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 there i was wondering, i got my dog (bentley) 2 weeks ago and was told he was german shepard/akita cross, but i do know akitas and he is too small, i was told that he is probably shiba inu/ german shepard, now he is a year old already and has some training issues, he always pulls the leash, trys to take the leash and walk me, always barks and howls when i am not home, he has great agility loves to jump and he can jump high, just wondering if anyone here has had any type of these problems with a shiba, any tips would help as well
Yeah, Sephy used to leash bite in a very bad way. He would get so crazy he would sometimes jump on me, grab my jacket sleeve, and start shaking his head. It was pretty scary.
Here is more on my leash biting experiences with Sephy. What works best for Sephy is to no-mark, then immediately march him home and end the walk. In this way, he learns that –
Any kind of leash biting = fun walk ends,
Walk nicely on leash = get more freedom to explore and fun walk continues
I trained Sephy not to pull by using the red-light-green-light technique and the 180 turn around technique.
http://shibashake.com/dog/leash-training-your-dog
Hi,
We have a one year old Shiba, and we’ve noticed that her breath smells like a metallic, blood smell. Is this anything we should be concerned about? Thanks.
There can be many reasons for this, so it is best to check with the vet.
Couple of forum discussions on this-
http://www.i-love-dogs.com/forums/dog-questions-answers/34418-puppy-has-metallic-breath.html
http://boxerworld.com/forums/dog-health-issues-questions/49609-4month-old-foul-fishy-metallic-smelling-discharge.html
Probably has some tartar building up. Smelling breath is the one clue that is telling us something is up.
Thank you! We’ve had a few days together and he’s calmed down a lot around me… he’s a sweet little thing, very cheeky but he seems to really want to please us. I have been observing him, and have found out he’s very reward oriented, so have been following the NILIF tips on your site which seem to be getting great results. Let’s see how it goes!
That is great to hear! Big hugs to your Shiba. 😀
Hi there,
On the weekend my husband and I bought a two year old male Shiba Inu. He is a darling around other people, dogs and my husband… everyone apart from me! He has growled at me a few times and stands around staring at me. I figure it’s just him working out the pecking order in a new pack and doesn’t fully trust me yet, and I am going to start taking him to dog school so we can learn some new things together, but I was wondering if you have tips? Is it the sort of thing he will grow out of if I keep up consistent behaviour? I have been alternating between holding my ground when he gets bolshy (we had a stand-off earlier today when he tried to eat a tissue on the ground when walking – I made him sit and drop it before we walked on, and gave him a treat as a reward when it was finally dropped) , ignoring the bad behaviour (I left the room when he growled at me last night) and rewarding good behaviour with treats.
It’s a bit saddening for me that he doesn’t seem to love me the way he does everyone else, but I am doing my best to stay calm and work through it!
I had a similar experience with my Shiba (Sephy) when he was young. He would be calmer and much better behaved with other people, but he would go crazy with me.
The key reason for this, was my energy. I was uncertain when interacting with him, and would get frustrated, angry or disappointed, and ultimately also somewhat fearful of his behavior. Sephy would pick up on my non-calm energy, get uncertain and stressed himself, and act out even more. The truth is, Sephy did not love me less. He was simply reacting to my own emotions and feelings. Since I was uncertain and frustrated, he got uncertain and frustrated as well, and used aggression to deal with his stress.
Here are some things that I did with Sephy. Here is a bit more on my experiences with Sephy.
I also set up a very consistent set of rules and a very consistent routine. Consistency is very important with Sephy, and I make sure to always respond in a very consistent way to his behaviors, so that he learns what are desirable behaviors and what are undesirable behaviors. Here is more on how I train a new dog.
Dog training is also very context dependent. Ignoring may work well in certain circumstances, and may have the opposite effect in others. For example, my dog may try jumping on counters to get whatever is on top. I could walk away and ignore him, but he would still keep jumping on counters. Every time he jumps, he may get rewarded with something fun from the counter, e.g. paper, food, etc, which would encourage him to jump even more. Similarly, “holding our ground” is the same way.
What helped most for me is to observe Sephy carefully, and try to understand things from his point of view. Once I understand what motivates a certain behavior, I can redirect it or reorganize the surrounding motivators to get a different behavior. Here is a bit more on how dogs learn.
