No, he's not really dead. He just picks some of the funniest sleeping poses.
Puppy Social
I took Loki to a Puppy Play social this morning at Send Rover on Over in Ventura, CA. There were about seven dogs there. He was a bit shy with the dogs, but loved meeting all the people. He played most with the dog pictured below.
What a happy dog! Look at that tongue hanging out!
Do you know what the name of the black and white dog is? Oreo! How perfect is that name! So cute.
A day in the life of Loki
What is a day like for Loki? Everyday, he spends a few hours sitting on our balcony as a dutiful watch dog. We just let him out to pee there, but he takes his watch dog job very seriously. He patrols the maintenance men out there every morning, making sure that they are doing their job. He watches all passerbys very intently. He doesn't usually bark at anyone, but he does bark at dogs that are too excited, crows, and Yun.
When both of us are gone, we leave him in his exercise pen. Loki has his own ideas about the flooring of his pen. Obviously, bumpy and rolled up make it much more fun and interesting to chew. What were we thinking, trying to keep it flat?
Next, item of the day, is trying to paw at stuff on the other side of the bars. It doesn't matter what side he is on. If he's inside, he wants to paw at stuff outside the pen. If he's outside, he wants to paw at stuff inside the pen. The fact that the door is open hardly matters!
Lastly, no day is complete without wrestling with the towel by the balcony. I put it there to serve as a door mat when Loki comes in from the balcony area. But for Loki, it serves as a wonderful toy to pounce, attack, and kill.
Ah, the life of a puppy sure is fun.
When both of us are gone, we leave him in his exercise pen. Loki has his own ideas about the flooring of his pen. Obviously, bumpy and rolled up make it much more fun and interesting to chew. What were we thinking, trying to keep it flat?
Next, item of the day, is trying to paw at stuff on the other side of the bars. It doesn't matter what side he is on. If he's inside, he wants to paw at stuff outside the pen. If he's outside, he wants to paw at stuff inside the pen. The fact that the door is open hardly matters!
Lastly, no day is complete without wrestling with the towel by the balcony. I put it there to serve as a door mat when Loki comes in from the balcony area. But for Loki, it serves as a wonderful toy to pounce, attack, and kill.
Ah, the life of a puppy sure is fun.
Marley & Me
Marley & Me is a delightful read. I highly recommend it as a fun, summer book to read while sitting at the beach. Since the author and his wife got Marley when they were newlyweds and before having children, I could relate. I cried in two separate parts of the book, laughed in many more, and secretly thanked the stars that Loki was not so misbehaved. The ending was a little bit too sappy for my tastes, but what can you expect from a book about a dog?While it was enjoyable to read, unfortunately, it solidified my decision against ever getting a Labrador Retriever. I used to want a Lab. They are adorable as puppies and rank number one on the AKC list of most popular breeds. But I'm not sure I could handle a big, playful, energetic dog. Would I even be able to walk such a lumbering animal? I can't imagine the property damage that a big dog would make versus a small one. And I'm quite happy with Loki -- happy with his small size, his independence, and his intelligence. Maybe we will just stick with Shiba Inus in the future.
Socialization & Handling
Any and every puppy book & trainer & breeder will tell you that proper socialization is crucial for raising a puppy. Sounds great in theory and I was very enthusiastic about making sure that Loki received proper socialization during the formative stages of his life. Unfortunately, in reality, this is A LOT of work! Here's a checklist of our progress.
- People
- Since he is not yet fully vaccinated, we walk him at a shopping strip. I figure that the risk of other dogs at such an area is relatively low. Yes, there still is a risk, but the benefit of walking him there is that he meets a lot of people. For the most part, he loves to meet people. He almost always wants to meet women; I speculate that this is because women are usually the ones who dote on him and get all excited about the cute little puppy, whereas men are not so giddy.
- Children
- Children are a bit more difficult. They tend to be clumsier than adults. The young ones stick their hand into his face, practically poking his eyes out. One time, a boy accidentally stepped on his paw. It's difficult to show him that he won't get hurt by children, when oftentimes they themselves are clumsy and not as well-mannered as adults.
- Cars
- From the first day we had him, we've never had problems with car rides. Lucky us! He goes on car rides a few times a week. For awhile, he was going practically every day.
- Bikes & Skateboards
- They certainly grab his attention, but so far, he's not fearful of them nor does he care to chase them either. So far, so good.
- Other Dogs
- At first, he wasn't very friendly with other dogs and growled at them. But now he's become quite friendly with other dogs. I took him to a puppy social, where he successfully held his own against a large five month old Lab mix. At first, Loki was very successful at being the dominant one, but then I guess the Lab learned that size matters.
- Resource Guarding
- So far no real issues with resource guarding, though I've heard that it may develop in later stages of development. We hand feed many of his meals and hope that it helps with resource guarding and also do develop trust.
- Going to the vet
- First time was a breeze. Second time wasn't so bad. Third time he had a delayed freaking out attack. After we exited the vet's office and as I was carrying him to the car, he let out his Shiba scream and peed on himself and me. I hope next time will be better.
- Being picked up
- We picked him up all the time when he was real little. But now, he hates being picked up and tries to run away or bite us. So I need to practice picking him up and giving him a treat.
