Yup, that’s right, Mr. Athena and I are the proud parents of a 12 week old Shiba Inu pup. No name yet - we’re thinking something vaguely Japanese since it’s a Japanese breed. “Saki” has come up a couple times, but no decision yet.
Pictures will come when I get out and buy some film for the camera. In the meantime, any other Shiba owners out there? I have to admit, we did the whole “Oh look, what a cute puppy.” thing and did a total of about 45 minutes of research before we bought him. He fit the basic standards - smaller dog (25 pounds), doesn’t shed much, doesn’t bark much, playful and somewhat dominant. Whoohooo!
Woooohooo for you, the Mr., and the pup.
I get to be the first for this…puppy kindergarten. Ask your vet if there’s a good one around. And it’s not a small dog, it’s a concentrated dog. Add water and poof an Akita.
Your description of his attributes (doesn’t shed much, doesn’t bark much, playful and somewhat dominant) bwaaaahahaha! First puppy?
shedding- oh, he’s gonna shed all the time, just 6 hairs here and 4 hairs there. Till company’s coming, then it’s like a snowfall.
barking- may not bark now, but wait till he finds his voice. No one’s sneaking up on your house.
playful-duh! He’s a puppy. And if you play with him alot now, he’ll stay “puppy-ish” for a long time.
somewhat dominant-give him time. Shebas are great, they really are, but they think they are 500 lbs. of mean. But in a good way. They stand up for themselves and sure aren’t prissy.
Ahhh, the joys of puppies…the faint urine/milk smell, those dagger-like teeth, pointy little toe nails, house training…I’m getting nostalgic…I want a puppy!
Actually, Rue, both me and Mr. Athena have had puppies in the past. My family also had 3 dogs (not all at once) growing up.
Puppy Kindergarten: Already got this covered. Did this with my last puppy - GREAT stuff.
As far as the shedding, well, all dogs shed. I’m no stranger to that! But from what we’ve read, the grooming and care of a Shiba’s coat is nothing compared to the Chow and Chow mixes Mr. Athena and I have had in the past.
Barking: Again, from what I’ve read, Shibas are relatively quiet dogs. I talked to one Shiba owner who said in the 2.5 years she’s had her dog, she’s NEVER heard him bark. Our first night with him seemed to bear this out - although he whined and “sang” when being left alone to sleep, he didn’t bark even once.
Playful: yup, he’s a puppy. But he’s not a spaz puppy - you know what I mean. He’s relatively mellow.
hehehee… add water and poof Akita…
Connor: Good idea! Hmmm… how 'bout Rodriguez? Tamale? hehehee… Actually, the top pick so far is “Astro”.
Athena,
I was beimg a semi-smart-ass. I’m sure you’ll do great with your puppy.
And do I know about spazzy puppies. I’m a terrier fan. My current terrorist is a Jack Russell. So you can see, my brain is a bit soft.
If it hasn’t been ruined by the Budweiser ads…how about Wassabe? Or Bob?
Just to let you all know, he’s been officially named. Our new boy is named Gromit!
(I realize that probably 3/4 of the dogs in England are named Gromit, but a quick poll of my workmates found exactly one perons who knew what I were talking about, so I figure it won’t be too overused here in the States. Besides, he likes cheese, and he looks like Gromit.)
I know you picked a name but just let throw another one atcha–Sushi.
Congrats on the pup. I love pups. It’s the potty-training, shoe-eating, table-leg gnawing, ankle-humping, sandwich-stealing, bed-hogging, let em out & let em in stuff that gets to me.
Hell, if I’d known you wanted a spastic little creature with way too much brains that thinks it’s 10 feet tall I’d have fed-ex’d our Min-Pin puppy to you, with a few cans of Alpo and 5 bucks thrown in.
I always liked naming dogs as food “potroast, meatloaf, pork chop”, or people names like “Carl, Ethel, Bob”
Anyone want to trade me a puppy and some cash for a bulldog?
Mermaid: We actually thought of Sushi. Mr. Athena vetoed it as “too cutesy.” A day later he came up with “Spanky”, though. “Sushi” is too cute, but “Spanky” isn’t?!? Good thing Mr. Athena has me around to set him straight.
Lil’ Grommy’s at work with me today. He says Hi to all you dopers! He’s a DoperDog!
I don’t know much about Shiba Inu’s except to know that they are adorable! My wife and I just got our new puppy home about four weeks ago and she just started puppygarten this week. Her best friend there? A Shiba Inu! (No joke…the school gives us a daily report on who she’s played with and while there are always several dogs on the list the only two playmates that have so far occurred every day are a Shiba Inu pup and a Golden Retreiver pup.)