With Sephy, group classes were mostly useful for socialization purposes. However, they are not as helpful for dealing with specific behavioral issues. For those, private lessons were much better.
http://www.apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
Need Help!!! I am dog sitting my friend’s female shiba. She is 5 years old. I had a problem on the first day walking. While we were in the parking walking and accidentally she slipped out from her harness to chase after a small dog. I was able to grab and hold her on my arm. When I tried to put the harness back on, she growled and showed teeth at me. I tried different methods, being nice, being mean (having a rod on my hand! She got scared actually) But when I put the harness closer to her every time, she just growled again. Now I don’t know what to do. I live in an apartment so I need to take her out. I was told that no one could put the harness on her except her owner who is on a cursie and the owner won’t be back in a week. She is fine with me but I when tried to put the harness on, she got angry again. I used to have a penkingnese and a Sheltie. They are not like that. Any suggestion??
Sephy (my Shiba) is also very sensitive about wearing anything on his body. I had to spend a lot of time getting him comfortable with putting on and wearing a collar. I did this *slowly* by associating the collar with positive events (e.g. fun games) and food rewards. Here is a bit more on the collar desensitization process that I used with Sephy.
Shiba Inus are loyal, and they do not give their trust easily. It was something that I had to earn over time through consistency, repetition, and positive experiences. My energy is also very important when interacting with Sephy. If I am fearful, frustrated, angry, or otherwise not-calm, Sephy would pick up on my energy, get stressed himself, and his behavior would worsen.
Do you have a way of contacting her owner? She knows her dog best and would know the best way to deal with this. Is the Shiba ok with wearing a collar for the short term?
Hi there. Thanks for all the fantastic pics and great info. I recently lost my beloved Akita, Toshi, to cancer. I have approximately 20 years’ experience with the breed. I am thinking that it might be time to explore smaller breeds. My Akitas were all rescues and health-wise proved sad and expensive, to a one. I am shy to get another, especially one that originates in No. CA due to the overwhelming health problems they seem to have. Can anyone point me to reputable breeders of the Shiba Inu? I am up for a breather regarding serious and costly health problems. The oldest Akita I was blessed with died, also from cancer, three months shy of her 9th birthday. Very sad. I’d appreciate any help anyone can offer. Thanks so much. P.S. I love, love, love the Akita personality and know the Shiba shares many of the same attributes, hence my interest. Thanks again. Rannie
For Shiba Inu breeders, I go to the National Shiba Club of America-
http://www.shibas.org/breeders.html
There is also some great information on the site in terms of common Shiba health issues and more.
Hey, it’s me again… I wanted to ask about a problem… I have my dog (the all mighty Cork, lol) but i also have 2 cats… the cats hide from Cork, and Cork chases the cats… do you have any pointers on how to get them to get along?
Hello Jade,
I don’t have any cats, but here is a thread from the Shiba Inu Forum about Shibas and cats-
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/7120/problem-with-cats/p1#Comment_125511
Here is an article from the ASPCA on introducing a cat to a new dog-
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-articles/introducing-your-cat-to-a-new-dog
HI , would it be hard to keep a Shiba in an apartment ? I really like this dog but since i dont live in a house i have my doubts
http://shibashake.com/dog/shiba-inu-personality-good-bad-traits/comment-page-5#comment-63240
http://shibashake.com/dog/shiba-inu-personality-good-bad-traits/comment-page-5#comment-71181
http://www.dogster.com/forums/Shiba_inu/thread/561213
We’ve raised our 8 month Shiba named Stella in a townhome and an apartment. Stella was fine in both. We crate trained her, but quickly realized that she has no intention of getting into any trouble when left home alone and the house to herself. She’s very well behaved, but we might have just gotten lucky. We did exercise her very much on the weekends. We’d take her to puppy parks, on hikes, etc. During the week, we’d just exercise her on a quick 20-45 min walk. I’ve just moved in to a larger house with a yard, so I’m happy to be able to give Stella some room to run around!
Shibas are good for apts. Just take for regular walks and give attention. I live in a condo and it works good
Should I get a boy shiba inu puppy or a girl shiba inu puppy? Which one has the best qualities?
I belive that both have great qualities. but if i was to pick one i’d say a male would be better… or that could just be because my Shiba, Cork, is a male and he’s just the best dog ever!!!! JadeCorkus OUT!!!! Peace
Hi! I really want a shiba inu but I feel like they are too mean and stubborn. Are they really mean all their life or are they loving and playful?
I’ve honestly never met a “mean” Shiba. However, all of the Shibas that I met were socialized very thoroughly. If you take the time to do your research and socialize your puppy as appropriate I doubt you’ll run into any issues.
Shibas aren’t mean, it is just the ancient breed trait coming out. My shiba growls at people or other dogs and its her way of saying back off but even after growls you can pet her or comb her and even a stranger can let her sniff. She loves her people and usually doesn’t want to be far from me and she loves to cuddle