Things to do with a puppy

I had a reader ask me what sorts of things might a shiba puppy enjoy doing. Below I offer my tips, but if you have anything to add, please feel free to comment.

Puppies have lots of energy. They are both curious and hesitant about their world. The best part about getting a puppy is that everything is new to him. If you introduce a ball to your puppy, it's the first time that he's experiencing a ball. Here is Loki being introduced to a ball for the very first time. As you can see, he doesn't quite understand what it is. It was so fascinating to observe his reaction. I also remember when Loki first encountered a speed bump on the pavement. He was rather wary of it, but soon learned that it was nothing to be concerned about. I suggest that you slowly introduce many things to your puppy. Get him or her accustomed to all sorts of things, toys, textures, environments, and types of flooring. Also, get him or her accustomed to all sorts of people, dogs, and other animals.

When Loki was a puppy, we played with him using a bunch of different dog toys. You can try some standard games like fetch, wrestling, and chase. Here are some other ideas based upon what we did with Loki. We used some string to play with him. We gave him a puppy kong (Kong Small Puppy Toy). Sometimes it was filled with dry kibble. Sometimes we used peanut butter. Sometimes we used banana. When he was a little older, we gave him some puzzles to solve to work his mind. For instance, we put kibble in a water bottle and he had to figure out how to get it out. (Later we stopped using a plastic bottle, because he's end up chewing on it. And instead we got a Tug-a-Jug.) And we also had him try to figure out how to retrieve a toy ball on top of his exercise pen. Loki also really enjoyed unstuffing his stuffed toys. I personally don't care for this activity, because it doesn't take long before the toy is completely destroyed. And lastly, of course, all puppies love doing the Shiba 500, which is when they run around like crazy. This isn't something that you do. They just do it all on their own, whenever they feel like it.

Puppies (as do all dogs) enjoy being outdoors. Take her on walks after she has received the necessary vaccinations. Let her explore the vast new world. Take her on hikes, to the beach, to the mountains, to park, to the lake, or to the busy city streets.

Life is about experiencing all that the world to offer. So be sure to offer those opportunities to your puppy.

Changes through the year

In the past year, Loki has gone through a number of changes - changes in his appearance, changes in his personality, changes in his tastes, and changes in his behavior.

Besides the obvious changing of size, a couple things were unexpected for us as first time puppy owners. Loki's fur went through many changes. When he was about 4 months old, he started to lose his puppy fur. I thought he had some skin disease! I even thought about bringing him to the vet. His fur looked absolutely terrible. I think puppy fur is all undercoat hair. When his adult hair came in, he started to look better. I was surprised by how "waterproof" his adult outer coat was. Drops of water would just roll off his back.

Also his butt hair has gone through various changes. Through most of the first year, his butt hair was long and looked funny. Yun always thought we should go get that part of him groomed. In the past couple months, Loki's butt hair now looks so much better. Who knew? He must have shed off those long weird looking tufts of fur. Now he has a cute butt =)

Then through maybe 6 months to a year, his body and head were a bit awkward and out of proportion, just like human teenagers. I think that even now, his body shape is still changing a bit. I hope he fills out a little more.

Loki's personality seemed to change daily. Actually, his personality is still changing. Some days he is good. Some days he is bad. Most days he is independent, non-cuddly, and standoff-ish. While most dog owners think that is weird for a dog, we love the fact that Loki is independent.

More recently, he's really loving belly rubs. He wasn't like that as a puppy at all. As a puppy, he didn't really like to be on his back. But these days, he can't seem to get enough of belly rubs. He twitches his hind legs in such a cute way! He now happily gets multiple belly rubs each day. What a lucky dog! We can't refuse, because he's so cute.

As a puppy he only occasionally did the Shiba 500. Maybe only a few times a month. But recently, he's taken to doing it almost daily, right after his walk. You'd think that he'd be tired right after his hour long walk, but as soon as I get his leash off, he starts his Shiba 500 around the apartment.

I remember when he was around 3 -6 months old, he didn't care too much about birds & chasing other creatures. I thought that was weird, because I always read that Shibas has a high prey drive. Apparently, I just had to wait until he grew up. Now he'll chase at nearly everything - birds, cats, leaves, cars, and other dogs.

