experience in this area (I don’t have any cats). This thread in the Shiba Inu Forums has some good information on Shiba Inus and cats.
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/7120/problem-with-cats/p1#Comment_125511
Yeah, I have heard this mentioned as well, but have not seen anything that really supports the claim.
Happy Holidays and big hugs to Esper and Poe.
I own a dog and a bitch, both four and my Shiba’s have always lived with cats without any issues. One of my friends owns three cats and a female Shiba, another, one cat and a feisty little male Shiba who hates all other dogs but literally adores the cat!
It’s down to how YOU integrate/socialise them :0)
we recently rescued two shiba’s. mother and son ,mama (sophie) is 3 and son (hatchi) is 18mo. I have always had dogs, but always got them from 8wks. We have been very lucky only a couple potty accidents and no chewing. they are very sweet and loving. My real concern comes with, prior to the very unplanned rescue, we had a deposit on the pick of the litter from a choc lab mom and golden retriever dad. we bring pup home in a couple weeks and I’m afraid because mama has shown some’ dog ‘ food aggression. i can put my hand right in there food dish and take treats away, they do however eat there food together from same bowl, but if they get treats and Hatchi goes anywhere near hers, she gets very aggressive. they actually hard a huge fight the other day that left Sophie limping and Hatchi bleeding!!! so i need some advice on how to introduce a puppy and keep it safe until he’s big enough to establish his place in the pack himself.?
Hello Sandy,
Four paws up for rescuing two Shibas in need!
In terms of the new puppy, my general feeling is that it may be better to hold off on that for a while. Puppies are a lot of work and it will be very difficult to train all three dogs at once.
Food aggression is serious business and it took me a lot of time, management, and consistent training to keep things safe; and to get Sephy to be relaxed around food and other dogs. Given that there was a serious fight, it may be most effective to get help from a professional trainer.
At home, I keep the peace between my dogs by setting up clear and consistent dog-to-dog interaction rules. I teach each of them these rules, and I supervise closely, especially during meal-times and play-time. This is more on what I do with my dogs-
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog
However, each situation is different depending on the dogs, surrounding context, etc. A good professional trainer can read the dogs’ body language, evaluate their temperament, and identify aggression triggers. For aggression cases, it is safest, I think, to get help from a professional.
Thank you for all your wonderful Shiba articles! I fell in love with the breed about a year ago when I played with one at a local pet store. As a former Husky momma, I saw the curly tail and spark of personality and couldn’t resist! A year later we now have Sherlock, a beautiful Shiba boy. 🙂 He just turned 12 weeks and has an amazing personality/temperament. We have been reading on your site for months.
He is already trained in his bite inhibition, does extremely well in his crate and loves meeting new people. We are still having some issues with housetraining though. He started out being really great about no accidents but after getting a uti has slowly reverted to small little accidents right after being taken outside. I have started trying to train him to use a ‘doggie doorbell’ to tell us when he has to potty, but he hasn’t quite gotten it yet. I can’t quite figure out if he is marking or just confused about where to potty because the breeder trained him on a doggy door. Any advice? I wish we had a yard, but we live in an apartment. He gets lots of time outside though. 🙂
I have also noticed that he really really wants to run! I am torn on letting him jog with me on the trail because I have heard that it can hurt a puppy’s development to run too soon. I know I couldn’t keep my huskies from jogging when they were little bundles, but he will hold back unless I let him (with a sad shiba stare, of course!)
I can’t help but love him to bits, he is so incredibly sweet and affectionate despite being a strong-willed Shiba.
Hmmm, does he raise his leg during the mini accidents? What is he doing when the mini accidents occur? Do they occur at a particular spot in the house?
It could be lingering effects from the uti. When did he have his uti? How long did it go for?
As for running, it is probably safest to check with the vet. With Sephy, he was doing Shiba 500s very soon after we got him. We made sure he didn’t overdo it and also he didn’t jump up and down furniture, especially at high speeds. However, supervised running around did not seem to have any bad effects on him.
Hugs to Sherlock. He sounds like a really good boy and should be on Santa’s good list! 😀
He doesn’t lift his leg, so I am more inclined to think maybe he is just having standard housetraining issues except that he does it right after I take him out. Luckily I got a new carpet cleaner in yesterday and was able to clean the spots. No accidents yesterday and he did stick his nose to the bells once. 😀 I let him run Shiba 500s whenever he gets into it, though there is no predicting what sets it off! I am so in love with the quirky Shiba personality already. He loves to talk to us and protect me from dreadful things such as rice cookers, trash trucks, cable guys and Christmas lights! The most menacing is of course those Christmas blow-up lawn ornaments.
