The Shiba Inu is a very beautiful dog. However, behind that foxy face, is a dominant, stubborn, intelligent, and extremely mischievous personality. This can make them a challenge to care for.
Indeed Shiba Inus are not for the faint-hearted, and they are not recommended for first-time dog owners.
Despite this warning, my heart was already set on a Shiba Inu puppy. I had a lot of free time then, so I thought I would be able to handle one little dog. After all, how difficult can a small puppy be?
Little did I know, a Shiba Inu can be a major pain in the ass!
Even dog veterans have problems with their first Shiba. In fact, many experienced trainers were unable to handle my Shiba Sephy.
Here are the Shiba Inu training secrets that helped me turn my devil dog into a model citizen. Well, maybe not a model citizen, but a fun citizen that I truly enjoy living with.
1. There are No Miracle Cures
When I first got Shiba Sephy, he was a big challenge.
Some of his favorite daily activities include biting my hands, running crazily around the house, biting on curtains, vicious leash biting, jumping on me and others, humping my leg, and much more.
I was desperate to get him under control, and did a lot of research online and off-line. I read a lot of online articles and bulletin boards. I called local dog trainers, watched all the dog training shows on television, and read a lot of dog training books.
During this time, I found something that looked like a miracle … a 10 minute Shiba online training program. According to this advertisement, there were some special “Shiba words” that will magically turn a Shiba into a Lassie. Yeah right!
Luckily, I did not succumb to my desperation, and did not buy this product.
The fact is, there are NO “miracle cures” for training a Shiba Inu.
The secret of Shiba training, is simply to exercise extreme patience, and find humor in our Shiba’s antics. Use reward obedience training, and always be firm but fair.
A Shiba will probably never be a Lassie, or perfect dog. However, if you are looking for a dog with a big personality, who will always make you laugh with his sneaky and roguish ways, then the Shiba Inu is for you.
2. Use Passive Resistance
The best way to deal with Shiba Inu misbehavior is through passive resistance.
Shibas get bored easily and do not like being ignored. They really enjoy their freedom, and also like being close to their human pack. We can control a Shiba best by controlling these most desired resources: our attention, and his freedom.
If we actively try to stop our Shiba either through physical punishment (e.g. alpha rolls, leash jerk) or active restraint, he will fight back. This encourages him to practice rough play, and biting on people.
If we back away, or become fearful of our Shiba, he will learn that he “wins” by showing dog aggression.
If we over-correct our Shiba by exerting too much physical force, or by correcting him too frequently, we will lose his trust, and it is difficult to regain a Shiba Inu’s trust.
What works best with a Shiba is NOT to engage in a physical competition, but rather to engage in a mental one.
There are certain resources that Sephy really enjoys including walks, treats, toys, and his freedom.
When I want to take him on his walk, I go to the door with his lead, and call him to me. Initially, he would dally and not really want to come, because he wants to go walking on his own schedule. I count to three. If he does not come, I leave and go about my own business.
After a short time, Sephy will amble over, and pester me to take him on his walk. This is done through begging, and whining. I ignore all this bad dog behavior. When I have a break in my schedule again, I repeat the above exercise.
A Shiba will quickly learn that to get the resources that he wants most (e.g. go on walks), he has to do it according to our rules, and our schedule. It is important to practice the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program with a Shiba.
Set a Shiba Inu up for success, so that we can reward him frequently, and keep him interested in doing what we want.
Another Shiba favorite is to steal something he is not supposed to, and then run away with it, thereby engaging a fun chase game.
A Shiba Inu is very agile, and it will be difficult for us to catch him. I always try to keep an eye out for my sneaky Shiba, and stop him before he steals an object. I also put a drag lead on him, so that I can easily catch him by stepping on the lead.
Note: Use a regular flat collar with the drag lead, and not an aversive collar. Aversive collars such as prong collars or choke chains, should only be used during supervised training sessions. Cut the loop on the drag-lead, so that it does not catch on anything in the house.
3. Rules, Rules, Rules
Shiba Inus are naturally dominant. If we do not provide them with rules, that we consistently enforce, they will take over the house.
It is best to enforce those rules as early as possible. This ensures that Shiba does not develop any bad habits later on, that will be more difficult to break.