His tastes have also changed through the year. We bought Bil-Jac Liver Treats for him when he was only 3 months old. He completely ignored it and didn't care for it at all. I figured that I shouldn't bother buying those anymore. But then a few months later, we were given those same treats during his obedience class. And he absolutely loved them!

I wonder what changes are in store for us in the next year.

First Hike

Loki got to go on his very first hike today! We went to Wildwood Park in Thousand Oaks, CA. We let him off-leash, and he had a blast running around. He always stayed relatively close to us along the hike.







He got super duper dirty running around this area called Paradise Falls. He loved it so much!

Loki the Reindeer

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.
But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?

Harness Training

In less than a week, I've been successful in training Loki to accept the harness. He used to be aggressive when we tried to put the harness on, so this is how I trained him out of it.

I hand fed all of his meals and each meal was a training session. I progressed gradually with baby steps. (By the way, this is a step-in type of harness.)

Step #1: I put kibble around harness on the floor and let him eat without me around (But be careful that the dog doesn't chew on the harness.)

Step #2: Just like Step #1, but with me sitting next to the harness.

Step #3: I ask for his paw with the harness laying harmlessly on the ground. Treat for offering paw without retracting it right away.

Step #4; I pick up the harness and put it through my arm, then ask for his paw. Treat for offering paw and shaking 5 times. No retracting allowed.

Step #5: I pick up the harness and put it through my arm, then ask for his paw. Treat for offering paw and shaking in such a way so that the harness hangs off of his leg rather than my arm. No retracting allowed.

Step #6: I pick up the harness and put it through my arm, then ask for his paw. Then I use my other hand to lift up one side of the harness as if I were going to put it on. But I don't actually put it on.

Step #7: Just like Step #6, except I do both sides. So I do lift up both sides of the harness as if I were going to put it on. But I don't actually put it on.

Step #8: I put the harness on completely. I leave it on for 2 seconds and then remove it.

He still hates it, but at least now he is no longer aggressive. Without the aggression issue, we can then move on to making positive associations with the harness on. In particular, the harness means we are going for a car ride, which often means we are going to the dog park.

Harness

I ordered a harness for Loki primarily as a doggy seat belt for car rides. Unfortunately, he hates it with a passion! He can be aggressive when we try to put it on. Then, when he finally does have it on, he is depressed. He lies down and refuses to move. If he does move, its with his tail between his legs. We kept the harness on for awhile, hoping that he would just get used to it.

I hand fed Loki his breakfast this morning, because he was too depressed to eat. Funny enough, I took advantage of the situation and started teaching him a new trick - crawl. It was the perfect new trick for him, because he wanted to lie down & not get up at all (even sit was near impossible). I'm not sure that he "gets" the new trick yet. But I was able to get him to crawl without a food lure & only use my hand gesture as a cue.

After breakfast I took him for a quick walk with the new harness. Lastly, we went for a photo-op in the car. Doesn't he look good in blue?


I bought the harness & car restraint from Champion Canine Designs. The product is very well made and of good quality materials. I would recommend it based on the product itself. However, I found the customer service to be severely lacking. It took me a few weeks between the time I ordered it to the time I actually received the product. I emailed them with no response & I called only to be told that the voice mail box was full. Nevertheless, even though I never heard back from them, I did finally receive the product.

Loki'sThanksgiving

Yummy yummy! A treat like this only comes once a year.



We only gave it to him for 5 minutes, but what a wonderful 5 minutes they were. (We didn't want him to really start gnawing on the bones.)

Holiday Shopping

We all went Christmas shopping at a dog-friendly mall in LA, Westfield's Century City Mall. It is an outdoor mall and many of the stores there welcome dogs. We saw lots of other people with their dogs - so cute! One jewelry store (Iridesse) even held an event trying to help rescue dogs. They had a few dogs in their store wearing "Adopt me" signs, and the store was also donating some amount of money to the rescue organization for every customer purchase.

It took awhile for Loki to get used to the crowds of people. It was a bit of sensory overload for him.


Of course our gorgeous & cute puppy got lots of attention! One lady even approached us to ask for stud service! Our little guy is neutered, but he still looks like a stud muffin.

Then for a few minutes, I went into Victoria's Secret while Yun took Loki to browse in Tiffany's.


And you wouldn't believe what happened next. While Yun was talking to a saleslady, Loki decided that right smack in the middle of Tiffany's was the perfect place to poop. Of all places, he chose Tiffany's!!!