Give Sephy a hug for us! Is his name short for Sephiroth? :p what a fitting name for a misunderstood devil dog.
LOL! That is too adorable! I love all the Christmas decorations.
Yes! I am a big fan of the Final Fantasy series. Ironically, I stopped playing soon after I got Sephy – no longer have much gaming time, only Shiba time. 😀
Yeah, I think you are right.
It doesn’t sound like marking to me either. It could be that he temporarily has less control due to the uti. One possibility is to wait a bit longer outside after he pees to give him another chance to go again if he has to.
Big hugs to Sherlock and Happy Holidays. Do you watch the t.v. series Elementary? It is a fun show.
..also, his Uti was about two weeks ago now. It wasn’t a definite positive but he was squatting about 15 times every outside trip and the vet found some white blood cells so he put him on antibiotics to be safe. It tends to be in the corners (now dubbed the pee pee corners) when he is not actively playing with a toy. I restarted his crate training to be strictly scheduled though it is hard to have him in the crate when I am home. I tried an inhouse tie down but he didn’t take a shine to that and he keeps biting on a drag lead. I am thinking that he just needs to be very closely monitored and scheduled. 🙂
we have the pleasure (and pain) of being the proud owners of 1yr old Logan. We are in desperate need of some advice. Logan nips the back of our legs and will spend hours running round in circles. We Havre tried yelping leaving the room distraction techniques but with no success. he is walked on beach daily and has engaging and challenging toys to keep him occupied but again he chooses to run round in circles. Vet is at a loss and breeder recommendations have not worked.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
We learned this from our breeder. It is a good technique. When our Shiba was a puppy, we played a game called “get a toy”. You can play with your Shiba over meal times to start and for Shiba to learn the behaviour. What we did was say “get a toy!” and shake the toy around. Then when Shiba bites the toy, say “good dog!” and give Shiba some food. Repeat until “get a toy” becomes a command. The idea is that if your Shiba is biting a toy, then it stops any nipping (hands, legs, trousers, you name it) behaviour.
When we come home, we tell Shiba to get a toy or we do not even look at the Shiba. We found that this is when most of the trouser-nipping occured. That way Shiba associates get a toy with good things – like food and love. And therefore associates nipping with being ignored. All Shibas HATE being ignored. 😛
Then when my Shiba started doing annoying things, like nipping my trousers, I’d tell her “oops, get a toy!” and she would get it and I would give her lots of love. If she continued to nip, I would ignore her and give her no attention at all. (Even if it takes a full hour at first…)
Hope it helps!!
– C
With Sephy, I have noticed that he loves to play chasing games. When he was young, many of his biting and running around behaviors came from him wanting to start a game of chase.
Some things that helped with Sephy-
1. Stay very calm.
Sephy is very sensitive to the energy of the people around him. If I get angry, frustrated, or stressed, he picks up on that and gets even more crazy. To get Sephy to calm down, I have to stay very calm myself. I also find that it is best not to move around too much or too fast (either hands or legs) because fast motion gets him more excited.
2. Do not reward bad behavior.
Another Sephy favorite is that he would steal something (e.g. t.v. controller) and run around with it. Initially, I would chase him so that I could stop him. This was a mistake, because then I was rewarding his bad behavior with a chasing game, which is exactly what he wants.
Instead, what worked well with Sephy is to stay calm, no-mark the behavior (Ack-ack), and just stop him using his drag-lead. Then I would give him an alternate command, e.g. Sit. If he does this, he gets rewarded, then we do some fun movement commands (e.g. Spin) and play a structured game together. This gives him a structured way to expend his Shiba energy.
If he does not listen and escalates his behavior by jumping and biting, then I calmly say “Timeout” and put him in a timeout area for a very brief period of time. In this way, he learns that following commands = fun chasing game, but biting and jumping = loss of attention and freedom.
3. Bite inhibition training.
This helped to train Sephy to control the force of his bites.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
I have a 6 year old and he still occasionally runs in circles, but he’s pretty much outgrown it. They get better as they age 🙂 Mine was getting super aggressive and I traced it back to commercial MilkBone products. Don’t know what’s in it, but it made him nuts at time. now he gets cheese bits as a treat and all is well.
Hi!
