We're having a 'Sniff and Grab' at our Xmas Meetup. Each Shiba brings a present. Then the gifts are laid out and one by one each pup has a turn at sniffing and grabbing a gift.
Well, saturday was my first experience at one of these meetups and it was interesting to say the least. Remy did pretty well, didn't really go nuts like I had expected. Instead, he just made the rounds and met everyone there (2 and 4 legged) and kinda trotted along after some of the dogs that were running around. He didn't play very much either, which I found weird as that's all he wants to do when we meet a dog on our walks. I'm assuming he was just a little overwelmed in an indoor area with 35 dogs and about 40 people. Most of the people were very nice and all swooned over eachother's dogs. It was neat to see the variety of temperments amongst all the dogs there. So anyway, onto to some of the things I learned:
1) Remy likes to "Poke the Bear" so to speak. By this I mean that when a particular dog decided he/she didn't appreciate Remy up in their personal space and gave the growl, snap, etc, Remy would keep at them until they completely flipped out, all while remaining quite calm himself. This usually resulted in the other dog being reprimanded and temporarily leashed. Remy would then proceed to approach and taunt said dog over and over just beyond their leash range with a sort of "So, you're pretty pissed off now eh? Too bad you're on that leash and I'm aaaaaallllll the way over here. I guess I'll just keep doing this...poke, poke, poke, taunt, taunt, taunt". I had to keep close watch and give him corrections when this behaviour went on. This happened with about 3 or 4 shibas. I felt kinda bad that he was such an instagator but hey what can you do....I stepped in once things started to get outta hand and brought him off on his own for a time-out. He got along fine with everyone else though.
2) Comparatively speaking, my dog is way better behaved than I thought. Shy of 1), he did great. There were at least 5 or 6 shibas there that were completely out of control. When I was talking to the owners, they said things like "Oh, he just hates other dogs/people/life in general, so that's why he idoes this..." Another spent the entire 2 hrs holding their shiba in the corner who was barking non-stop. No kidding, 2 hrs of non-stop barking. Now I know that it's great that people try to get their dog socialized and that most dogs have issues of some sort (Remy is no exception I can assure you!!) but is an enclosed area with 35 dogs and 40 people really the right environment for this? No doubt these poor dogs were beyond stressed and totally overstimulated. I can think of several more appropriate environments for them.
3) Shibas come in a huge variety of sizes and shapes than I ever thought possible. Everything from a 14 lb creamy with a pointy head/snout that looked more like a tall daschund with a curly tail, to a 45 lb shiba that looked like it was hitting the roids in a serious way!! This may be no surprise to many people, but I found it quite interesting. Some of them, though 'purebred', barely looked like shibas at all.
4) A few people were wearing shiba t-shirts, which resembled those sweatshirts with the wolf and moon painted on them that were quite popular in the eighties (think Bret's outfits in Flight of the Concords (if you know the show, if not check it out, seriously funny). To me this is kinda like wearing the t-shirt of the band at their concert..."don't be that guy".
On a positive note, Kristen and I won "Most Festive Owners". Now I know this is pretty lame and I feel a little ashamed of myself but all I did was wear a mechanical santa hat that stands up and flops over, over and over again. I figured with all the hype they put on this meetup, that someone would have dressed up like santa for sure.
Overall, it was pretty fun and I'll definately be going to the meetup in January. It should be less busy so hopefully the Remster will cut loose and get his play on. I haven't downloaded any of the pics yet, but I'll put some together and post them when I have a chance.
Mike, it sounds like Remy did awesome! I don't know any dog that wouldn't be at least a little stressed in such cramped quarters...especially with a dog flipping out in the corner and barking non-stop like that. Its always important to socialize your dogs as early and often as possible, but with Shibas it seems to be ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT. At our meetups in Atlanta, we usually max out at around 15 Shibas and even then we get the whole range of behavior from Joey who never met another dog he couldn't play with to Lucy who prefers to be off on her own "hunting dirt" to Jazz who sits there the whole time screaming "pick me up, pick me up, pick me up!" in her Shiba mind control language and even one or two more timid than her. So I'd say your observations are spot on.