Despite not being able to discern what is an acceptable pooping spot, he was able to figure out that shrubbery was the correct place for peeing. He was great the first two times peeing, then the last time, he peed on the Christmas tree. It's hard being a pup. All other trees are acceptable for peeing, why not this one as well?




Lastly, Loki even got to taste some Pinkberry! Pinkberry was (and still is) very popular dessert in LA. They just opened up a store in the Century City Mall, so we went to check it out and see what all the fuss was about. The frozen yogurt part of it got Loki's seal of approval, but not the raspberry topping. (Okay, I know, technically, it's not frozen yogurt, but that's what it looks & tastes like, so that's what I'm going to call it.)

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our place this year. It was Yun's first time making Thanksgiving dinner & it was scrumptious! Loki got to eat various scraps of turkey including the yummy organs. Yummy!

To better accomodate our guests, his exercise pen was cut in half for the evening.

Belly rubs from Mike!

Turkey Day is coming!

Wow! A big frozen turkey! Yummy!

After Loki licked all over the plastic packaging, he curled up next to the turkey and just watched it. He's been staring at the turkey ever since we brought it home. He's so funny.

The Furminator

After reading about so many rave reviews about the Furminator, I bought one off of eBay. (That's where I found the best prices. It's not a cheap item.)

So I tried it out tonight. Loki's no longer blowing his coat, so there wasn't much anyways. But I still got much more undercoat fur with this than with his other brush. Yay!

One day I'll have his fur spun into yarn. It's really expensive, but one day, I'll have it done. Here's one site that does this.

Watch Dog

Loki makes a pretty good watch dog. He watches very intently. He's especially good at warning us about children.

Look at how seriously he takes his job!

Hey! Wait a minute here! He's sleeping on the job! What? I guess he doesn't make a very good watch dog after all. What a lazy pup!

Loki's growing up!

Look at how much my little baby boy has grown!

Here we are back in mid-April, when he was almost 3 months old. Aww... how I miss that little puppy face.

And here he is at 9.5 months old. Looking all grown up!

You can tell how much bigger he's gotten relative to that electrical outlet on the wall.

What is going on?

I must have jinxed myself for saying that Loki's perfectly potty trained.

We got back from grocery shopping today and then Loki just peed on the carpet right in front of us. I don't understand?!? His last accident was back in June!

He was let outside less than 3 hours ago and he normally can hold it for up to 8 hrs.

I don't get it. I feel like I have an entirely different dog!

The worst kind of destruction

So far, I've always said that Loki's not really destructive. He's never chewed up any of our shoes. All of our furniture is intact. He's only ever destroyed paper. Luckily, they were of no importance anyways. And he's chewed on our remote controls, which still work just fine. Thus, in light of the fact the he's been perfectly potty trained since the end of June and that he's not very destructive, we don't usually crate him at night.

This morning, I found the worst kind of destruction.

Very luckily for us, these cords were connected to the light switch, which was turned off. We're so very glad and lucky that Loki is perfectly fine. Unfortunately, he really does not understand that he did anything wrong. Don't you ever wish you could just talk to your dog?

Here's our hypothesis of why. Because we wanted to sleep in on Sunday, we prepared his breakfast the night before and put it in his exercise pen, where he always takes his meals. This way, all we had to do was open the bedroom door in the morning, he could go eat his breakfast, and we could go back to sleep.

Last night, we put him to bed with us in the bedroom as usual. But the problem was the he knew that there was food in his ex-pen. He whined the entire night and pawed at the door. I got up at 5am, thinking that maybe, just maybe, he had to go pee. But no, he bolted right for the food. He knew it was there. I brought him back to the bedroom, but he continued whining and scratching at the door until 7:30am (breakfast time). So our hypothesis is that he chewed up the cords out of frustration.

Having breakfast ready was a terrible idea that we won't ever try again. He's never even showed an inkling of an interest in any cords before, so it had to be this particular situation. I guess, it's back to no more sleeping in on the weekends for me.

Snuggles

Cutie pie all wrapped up.

Stealth puppy... beware.

Clean up!

Loki's very best command is clean up. This command means we have dropped some food on the floor and his job is to clean it up! Sometimes, it's really yummy food like beef. Sometimes, it's not so yummy food like celery.

