The Remster (Dec 3)
Remy's paw is pretty much healed and I'd guess he's at about 95%. For the most part this is good news, but as I suspected, with the soreness going away, the crazy has started to emerge! Everything up until yesterday was all roses, when I got smacked with good does of reality. Things I've learned over the past couple days:
1) He is the pickiest pooper alive and does not consider our front yard to be a bathroom. This is a little frustrating since we have no backyard, so his bathroom break consists of a walk around the block. Seriously, he starts getting anxious when the turtle pokes its head out and he hasn't found the PERFECT spot. He'll actually suck it back in sometimes until he finds the golden spot (which is never the same lawn...ever).
2) He loves the snow...really, I've never seen a dog so enthralled with the snow before. Wednesday night we got about 8 cm and he was in heaven. He walked about 2 or 3 blocks with his head under the snow like a shovel. I even saw the first Shiba 500 (this was how I knew the paw was pretty much healed). He also has this thing where he will run full tilt and then slide head first under the snow...again, this was repeated over and over for a solid 5 min. Quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. I wish I had it on video.
3) I can't let him sniff around on a walk for the first 10 or 15 min. If I do, he thinks he's in charge of the walk and will fuss around, pull, stop and be a pain in the ass. This also worsens 1) and turns a short bathroom break into a LONG walk in search of that golden spot. If I'm firm about him walking right beside me without sniffing around and getting distracted, he's great and doesn't take too long to do his business. He actually walked right at my side with a loose leash for about 20 min this morning.
4) He absolutely looses his mind when we see another dog on a walk. He is so overly excited that he totally shuts me out. This is his biggest issue that I can see and we are starting to work on tomorrow. I haven't had time to look yet, but I'm sure I'll find a good thread about excessive leash excitement on the forum somewhere.
5) I can't take him outside less than an hour before he goes into his crate for the night. I learned this the HARD way last night. He always thinks its play time after a walk and gets pretty hyper. Up until last night, he has whined for about 5 or 10 min when he goes into his crate and then settles down for the night. Last night he freaked out...barked, cried, flailed for about 30 or 40 min. He even tried to dig his way out of his crate and back to his homeland. Apparently he started again for about 20 min at about 1 am (though my loving GF didn't wake me up, bless her heart). This morning, his crate had moved about 6' across the floor and was in the middle of the room!
Ah well, live and learn I guess. I'm already learning patience and I'm sure I'll learn A LOT more as I go. This is no doubt business as usual for all you vets, but as the new guy on the block, it's been and interesting week!!
1) He is the pickiest pooper alive and does not consider our front yard to be a bathroom. This is a little frustrating since we have no backyard, so his bathroom break consists of a walk around the block. Seriously, he starts getting anxious when the turtle pokes its head out and he hasn't found the PERFECT spot. He'll actually suck it back in sometimes until he finds the golden spot (which is never the same lawn...ever).
2) He loves the snow...really, I've never seen a dog so enthralled with the snow before. Wednesday night we got about 8 cm and he was in heaven. He walked about 2 or 3 blocks with his head under the snow like a shovel. I even saw the first Shiba 500 (this was how I knew the paw was pretty much healed). He also has this thing where he will run full tilt and then slide head first under the snow...again, this was repeated over and over for a solid 5 min. Quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. I wish I had it on video.
3) I can't let him sniff around on a walk for the first 10 or 15 min. If I do, he thinks he's in charge of the walk and will fuss around, pull, stop and be a pain in the ass. This also worsens 1) and turns a short bathroom break into a LONG walk in search of that golden spot. If I'm firm about him walking right beside me without sniffing around and getting distracted, he's great and doesn't take too long to do his business. He actually walked right at my side with a loose leash for about 20 min this morning.
4) He absolutely looses his mind when we see another dog on a walk. He is so overly excited that he totally shuts me out. This is his biggest issue that I can see and we are starting to work on tomorrow. I haven't had time to look yet, but I'm sure I'll find a good thread about excessive leash excitement on the forum somewhere.
5) I can't take him outside less than an hour before he goes into his crate for the night. I learned this the HARD way last night. He always thinks its play time after a walk and gets pretty hyper. Up until last night, he has whined for about 5 or 10 min when he goes into his crate and then settles down for the night. Last night he freaked out...barked, cried, flailed for about 30 or 40 min. He even tried to dig his way out of his crate and back to his homeland. Apparently he started again for about 20 min at about 1 am (though my loving GF didn't wake me up, bless her heart). This morning, his crate had moved about 6' across the floor and was in the middle of the room!
Ah well, live and learn I guess. I'm already learning patience and I'm sure I'll learn A LOT more as I go. This is no doubt business as usual for all you vets, but as the new guy on the block, it's been and interesting week!!
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Comments
If he likes other dogs and friendly with them, you may want to schedule some play dates with others that you meet either at a training center or that via day care. This may help to bust some energy. A tired pup is a good pup.