We got Bamboo at 7 weeks and immediately began putting him on a Time Out program. When he nips we tell him “no” and ignore it. If it continues for more than 2 “no” commands we ask him if he wants to go to “Time Out”. He continues and he goes in Time Out (a special section of the kitchen gated off especially for this). He then is told to “sit” and is allowed out once he has sat for 15 seconds. He is almost 5 months old now and as soon as we ask him if he wants to go to “time out” he stops what he is doing and lays down. Hope this helps!
Arthur was a hand gripper/mouther and it is a Shiba trait but when he was little he learned very quickly not to do it to me by my replacing my hand with a toy and saying “put something in your mouth!” He continues to want to do it to all visitors but because Shiba’s are so bright and they love carrying things around, I only have to say; “Put something in your mouth Arthur” and he’ll rush off to get a toy before greeting people. This way because he’s got a toy in his mouth, he can’t mouthe hurt/frighten people and as soon as the doorbell goes, he rushes off to get a toy. Even if we’re out, I carry a ball in my pocket and if someone stops us, he comes and asks me for the ball before says ‘hello’. Problem solved!
Hi there,
I have a Shiba Inu x Akita and his name is Sephy too! Full name Sephiroth! He is curretnly 8 months old and he does everything on what you described your Shiba does, biting and running off with things! We have his own area where he sleeps in the lounge/kitchen area. However he has developed this bad habit of needing someone to stay with him untill hes too tired and falls asleep. If we leave him he scratches our door and hits it with his paws and starts crying too. Sometimes he will even be sleeping but if I leave to get up he gets up too and will proceed to scratch, hit and cry if I leave. Do you have any advice to change this habit? Its driving me crazy sometimes!
Thanks in advance!
SnugglePuppy and Pet Stages make dog toys that are heated and have heart beats, this might help. Young dogs are use to being close to their adult parents while sleeping. The warmth of their bodies and sound of their heartbeats are comforting. Hopefully this toy will replace that and releave your issue. Also get a metal gate (child gate) to put across the doorway instead of closing it. This gives him the comfort of seeing you if needed. Get a metal one for he will chew through a plastic one. Hope this helps and good luck…
Forgot one more thing… Place a ticking clock in his dog beg or wrap one up in his favorite blanket during sleeping hours to replace that heartbeat sound. It worked for our Shiba…
In the beginning when I got my Shiba Inu (he is 1.5 years now) I had a lovely list of things I thought I should follow for example the dog should be sleeping in the crate during nights in his area in the living room. I cannot count weeks we spent fighting with this, this also included me sleeping on the floor next to the crate in the sleeping bag 😀 to get him use to sleeping in there. To keep the long story short eventually we put the crate to the bedroom and there was absolutely no problem at all any more with his sleeping. They just want to be close to their family. I think the metal gate Nick suggested is a great idea (I assume you don´t want him in the bedroom).
That is awesome! Great minds think alike. 😀
With my Shiba, he really likes keeping track of his family, so he becomes unhappy when he can’t check up on both the human and canine members of his pack. I think a big part of it is due to his guarding instinct. When he was young, I put up a see through baby-gate for the kitchen area. In this way, he can still see his people when in his enclosure.
Another thing that helped is to set up a very consistent schedule and routine. Sephy is more relaxed when he knows exactly what to expect from me and what I expect from him. During puppy-hood I planned out our entire day, which turned out to be really good for Sephy and also very good for me. I was able to plan in some fixed sleeping periods, which gave me a bit of free time to rest and do other chores.
During his rest time, he knows that he is supposed to settle down so I ignore whining and other undesirable behaviors (if puppy is not fully potty-trained, then we will have to take that into account). Shibas are very clever, so if they learn that they can get affection, attention, or freedom by whining, they will whine even more. When it is time to let puppy out, I always wait for a lull in the whining before doing so. If puppy starts to whine as I am going to let him out, I walk away and try again during the next lull.
This helps to teach puppy that whining and making noise = drive people away, less attention, and less freedom but staying quiet = attention + get to come out and be with people.
It can also be useful to teach puppy the “Quiet” command. This lets puppy know what we want him to do, and best of all, we can reward him well for following commands and doing work for us.
At night, Sephy sleeps with us in the bedroom, in his crate.
Hugs to Sephy!
I have a Shiba Inu x Akita (Karlos) he is so amazing!!! He does have some problems sleeping too but it is getting better he is now 2… We got him from a rescue league… How is Ur dog in the car? Karlos gets sick every time we take him for a ride 🙁
What everyone says about them sleeping in your bedroom is so true! When we crate trained Riley we kept it in our bedroom. It only took 3 nights for her to sleep through the night without whining. About a week of having her I got this great idea to put her in the living room just outside our bedroom door. I thought that since we liked keeping our bedroom door closed to keep her from mischief, but would allow her access to her home and at night she could see us perfectly from her crate.
