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.
In 2005 my wife gave me the best Father’s Day present: Miska, my red and white Siberian Husky. If I had know how much I love huskies, this is the only breed of dog I would have ever had. While Miska isn’t very sociable with strangers, she loves her family very much is always there to comfort any of us that are down.
Yeah, I am a big fan of Sibes as well. Big hugs to Miska!
We have two Shibas, a black and tan and a white sesame, and though I love them dearly, I’ll never get this breed again. The shedding and molting is too much to handle. They can lose what seems like pounds of fur even after a professional grooming. Also, mine pee in my house. Everywhere. Two seconds after I let them out, they pee. I have not noticed them caring too much about it, either. Drives me crazy. They are very cat-like, though, and keep to themselves, especially when they were younger. Now that they’re getting old (10 years), my male likes to come sit next to my bed or at my feet when I go to sleep and again in the morning. They are also extremely excited when we come home and occasionally love to play with their toys. They do have killer teeth, though, and while both are very gentle with us and our kids (took a bit for them to get used to the kids), they will rip apart toys labeled for big, aggressive breeds in days. They were bouncing and darting balls of energy when they were younger and would run around and around and around the house without abandon. Now they lay around most days. My female defies most norms of the breed when it comes to personality. She loves attention, especially from strangers, and “talks” and “sings” to us regularly. My male rarely makes a sound unless he hears a noise or sees someone outside. Very interesting pets indeed.
I have been trying to persuade my parents to get a shiba inu for a while now. I have a younger brother and sister ( 6 and 4 respectively) and we own a very mellow four year old golden Labrador called jasper if I were to get a shiba would your recommend adopting a shiba or raising one from a puppy? I do realise how much of a handful these dogs can be but I am completely prepared to spend the time to properly train one if get one.
I think it would depend on the adult Shiba, his temperament, past experiences, training, etc. An adult dog with a calm temperament, that is already trained, well socialized, confident, and balanced will be a lot easier to handle than a new puppy. However, finding such an adult dog will be a challenge.
My Shiba puppy was extremely mouthy, stubborn, high energy, and the opposite of mellow. 😀 As a breed, I think Shibas are known for their mouthiness, which is why they may not be the best fit in a household with young children.
Shibas are also known for their aloofness, and may not be very tolerant of being petted roughly on the head, getting their tails pulled or stepped on, etc. After much training, my Shiba is more affectionate and tolerant now, but he is still a lot less so when compared to my Huskies.
More on Shibas and why they can be difficult dogs to train.
If you’re going to get Shibas and plan on them coexisting with little kids, I’d be sure to tug at their ears and tails a lot when they’re puppies. This is what we did with ours because we knew we wanted kids some day and it really helped when our children came along. They weren’t as tolerant with our first son, but by the time our second son came around, they were fine.
I posted here last year, about my two Shibas, Sebastian and Copper, and my Siberians. I don’t have any photos online of the gang, but 8 Siberians ( I am in a Siberian Rescue—reason for having many), and 2 Shibas keep me busy.
This is a great informative, and humorous website about the little Shiba alligators!
Very interesting too, reading all the Shiba owners comments, I was very lucky, the family that had Sebastian and Copper socialized them well….but the “Real” Shiba Inu comes out in them from time to time! Haha
Best to you and all the Shiba fans out there!
Hey Bruce, Glad to hear that everything is going well with your furry gang! 😀
Thanks for posting. We have friends with a seven-year-old Shibu that they need to foster for a while due to a health emergency. We are considering taking Pele in, but not sure that our Maine coon and it will be a good mix. He’s always been a delightful pup at their house when we going to visit, but not sure what changing his environment will do to his personality. Not sure how he would tolerate being separated from his favorite owner, but it this point there isn’t another option.
.Fun to read everyone else’s stories and get an idea of what we could be taking on.
My shiba inu mix is like living with a small devil in dog form. He bites everyone I have ever met. your better off with a hamster.
my shiba inu mix is awful. He scratches up every door i own. he always poops in the house and bites anyone one he doesnt know…dont get one
We love our puppy Nyko to death. He has the best personality with other dogs as well as humans. I walk him twice a day for about two hours and we often visit dog parks or go hiking. His high energy levels never got to me but I do think that people who are looking for a calm companion should either adopt older Shiba or look into other breeds.
OMG are shibas as bad as all the above comments? I thought I wanted a shiba but now I’m not so sure. I located a 5 year old male retired breeder & fell in love with his picture. He’s black & tan and looks like a miniature husky.
