advicve?
hi everybodymy name is ciaran. me and my girlfriend have recently bought a shiba. sky is his name. mad is not the word for him.but sure i think everybody on this site can relate to that. anyway we will be looking to get another dog when sky is about 1 years old. we are wondering what dog to get and if there is any idea of a particular dog that goes well with the shibas temperment.
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another shiba? do we dare.haha. ye we were thinking a different breed but ye of the same size and energy levels
I would recommend an Akita or a Kia - not a Shikoku.
Akita and Shiba seem to do really well together, they don't match each other's in energy but an Akita's cool attitude seems to help calm Shiba down a bit. I have noticed this with our Shiba and Akita and our friend's Shiba, Huku, lives with an Akita and they do great together.
What tends to happen is a Shikoku goes to play with a Shiba, since Shikoku play super rough and *most* Shiba don't really like that, the Shiba gives one of their over-the-top corrections. The correction sets the Shikoku off and in seconds you have a fight.
The big problem is that Shiba are mostly talk, and Shikoku [once set off] are happy to finish the job.
Having said all that, one of Ahi's best buds was a Shiba named Huku... but Huku had grown up playing with an Akita... so Huku played well with Ahi but not really with our Shiba.
I think a Kai would do great with a Shiba... Kai are really gifted at dog-to-dog interaction (at least Kona is anyway).
Good to know about Shiba. I didn't realize that they didn't like physical, fast play (in general of course - always exceptions to the rules).
Edgewood - I have to disagree with Brad, the Shibas I know (the majority) play really, really rough. Just like you said, hip slamming, chest slamming, grabbing tails, biting ankles, etc. Many times at the park when Nemo was still allowed to play with other dogs, a lot of the other dogs got very frustrated by his play style. As soon as he was with a Shiba or Husky or whatever, they were like peas in a pod.
I can't count the number of times I have heard other owners say "I've never heard him make that noise, before, or make that face" when their dog was playing with Nemo.
shibas really do have their own individual set of rules of engagement.
Our Shiba play rough with all the normal ankle biting and hip slamming, jumping off furniture and all that... but Shikoku take it to the next level and past a [our] Shiba's comfort zone.
I have watched Ahi at many Shiba meetups and at dog parks and time and time again she played to rough for the Shiba and the only dogs that would play with her were labs, huskies, malamutes, shepherds and Akita oh and some Chow mixes.
In a lot of ways Loa plays even rougher than Ahi.
I have seen the pics of Nemo, and he does appear to play rough... so maybe our shiba and the Shiba I have come in to contact with at the meetups are not the norm... maybe dirty south shibas aren't so tough?
I mean, I may be way off, but I would assume this type of activity would set your Shibas off, I know it would set-off ours.
The best part of the video is the ehdn when you pan down to Kaia and she is just sitting there like "pet me dad, pweeeeaasse.."
I can see the difference in Ahi's manor of play and for that reason, wouldn't take a Shikoku and expect its playmate to be only a shiba - even if their play style is similar, perhaps the size difference plays a major factor? And perhaps your pack dynamic works because you have your dogs in pairs for the most part to make the play time more size appropriate.. very smart.
I'm sure size plays a big part! Really, that could be the number one issue.
As for our pack, we have tried to match ages and sizes. Our original intent was for Hilo to be Ahi's main playmate, but his health issues cause him to be less comfortable playing rough so that didn't work out... that is why, i think, he and Kaia do well because they both have health issues (Kaia has osteoarthritis) and would prefer not to be to rough.
We added Lao for many reasons, but one of them was to give Ahi a playmate... and we added Kona at the time we added him so that Loa and he could play as well as Ahi. Its worked out nice - hopefully it will stay nice.
A friend's Boston Terrier really doesn't like Kuma's play style, so he has to resort to playing with me or our cats (obviously not rough). It will be better when I get another Shikoku.
I will let you know how we progress.
Shikoku are amazingly smart dogs, like really smart... like the kin of smart that will freak you out.
I don't know what shiba's are suppose to act like. He likes to play with big and small dogs from, Great Danes to chihuahuas.
Those are actually in my neighborhood.
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Luis - That's good! Most Shiba have a "tude"... Good socialization! (by the way, looked at your art - its very cool!)
I want to get another shiba in the next few years right now I have to work on Bubba.