Ohh nooo!!! she was having none of it. She whined and whined, but we weren’t giving in. After about 15 minutes or so of constant whining we knew this wasn’t working. However, we didn’t want her to think she could whine to get out of her crate whenever she didn’t feel like being there. So, we decided to move her crate back to the bedroom, but we would leave her in it while we did this. I am not exagerating at all when I say that as the crate passed over the threshold from our room, Riley curled up and went to sleep.
People thought we were insane when our daughter was born and we refused to move Riley out of our bedroom to make a space for a bassinet. We knew we would get minimal sleep with a baby, but we would get no sleep if Riley was moved outside the room.
Thank you for posting such a wonderful site for this awesome breed. My husband owned a Shiba previously, so we where and are fully aware of the cautions of the breed. We adopted our 9 week old Shiba yesterday and are truly excited and ready for a long relationship with him and the bond our 4 year old son will have.
As with any dog or pet purchase, researching and educating yourself should be a priority for the well being of all involved. Less heartache and more love and happiness. We are patient people and actually looking forward to discovering his personality and his energy. Glad we chose a breed that is independent and knows what he wants.
Cheers to many years together.
Congratulations on your new Shiba puppy! Big hugs to the little guy and Happy Thanksgiving!
I own a five year old Shiba named Frankie. I cannot imagine having a better dog. For all the people with negative comments, you need to choose a dog based on your personality and needs and IT DOES NOT mean anything is wrong with the breed. If you need non-stop attention and re-assurance, get a dog who will not leave your side. I don’t feel the need for that and even find it annoying. My Shiba is a perfect cuddle bunny but also doesn’t demand my attention every second. He is extremly loyal. Yes, he is smart and mischievous but I find it adorable and love having a smart dog. He is also not a needy yapper like some of the smaller dogs. We work long hours and I know my Shiba is just sleeping peacefully until I get home and not crying by the door which would be so heartbreaking. He also avoids confrontations with other dogs. He doesn’t have that distinct dog smell. He is great with animal. Timid with people until he gets to know them but I really don’t think that’s a big deal. Overall, I cannot imagine a more perfect dog. He is my first dog and I will never get another dog but a Shiba!
Now that I got that out of my system. Some of Frankie’s mischiefs:
1) Stealing socks, underwear, paper and (anything not bolted and relatively small). Running within my eyesight and watching for my reaction. If I make one more towards him, he bolts.
2) He stole my husbands wallet. Pulled money out and shredded it.
3) Chewed up my favorite shoes (he was a puppy at the time) and left the chewed up shoe on top of my sleeping husband. I think he was trying to frame him.
4) Crazy Shiba dance – ears pulled back, eyes show complete insanity. Jumps/slides from corner to corner.
5) Tries to steal food of my plate (and at times succeeds). He is so smart and always knows how to catch me off guard.
With all the craziness, I adore him. He is affectionate. He is usually cuddled up next to me or my husband. Super affectionate in the morning. Covering his face with paws – the cutest thing.
I was wondering if anyone had success with raising a Shiba in an apartment. I recently moved out of my parents house,where I shared every single day of my life with a Collie, and I miss having a dog SO much. Although apartment raising is less than ideal, I believe I can still provide a great home for a dog.
I will commit to at least two walks per day and if allowed tons of love and affection. My parents and I walked our Collies at least three times a day and they are some of the most well behaved dogs in the world. You can walk out of the room with a plate full of food on the coffee table and Reptar (their most recent Collie) could care less. That being said, I have high expectations.
This will be my first non-Collie and I am a little nervous, but excited! I fell in love with this breed about 5 years ago and I have been doing my research and I’m ready to take the challenge. We are going tomorrow to pick the cutie pie up. Any recommendations for food for the puppy as well as into adulthood? I’m on a budget myself, but I dont want to skimp to the point of threatening the dog’s health with horrible food.
Hello Kristen,
Congratulations on your new Shiba puppy!
How are things going?
In terms of food, I feed all my dogs Innova EVO. It is high protein and grain free. During puppyhood I use the Innova puppy formula. My Shiba is allergic to wheat, so I go for grain free kibble.
Other well-regarded brands – Orijen, Blue Wilderness, Wellness CORE.