I’ve met the Shiba once and she is a doll. Unfortunately our dog won’t be allowed to play with her for very long as our dog outgrows the Shiba (our dog is due to max out around 100+ pounds). The puppygarten tries to keep similarly sized dogs together for play time so eventually our pup will be separated from her friend :(.
Anyway…congrats on the puppy. They’re awesome! A hundful but awesome just the same!
PUPPYGARTEN?!? You have PUPPYGARTEN where you live?!?
We have puppy kindergarten, but it’s only for an hour once a week, and we go with her. Yours sounds like a drop off service. Must find such a thing…
We didn’t know anything about Shibas until we got one, either. I’ve never had a puppy quite like this one. Lil’ Grommy is pretty much housetrained after only 3 days. He doesn’t act like a puppy - he’s very reserved, almost aloof. Guess it’s the breed. Regardless, it’s kind of nice!
I’ve officially joined the ranks of the “30 something people who don’t have kids so act like their pets are children.” In the past week, I’ve bought videos for my cat, and spent a good $100 on toys for the dog. Someone please shoot me!
Congrats to the Athena family & Gromit! I just placed a year-old male Shiba (i do occasional dog rescue.) The two ladies who had him worked too much & were unprepared for the
work & training required for this guy. He was a cool little dog, very smart & headstrong, very sweet!
Stay with the training, its great he can hang at work with you. I got a beautiful Rottie pup a month ago, he’s at my feet right now. I take him to work when I can, which is great because he’s getting socialized & very confident & lots of training too. Now if only Cooper would let me sleep past 3 am without wanting the entire household to get up & play with him… :rolleyes: Puppies are great! I’m taking lots of puppy pictures, they’re only cute for a little while…
I’m incredibly jealous. I like Shibas even if they are dumber than a box of rocks, categorically speaking. Rotties are much cooler.
One of my acquaintances who has a Shiba calls him “Samson.” Apparently he rebelled against the whole Japanese naming thing and, heck, Samson doesn’t seem to mind.
Sorry for the late reply…for some reason I lost track of this thread.
Anyway, our puppygarten is exactly as you envision it and more. Not only do we drop the puppy off for the day she is trained daily by professional dog trainers (1 hour per day). The rest of the time she either eats, sleeps or plays. To really give this all a dose of reality getting our puppy into one was nearly as hard as getting a human child into a well regarded day care center. Waiting lists, bribes, you name it goes on with some people trying to place their puppy. Of course, there are ‘bad’ puppy care centers that have plenty of room available (this in in Chicago BTW).
It may all sound like a bit of overkill but my wife and I are determined to see that this puppy is properly socialized and trained. She will grow to be a 100+ pound shepherd (she’s a Shiloh Shepherd but think German Shepherd and you’ve got 95% of the idea). That’s just too much dog to be a fear biter and/or unruly. Fortunately she is a bright pup and so far seems to have a well adjusted attitude.
You can say that again. We got our pup at 8 weeks of age and 14 pounds. Now at 13 weeks of age she weighs in at over 25 pounds. I can’t believe how fast she is growing! She still looks and acts like a pup but she is already getting difficult to pick up. I’m excited to see the adult she’ll become but her puppyness is fading so rapidly! Kinda sad…
slortar: Shibas are supposed to be dumb? Everything I read says the problem is that they’re too smart, and want their own way on everything. Regardless, the puppy we got seems smart enough - he’s about 80% on the “sit” command after only about 60 minutes of work (spread over several days) and he’s about 85% on the housebreaking thing.
Mr. Athena wanted a Rottie, but I vetoed him. Getting this puppy was quite a compromise - #1 on Mr. Athena’s list was a Rottie, #1 on mine was a German Shepherd. Interestingly enough, Mr. Athena hates German Shepherds, and I think Rotties are just about the worst dogs around. So we both vetoed each other’s top choices.
Jeff_42: Wow, I wish there was such a service around here. I looked in the phone book, nothing like this listed. The best I can do is schedule playdates with friend’s dogs.
We, too, are determined to get our puppy socialized and trained. I’ve read enough on Shibas to know that they’re great dogs, but you absolutely can’t just throw 'em in the backyard and expect them to grow up nice. You have to put some work into them. Our little guy is nice now, but the last thing I want is a dog who wants to eat every dog he sees, or bites me, or whatever. We can already see that he has a mind of his own, and he doesn’t do things that seemingly come natural to other dogs (like coming to greet us when we come home from work, etc.)
Right now I’m puppysitting for my mother’s 8 week old Wire Fox Terrier pup, Casey. He’s a great little boy, and you should see him playing with my 100 pound dobe. Today Casey was playing tug with my, using an old sock. Simon (the doberman) came up, took my side of teh sock, and lead him around the livingroom by it. And now he’s got his big butt in the air and his head down, looking like he’s 2 months old.
