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.
“Sephy 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.”
Ha ha ha! It’s like you know my dog, Kramer.
I think anyone that is willing to make the effort with a shiba will be very grateful. My shiba is truly my best friend! He is always making me laugh and is such a great snuggler!
Yeah, they really are awesome and unique dogs. So much personality in a small body. 😀
Hi i think i figured on part of my investigation out. About 15yrs ago we got a puppy from the local pound they told us it was a akita mutt. It looked like an akita but it never got over 25 lbs. We named him cubby because he looked like a blond bear when he was a pup. And i have to say he was the best dog we ever had. First thing was the potty training. One accident then we never even saw where he would go to the bathroom after that. He was so private about it.
He loved going for rides, he would ride in the trucks, tractors, combines, but my favorite was the atv he would jump up behind you and stand on the back fender, He had the best balance i have ever seen, The only time he would get off is when the atv was stopped or he saw something to chase. He would always go with us to check errigation and if you took off with out him he would pout the rest off the day. He was fearless to, when he was 5 months old he jumped in a creek after a big coon, the coon did everything he could to drowned him and i did everything i could to call him off but he wouldnt give up. After he pulled that coon out of the creek i realized i better never let him see a mirror and see how big he really was, because a far as cubby was concerned he was the biggest baddest dog on the planet. I never seen him back down from a fight.
The most impressive thing was how smart he was. We never had him on a leash, he had free roam of the farm but when he was a pup he got on the road once and i yelled at him, after that i never saw him on the road again. We could be at the other end of the farm and he would find us. But several times i would be driving home and he would be sitting in the ditch next to the road waiting because he wouldnt cross the road to get to us.
He knew so many words i could have a conversation with him, but if you said the word bath, or vet you would spend 20 minutes searching the house because he would hide.
anyway he looked just like a shiba and the way it sounds acted just like one acept he never did the scream and he was never on a leash, he never would do tricks (he knew how he just choose not to lower his self to a dogs standard) And if he did something wrong and you caught him his ears would lay flat down and he looked like you just beat him with a stick.
Now i just have to figure out what else he was mixed with.
Wow sounds like a super Shiba-mix! Would love to have a Shiba like that – off-leash and listens to commands.
Wonder what other breed he is mixed with.
hello shibashake,
It has been a long time since I have posted. My shiba moksha is now a year and a half and is in every way a shiba. He still has lots of energy and is too smart for his own good. I wanted to share a christmas story about moksha that I think everyone will appreciate. Of course I, along with many shiba owners, delight in spoiling my shiba. This christmas I got him several toys and filled his stocking with them on christmas eve night. When Moksha figured out that all these toys were for him he very quickly tried every thing in his shiba powers to get me to let him have a toy. You all know what I mean by shiba powers. First he tried looking cute, then he whined, then he tried throwing a temper tantrum by biting my shoe while staring right at me. It was very hard not to give into him, so I put his stocking full of toys on my dining room table which is about two and a half feet high and I no sooner than turned my back and my shiba had jumped from the floor onto the top of the dining room table. He immediately grabbed his toys and jumped back down. I was so shock as this is something he’s never done before. He was so proud of himself and honestly I had a hard time taking the toy away from him. I was truly impressed with the effort that this dog made all to get a couple of new toys. So that is my shiba christmas story. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoy telling it. I also have to ask a quick question…I have recently heard both very positive and very negative things about e-collars. Do you have any experience with them? I have been suspicious about trying anything without asking other shiba owners, because as you all know what works on a regular dog is not necessarily going to work on the very highly evolved SHIBA!!! So any info you have on e-collars good or bad would be much appreciated
thank you,
meg
Hey Meg,
Always great to hear from you. I always enjoy a Moksha story! 😀
Do you mean electronic collars? I did look into it at one time, but decided against it. Here is why –
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-shock-collar-good-bad
My mother recently got a Shiba. Her name is Kitsu short for Kitsuni or Fox, and she is absolutely insane. She goes from being loving and playful to barking at me, and terrorizing other family members. Kitsu is a diva, and she will prance and strut her stuff to the neighbors when she is walked. I love our Shiba, except for when she screams! As soon as I get my head onto my pillow, kitsu is making our house into a horror movie. I often find myself screaming with her at night, except I’m screaming for her to shut up. our shiba hates being alone, and will follow us everywhere, but hates being held! We will hold Kitsu and try to love on her until she starts punching at our face with those strong legs!
love the website…great information and tips. Thanks!