When we first got Loki, we were very careful about what he ate. Now after some months have passed, we are less worrisome dog parents. As long as the food isn't on the "do not eat" list for dogs, Loki is allowed to eat anything. And anyways, dogs lived off of human leftovers and scraps for thousands of years.

We're thinking about using this clean up command as a more reliable recall for him. As with most Shibas, his response rate for come is pretty bad. In fact, come is starting to mean, ignore the humans.

So far, we only use clean up to mean clean up, not as a recall. But I think we might be able to turn it into a semi-reliable recall. I'll have to start practicing it outdoors where there are more distractions.

Progress Report

Training is a lifelong process. I didn't fully understand what this meant before I got Loki. I always thought I was a patient person, but Loki definitely stretches that patience to its limits... and then some more. Here's an update on his training progress.

1. Little Children. Thumbs up!
   
   Today, we sat by a green patch about 30 ft. away from two small, but rather calm children playing. Their mother was present and I think children tend to be better behaved around their parents. Loki was able to lie down and stay down for awhile. I also was able to pet him lots without him jumping up and being alert. He even stayed down when a kid zoomed by on a scooter!
   
   And a couple days ago, he sat and gave high-fives to a group of kids. He was hyper and his butt never stayed on the ground for long during his sits, but he sort of listened to their commands. The kids like the high-five trick, and so does Loki, since it's a really non-threatening trick.
   
   Progress is good. Still no petting, but we are steadily moving forward. Yay!
   
   
2. Manhole covers. Thumbs down.
   
   Unfortunately, we've regressed. Apparently, you can't just train once and be done with it. He "remembered" his fear. So I guess we have to go through the exercise again.
   
   By the way, I don't want him to step on the covers. He can walk around them. All that I want is for him not to freak out, not to shut down, and to continue moving forward.
   
   
3. Collar. 2 Thumbs up!
   
   No more problems with the collar! What really helps is petting him. It calms him down. The hard part though is that you need two hands to snap on a collar. So I pet as much as I can while draping the collar around the back of his neck. And I snap it together in the front under his chin.
   
   
4. Nails. 2 Thumbs down.
   
   This has gone absolutely no where. As a believer in positive reinforcement, I tried for four months to get him to lie down and voluntarily stay there while I went through a paw/nail handling exercise. I moved in incredibly slow baby steps over months. But always had trouble at the final stage, which is actually just barely touching his nail to the Dremel with it on. After four months of doing a paw/nail handling exercise 5 out of 7 days a week, I'm giving up on the positive reinforcement idea, specifically, giving up entirely on the idea that he will voluntarily stay. Loki will have to be restrained somehow. We're determined to figure out some sort of solution; we're just not sure what.
   
   Many people have suggested that we take him to a groomer, but I don't really see how a groomer could handle him. Loki will scream, thrash, and bite. I don't need to pay someone to have Loki bite him or her.
   
   Loki's breeder can handle it, but she is a good 90 miles away from us.

I've gained a tremendous amount of experience in handling dogs just from raising Loki. No amount of reading, studying, or observation can teach you as much as experience itself. I would even venture to say that Loki has made me stronger as a person. He pushes me to my limits and forces me to be more patient, more understanding, more creative, and more confident.

Paper shredder

Who needs a paper shredder when you have a dog?
Instead of always locking Loki up in the exercise pen when we are gone, I've been slowly moving towards leaving him alone with free reign of the apartment when we are gone. I leave him alone for up to 1.5 hrs. with free reign.

Today, I was only gone for half an hour. When I came home, he brought the shredded advertisement to me. He seemed so proud. It's hard to teach him otherwise, because he's not normally destructive when we are home.

Bandannas

Tonight we put on a couple bandannas on Loki. It's not really a Halloween costume, but maybe we can say that he's a cowboy! Now, I don't usually like to write from a dog's point of view. But with these pictures, I couldn't resist! So here are the captions in Loki's words.

Grr!!! What IS this? Get it off! Get it off!

Help me!

Maybe if I close my eyes, it'll go away.

Ooh, did you say cheese?

Okay, I won't tug at the stupid bandanna if you give me cheese.

I'll even smile pretty for the camera.

High-five! Yay!
Okay, now give me my cheese!

P.S. What color do you think is better? Blue or red?