Some of Shiba Sephy’s rules:
1. No Biting
The most important rule that I place on Sephy, is no biting on people. Shiba Inus are a very mouthy breed. Their instinct is to use their mouth in a wide variety of situations, including when they are excited, frustrated, and fearful.
They also have large teeth, and can accidentally hurt children and seniors. If Sephy starts biting on me or on others, I no-mark the behavior (Ack, ack). If he continues, I put him on a time-out.
It is also important to teach a Shiba bite inhibition. In this way, when he loses control of himself and does bite, he will not cause much harm.
2. No Food Aggression or Resource Guarding
Prevent our Shiba Inu from guarding resources. Shibas have a don’t back down, don’t surrender attitude. Therefore, the best way to teach them not to guard resources, is to use reward training techniques.
Show them that people and other dogs coming near them, while they are eating or playing with their toys, is a good thing. Prevent stealing, and practice exchanging objects. This teaches them that giving up something, does not mean it is gone forever.
If we use physical force to grab a toy away from our Shiba, he will likely become more possessive over his objects. He will also lose trust in us, and may use aggression to protect himself, and his belongings.
3. No Rough Play
I do not play rough with Sephy. He gets to wrestle with my other dogs, but no wrestling is allowed with humans.
I also do not play any dominance games with him, for example, no Tug-of-War. The few times that I did play Tug with Shiba Sephy, he followed very strict rules during the game. However, when I took him out for walks, he would start playing tug with the leash (leash biting).
4. Socialize Our Shiba Inu
Shiba Inus can get aggressive to unfamiliar things including objects, dogs, people, and environments.
They are also naturally stubborn, and may become aggressive when forced to do things that they do not like.
Socialize our young Shiba to many sights, sounds, and smells, and he will be ready to handle new things as a confident, and well-balanced adult. Make sure that new experiences are always positive, and at worst, neutral.
Some things to consider while socializing our Shiba Inu:
1. Shiba Inus have an extreme play style, that many dogs may not like.
When he was young, I used to take Sephy to enclosed dog parks. During this time, his favorite play partners were larger dogs, and young Pit Bulls. Shibas like doing wrestling and rough play, which can easily overwhelm other small dogs.
Choose our Shiba’s play-mates carefully, so that a fun time can be had by all.
2. Shiba Inus dislike handling.
Socialize a Shiba to touching and grooming, as early as possible. Pair the touch and groom sessions with very good treats, so that he will associate handling with positive experiences.
Do not use physical force to do any grooming. This will make it into an unpleasant experience, and our Shiba will fight us every step of the way.
Instead, groom gently, and make it short, fun, and rewarding.
3. Shiba Inus do not generally like people petting them from above.
Petting from above can be seen as a dominance move by dogs, and Shibas may see this as a threat.
We can slowly desensitize our Shiba to this move, by pairing head petting with good food rewards. At the same time, instruct people to approach from under our dog’s head, and scratch his chest.
5. Control Our Own Energy
An important thing to remember while interacting with our Shiba, is to control our own energy.
Shiba Inus are especially sensitive to the energy of their owners, and the people around them.
When I first got puppy Sephy, he was extremely mouthy. In particular, he would resort to biting when I stopped him from doing something unacceptable.
This made me become afraid of him.
The more afraid I became, the worse Sephy behaved. As soon as I got fearful, he would start to hump my leg, grab my clothes, jump on me, or bite my hands, arms, and legs.
Anger and frustration will also elicit extreme Shiba behaviors.
In the early days, I had a dog walker take Sephy out for group walks at the park. When the walker tried to stop Sephy from doing something disruptive, he would object, and try out one of his Shiba moves, including alligator rolls, leash biting, hand biting, and of course the Shiba scream.
The dog walker naturally got embarrassed when Sephy screamed like he was about to die. There were other people around, and some of them thought that she was mistreating the poor dog. Sephy easily sensed her embarrassment and frustration. From then on, the Shiba scream was his favorite weapon to use against her.
With a Shiba Inu, it is important to stay calm at all times.
If we lose our cool, Shiba will sense it and continue to use this weakness against us.
The best way to handle a misbehaving Shiba, is to stay calm, and remove him to a quiet, lower stimulus area, as soon as possible. If he continues with his bad behavior, he gets his freedoms revoked with a time-out. Remember that fear, anger, frustration, and other extreme emotions will only make the problem worse.