Hello Weston,
Thanks for sharing Kitsu’s story with us. She definitely sounds like a Shiba! 😀
Sephy has many similar traits. He also does not like being alone, does not really like too much affection, and does not want to be carried unless it has some higher goal – like getting into the car to go to the park.
During Christmas, he stole a plastic bag and to him, that was the best present ever. He pranced around carrying it and enjoyed it more than all of his Christmas toys – LOL! Gotta love Shibas!
fabulous website looking to get a shiba in RI and having a lot difficulty
Thanks Dave. Yeah I did not see any listed RI breeders in the National Shiba Club of America breeder list.
Another possibility is to consider breeders in nearby states and have one shipped over. Based on my experience with Sephy, I think it is more important to get a puppy from a good breeder than it is to get one from a local breeder.
Chat with the possible breeders on the phone and make sure to ask them lots of questions about their puppies and breeding program. Here are some things to look out for while considering a breeder.
Let us know how it goes. 😀
Hi. I’ve had my Shiba Inu for a while and I feel like he’s co-dependent on my other dog. He tends to freak out when I have to take my other dog out [for a one on one walk or to clean him in the front of the house] and leave him behind in the backyard. I was just wondering if this is just a normal Shiba behavior?
Hello Steven,
What I have observed with Sephy is that he really likes his routine, so anything out of the ordinary and he will freak out. Last year we would sometimes take our other dog (Siberian Husky Shania) to daycare and Sephy got really stressed out from that.
However, he is totally fine when I take Shania out for her regular daily walk.
I just slowly got Shiba used to the daily walk routine. First, we would only go out for very short walks. Then we slowly extended the duration of the walks. Then we changed the time of the walks a bit, and so on. By making gradual changes, Shiba Sephy was able to get used to the schedule and nowadays he doesn’t even get up when we leave. 😀
My husband and I will be picking up our very first Shiba in November. He will be 9 weeks old. We decited to name him Clifford, because of his red coat and big personality. My husband has worked at vet clinics and taught dog obedience, and I grew up with alaskan spitz so we thought we could handle this little bundle. Any addvice on the first night and socialization?
Hello Sarah,
Congratulations on your soon to be new family member! 😀
Sounds like both you and your husband are already very experienced with dogs so things should go relatively smoothly. When I first got my Shiba I didn’t know too much about dog training, so it was a big challenge. But then, Shiba made me learn many things very quickly – lol.
Shiba Sephy really likes being in the bedroom with us at night. He is happy to sleep nicely in his crate if he gets to be with us in the bedroom. I like having him in the bedroom as well so it works out for everyone. 😀
For socialization with other dogs I did several puppy classes with Sephy. We specifically went to SIRIUS puppy classes which stresses puppy play training and dog-to-dog socialization. Another possibility, which we did with Shania, is to look for supervised puppy play sessions. Dog daycare centers and SPCAs sometimes organize puppy play sessions that are free and supervised. They also check to make sure that all puppies that attend are properly vaccinated.
Post us some pictures of Clifford when you get him. Would love to see him!
I just love your site so much. I had a Shiba for a very long time – 15 years and he passed away. And wow do we wish we would have known you then. We made mistakes too, but you are so right about the trust issue with Shibas. I don’t think they respond well to aversive training at all. We did decide to get a new puppy, another Shiba, and wow, puppy teething must have been a “repressed memory”, I know we had to have gone through it, but I don’t remember the details with my previous dog. I think alpha rolls are a bad idea, as is a lot of other things. So you have to get creative, the bite inhibition training is crucial. We are trying the time out thing, and “Leave it”. There is a pretty good articles on the internet about bite inhibition. But I would like to pick all of your Shiba Heads out there and give me some reminders please. I thank you so very much:)
Hello Kristina,
Congratulations on you new Shiba puppy!
LOL! Yeah when Sephy was a puppy he was such a Terror. Lucky for him he was a cute Terror.