Here is more on what to look out for while picking kibble-
http://shibashake.com/dog/feeding-your-dog-a-healthy-diet
Thank you! We picked up Blue Wilderness puppy food and Raiden seems to be enjoying it.
So far he has only had two accidents in the house. My parents saw him and fell in love immediately. They offered to watch him while we are at work which is amazing! In addition to them helping with house breaking, he gets to play with their collie all day. I don’t know who is sleepier when I go to pick him up, my mom, the collie or Raiden.
Im so glad to have him. I love our morning walks together. He was immediately a pro with the leash and he met my niece and was sooo good. However, the Shiba Scream is no joke. It amazes me that something so small and cute can produce such a loud noise. The best way I can describe it is a cross between a parrott and a monkey.
LOL! Lucky Raiden. “Lord Raiden WINS!”
Awesome name for a Shiba.
Hi Kristen,
My 1 yr old Shiba does great in our apartment. I can leave her alone for up to 6 hours at a time and she’s totally fine. (In fact I come home and she’s normally sleeping) The key is to make sure that your Shiba is exercised regularly throughout the week. I find that at the 1 yr mark, two hikes a week is adequate, on top of regular walks. Also you can consider daycare for the “puppy-energy” at the early months. This is what we did.
It is a little more expensive this way, but think of it like this – would you rather spend a few hundred dollars on daycare costs over the span of 6 months or a lot more on a new couch? 😉
If you are buying a Shiba, try to see how the parents and grandparents are. Are they running around like crazy or just chilling out? When I went to pick up my little one, all of the breeder’s 14 dogs were sitting in a row at the window. Quietly staring, kind of freaky. But all quite calm.
Have fun and don’t listen to what some people say! Just make sure you research the parents (if possible), start a good program with a reputable trainer, and try to get in some daycare days. (Daycare really helped with our Shiba being very socialable)
– C
We live in an 834 sq ft condo and have had a Shiba Inu since she was a puppy. Riley is now 1 1/2. She has done very well in this space. If your Shiba gets lots of excersice they will be fine. We take Riley to day care 2-3 days a week and that keeps her from getting into too much mischief.
We bought a Shiba as a puppy from an out of state breeder. We fell in love with the pictures of him sent to us and he was absolutley adorable when we got him. We have had numerous dogs in our lifetime and assumed many of the challenging things we read about Shibas could be overcome with training. Boy were we wrong! This breed is trainable, but they will only do what you want if they want to and on their terms. An example of this would be when we took him out for a walk. Same times everyday. I would walk him and he would not go. As soon as I got back in the house and sat down he would be banging his paw on the door to go out. He was going to go when HE wanted to. We found this breed to be extrememly disobedient and controlling. They believe they are the king of the house and need to be bribed with treats not to be bad. Our trainer actually gave up. Forget about affection or mans best friend. They olny want it when they want it. Needless to say after 8 months we gave him away. Never felt this way about any other dog before – biggest mistake we ever made in choosing a dog.
Ted – thanks for your candid comments. You really helped me! It seems like you’re the only one who doesn’t rave about these little, adorable “monsters”. 🙂 So sad to have to give a pet away. They seem to have similar characteristics to the Akita, magnified about 200+ times; and I absolutely love Akitas, tho they, too, are not for the faint of heart and must only go to experienced dog owners. Whew! What a handful! Thanks and take care. Good luck with your next dog.
R
My first dog was a chocolate lab a lover who died at 14. I didn’t want another dog but my 2 boys convinced me, we picked a Shiba inu. Smart as can be, ran away every day. I would drive around the neighborhood looking for him coaxing him to my car. Very trying and each day I fell more and more in love with this dog. Tuffy has a large t on his chest as is very proud and prances around. This dog can be affectionate and follows me somedays, waits for my husband And boys to come home. I find this dog to be so amazing in so many ways, give them a chance they grow on you. They do love to be up high on things which caused a knee replacement. In both knees, but that has been the only Heath issue. I do have the black and white shiba and our vet says these tend to be a little sweeter than the red or Ginger Color. Who knows but for our family this dog is who is now 13 and very mellow and very enjoyable. Good luck!!