Once I was able to control my fear and remain calm, things improved significantly with my Shiba.
Sephy will never be a model-citizen, but nowadays, he is actually very fun to be with. He is goofy, he is funny, and he usually stays out of serious trouble.
Shibas can be a big challenge to live with, but they are well worth the effort. They have a great personality, and they are always up to something that will make us laugh.
I love my Shiba Inu.
He is one of my best buddies, and whenever I see him, I just have to smile.
Sorry this may be a long post, lots of new things for us in the first week.
The dog park (we have been 2-3 times) is good and bad. He is very timid. He does ok with 1-2 dogs, the smelling and stuff but absolutely no interaction (playing, aggression, etc.) As soon as 3 or more dogs approach him he goes into submission and runs for the fence (which I think he could get out of if he tried).
The biggest issue we have is taking him out to potty. We use a 16ft retractable leash (more freedom) but he doesn’t like to go out (we have tried the dreg leash also). The horrible thing is that when he doesn’t want to do something he doesn’t react to treats at all. So I try to bribe him, etc. to go out but I still end up have to practically drag him out of our stairwell (first floor so no stairs) then he sometimes gets better and explores and does his business but sometimes he just locks up and doesn’t want to do anything. He has a harness with the leash attachment between his shoulder blades. This issue is one we need to fix in order to make bothe of our lives better (a dog has got to pee and I prefer not taking 45 minutes to coax him into it).
On a good note he is pretty much crate trained in only a few days, though it still takes a little coaxing. He isn’t protective of his toys or food at all (my 14 month old daughter can take stuff from him w/o issue). He occasionally nips but nothing bad and normally just with new people, this goes away quickly after they introduce themselves.
That is all I can think of right now. Any suggestions for socializing him or potty/leash training him? It seems like he is a little different than some of the traits you explain about Shibas, but I guess they are all their own individuals. Thanks for any help.
Hi Luke,
4 paws up to you for helping a Shiba in need.
How did he do with the walk at the dog park?
I would go slow with him. In the beginning I just focused on gaining my Shiba’s trust and made sure not to expose him to situations that would be overly stressful.
Sounds like you are doing the right things with him. Several things helped me greatly with my Shiba –
1. The NILIF program – This means Shiba has to do something for you first before he gets anything in return including any food, affection, freedom to the backyard, etc.
2. Using a drag-lead in the house (only with a flat collar). This allowed me to more easily control him when he decides to get into mischief.
3. Time-outs – For serious offenses, especially biting on people and any kind of humping he goes to time-out. I put him in a very boring room (laundry room) where he has nothing to do and doesn’t get to be with people. This way he learns that if he bites people, he doesn’t get to be with people.
4. Setting him up for success – This is one of the most important things for Shiba Sephy. In the beginning I would push him too far too quickly, which forced him to frequently resort to aggression. I found that it is best to go slowly with him. I do challenge him – but only in situations that I am confident he can handle and be successful in. In this way, he doesn’t practice aggression, and he gains confidence and trust with each successful task.
Here are some of the things that helped with Sephy in the beginning –
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
Here is one on potty training –
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-potty-training-facts-and-myths
Make sure to always supervise closely when he is interacting with children. Shibas are a primitive bunch and have very strong prey drive. This may sometimes be triggered by fast movement, which is common with children.
A BIG WOOF-WOOF to you for fostering a dog in need. 🙂
My roommate has a 6 month old shiba inu female name Mia. She can be so awesome sometimes but some serious issues have developed with her and we would like any help and advice we can get with her. First she developed a fear of the outside when on a normal morning in the backyard on the leash doing her business a truck was emptying a dumpster and she freaked out started screaming and bee lined for the house and since then we are lucky to get her to do her business outside before she starts freaking out wants only to run inside. Next she is very aggressive with people, our 4 year old Cat is always getting bitten and attacked, and tears everything she can get at apart. Then when right after we got her fixed she started peeing on the carpet. I mean like i said she can be awesome but we would like to be awesome more often. Thanks in advance.
LOL – I love that saying! Would probably apply to almost all Shibas.
