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.
Hi I am getting a 17 week old Shiba Inu in 2 days time and have been reading up on your articles and they have been very helpful! I was just wondering when you say you put them in time out where was this? I don’t to use her crate as I want her to see this as her safe place.
Many thanks
Congratulations on your upcoming Shiba Inu puppy! 😀
Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
I currently use the laundry room as their timeout area. More on what I do for timeouts.
I have a 4.5 month old Sheba puppy in New York City. He was remarkably quick at learning how to use his wee wee pads in the apartment. Now that he has all of his shots I have been taking him outside for, what I can only loosely call, “walks”. He is completely overwhelmed by the city noises and sounds. Just getting him to make his way to the street corner takes 10 minutes of coaxing and eventually dragging him to me when he won’t come.
Any tips on getting a dog who doesn’t enjoy being outside to walk? Eventually he needs to use the bathroom outside as well, but that step seems miles away if I can’t get him to start walking like he should.
I did noise desensitization exercises with my Huskies and that helped.
I try to set my dog up for success by starting small, and slowly building up her tolerance. For example, I may start with shorter but more frequent outings, closer to the house, where my Husky feels safe. The more positive, successful outings we have, the more confidence my dog builds. Similarly, negative outings where my Husky goes into panic/high stress mode will undermine that confidence.
Therefore, I go at a pace that she is comfortable with, and only *very slowly* increase the environmental challenge.
I have a great Shiba Inu
I have 1 year and 4 months old shiba inu,shes beautifull but at times very hard dog to train.My brother brought her one day home,and we were all excited,although its our first dog we thought it wouldnt be a problem.He spent a lot of time with her,and mostly she was on a leash.When she was younger she ran from time to time not wanting to come.Meanwhile,brother went to work on a ship and left dog with me.She was suffering a couple of days but i think she got over it now.My problem is that im not a dominating person I lack self esteme,and thats the reason,i think,why she soemtimes dont even listen to me when i say to her come even though i practiced a lot with treats.Today for example i let her off the leash,and she was fine for a 10-15 minutes but then she saw some retriver that she “attacked” before(chased her with biting on her legs and it wasnt usuall game like with other dogs cause retriver was submisive and she screamed a lot).as soon as i saw retriver i stood up and said to my dog Come,Stand still and other commands but she despite that was going for it.Lea,my dogs name,looked like she didnt care about what was i saying and went to retriver whose owner was affraid of what Lea could do.Nothing happened with those 2 cause i was near them,i was following her talking Come and other commands.She backed a bit when i approuched but when i said stop,she was trying to run away from me and presenting it like its a game.When she stoped running i caught her and i did some beatings on her(2 times on her rear side,it wasnt much but she was submisive after that)I am calm person,and usually when something like this happens i can persuade her to come and not run away with calm tone,but today I lost control and i feel sorry for that now.I dont want to ever again come in this situation,so if you have some answers what can i do to make her listen to me i would be very pleased.
Shibas are generally known for their independence and stubbornness. Sephy also likes chasing things, especially moving things. In fact, a dog’s visual system is very attuned to motion.
Therefore, doing recall in a low stimulus environment (e.g. backyard) is very different from doing recall in an environment with distractions and lots of moving things. Here is an ASPCA article on the many techniques used to train a dog to come when called.
I usually start recall training in a very low stimulus environment, and *very slowly* build-up from there. As I increase the environmental challenge, I make sure to have Sephy on a long-line (or some other management tool), so that I always have control of the situation and can keep him safe.
For playing with other dogs, Sephy does best in small, very structured play-groups. Most of the time, we do one-on-one play sessions where I set-up clear play-rules, I supervise, and I throw in many play-breaks to manage his excitement level. I also make sure to pick his play-mates carefully, so that everyone can enjoy themselves and have a fun session.
Because of his independent spirit and natural stubbornness, Sephy is definitely *not* a yes-sir, no-sir type of dog. His recall can only be trusted to a limited extent, so I always keep him on-leash in non-enclosed spaces. At other times, I manage his environment carefully, so that I set him up for success.
I did a lot of reading on this site,and its all very helpfull.
Hi thanks for all the great advice. My girlfriend and I recently adopted a shiba who is now 3 months old. He’s a great pup but definitely exhibits every single undesirable action you described with Sephy. His potty training is going well, he’s learned simple ‘sit’, ‘down’, and ‘come’ commands, but my problem is I he doesn’t respond to ‘no’, or at least I haven’t found an effective way to deter unwanted behavior. The breeder suggested a slap on the snout with a firm ‘no’, but that only seems to encourage him. So when he bites everything (furniture, walls, me, everything) or humps uncontrollably, I can’t extinguish the behavior. Someone else suggested the old school spray bottle technique, but I have a feeling that will turn out like the slap on the snout. Any suggestions?
