To catch a Shiba
HOW???? We have been chasing her since Saturday night. She is living in the woods in the back which surrounds the back of our cul de sac, lots of places to hide. It is the pup from the breeder and is still very skittish. Considering she probably has always lived outside you can tell she is conflicted. She comes out at dusk and night. It is POURING! I never thought after this summer I would WISH for it to not rain. We have a kennel rigged up so we can pull it close but I dont think she will go in it. She is not food motivated. She comes out and plays with my girls but takes off before we can catch her. She is the fastest shiba I have ever seen. We cant get a trap until Tuesday at the earliest and I dont know if she will even go in it. You can hear her moving back there and hear her cry!! Nina and I are not sleeping and becoming nervous wrecks! Chad just got home late last night and has been in the woods (getting lost). Niko and Sasha are doing really good going in after her and trying to get her out. Sahsa even hovered her last night to try and keep her here. I cant believe I am trusting my shiba but she wont wander far because she know she has a mission. I am running out of ideas!!! She doesnt have anything on her that you can hear like tags. She has not been around humans enough and 2 weeks hasnt given her enough trust, you can tell she wants to come but then freaks out.
Any idea's????? This is killing me!
Comments
How close to you will she come? When you say she will play with your girls, you mean children right?
You are probably going to need a real low and slow approach. Laying on the ground even, to see if you can even get her to come check you out.
I'm thinking after a few days she will become more and more food motivated. You are going to want to pull out the big guns though, stinky delicious stuff. Beef liver, chicken liver, see if you can get some green tripe, chicken breast, steak, a big meaty bone, anything that might get her interested.
It might take some trust building of throwing chunks to her, and multiple times doing this before you can even make a grab. These situations are so delicate, because any failed attempt at a grab, such as a lunge or jump, can offset the progress.
These types of situations are tense, I hope she stays in the woods near the home and wish you the best of luck in getting her back.
Thank you so much! Im sorry when I mean girls I mean my dogs. We have gotten as close as 2 feet. My friend was out there with my shiba and just about had her and my husband called Niko in and she took off. I know we arent supposed to stress about this but it is going on her 4th night.
For the food (we dont do "real" meat) is that cooked? What about sardines? I did dog food, cat food, treats and kong paste....
You could try the meat both ways (cooked an uncooked), with the chicken breast it should be cooked for sure. A can of sardines might work, it is stinky, and worth a shot. If you cook the liver just boil it, then you could set the water out too. If she drinks that, even without you around it is full of nutrients and healthy. You could even puree some liver into the water.
Finding green tripe might be tough (fresh anyhow) Solid Gold does make a canned version though. The fresh stuff stinks like crazy (it is intestines and the contents ground up) but it is Nemo's favorite thing in the world.
Best of luck.
Will she follow your dogs into an enclosed area like someone's fenced yard? Maybe a garage or deck?
Once she hears or sees us she is off. If our dogs go out to her they play with her, they dont want to leave her. My hubby was on Shiba watch last night and we almost had her but she didnt go all the way in the kennel (probably because it was soaking wet). Niko would wake us up if she was out there. She would get excited to hear Niko and then Sasha's fat butt got excited and barked and scared her off. It is supposed to stop raining this afternoon so we will switch out the food and dry it all up. We have a wire crate out there with a swinging door, we just need to get her in it and see it.
UGH!
Thank you all so much!! We are going to try ANY idea.
Oh wow...how frustrating! Especially when you were so close.
Many happy wishes on the Shiba hunt. It may take some more patience and time, but I hope you will succeed in her capture.
-hands over a good luck charm-
THX Corina.
We have been so close so many times but no shiba. She wants to come in but wont. We cant keep getting no sleep so we pulled our rigged kennel and hoping to get a trap soon. It is getting so cold at nights! She was outside waiting for my dogs when we woke up to play. UGH!!!!!!!! I just wish sasha would bite her and drag her in...so much for my viscous pitt mix!
The book "The Other End Of The Leash" says you should approach a dog from the side or even sideways so that it's less confrontational. If she is hanging around like that try standing up as straight as possible and approaching her from the side - this is a lot less of an aggressive stance to a dog. Just a suggestion.
Another thing we do with Maui is run from him when we need him to catch him (he is a brat) - he will usually chase us and then we can grab him. Also, this seems to work better if we don't have the leash in our hands (he knows what the leash means).
I hope that helps. Good luck... I wish I knew more ways to help.
When our foster dog slipped away from me, he was still new to us and had no trust and didn't know his name, we resorted to crating the other dogs and busting out a can of the most awesome wet dog food we had in the house. We made a trail of huge spoonfulls thrown right on the floor from the porch steps into the house where a HUGE bowl of awesome food was waiting for him, all he had to do was come in and get it. So all we did was hide behind the open door (this was in December or so?) and wait for him to decide he cared about the food more, let him eat all the way to the bowl of awesomeness and then closed the door behind him.
If she's been out long enough, a big bowl of meat and wet dog food might be a welcome temptation.
-Sarah
Any updates on this?
Do you know any cowboys who may be good with a lasso?
On a more serious note, any chance you can get like 12-15 people to come over and form a circle around her, and slowly close it in. This would not be easy on her, but if you can get her closed in, and have someone jump on her it might work, or she might even give up and just sit down. Or she could run between people and still not get caught. Trying something like this could be upsetting, but if you get her back, it would be worth it.
On a positive note, at least you are able to see her daily, even if you can't touch her. <-- you know she is still alive and abviously doing very well...the little stinker, lol.
I think maybe it would be easier to teach Sasha and Niko to slip the lead over her neck. Then have them bring and hand over the leash with a devious little Shiba attached to the end of it -grins-
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I have a dog training friend that has taught her Malinois to retrieve other dogs <--- of course the leash is already attached! ---> I wonder how she taught that? I think he just likes to retrieve things, so maybe it doesn't matter what or who he brings???
WE GOT HER WE GOT HER WE GOT HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was walking up the hill and saw her head and tried to not get excited...she was in it!!! We brought her in the garage, gave her a bath...she ate a ton and locked her in the bathroom!!!!!
The best morning ever!
That is great news!!! By "she was in it" you mean the live trap worked?
Your persistance and patience really paid off on this. She must have known things were pretty good, because she never left your backyard area.
Now she just needs a collar, a tag, and a microchip, and a 30 foot lead to drag all the time.
Success!!! -praise-
=(^-^)= -very big grin- Congratulations on your new Shiba Inu!!!
Thanks to your patience and persistence, she is a very lucky little dog.
I forgot to tell you guys thank you and I love the posts with the "creative" ideas! The trap worked. It has been a great day, I still cant get over that she is caught!!!!!
She is a little thinner than before which was bad as it was but has eaten and drank so much today and is chilling!