Re Fear of garbage trucks –
My Siberian was also very afraid of garbage trucks. What worked for her is to slowly desensitize her to the noise and then ultimately the truck. Every garbage day, I would stay with her and engage her in doing commands with me inside the house.
In this way she learned to ignore the noise and focus on me since she was getting good rewards.
Once she was totally comfortable with that, we started moving closer to the door and did commands there and so on. Very soon, I had her on a leash and left the door open while we did our fun obedience sessions.
Nowadays she pretty much ignores the garbage truck.
Make sure to go very slowly so that Mia never gets too stressed and is unable to focus on you. If she gets stressed and bolts, then you have moved forward too quickly, so move back and repeat the exercise.
To speed up training, you can also tape the sound of a garbage truck and slowly use that to desensitize her. First start with very low volume and then very slowly increase the sound while repeating the exercise above.
Re aggression –
What helped with Shiba Sephy is to provide him with a consistent set of rules and a consistent routine. There is no biting on people and I also do not allow him to bully my other dog (who is a three-legged dog).
He is also not allowed on furniture, no chewing on carpets, etc.
For serious offenses, he gets a warning (No or ack-ack) and if he continues with his behavior, he goes to time-out.
Following the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program also helped a lot with Sephy. This just means that Shiba must do something for you first before she gets anything in return including all food, all toys, affection, freedom to the backyard, etc.
In this way Shiba learns that the best way to get what Shiba wants is to first do what you want 🙂
Here are two articles that may help –
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
Just started foster care for a shiba yesterday. My wife is still a little scared of him after reading all of this stuff on the internet. He was lost in the city is not neutered and is about a year old (vet checked teeth). We have a one year old and he seems to do fine with her. He is still working on house training. He does a few things for treats but ignores us completely when we call him. I almost have to drag him on the leash sometimes to get him to go outside to do his business. We are planning on walking him around the dog park today to see if he is okay with others. Any suggestions or ideas? We live in an apartment and are working hard to make him apart of our family in case this becomes permanent. Thanks.
My Shiba has terrible aggression towards our Pug. She just recently bit our Pug so badit split her ear open. I don’t know what to do I love my dog but she’s very aggressive and has even snapped at me. Please help
Hi Brian,
Shibas are very independent and stubborn dogs, and they need a lot of structure, routine, and discipline.
I think it may be best to look into getting a good Shiba trainer who can help you set up some rules and boundaries for your Shiba, as well as help retrain alternative positive behaviors.
http://shibashake.com/dog/finding-a-dog-trainer
Some things that may help –
1. When he starts barking, non-mark him and give him and alternate command.
2. If he ignores you, then move him away from the other dog. Keep moving until he is more calm. As soon as he is calm, you can stop and let him watch if he wants to. Make sure he doesn’t become too fixated with the other dog, by getting his attention from time to time.
3. If he starts acting wild again, non-mark and repeat.
4. If he escalates his behavior and redirects onto you (e.g. leash biting), non-mark and end the walk by marching him directly home. Do not pass Go and do not collect $200 😉
This way he learns that –
barking at other dogs = don’t get to be around other dogs, and
escalation of bad behavior during walks = walk ends.
Hey i have been trying neutral experiences with my dog Hank, and he seems fine with other dogs. However, when a dog steps somewhere Hank just peed, Hank goes crazy and starts barking at the dog. I’m not sure how to get him to stop this bad behavior. Any suggestions? Thanks
Congratulations Martin! That is indeed a very amazing achievement especially for a Shiba. 🙂
Sephy will work for cheese up to a point. Other dogs and new people are much higher priority for him so he will always choose those over cheese or anything else.
Hi Robert,
I know what you mean. My Shiba used to be very reactive to other dogs as well. He would want to go meet them and sometimes gets into trouble because other dogs may not want him getting into their space or want to deal with his craziness.
What has helped a lot is to just create as many neutral experiences as possible for him so that he learns that –
see another dog = we just pass by calmly and nothing happens.
Here are some of the things I tried with Sephy when we meet other dogs during our walks –
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression
our 4r old shiba has just been awarded the gold citizen from the kennel club uk. Her training was simple….treat her like a dog …we walk her off lead with a instant recall….cheese in the pocket works wonders..she also jumps over obstacles on command. shes is an absolute pleasure to work with and have around