Timeouts worked well for Sephy. I only use it for more serious offenses, such as frustration biting and humping. More on how I did timeouts with Sephy.
I also set up consistent rules and a fixed routine, which helped to keep Sephy more calm and less reactive. Here is more on what I did to discourage biting.
During the training period, I put a drag-lead on Sephy. I only do it when I am around to fully supervise him and I only use a properly fitted flat collar (*not* and aversive collar). Having a lead on him allowed me to more easily control him, and to effectively remove him to timeout without a fuss.
Hello. I’m gonna warn you now that I may ramble a bit. In advance, I apologize for that.
So here we go..
Roughly two weeks ago, my fiance and I got a Shiba Inu named Fred. Love him to death, but he is quite the handful.
Now, training him to go to the bathroom outside is going well.
Socializing him with other animals is going great too. His buddies include his parents dogs, a Jack Russel Terrier and a Chihuahua (she’s not fond of him, but he likes her), and my parents dogs 2 Golden Retrievers. He has also played with my parents’ neighbors’ Blue-Nosed Pit. So as for “Socializing” he’s doing great.
Here’s where my nightmare comes in.. his attitude..
Now as I stated earlier, I love this dog to death..but to me, it seems like he hates my guts. I guess it has to do with the dominance thing…but just last night, he lunged across the bed, grabbed a big wad of my hair, and started pulling my down.. (he’s pretty strong for a 9lb, 3 month old.) When my fiance went to reprimand him, he decided to let go of my hair, only to go after his face. That little episode got him put in time out.
Now, I do have to take him and get him up to date on his shots.. He still has another “Distemper” shot coming his way. Will he calm down a little bit after this shot? Or is this just wishful thinking on my part? Anyways, I’m trying to remain as patient and calm as I can…but damn! those razor sharp puppy teeth are KILLER.. and that grip too. He’s already began showing his dominance with our niece.. When he knows that she’s afraid, he’ll grab hold of her pants with his teeth and start humping her leg, and he won’t let go. My mother-in-law has resorted to spraying him with a water bottle to try and stop him..
Any tips on what I should do with my little monster?
I’ve read, and taken notes, on everything written above, and will be using these tips to try and shape him into a model citizen. I just need a little more help. Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I hope to hear back from you.
Hello Rachyl,
As far as I know, a distemper shot is given to help prevent a puppy from contracting canine distemper. Sadly, it didn’t do anything to help with my Shiba’s behavior.
Here are a few more articles on my early experiences with Sephy-
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
http://shibashake.com/dog/my-shiba-inu-story
I set up a fixed routine and a fixed set of rules for all of my dogs. Structure, rules, and boundaries are especially important for my Shiba Inu, and I also follow the Nothing in Life is Free program. I make sure to be very consistent with enforcing all my rules as well as with the consequences.
Being calm and decisive is very important with Sephy. This lets him know what behaviors are acceptable and what are not. During our difficult period, I made sure to always have a plan A, plan B, and plan C in my pocket for each of his bad behaviors. In this way, when he brings out one of his Shiba moves, I just follow the plan, which helps me to stay in control and to reduce stress.
Big hugs to Fred and Happy Holidays!
Thank you! We are introducing another dog into our house and our once model citizen Shiba, yes, he really was, is presenting us with issues we haven’t had to overcome before with another dog. He has come so far in his acceptance of the new situation yet he still has a long way to go at times. The Shiba scream had me burst out laughing! The first bath we gave him we were sure the neighbors thought we were killing him. Now we just refer to him as the Drama King. 🙂 Keep up the great posts!
Hi,
I was wondering what other dog breeds would you recommend as a companion to a shiba. Me and my wife are planning on getting another dog to join our family and we would like someone that’ll get along with our shiba 🙂
Hello Collin,
That would depend a lot on the temperament of your Shiba, and what he enjoys doing.
Sephy (my Shiba) loved playing with other dogs when he was young. He still loves to wrestle, chase, and play pretty rough. As a result, he does not really do well with other small dogs or dogs that are his size. He gets along best with friendly dogs who love to play, who are relaxed, and who are bigger than him.
Both my Siberians love to wrestle, they are bigger than him so he can’t easily overwhelm them during play, and they are more happy-go-lucky. Sephy is a stress cadet, so it is really good to have more relaxed dogs as his companions. Otherwise, they would just stress each other out. Instead, Sephy has become more relaxed since the Huskies joined our family, so they have been a great influence on him.
Here are some things that I looked at when I was searching for a second dog.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes. 😀
Hi, thanks for sharing your experience with Shiba’s, I’m really set on getting one now! Do you know of any breeders in southern california that you can direct me to? Thanks!
I would check out the National Shiba Club of America breeder list.
http://shibas.org/breeders.html#Anchor-CALIFORNI-208
More on what I did while looking for a puppy.
More on what to look out for while choosing a breeder.
Post us some picture links when you get your Shiba puppy. 😀