Shibas Off-leash

Today Winnie's blog has a nice post about shibas being off-leash. Winnie has been so well trained that she is reliable off-leash, despite being a shiba. Still, Winnie's owner won't let her off-leash on city streets in fear of her getting hit by a car.

Our personal experience with our shibas off-leash have been pretty good. They've been off-leash by accident and didn't go anywhere. But we've also had a scary experience with Juju bolting. (Her tendency to do this has dramatically decreased in the past year.) We only  let them off-leash when we are far away from traffic. They are not the type of dogs to stay at our heels. They stay close, but not that close.

Most sites about shibas will tell you that they are NOT reliable off-leash.

Some people never let their shibas off-leash, except in an enclosed area. Personally, I think that's a little sad. It's so nice to see them run free.

What do you think about off-leash?

Washington Shiba Inu Meetup Group

The Washington Shiba Inu Group has moved from Meetup.com to Facebook. Why? Because Meetup.com charges a fee to the organizers and Facebook is free. Some Meetup groups charge its members a small fee to help cover the cost imposed by Meetup.com, but all the organizers of the shiba meetup have always kept membership free. Dogs should be free to sniff butts! So the Meetup fee becomes pretty burdensome for someone to constantly pay. Hence, the move to Facebook.

I haven't been to a shiba meetup in a long time (since baby arrived), but maybe we'll head out when spring rolls around.

Happy Holidays!

Juju wishes you a Merry Christmas!

And Loki does too!

Both of them together? Well, they didn't feel like posing together. This was the best that we got.

Learning his name

Last night, we were talking to our baby as usual (he can't talk yet), and then all of a sudden it occurred to me that he seemed to respond to his name. I got super excited.

"I think he knows his name! Look he just turned his head to look at us."

So then, Yun says, "Oh! You have to do positive reinforcement!"

"Uh? You mean like when you train the dogs?"

"Yeah!"

So then we proceed to call out our baby's name and then heap on an extra dose of praise when he gave the slightest hint of responding to our calls.

He must be thinking, "What strange parents."

Peeing in the backyard

Like many shibas, Loki is very particular about where he eliminates. We try our hardest to get him to pee in the backyard, because this is the easiest way for us lazy humans to take care of the dogs’ needs. Jujube always goes as soon as she is let out into the backyard. It doesn’t matter if it’s sunny or raining, cold or hot. Jujube is very consistent in eliminating quickly in the backyard. Not Loki. Loki doesn’t like to pee in the backyard. He much prefers to mark the entire neighborhood on walks.

But we’ve noticed an odd seasonal trend. Loki is much more willing to eliminate in the backyard during the winter compared to the summer. Why? We don’t know. Maybe because it’s freezing outside, and he knows that if he goes quickly, he can quickly return to the warm house. Maybe because it’s fun to relax outside during the summer. Maybe because he’s oh-so considerate of us when it’s oh-so cold out. Who knows why? In any case, we’re very glad that we don’t have to gather up our heavy coats, boots, hats, and gloves just so he can pee.

Cheerios

From time to time, I give my baby Cheerios. He's supposed to eat them, but mostly he just plays with them. Inevitably, they end up on the floor for the dogs to gobble up.



Here's Loki, eager for the treats that just fall from the baby's chair. Dogs are great for clean up! I don't have to ever sweep or pick up the floor of food products.

Here's the view from Loki's eyes:

First snow of the season

Here's Jujube posing in our backyard:

And here's Loki... and no, that's not his body all oddly contorted in the background. Juju is behind him.

We only got a few inches, not much. Not like last year, or at least not yet.

Where are my greeters?

The best thing about having a dog is that there is always someone to greet you when you come home from work. I mean, your husband might greet you with a hug and a kiss the first week you're married. After that you're just happy if he says hi within the first fifteen minutes after you've arrived home. And your children might excitedly greet you at the door until they hit adolescence, at which point you become the bane of their existence. But your dogs are always, always, always eager, excited, and greet you when you come home from work.

Unless your dogs are two shibas named Loki and Jujube.

Gee, Loki, can't be bothered to get off the cozy couch to greet me? Nope. Can't be bothered to even lift your head? Nope.

And you, Jujube! You can't be bothered to get off from the cozy queen-sized bed? Nope.

Gee thanks for nothing guys...

I came home tonight wondering what happened to them. Were they inadvertently locked outside in the backyard? Nope. Did they escape and run away? Nope. Were they trapped behind a closed door somewhere? Nope.

They just didn't bother to greet me tonight.

An intruder!

There was an intruder on Loki's territory! How dare we! Loki couldn't believe that we could bring home such an abomination!





We bought the stuffed animal for our son. But Loki was NOT pleased! He barked and barked at the intruder all night long. Grrr!
He only stopped barking after we moved it out of his sight and into the baby's room.
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