"Hanzo" - Our new Kai Ken!!!
Soooo....we decided to name "Scrappy" HANZO!!!
Oh man - today was a pretty long day...and its only 5:30pm!
Well, we woke up and left our house at 9am. We got to the breeders house at 10:30am. She was already waiting out in front with Hanzo. We chit chatted a little bit and were on our way back around 11am. We stopped by a sandwich place to eat. Hanzo tried to bolt out of the car when I opened my door. He just jumped on top of me. I caught him and slowly took him out. He seemed a little stressed being out in public with us. He wasn't so warmed up with us either, very cautious and wouldn't let us touch him. He would flinch when we moved toward him. So we started giving him table scraps and he then let us touch him. He seems to be very food motivated. By the time we were done eating, it was 1:30pm, so we had an hour to kill before going to the vet. We decided to go to a local park and walk Hanzo and get to know him better. After about 10-15 minutes of walking, he started getting playful and wanted my attention now. He no longer flinched when I would pet him, so that was great! It took a bit longer for him to warm up to John, but I just told him to play with him and it was a done deal.
2:30 came around so we headed to the vet for his check up exam. My vet has 2 cats that are in the lobby. I don't think Hanzo has ever seen cats, he seemed very curious of them. Anyways we get put in an exam room to wait for the vet. He was very wary of him but once my vet started throwing the treats, he warmed up to him pretty fast. His heart and lungs sound good. He has dandruff but my vet said that could be because he might have been an outside dog and more exposed to allergens. If the dandruff doesn't go away he said to put him on some salmon oil supplements to help with the dry skin. He weighed in at 45 lbs. The vet said he was at a pretty good weight. The breeder didn't have any of the vaccinnation records, so she said she updated him on all his shots except rabies. So I had my vet give him the 3 year rabies shot, he took it pretty well. So overall, he is in pretty good shape. YAY
We left the vet around 3:20 and rushed back to our house to meet Frank. Frank was at our house already, so I took Hanzo to meet him while John let the other pups out to potty in the front yard. Frank and I walked Hanzo for a bit until John came back out. After talking Frank told John to bring Ninja out. John brought Ninja out on the sidewalk and I walked Hanzo by Ninja several times getting closer and closer. Surprisingly, Ninja only needed 1 correction. We then walked both the dogs together John and I in the middle. Hanzo and Ninja kept trying to look at eachother, but we just kept walking straight. Then we walked with Ninja in between me and John and Hanzo on my left. They did fine. Then we walked with both Ninja and Hanzo in the middle, amazingly - they did fine! Then Frank wanted to let them get to know eachother inside. Frank advised that Hanzo walk into the house first and then Ninja after. So we did. When we got into the living room, they kind of ignored eachother most of the time, on different sides of the room. Portia was going nuts in her pen, so we let her out. Oh man, she was a burst of energy. She just started wiggling her butt like there was no tomorrow and kept bumping and rubbing into Hanzo. After Portia was let out, Frank told us to drop the leads and let them roam amongst themselves. Hanzo started to explore, but Ninja just sat next to me watching. Then Hanzo came up to me and sat down. So Ninja was sitting on my right and Hanzo on my left, not one growl. It was pretty cool! Then they both laid down, which is even better!!! Portia started bumping into Hanzo when he was laying down, so he growled, I corrected him with a "BAH". Got his attention right away and praised him. I then corrected Portia when I would see her get excited and move towards Hanzo. We took the dogs for a walk together after Frank left. The walk went great, Ninja and Hanzo right next to eachother, no problem!
We came inside - again, Hanzo first, then Ninja and Portia. I put Hanzo in his pen so he could finally relax and take a nap - He looked pretty tired. Portia would not leave him alone, she kept play bowing in front of his pen. Ninja went to his pen, I saw his hackles go up and heard a small growl, I corrected him with a "BAH" from across the room and he came running to me for praise. Im pretty impressed with the vocal control we have over Ninja. Portia was just getting annoying trying to play with Hanzo through the pen, so now im in my office with Ninja and Portia and John is upstairs in the living room with Hanzo. John let Hanzo out of the pen and he's currently curled up next to John on the couch sleeping.
