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.
Hello Tsuki,
Haruki will probably not like the grinder at first, so it will be important to very slowly desensitize him to it. It may take some time and a lot of patience and mackerel 🙂 but it can definitely be done. Do not get the Pedicure grinder – it has gotten bad reviews from people. I use the Dremel Minimite grinder which works very well.
Sephy also did not have good first experiences with nail clipping. I’m afraid I was the one who clipped into his quick and got it bleeding. It was a very traumatic experience for everyone. But now he is good about the grinding – he even likes it more than teeth brushing because he gets mackerel for the grinding.
As for the Shiba training – I totally know the frustration. I really had a hard time as well finding good trainers who knew Shibas. Ultimately though, I think *we* are the best trainers for our Shibas. We are the only ones who love them enough to put in the time and patience to outlast their stubbornness – lol.
Be careful not to let so-called professional trainers push you into doing something that you are not comfortable with. That happened to me a lot at the beginning and it did not go well for me or my Shiba.
Let me know how the class goes. I would be very interested in hearing about it.
Hello Tsuki & Haruki !
Great to see you and great to hear that Haruki is doing so well 🙂
One thing you can consider is using a nail grinder on his nails. I do this with Sephy and it is great because I can shape his nails and make sure there are no sharp edges.
http://www.squidoo.com/groom-shiba-inu
Make sure you closely supervise Haruki with any young children though. Children – because of their small size can seem more like prey to a dog and as you know Shibas do have a strong prey drive. I would have him on leash at all times, and always under close supervision.
I am not familiar with Brad Pattison’s CET style. I just went to look it up, and he seems to have a strong focus on using aversive style training which in my experience did not work well with Sephy.
When I used collar corrections on Sephy, it ‘worked’ initially, but the cost was Sephy started losing trust in me, and I think it really weakened our bond. Also, Sephy started to get habituated to the collar corrections after some time, and I started having to keep escalating the force of my corrections which I do not think was beneficial to anyone. Personally, I am a big proponent of reward dog training. I think reward training best complements the Shiba Inu temperament and it carries a lot less risk.
http://shibashake.com/dog/my-shiba-inu-story
You may also want to repost this on the nihonken Shiba forum and get more opinions from other Shiba owners.
http://www.nihonken.org/forum/?CategoryID=16
Hope this helps. Let me know what you decide to do. I would be very interested in hearing more.
Hello Eric,
I would really recommend getting a professional trainer to come over and observe his behavior.
The snarling, showing teeth, and humping all together are a bit worrying. It seems to me that he is trying to establish dominance in the household – but I can’t say for sure since I am not there observing any of his behaviors. There could be other factors. I think getting a positive reinforcement trainer who has had experience with Shiba Inus, to visit would be helpful.
Shiba Inus are a naturally dominant breed so the snarling and humping are not out of character. However, it is important for you to communicate to your Shiba that these types of behaviors are not appropriate. With a new Shiba, it is especially important to set up a lot of rules and structure so that he knows what is expected of him.
It is also important to always stay calm, consistent, and firm around a Shiba. My Shiba was extremely sensitive to my energy. These two articles may be helpful –
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
Re Snarling – This one is more difficult – as the snarling could be from a variety of factors. He may just want to space to rest without being disturbed, he may be trying to assert dominance, he may not like being crowded, etc. For now I would always supervise their play sessions together – and don’t let play escalate into aggression. When they can’t be supervised, keep them separate. You could also try letting him play with your others dog on a one-on-one basis and observe his behavior. This really is the area where a trainer would be really helpful – and the sooner the better – because long-term it is difficult to deal with dogs that don’t get along.
Re Humping – yeah that is unacceptable. Whenever he does that – non-mark him (ack, ack) and remove him to time-out. When you let him out of time-out just ignore him for a bit. If he starts again, remove him again for a longer period. Leg humping on people is an absolute no-no.
Btw. congrats on getting a new puppy 🙂 and kudos for getting him from a rescue. Let us know how it goes.
Hello,
Over the fourth of July weekend my three-year old shiba was outside with two friends and their one-year old baby. The baby was placed on a pool deck with food and the dog came up and bit her in the face (she had to get stiches). Needless to say, we were devastated and felt horrible. We keep running over the many things that could have prevented the situation. He is not typically aggressive and from what I have read about shibas, appears pretty normal. However, I am concerned… especially because my husband and I are expected. Have you heard of any similar situations or do you have any advice? We do not want to give him up, but human safety is a priority. Thanks for your time!
Hi Heather,
Congratulations on your soon-to-be new pack member 🙂
Babies and young children are small, and smell different to dogs. They also do not move or sound like adults. As a result, dogs often view them as prey. And as you know, Shibas tend to have a pretty high prey instinct.
