Moving Across Country (Part 4) - It's Packing Day

We are very fortunate to have a company pay for professional packers & movers. I imagine that this must be much more stressful for a dog than if we moved ourselves. This morning, Loki's exercise pen got reduced to half it's normal size & he was locked up. He's still locked in there as I type. Good thing I put him in there before the packers came. He growled at them. I've actually never heard him growl before.



He settled down soon enough. I just told everyone to ignore him. Still, I'm sure that he's feeling stressed out with all the chaos around him.


It's super difficult to implement Cesar Millan's suggestion of taking him for a loooooooong walk. Unfortunately, I have a zillion other things to take care of and exercising Loki gets pushed down the priority list.

Dogs are Expensive!

I've been extremely busy trying to find an apartment in Northern Virginia from California, and I'm astonished at how expensive Loki is! Every apartment complex I've called charges a pet fee of $300 - 400. It's not an extra deposit that you can get back if you leave the apartment in good condition. (I can understand an additional deposit. This is what we have now at our current apartment.) It's a non-refundable fee just for having a pet. Three to four hundred dollars! It's price discrimination that landlords can get away with; no one is going to legislate otherwise.

I say, Grrrrrrrr, to the landlords.

More Socializing

Loki is not too bad with strangers. He's friendlier towards women than men. But given enough time, he warms up to most people. But, he's still kind of shy, and, we can do better.

Now, how am I supposed to socialize him, when I was not properly socialized as a puppy? I find it rather awkward to solicit strangers to meet my dog. People are usually in a rush to be somewhere else. Also, some people don't like dogs or are afraid of them. And while Loki's stunning good looks does attract a lot of attention, somehow, it's not enough or not effective.

This morning we went to a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi and put up this sign:


I stayed there for about half an hour.

Loki successfully met two men this morning this way. He wasn't shy at all! Yay!

I'm not sure if we should find a higher traffic area. I don't want to overwhelm Loki, but I was hoping to get more than just two people. Still this place is nice, because they offer free Wi-Fi and an enclosed outdoor area, so that there is no glare from your laptop.

Where's Loki?

Can you spot Loki?

There he is!

Big Brother (... er I mean Shiba) is watching you!

Response to "Does he bite?" Comments

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions.

I'm sure that there are plenty of shibas that do not display such behavior at all. If you have such a well-tempered dog, just be glad and don't press your luck.

The Dog Whisperer episode that some of you were referring to was "Marley and Piper" in Season 4. I actually haven't watched the whole episode yet, but I saw a clip of it on You Tube. I hope to catch the entire episode during re-runs.

As for the comment about not taking bites personally, I know this rationally. However, not taking it personally is difficult for me, as I bet it's difficult for most dog owners. I try my best, but I don't always succeed. The ironic thing is that the more frequently he bites me, the better I get at not taking it personally. I bet I'd be pretty good at not taking it personally if I've been bitten as many times as Cesar Millan has.

As for the comment about picking my battles, I'm now trying that. I'm not entirely convinced that it's the best course of action. The way I see it, a dog owner should have full control of her dog under any and all circumstances. Whether it be removing a chicken bone from his mouth, tending to dangling poop, or cutting nails. But in light of the fact that I know I will get bitten, maybe it's not worth it to insist so heavily on a "perfect" dog, or at least not a perfect dog immediately. Today, Loki found a small piece of hamburger on the ground. I let him have it. It wasn't going to hurt him like a chicken bone might. So I decided to pick my battles and this wasn't one of them.

Regarding the comments about how Loki is still young and in adolescence, I think you are absolutely right. He has yet to fully trust us, and I'm slowly working on that. His behavior goes in waves: sometimes an angel and sometimes a devil. I think part of me was hoping that because we were on an angel wave for so long that maybe he was done with his adolescence. But that was silly wishful thinking.

Lastly, I did watch a couple YouTube clips of the SATZ method, which I've never heard of before. It seems very similar to clicker training, which Loki and I learned last summer. The one thing she did that I may try more of is talking to Loki. He's much smarter at picking up human vocabulary than I thought. Cesar Millan never uses words or encourages the use of words, because he says they don't understand. But Loki definitely learns certain words (like treat, walk, and sorry) even without us actively teaching him. I'm sure he can pick up more words as long as I use them consistently.

Progress

About a year ago, I posted about how Loki was afraid of various things such as the laundry room, manhole covers, and children. He's been making good progress on all of them.

1. Laundry Room. I tried various methods of getting him in there. I tried clicker training in the beginning & also luring him inside with treats. In the end, I didn't seriously pursue this task too diligently, as there wasn't a read need for him to be in the laundry room. And he was doing just fine walking around other smooth surfaces, such as in PetSmart.
   
   Then one day, I had him with me and I really wanted to check on my laundry and see how much time was left. With my focus entirely on how much time is left on my laundry loads, instead of Loki go in the laundry room, we entered the laundry room successfully. He resisted initially, but definitely not as much as I thought he would. We repeated this exercise with my focus on the laundry itself, and Loki entered with only a small amount of resistance. Now he seems perfectly fine with it. It's so interesting how not thinking about getting him in the laundry room actually got him in there successfully.
   
   
2. Manhole covers. In the past few months, I've taken to the idea of herding. When we approach a manhole cover and Loki resists moving forward, I herd him from behind. This technique works wonders! It's SO much more effective than pulling, coaxing, clicker training, or luring with a treat. It's really quite amazing. It doesn't hurt him, like constantly pulling might, and it works very quickly. After a few repetitions, he no longer stops at the manhole covers.
   
   
3. Children. This one is still a work in progress. Because I take him to the school yard and park often, he's now accustomed to children's noises. He's typically calm around the playground unless the kids run toward him. Once in awhile, we have a good experience with a confident kid. The more confident the child, the more comfortable Loki is. The first thing I tell kids is to not pet Loki and to let him smell them. Then I give them treats to give him. If we encounter a nervous or apprehensive child, then Loki starts barking and I have to turn the child away.
   
   Today was a good day. We met a cheery, confident girl, who let Loki sniff her all over. She listened to all of my instructions and I gave her treats to feed him. I wish we met more kids like her.
   

Moving Across Country (Part 3)

The dog crate arrived this morning! I put his blanket in there and put a handful of his breakfast kibble in the back. He ate the kibble by putting his front paws in, but keeping his back paws out. He hasn't taken too much to the new crate, but I think I won't make a big fuss about it. I'll try feeding him in there and dropping treats randomly in the back of the crate. I hope two and a half weeks will be enough to get him used to it.

As mentioned before, to get Dog.com's not-really-free-shipping "free shipping" deal, I also bought a $1.19 dog toy. I gave it to Loki, but he didn't really play with it. Instead, he's simply taken possession of it. There's no doubt that he understands the concept of "mine".