- Paws & Nail cutting
- Eh, what dog likes to have their nails cut?
- Muzzle & teeth
- Hm... need to do more of this.
- Separation
- Some days are better than others. We try to have peaceful departures and arrivals. Most importantly, we try to ignore him when we return and keep him as calm as possible. As I said, some days are better than others.
- Baths
- We give him a bath roughly once a week. He's surprisingly pretty good about it. We give him a few treats throughout the bath. Sometimes he likes to drink the dirty bath water.
- Hair dryer
- After the bath comes the hair dryer. It terrified him at first, but it seems that he's slowly getting used to it. I put him up on the counter, so that he cannot run away. And we also give him a few treats throughout this stressful ordeal. So far, so good.
- Vacuum Cleaner
- He's more or less terrified of the monster. Last time, I turned it off and left a trail of kibble from him to the cleaner in hopes that would help his fear. Who knows if that'll work?
- Floor surfaces
- Mostly okay, but he's a little bit scared of the kitchen area.
- Brushing
- For the most part, he hates being brushed. We still try to do it anyways, but probably not often enough.
Life Lessons from a Puppy: Fear
What do you fear? spiders? flying? making mistakes? looking stupid in front of others? social rejection? or perhaps the unknown?
For a puppy, everything is unknown. There is much to potentially fear about the world around you. So you approach new things with caution and sniff a lot. When we first took Loki for a walk around the parking lot, we walked at a normal pace and the puppy kept up with our speed. Then all of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks. Why? It took us humans a few minutes to figure out -- it was the speed bump! He was afraid of the speed bump. Why is there a yellow bump protruding from the pavement? How strange! At first, I let him go around it. Okay, that's fine. We avoid what we fear. If we avoid the speed bump, it can't hurt us. For the next few speed bumps, we did try to get him to walk over it, but upon his resistance, we succumbed and let him walk around it. Finally, at the last speed bump of our walk, we paused and let him approach it with caution and let him sniff it as much as he wanted. It took some patience to just let him explore on his own, but he eventually learned that the speed bump won't hurt him. Now, he never gives a second thought as to why there are random yellow bumps in the road. He can walk or run on them without even the slightest pause.
But he might never have learned that lesson if he continued to avoid the speed bump. In my own life, I've become an expert in avoiding what I fear. Fear of social rejection? Okay, I won't socialize much. Fear of making mistakes? If I don't start the problem or task, I can't make a mistake! The only problem with avoidance is that I never even give myself the opportunity to learn that socializing doesn't always result in rejection and to learn from the mistakes you made.
Even with the puppy, I caught myself avoiding what I feared. All puppies nip and bite. Unfortunately, it really hurts! They have some sharp teeth! So fearing the puppy bites, I ended up avoiding playing with him at all! How terrible is that? An owner who is afraid to play with her cute little puppy. But if I avoid playing with the puppy, of course, I won't get nipped, but I also miss out on playing with the cute little critter, and the puppy misses out on the opportunity to learn bite inhibition.
So the life lesson for me to avoid less of what I fear, have the patience to approach it with caution, and learn that the speed bump won't hurt me.
For a puppy, everything is unknown. There is much to potentially fear about the world around you. So you approach new things with caution and sniff a lot. When we first took Loki for a walk around the parking lot, we walked at a normal pace and the puppy kept up with our speed. Then all of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks. Why? It took us humans a few minutes to figure out -- it was the speed bump! He was afraid of the speed bump. Why is there a yellow bump protruding from the pavement? How strange! At first, I let him go around it. Okay, that's fine. We avoid what we fear. If we avoid the speed bump, it can't hurt us. For the next few speed bumps, we did try to get him to walk over it, but upon his resistance, we succumbed and let him walk around it. Finally, at the last speed bump of our walk, we paused and let him approach it with caution and let him sniff it as much as he wanted. It took some patience to just let him explore on his own, but he eventually learned that the speed bump won't hurt him. Now, he never gives a second thought as to why there are random yellow bumps in the road. He can walk or run on them without even the slightest pause.
But he might never have learned that lesson if he continued to avoid the speed bump. In my own life, I've become an expert in avoiding what I fear. Fear of social rejection? Okay, I won't socialize much. Fear of making mistakes? If I don't start the problem or task, I can't make a mistake! The only problem with avoidance is that I never even give myself the opportunity to learn that socializing doesn't always result in rejection and to learn from the mistakes you made.
Even with the puppy, I caught myself avoiding what I feared. All puppies nip and bite. Unfortunately, it really hurts! They have some sharp teeth! So fearing the puppy bites, I ended up avoiding playing with him at all! How terrible is that? An owner who is afraid to play with her cute little puppy. But if I avoid playing with the puppy, of course, I won't get nipped, but I also miss out on playing with the cute little critter, and the puppy misses out on the opportunity to learn bite inhibition.
So the life lesson for me to avoid less of what I fear, have the patience to approach it with caution, and learn that the speed bump won't hurt me.
Fur Dent
Because Loki's tail curls up most of the time, it makes a dent against his fur. Isn't it funny?
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