Hi – I hope I’m typing in the right area in order to get a reply. I read a lot of your “article” and have a few quesions or maybe comments to which I’d really like a reply. I didn’t finish your post completely, and will do so but it’s 4AM and I must get to bed. I’ve been an Akita mom my whole adult life, having been the lucky “guardian” of four Akitas (not at the same time). I’ve decided to get a smaller dog this time and tho I’ve looked long and hard at “softer” breeds, I keep coming back to the spitz, and in specific the Japanese breeds. I know the Akita very well and had wonderful relationships with them. In reading your article I found myself asking why on earth would anyone want a dog such as you’ve described!!?? You really down sell them and make them sound like a cross between a Gremlin (remember Gizmo?)and some wild, unaffectionate, distasteful force that will destroy your home, body, and anything else it has a mind to. I really had settled on the Shiba because of my love for Akitas but it seems they take the Akita breed challenges to a new low or high, depending on how you look at it. Are you for real? Or perhaps trying to disuade the faint of heart? And if not, why pray tell would anyone want a troublesome animal lacking in affection. Another question: Health issues….What are they? A breeder of both Akitas and Shibas told me they share the same health issues as Akitas. Having paid out a total of approximately $30K for the 4 Akitas I’ve (and I adore them so… it was heart breaking to lose them, and at rather young ages) had concerns about this. OK those are my questions and thanks in advance for your reply. BTW Sephy is absolutely beautiful. I’m hoping they are like Akitas and that you are painting a grim picture to “scare Off” the unskilled and unprepared potential guardians. Please forgive any typos. It’s really late. Much thanks, Rannie in No. CA.
LOL!
– The article above is based on my experiences with Shiba Sephy, and also on stories from other Shiba owners at a couple of Shiba message boards that I used to be active in. Does this mean that all Shibas will exhibit these behaviors? No. Each dog is an individual and will have their own individual temperament. However, as a group, I believe that Shibas are generally much more stubborn than the average dog, and also a lot more aloof.
– Does the aloofness mean that Shibas never want affection? No. But in my experience Shibas want a lot less attention than other dogs. Sephy will sometimes come over for affection and roll over for tummy rubs, but much less so than my Sibes who love being close to people most of the time.
– I have never lived with Akitas so I do not know firsthand what the differences are when it comes to affection and other traits. One of my neighbors have both a Shiba and Akita and she says that her Akita is a lot more affectionate towards people. Her husband described their Shiba as “neurotic”.
Why do people get Shibas?
I think there are many reasons, probably chief of which is their looks. That was certainly one of the key reasons why I got Sephy, and we had a very difficult time in the beginning because I was not prepared for his Shiba behaviors; that were very contrary to what one may expect from other dog breeds. The aloofness in particular was difficult for me to understand and get used to. I think this is why many Shiba owners try to emphasize these differences, so that people do not get blindsided by these “Shiba quirks”.
However, once I got to know Sephy, I realized that he has many good qualities-
– He is very loyal.
– He is very brave and has a never-give-up never-surrender attitude. He will protect everyone in the family even at great cost to himself. He is very good at protecting Shania (my 3 legged Siberian Husky).
– He is a very good guard dog and alerts when there is unusual activity around the house.
– He is very funny and very original. He always does things that surprise me, that is often funny, and that none of my other dogs would think to do.
– He is clever, confident, and knows his own worth. He doesn’t let others bully him or make him into a second class citizen.
I suppose in the end, it depends on how we look at things and what we want in a dog.
As for health issues, the most common thing I hear of is hip dysplasia. We had Sephy checked for that after he turned 2. He was walking a bit funny, but it turned out to be just another of his special Shiba quirks. 😀
Some people also mention that Shibas may be susceptible to glaucoma.
I can’t believe all the negative things I have read about the Shiba. I am a proud owner of a 9 month old Shiba named Rocket. I have alwayys owned Shelties, and still do. Shelties are a wonderful breed and this is my first Shiba. Yes, it is true that that can be a hand full. They are very smart, want their way and will challenge you patience.But, they are very affectionate and loyal and love there humans. They are beautiful, funny, full of life and energy, love their toys and play time.
Irt is also ture that they are cat like in many ways, but I also own 4 cats and I understand cats very well so this really helps me under stand my shiba. Shiba’s are not for the faint of heart so if you do not have time for them, patience, and if you are nit as string willed as they can be, yu might want to try another breed. Because they shiba’s are so intelligent they, they can obedience trained . However, you should find a trainer who knows the breed and how to train them. I really love my Rocket ( his name fits im well), and he loves us. I have read that they don’t like to be touched, etc., but I have not found that to be the true with my shiba. He loves his belly rubs, loves to lay beside me and sleep with his head on my lap and is always following me everywherre. I hope this helps some of you who are considering a Shiba Inu and remember to be patient and it just might be the best dog you have ever owned.