It is very possible however to get Shibas used to children and babies. I got my Shiba Inu from a breeder with 7 girls. When I visited her, she had her youngest toddler supervised, but around all her dogs, and she was totally ok.
I don’t have any children so I am out of my depth on this topic. But definitely repost your question on the nihonken Shiba Forum. There are a lot of Shiba Inu veterans there who know a lot about the breed.
http://www.nihonken.org/forum/?CategoryID=16
I think it would also help to get a professional trainer to help you with the desensitization process.
There was also a pretty good It’s Me or the Dog episode on how to desensitize a dog to a new baby.
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/its-me-or-dog/ask-victoria/new-baby.html
Hi, Shebashake
I want to first thank you for all the great info.
We are a proud gaurdian of a 10 weeks old sheba imu name shoei who was a resue
I have a few questions for you if you don’t mind.
We have a 2 dogs a female 8 month old american bulldog and a 3 yrs old english bull dog. They are great dogs with wonderful attitude towards kids and other dogs. when we first took our shiba inu home. he started playing with them and all of a sudden started to snarle and show teeth. To me it look quite aggressive. is that how they play and interact ?
second question is
He seems to hump on everyones leg. We are going to try your time out method to see if it will work. do you have any suggestion?
Thanks Agian
Eric
I sure will get some pics for all. Thanks for the info it is very helpful. We have thought of some names but cant decide until we get him and see what he acts like. I think the two we are tossing around are Kato and Ryu.
This advice is great it will help alot when needed. I am getting a puppy shiba this weekend. He is a sesame colored Shiba and will be about 9 weeks old. My wife and I are ready to get a new friend. We have 2 cats now and are curious how our new friend will get along with them. We had one cat for a while and decided we needed another to keep company. They adjusted fine after a week or so. Will getting this puppy be the same situation or am I in for a whole new ball game? I would appreciate any advice you could give. Thanks alot.
Neil,
lol – what awesome names. I think both would fit a Shiba’s personality. A Shiba can certainly be fierce like a dragon, and has super kung-fu moves. Most of the time we call our Shiba “Prince of Darkness” 🙂
Hi Neil, Congratulations on your upcoming Shiba puppy!
I am a bit out of my depth with this topic because I do not have any cats. However, there is some very useful information on this topic in the nihonken Shiba forum:
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/7120/problem-with-cats/p1#Comment_125511
Nihonken has a very good group of Shiba owners, who are very knowledgeable about the breed. Trial by fire 🙂
This article from the ASPCA also has some good information-
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/introducing-your-dog-to-a-new-cat
Btw. have you chosen a name for your Shiba yet? Get your digital camera ready, take lots of pictures, and post a link here. 🙂
Congratulations on your new Shiba Sheila. It usually takes dogs about 2 weeks to a month to get used to their new surroundings. It may be a bit longer or shorter depending on the individual temperament of the dog.
Some things that may help to boost your Shiba’s confidence:
1. Throw her a treat from a distance when you approach her. Make sure to do this *before* she gets agitated/spooked. This way you associate people approaching her with good things (treat). Once she is comfortable with this, you can slowly decrease the distance at which you throw her the treat. I would also continue with the hand-feeding. It helps establish a good bond, prevents food aggression, and can be used to train for bite-inhibition. Once she gets more comfortable, you can stuff some of the food in toys so she will have fun getting at it.
2. Obedience. Teaching your Shiba some obedience commands and doing short training sessions with her will also boost her confidence, improve bonding, and give you good tools to handle her when she gets older and bolder. Make sure to use positive reinforcement methods only and set her up for success so that training sessions are fun and rewarding.
3. Do not reward her fear. Our natural tendency is to want to cuddle our dog when she is showing fear. If we do this, then we are rewarding their fear, which will make them act even more fearful. It is best to redirect a dog when they are showing fear behaviors – e.g. distract them with a toy so that they are doing something positive instead of being fearful. If you can’t redirect then remove them from the fearful situation or just ignore them. It is also important to not expose them to too many fearful things at once. You want to introduce them to those things slowly and in a controlled manner.
4. Socialization. Socialization is very important for Shibas and will also help to boost your dog’s confidence. Expose your Shiba to new things everyday and pair those experiences with tasty treats. This will teach her that new things are not scary, but will get her yummy rewards. Make sure to start with less scary things – non moving, simple objects. When she gets comfortable with that you can move on to more advanced things like umbrellas, squeaky toys, and finally other dogs, people, and even scary people with umbrellas and hats.
Shibas are a naturally confident breed so she will be a bold Shiba in no time 🙂