So im pleased to say - I think we had a great introduction!
I don't know if any of you other multi-dog households can agree with me on this or not, but Ninja and Portia are playing REALLY ROUGH now. Do you think it has to do with bringing in a new dog?
Anywho - sorry for the crazy long story - Now what you've all been waiting for....SPAM!!!
Hanzo in the car (flash on)
Hanzo in the car
Hanzo at the park
Me and Hanzo
John and Hanzo
Close ups of Hanzo
Whew - Im exhausted...one more walk with the doggies at 630pm, dinner at 715 and sleep ASAP! LOL
Oh man - today was a pretty long day...and its only 5:30pm!
Well, we woke up and left our house at 9am. We got to the breeders house at 10:30am. She was already waiting out in front with Hanzo. We chit chatted a little bit and were on our way back around 11am. We stopped by a sandwich place to eat. Hanzo tried to bolt out of the car when I opened my door. He just jumped on top of me. I caught him and slowly took him out. He seemed a little stressed being out in public with us. He wasn't so warmed up with us either, very cautious and wouldn't let us touch him. He would flinch when we moved toward him. So we started giving him table scraps and he then let us touch him. He seems to be very food motivated. By the time we were done eating, it was 1:30pm, so we had an hour to kill before going to the vet. We decided to go to a local park and walk Hanzo and get to know him better. After about 10-15 minutes of walking, he started getting playful and wanted my attention now. He no longer flinched when I would pet him, so that was great! It took a bit longer for him to warm up to John, but I just told him to play with him and it was a done deal.
2:30 came around so we headed to the vet for his check up exam. My vet has 2 cats that are in the lobby. I don't think Hanzo has ever seen cats, he seemed very curious of them. Anyways we get put in an exam room to wait for the vet. He was very wary of him but once my vet started throwing the treats, he warmed up to him pretty fast. His heart and lungs sound good. He has dandruff but my vet said that could be because he might have been an outside dog and more exposed to allergens. If the dandruff doesn't go away he said to put him on some salmon oil supplements to help with the dry skin. He weighed in at 45 lbs. The vet said he was at a pretty good weight. The breeder didn't have any of the vaccinnation records, so she said she updated him on all his shots except rabies. So I had my vet give him the 3 year rabies shot, he took it pretty well. So overall, he is in pretty good shape. YAY
We left the vet around 3:20 and rushed back to our house to meet Frank. Frank was at our house already, so I took Hanzo to meet him while John let the other pups out to potty in the front yard. Frank and I walked Hanzo for a bit until John came back out. After talking Frank told John to bring Ninja out. John brought Ninja out on the sidewalk and I walked Hanzo by Ninja several times getting closer and closer. Surprisingly, Ninja only needed 1 correction. We then walked both the dogs together John and I in the middle. Hanzo and Ninja kept trying to look at eachother, but we just kept walking straight. Then we walked with Ninja in between me and John and Hanzo on my left. They did fine. Then we walked with both Ninja and Hanzo in the middle, amazingly - they did fine! Then Frank wanted to let them get to know eachother inside. Frank advised that Hanzo walk into the house first and then Ninja after. So we did. When we got into the living room, they kind of ignored eachother most of the time, on different sides of the room. Portia was going nuts in her pen, so we let her out. Oh man, she was a burst of energy. She just started wiggling her butt like there was no tomorrow and kept bumping and rubbing into Hanzo. After Portia was let out, Frank told us to drop the leads and let them roam amongst themselves. Hanzo started to explore, but Ninja just sat next to me watching. Then Hanzo came up to me and sat down. So Ninja was sitting on my right and Hanzo on my left, not one growl. It was pretty cool! Then they both laid down, which is even better!!! Portia started bumping into Hanzo when he was laying down, so he growled, I corrected him with a "BAH". Got his attention right away and praised him. I then corrected Portia when I would see her get excited and move towards Hanzo. We took the dogs for a walk together after Frank left. The walk went great, Ninja and Hanzo right next to eachother, no problem!