Snf
The leash excitement, or excitement in general is something I am working with Nola on. (Although we are having a break since she just got spayed.) What I am trying (and is somewhat working) is when we go somewhere new, holding her for about 2-3 minutes while she gets accustomed to all the new sights/smells. That way when I put her down, she does not lose her little mind quite as bad as if she just walked up to it. (This works at the park, petsmart, family's home, when someone new comes to visit, etc.)
Once we are walking, and a dog or new person is coming up on us, before she sees it and gets excited, I put her in a sit, and place myself between her and the new thing. She still gets really excited, but tries her darndest to stay in a sit. It is actually quite amusing to watch. Her whole body quivers and her tail wags, and her ears flap. She is too cute. However, after a moment, she usually calms down and can greet the newcomer without completely flipping her lid. She is still over excited, but is much better than she would be otherwise. And it is slowly getting better. Slowly being the key word.
Good luck, and I hope things continue to go well!
Learning the quirks of your Shiba can be SUCH a fun thing! But once you have them figured out.....they switch it up on ya! lol
Cant wait for pics AND video!
Sounds like a Shiba to me! Miso needs poop therapy so he can learn it's okay to poop in places other than the beach where it is FREEZING now.
Take your camera for the next snow play session. We need SPAM!
Remy is pretty good with new people and usually greets them politely, though he does jump up sometimes and we're working on it. He also does pretty well in busy or crowded areas, just tends to get distracted which is understandable...just the dogs that really get him excited. Once he meets them, he's great and just wants to sniff and play!
SnF, you are quite right, and I tell ya you can read and read about shibas but apparently nothing can truly prepare you for the real thing! At least he is a fairly submissive dog and doesn't seem to have an aggressive bone in his body.
As for the leash excitement, I'm working through similar things with Joey. The key is to be insanely consistent with your training. If you break your consistency even once, you may as well start all over again (which I've had to do a few times now). This is what I do with Joey: If he wants to greet another dog or person, he has to earn that right. He has to sit and focus on me until I feel he is sufficiently calm (this can be 30 seconds or 30 minutes, it all depends on him). If he breaks the sit, I take a few steps away from the person or dog and start again. If he's good, I will treat and say "let's go". Note, this is different than what I usually release him with. I'm not releasing him to go greet, I'm asking him to move forward with me. If he gets excited and lunges, I back up even farther and start again. After months of practice, I've gotten to the point where we can be within a few feet of another dog and he'll still focus on me (with some encouragement, he still doesn't offer the behavior). Unfortunately, we still haven't mastered the last foot or two so his greetings are still pretty excited. At least he doesn't paw at other dog's faces now though.
Good luck!
I did start him out with some clicker training last night. He is so quick, he is already offering 'down' in just two short sessions...man these shibas are smart. A couple more strong sessions like this morning and I'll start to label it. Have you tried the 101 things to do with a box game yet? I'm interested to see how it works out.
We are going to do our first session with the box today. I didn't want to feed Joey hotdogs while his tummy was upset, so I put it off. Now that he's back to normal, we're going to give it a try. I'll let you know how it goes.
Anyway, with the puppy behaviour, just know, when you finally think all the training and encouragement will do no good you'll find your puppy is no longer a puppy but a little man dog and not nearly so rambunctious ... All things change with maturity! It's so hard to believe all that puppy excitement is now properly channeled (for the most part) in my doggie, Josephine, who is the ripe old age of about 20 months. It all only gets easier as they get older... Get the camera and video camera moments while you can!
PS - Josephine is such a great name for dog...I love people names for dogs!
PPS - Remy is absolutely going to town on his kobassa/peanut butter/kibble stuffed kong right now. He gets super into it, then I think he gets frustrated a bit so he leaves it for about a minute, re-groups, and then goes back at it. This has been going on for an hour now!!
Remy had some fun while we were getting out the christmas decorations:
Here is what happens when we try to wash his feet after a muddy walk:
No shiba scream though?? ;p ~
Keep sharing the pics and videos -- you have a beautiful puppy!
Have you given Remy a "REAL" bath yet? How'd THAT go? hahah
I love how his legs are like magnetic repulsors to water. It's amazing how flat they can splay themselves in the air when water is involved!:) Kinda reminds me of when I'm trying to put a harness on Ichi. I get it in one leg and then he splays his front legs out so far it's impossible to get it on...hahaha...the little shit.
Jesse
How is Remy's leg/paw?
He really didn't like that snowman, but wouldn't hold on to it for more than a second or two. We also have a bouncing lowrider cady with santa and the elves in it...you should see him freak out when we turn it on...
http://www.doggiecentral.ca/WC_index.php
tune in at 2:30pm - 4:30pm (eastern time). I'm sure there'll be some laughs
Yanno, that is where you'll really be testing your parenting skills. Can everyone take home the same shiba they brought? Lol.
Just counter Jazz's "easiness" by bringing a present wrapped in box after box after box...so the unwrapping is a challenge.
Good luck to Remy for his first meet-up. It sounds like it is going to be a blast!