The breeder said he is a sweet boy who loves everyone. But he has been raised in a kennel and she says has a “strong prey drive”. I have a cat & she said she didn’t think he would be very nice to a cat. She said they are very independent, stubborn dogs. I have a 3 year old female rhodesian ridgeback that I wanted to find her a friend. She is very independent, strong willed & stubborn, but she doesn’t sound as bad as a shiba. She is very destructive, even at 3 years old. Has been to 2 obedience classes and the only thing she can do is “sit” if I have a treat to give her, So I’m very discouraged, maybe a shiba is not the breed for me. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated. I haven’t met the shiba, he is about 800 miles away from me.
Thank you.
Sephy is very strong-willed and stubborn. He prefers playing and interacting with easy-going dogs who just like to play. He will not back down from a challenge, so he does not get along with dominant dogs. For a second dog, I was very careful to pick one that is more easy-going and submissive in nature.
What kind of dogs does your Ridgeback enjoy playing with? What energy level? What type of temperament? What size?
http://shibashake.com/dog/getting-a-second-dog
The Shiba Inu Forum is also a good place to visit for a look at what various people think of their Shiba.
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/
No, really they’re not. As with any dog, shibas have general “breed trends” but are all their individual being as well. I was concerned when I got my Shiba, Sabrina, but I talked to the breeder previously about my concerns and she suggested the perfect dog for our family! Sabrina was 4 years old when we got her, which may have had something to do with it, and the breeder told us that her personality was calm and extremely mellow. We thought she was exaggerating, but that wasn’t the case at all! Sabrina is active, but if we don’t take her out on walks because we’re too busy, she just sleeps around the house. We don’t give her too many toys (just regular bones and balls) and she plays with them when she’s in the mood. She’s very cuddly – she likes being picked up and handled, and she’ll sit on our feet until we pet her. She’s very clean, and very independent when she sees that we’re too busy. She’ll occasionally show her attitude by sitting with her back turned towards us, but if you punish bad behavior by ignoring them, Shibas are such attention-loving dogs that they’ll learn very quickly. She trots perfectly by our side on walks after several times training her to do so. The cons are that 1) she’s VERY stubborn – it’s difficult to get her to do something she’s set against doing. But if you assert your dominance, she’ll listen. 2) she’s a very picky eater, and doesn’t eat a lot, so we’re constantly thinking of new things to mix in with the dog food to make her eat it. Mind you, this is for Sabrina in particular, but it should comfort you that I have experienced NONE of the horrors that shibashake has. All dogs are different, just like people, so you should state your needs to the breeder and enquire about your dog’s personality, and meet him/her prior to purchasing. Good luck!
I just rescued (at Christmas) a Shiba mix, and I love her to death. She is so agile I hope to teach her to catch a frisbee if this winter ever ends. She loves to walk on her hind legs so much, that she is almost a bi-ped. I am not sure what she is mixed with, but the quirks listed above, definitely fit her personality.
Pula Kulay is a happy little girl !!
I am glad you both found each other! It is always great to hear happy dog stories, and doubly so for rescue dogs. 😀 Big hugs to your Shiba girl!
Just found your website. It’s wonderful. Great Articles. I’ve just taken on a Shiba inu mix(?) around 31/2. Her paperwork states shepard mix but I don’t see it. Two people have told me she is shiba inu so the jury is out on that. I knew she was stubborn and but very smart. Had her crate trained in 3 days. As I read your article on the good, bad and quirky I made so many connections. She is a cuddler but doesn’t like me grooming her. She really has been a delight. I also have a male german shepard and a male Rottweiler much older than her. Only problem I’ve encountered is she was an only dog in former home and now has to share me, so we’ve had a few instances of growling when the boys are getting attention from me, overall she appears to like the boys.
Four paws up for helping out a dog in need! She sounds like a very interesting and lovely girl. I am glad she has found such a happy home. 😀
In terms of sharing, what has helped with my dogs is to set up clear dog-to-dog interaction rules. I supervise them during play, meals, and more, and make sure that everyone follows the rules. One important rule is “no stealing”, and that includes affection from people as well.
My Husky will sometimes try to push Shiba aside to get more affection, and if she does that I no-mark and give her an alternate command, e.g. Down (in a specific location). If she does it, then I reward her by giving them both affection and some kibble. If she ignores me and continues to push others aside, then I body block her away from Shiba and she does not get anything. If she persists and keeps pushing, then I say “Timeout” and put her temporarily in a safe timeout area.
In this way, she learns that she gets what she wants (affection) by following commands and *not* by pushing. If she pushes, she doesn’t get any affection and may also end up temporarily losing her freedom.
I also try to reward them more and with better stuff when they are calm together. I find group obedience training to be useful with my dogs because they are together around me, and working together for food, affection, and more. I try to create as many positive together-experiences as I can, while at the same time minimizing conflicts.
Here is more on what I do with my dogs.
I also follow the Nothing in Life is Free program with all my dogs. It is useful for my Shiba because it provides him with a certain amount of structure, and he learns that he has to work for the things that he wants.
Big hugs to your furry gang!