I agree with the above - all things considered - it sounds like Remy did a great job!! And it sounds like you are getting to know your dog well - that is invaluable!
With the first one, its really hard to say since it was so crowded and busy, but until we had an adult shiba female foster here that would totally lay the smack down on my two major instigating puppyish shibas, that sort of thing would make me nervous all the time. But they are really just communicating and that foster taught me and my shibas a great deal while she was here. Remy is learning valuable lessons in dog-dog language by their correcting his rambunctiousness - but since these are dogs you don't really know - giving him a time out before it escalated was a good call!!
And like Dave said, these dogs need constant socialization - from puppyhood to adulthood and beyond... those dogs acting insane were probably a combination of unexercised, unsocialized, stressed, frustrated, fearful and overstimulated!
Shibas do come in many shapes in sizes anymore... the more breeders there are the more the standard gets... "stretched".
Yeah, he definately got some refreshers in doggy communication. One last thing I forgo to mention, one of the funnier things was what I have now called 'the merry go round'. This happened so many times throughout the day, and Remy definately did it more (or maybe i just noticed it more as i was paying attention to him more). It goes something like this:
Shiba 1 greets shiba 2. Shibas 1 and 2 attempt to sniff bums. Shiba 1 wants to smell first, shiba 2 wants to smell first. Each shiba tries to walk away while continuing to smell the other shiba. Result is 2 shibas walking around and around and around and around in circles until one gives up. very amusing.
So here is some spammage:
A quick vid. Remy is the third shiba to enter and is the bounciest:
And some pics:
seems like a happy fellow
here is a shot of remy 'poking the bear' (I am standing just behind him ready to pounce)
The whole gang: 32 shibas, 2 jindos and a few random doggies:
Remy front row and centre (yes, i'm the dork in the santa hat)
the meet-up sounds like lots of fun!! And yay for Remy doing so well!
'Jazz who sits there the whole time screaming "pick me up, pick me up, pick me up!" in her Shiba mind control language' that sounds so adorable and so easy for me to picture...perhaps her mind control works over great distances!!
Loved the pics and the description of the meet-up! Great video, too! Sounds/looks like a great time was had by all (for the most part --- don't know about that one in the corner barking in his owners arms --2 hours! Good lord, time to leave much sooner than that, I say!)! I love the Santa hat... Congrats on the award --- looks like you deserved it based on the group pic!
Yes, that place is great for a meetup. It's big enough that it never freally felt overly crowded. Apparently they've had the christmas party there for the last couple of years. I think they managed to raise a couple hundred bucks for Shiba Rescue GTA too, which is nice! Anyway, someone posted another video somewhere and I'll fire it up here once I find it.
There is a new indoor place downtown that we're trying to book for an afternoon in January. It's not bad, like $150 for 2 hrs or somewhere in that ballpark.
Comments
If there's no food or treats, does that mean no toys as well? Or do you guys usually bring toys to the meet ups?
1) Remy likes to "Poke the Bear" so to speak. By this I mean that when a particular dog decided he/she didn't appreciate Remy up in their personal space and gave the growl, snap, etc, Remy would keep at them until they completely flipped out, all while remaining quite calm himself. This usually resulted in the other dog being reprimanded and temporarily leashed. Remy would then proceed to approach and taunt said dog over and over just beyond their leash range with a sort of "So, you're pretty pissed off now eh? Too bad you're on that leash and I'm aaaaaallllll the way over here. I guess I'll just keep doing this...poke, poke, poke, taunt, taunt, taunt". I had to keep close watch and give him corrections when this behaviour went on. This happened with about 3 or 4 shibas. I felt kinda bad that he was such an instagator but hey what can you do....I stepped in once things started to get outta hand and brought him off on his own for a time-out. He got along fine with everyone else though.