You are absolutely right, bite inhibition training is one of the best things I do with Sephy. When he got older, he started a bout of leash and jacket biting which could have turned out really badly. However, because he had good bite inhibition training, he never broke skin even when he redirected his bites onto me. This gave me enough time to come up with something effective to stop his leash biting behavior.
Another thing that I was very happy I did with Sephy are resource exercises such as exchanging objects, adding food to his toys, and helping him with his food toys. I think all this made him be very easy going about his toys and his food. Sometimes he will bring his toys over to me to ask for my help. 😀
If you have some time, check out this article I wrote on bite inhibition and let me know what you think.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
Big HUGS to Shiba puppy!
Just got my Shiba last week she is just about 6 months. I must say after reading about the Shiba’s I was prepared for the worst. But she has been a real sweetheart. She is housebroke, doesn’t chew on things (just her toys and treats). Very condent when left alone. I do need to keep her from jumping up and wanting to chew on me when I come home. Don’t trust her off lead so we do a lot of walks she is quite pickie about going potty in her yard we have 10 acres so she like to go way out back to do her business. I was wondering if you or do you know of any one who has used a radio fence with a Sheba? Just wondering if she would run through the correction. I would appreciate any feed back on method of containment.
Hi Cher,
Congratulations on your new Shiba! She sounds like a total sweetheart which is very rare for a Shiba 😉
I looked into shock collars and electric fences when I first got Sephy but decided against them after reading some of the studies that have been conducted on their use. In particular, Polsky’s study showed that shock containment systems (invisible fence, underground fence) can increase aggression in dogs over and beyond their normal behavior.
This is because such systems are usually tied to a simply trigger, for example the dog getting near the fence, and ends up over-correcting the dog and not using the right timing. For example, if a dog sees a human, another dog, or a cat, she will likely want to go check out the situation. Every time she does this, she gets a shock. This teaches the dog that humans, dogs, and cats cause pain, and the dog will likely start to see these objects are threats. Ultimately, the dog may resort to aggression herself to get these threats to go away.
Also, Sephy got habituated to pain very quickly. His stubbornness was so great that it seemed to always trump even a painful aversive correction. This happened when I was using collar corrections on him. Finally, I just decided to go with reward training which has worked out much much better for the both of us. 😀
This article contains more about shock collars and shock containment systems –
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-shock-collar-good-bad
Some other possibilities include –
1. Fencing up a smaller area.
2. Training for good recall. However, Shibas tend to be very stubborn and independent so it is difficult to get 100% recall with a Shiba. There is always some risk that Shiba will run off to chase a squirrel and may not return.
While my fencing was being built, I put Sephy on a long lead with a flat collar and let him roam about that way. But I only did this when I was around to supervise because the long lead would sometimes get tangled etc.
Hope this helps. Let us know what works out best for you and your Shiba.
I am so pleased to read all of these comments. We adopted a Shiba named Sheba about two months ago from her foster family. She’s been so sweet and I loved her the minute I saw her. She’s been coming out of her shell and ‘feeling herself’, as we call it it, lately. She never tried to run out of the house when we open the door. We’d been thrilled that she’d actually sit at the door or lay down in the garage and never tried to run out. Now, she’s trying to test her boundaries and of course when called, she ignores us!
Sheba ‘talks’ at the dog park. At first she made me think she was being aggressive, until a play day with a boxer-pit that growled while running, Sheba barked while chasing him. I love it! So now, I have to advise dog owners that she is ‘aggressive’ in play but means no harm. The other owners, so far, have actually laughed about it! She’s been a little nippy with us when playing too.
Overall, she’s affectionate, has great temperament with our kids, doesn’t bark and makes us laugh and shake our heads constantly. My husband joked, before I even read this thread, that if she wasn’t so cute, she’d be gone! LOL He loves her to death too.
Hi Pamela,
Congratulations on your new Shiba! She sounds absolutely awesome – just like how a happy Shiba should be 😀
Sephy is a lot better now, but sometimes, he still gets into one of his Shiba moods and drives us crazy. The Shiba psyche is definitely very complex – which makes them infinitely interesting and mostly a lot of fun. They really are such characters. 😀
Share some Sheba pictures with us when you can. Shiba puppies are too cute.