We came inside - again, Hanzo first, then Ninja and Portia. I put Hanzo in his pen so he could finally relax and take a nap - He looked pretty tired. Portia would not leave him alone, she kept play bowing in front of his pen. Ninja went to his pen, I saw his hackles go up and heard a small growl, I corrected him with a "BAH" from across the room and he came running to me for praise. Im pretty impressed with the vocal control we have over Ninja. Portia was just getting annoying trying to play with Hanzo through the pen, so now im in my office with Ninja and Portia and John is upstairs in the living room with Hanzo. John let Hanzo out of the pen and he's currently curled up next to John on the couch sleeping.
So im pleased to say - I think we had a great introduction!
I don't know if any of you other multi-dog households can agree with me on this or not, but Ninja and Portia are playing REALLY ROUGH now. Do you think it has to do with bringing in a new dog?
Anywho - sorry for the crazy long story - Now what you've all been waiting for....SPAM!!!
Hanzo in the car (flash on)
Hanzo in the car
Hanzo at the park
Me and Hanzo
John and Hanzo
Close ups of Hanzo
Whew - Im exhausted...one more walk with the doggies at 630pm, dinner at 715 and sleep ASAP! LOL
Comments
PS: Hanzo looks like he's gonna be John's dog
Shibas play rough. I can only assume that kai would as well. You will feel the energy shift when rough play goes too far. I am sure you will be fine.
Congratulations. You officially have a pack!
Food motivation is good... that will make things easy for you.
The dandruff thing is 100% Kai-Ken, they have dandruff... no idea why. After we bathe Kona, 10 minutes later he is like white and black colored... its really odd. Supposedly, as Marian has told me, they grow out of it.
As for the rough play - you have a pack now, things will shift and you will notice lots of changes. Don't be surprised if Ninja stops listening to you a bit, when you add a third dog the others will start adjusting to the pack and trying to "push" their position - with a new dog in the mix they may think they can move up in the pack so they will test you and challenge you. Just stay consistent.
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You have to give them some time to adjust themselves and the dynamics of their relationship.
I love him!
^_^
Not sure what's helping stave off the dandruff, maybe has to do with diet, too?
That sounds like a very successful introduction! I'm glad you had your behaviorist there for added support! That made a world of difference for us as well!
And don't get discouraged when the pack dynamics start to blossom and shift - it happens! I, too, am working on staying consistent with mine!
Congrats on a beautiful pack!
Well, NO ONE ate their dinner last night...UGH! What a waste! - I mixed it all with HK so, after a couple hours - I just threw it away because it goes bad after I think 4 hours. I put a crate in our bedroom so he can sleep with "the pack". Im happy to say HE'S NOT A WHINER! Thank God!!! LOL, (remember Brad's thread "Kona's relentless bitching") I put him in his crate around 10pm. Portia came up at 11pm and then all of a sudden I hear 2 loud barks and snarling so I say "NO!" really loud and stare down Hanzo. It took about 2 minutes for him to look away. And then he went back to sleep. I guess Portia went up to his crate to sniff him and might have woken him up and spooked him? Ninja came up and growled when he went up to the crate so I corrected him and he went under the bed. Then he started growling under the bed (John could feel it) so he corrected him again.