2) Comparatively speaking, my dog is way better behaved than I thought. Shy of 1), he did great. There were at least 5 or 6 shibas there that were completely out of control. When I was talking to the owners, they said things like "Oh, he just hates other dogs/people/life in general, so that's why he idoes this..." Another spent the entire 2 hrs holding their shiba in the corner who was barking non-stop. No kidding, 2 hrs of non-stop barking. Now I know that it's great that people try to get their dog socialized and that most dogs have issues of some sort (Remy is no exception I can assure you!!) but is an enclosed area with 35 dogs and 40 people really the right environment for this? No doubt these poor dogs were beyond stressed and totally overstimulated. I can think of several more appropriate environments for them.
3) Shibas come in a huge variety of sizes and shapes than I ever thought possible. Everything from a 14 lb creamy with a pointy head/snout that looked more like a tall daschund with a curly tail, to a 45 lb shiba that looked like it was hitting the roids in a serious way!! This may be no surprise to many people, but I found it quite interesting. Some of them, though 'purebred', barely looked like shibas at all.
4) A few people were wearing shiba t-shirts, which resembled those sweatshirts with the wolf and moon painted on them that were quite popular in the eighties (think Bret's outfits in Flight of the Concords (if you know the show, if not check it out, seriously funny). To me this is kinda like wearing the t-shirt of the band at their concert..."don't be that guy".
On a positive note, Kristen and I won "Most Festive Owners". Now I know this is pretty lame and I feel a little ashamed of myself but all I did was wear a mechanical santa hat that stands up and flops over, over and over again. I figured with all the hype they put on this meetup, that someone would have dressed up like santa for sure.
Overall, it was pretty fun and I'll definately be going to the meetup in January. It should be less busy so hopefully the Remster will cut loose and get his play on. I haven't downloaded any of the pics yet, but I'll put some together and post them when I have a chance.
Congrats on the award!
With the first one, its really hard to say since it was so crowded and busy, but until we had an adult shiba female foster here that would totally lay the smack down on my two major instigating puppyish shibas, that sort of thing would make me nervous all the time. But they are really just communicating and that foster taught me and my shibas a great deal while she was here. Remy is learning valuable lessons in dog-dog language by their correcting his rambunctiousness - but since these are dogs you don't really know - giving him a time out before it escalated was a good call!!
And like Dave said, these dogs need constant socialization - from puppyhood to adulthood and beyond... those dogs acting insane were probably a combination of unexercised, unsocialized, stressed, frustrated, fearful and overstimulated!
Shibas do come in many shapes in sizes anymore... the more breeders there are the more the standard gets... "stretched".
And - Flight of the Concords - awesome!!!
Shiba 1 greets shiba 2. Shibas 1 and 2 attempt to sniff bums. Shiba 1 wants to smell first, shiba 2 wants to smell first. Each shiba tries to walk away while continuing to smell the other shiba. Result is 2 shibas walking around and around and around and around in circles until one gives up. very amusing.
So here is some spammage:
A quick vid. Remy is the third shiba to enter and is the bounciest:
And some pics:
seems like a happy fellow
here is a shot of remy 'poking the bear' (I am standing just behind him ready to pounce)
The whole gang: 32 shibas, 2 jindos and a few random doggies:
Remy front row and centre (yes, i'm the dork in the santa hat)
That place did look really nice - very cool. The video made it seem like all the Shibas did really well.
Great spam!
----
'Jazz who sits there the whole time screaming "pick me up, pick me up, pick me up!" in her Shiba mind control language'
that sounds so adorable and so easy for me to picture...perhaps her mind control works over great distances!!
There is a new indoor place downtown that we're trying to book for an afternoon in January. It's not bad, like $150 for 2 hrs or somewhere in that ballpark.