I think the night went good, I was exhausted and passed out. I wasn't woken up by anything though, so im assumming everyone had a nice sleep. This morning John had put Hanzo in his pen in the dining room and left portia and Ninja with me in the bedroom. He put food and water in his pen also. He ate about half of his food this morning when I had came down. I took him for a walk by himself. OH MAN - HE is such a door bolter. And he is REALLY strong. He pulls on the leash for a little bit, but i've started attentive training with him and he's learning pretty fast. I brought him back and put him in my office down stairs and took the other 2 out for their walk. Came back and went into my office where Hanzo is. Ninja did some massive growling, I had to correct him like 5 times in a row. Hanzo is with me in the office now laying down and Portia and Ninja are on the other side of the gate laying down. Portia is whining ALOT and keeps trying to get through the gate
Hanzo is marking EVERYWHERE! Even inside the house! And Ninja is trying to mark OVER him. Its a bit annoying. But I guess its pretty inevitable. Everytime I see him about to lift I yell "NOOOO!" and he stops, so hopefully he's learning. We just have to keep a very close eye on him about marking. We think in about a month or two when he's more comfortable, we will go and get him neutered. My vet agreed with this - he said that since Hanzo is already 3 years old, the neutering won't have much of an effect on him (besides the benefits) like for aggression or for the marking. So it won't really make a difference if we get him neutered now or in 2 months.
As for the dandruff - Thanks for the info! He hasn't been scratching, so my vet didn't think it was any kind of disease and he didn't see any irritation on the skin. So he just said to give him a nice bath and if it gets worse, to give him a call. He never heard or seen a Kai before - but he thought Hanzo was a "pretty cool medium sized dog". His software didn't even have it in the system and supposedly it has every breed in there! lol.
I am keeping the leads and collars on for the time being. Just in case - The dogs don't seem to mind it much anyway.
More Spam to come soon! Thanks for the kind words
Sounds like things are going pretty well. Growling is to be expected, it's part of how dogs communicate.
"His software didn't even have it in the system and supposedly it has every breed in there! lol." - how interesting!
Bravo, girl! I love the pack spam - keep it coming!!
I'm glad he is not a whiner, maybe that means Kona will grow out of it [Kona has reduced his bitching a LOT].
I think you will find that Hanzo challenges you more than the others and is less willing to please, but I think you guys have a pretty large arsenal of experience and support, so I wouldn't be concerned if I were you.
As I have said a few times now, he is really handsome!
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Very nice spam!
Adjusting our family to one dog, and adjusting one dog to us has at some times been challenging, so I can't imagine the challenges you are facing with two dogs (who used to be the proud joint owners of your house and family) and now your beautiful new doggie. We have seen it only in small doses. For example, Josephine is lucky to "own" two homes, here and the farm. A couple weeks ago our friends joined us at the farm with their Poochie (springer/brittany spaniel). We've had the dogs together before on lots of walks in "neutral" territory here in the city... not a problem,and they seem to enjoy one another. Surprise, surprise, I learned it was quite a different story for Josephine to have to share her deck, her farmhouse, and even the attention of her humans with Poochie. Lots of growling, barking, snapping, correction, correction, correction, etc. Also, Poochie is a bit older so not so eager to engage in doggie contact sports, so I think that was frustrating Josephine too. At one point, Josephine even wanted to take on Poochie over a willow tree "seed" (long "centipede" looking thing that comes off the tree in the springtime) that Poochie had decided to play with on the deck (as if there weren't dozens, scores, if not hundreds more for her to have all of her own!)! It made us all laugh, even while trying our best to correct the two dogs and get them to enjoy one another!
Reminds me very much of some of the little people "play dates" when my kids were young-uns.. I'd always think it would be so fun to get together with my friends and our kids of the same age would keep each other engaged... Not so much... I found Moms had to referee, especially around the 2-3 year old stage of life... Everyone eventually adjusts, or just grows up and accepts community life! Thank god!
Enjoy your dogs--- I know soon they will be fast friends!
Brandon - Portia & Ninja thank you for the kind words and will do their best to keep being so sweet it makes you sick :P
Jen - my behaviorist only mentioned to walk the dogs together.
Brad - Kona's whining may soon turn to barking! Hanzo is quite the barker when left alone :T
Rui - thanks - Im hoping things will get better soon!
Bev - Thanks for the info - that is pretty interesting and pretty funny!
Well - today was a very emotional day for me. I freaked out. Ninja was at my office gate where Hanzo was. He started growling and charged the gate - I trying to get his attention vocally. The third time I said "BAH" he turned around and snapped at me, he didn't get me of course because I was standing and he kind of just snapped blind. I grabbed him by the collar and then he bit portia on her lip - she cried, but no blood was drawn. I took him to his pen and left him there, I didn't say anything or look at him. Then I came back to my office where Hanzo was and cried. Ninja has never snapped at me before. I was in shock, freaking out, breaking down, whatever you want to call it. I was talking to brad online and he really slapped me back into reality. At that moment I actually felt uncomfortable in my own home and I was scared.
Anyways - After a couple of hours, my brother let ninja out of his pen. He ran downstairs to my office gate and I glared at him. He ran back upstairs. 20 minutes later, he comes back down and lays down next to the gate. Portia starts sniffing the gate and Ninja snaps at her. She runs upstairs and stays upstairs. Ninja ends up falling asleep next to the gate. Around 6, I leave my office and take portia and ninja to the front yard to potty, after they potty i put them in their pen so i can take Hanzo out. Hanzo does his business and then he jumps up on one of my chairs! I was quite surprised by that...then he jumps onto the table! It was pretty funny. Now Hanzo and I are back in the office and I am waiting for John to come home - which shoul be any minute.
Today was a pretty emotional day. Im not giving up though! - As Brad said it " you have 2 options, 1. submit to ninja and his issues or 2. make ninja submit to yours" Thanks Brad - YOU'RE THE BEST! I really appreciate your support during my freak out!
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Interesting to hear of Hanzo jumping up to a high vantage point. That's a Kai behavior. Funny thing -- Josephine loved to do that last summer when she was a pup but won't now... We think she may have taken a fall or something. It's totally fine by me, but my hubbie loved having her on the ledge by the window in our screen porch last summer. She could see us while we ate the kitchen table... eye level with us, but no one able to interfere with each other!
Be strong, Romi... These doggies are worth it! They will be friends shortly-- I'm sure of that! Get some rest...
Hang in there!! I've been there, crying, lost, rethinking every decision..
Its amazing the dynamic that emerges after you go from 2 dogs to 3, so much shifting and reacting.
but you are in the right mind set now - Ninja is your dog - you are his pack leader - make sure he never forgets that!
As Jessica said, you need to get your own act together before you do anything about it. A cool head will be your best ally on these situations.
As far as walks go, they all seem to do fine. Either Romi or I take lead and they seem happy. I believe it will just take some time.
Hang in there baby, I know you can do it !
John
It has been very rough for me. I just don't know how to deal with Ninja, sometimes I just think he's a lost cause. He does so well and then he'll just freak out. On the brighter side of things - Portia and Hanzo are getting along good. She is still trying to play with him a lot and bumping into him, but he hasn't growled at all. He just stands there or sits there and takes her abuse.
This morning John took them all to potty and put Hanzo in his pen. He was barking like crazy, so he brought him back into our room. Im not sure what happened (im sure john will explain) but Ninja started freaking out - I just opened my eyes and saw John carrying him by his lead away from Hanzo. I heard all kinds of nasty noises coming from him. After that, John put Hanzo in his crate and everyone went back to sleep until I woke up.
I took Portia and Ninja out first and then put Ninja in his pen, I then took Hanzo and Portia out and then they came back inside and both drank from the water bowl at the same time.
I guess im just a bit confused - Ninja has his issues and Hanzo has his issues. Hanzo's barking is so loud and annoying, he only does it when he is alone. It's a little irritating and worrying - since I work from home. Its hard to concentrate when you have a constant barking, and nothing shuts him up - except my presence.
My plan is to let Hanzo and Portia get comfortable with eachother first and then work in Ninja. On walks - Ninja and Hanzo do fine, they will walk right next to eachother, no growling or anything. Just once we get in the house - its like Ninja has it out for him.
We'll see how it goes, thank god its the weekend and John will be here with me so we can work with more interaction together as a whole.
Maybe a bit of separation anxiety is common for Kais? Wasn't there something about how Kona got whiny when Jen would leave his view?