I love their guard dog instincts!

wliu003

So my fraternity had a bbq this weekend at one of the local parks and I brought Kelly. My other fraternity brother brought his pitbull/boxer mix. They didn't really get along. The boxer was extremely hyper and Kelly got a little aggressive so we ended up separating them for a bit. We tied them to near by pillars so they can be near enough to socialize but not near enough to keep fighting (supervised ofcousre.)

Anyway, the real point of my post. So while we were eating and sitting at the table next to them, a, for the lack of a better word, stranger walked by slowly. And both dogs immediately locked their eyes on him. They followed his movements without blinking. As soon as the guy took another step closer to us Kelly let out a strong and confident bark. Everyone there complimented us on both of our dogs for their watchdog abilities.

Now, I am not saying that the stranger was a threat to us at all, he was just on the phone walking by without any suspicious behavior (to us at least). But I thought it was cool that Shiba's have such a strong guard dog instinct that if they don't know someone or someone that is approved by their master, they are suspicious.

BradA1878

I dunno if this was the first time Kelly has displayed this type of "alarm dog" behavior, but I always love it when your dog shows you for the first time how aware and protective they are of you. Doesn't matter the size or breed, if they feel you or them are threatened they will let you know. In my opinion, it's one of purist ways a dog can show their feeling of family toward you since it is not a learned response, it's just pure instinct.

Shiba can be tough little dogs. We have such over-the-top guardians here, sometimes I forget how intimidating a little Shiba can be. Same for Kona and Ahi, people are rather freaked out by them and I am always like "Ahi? Really? She might lick you to death...". lol.

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jakkihare

Its great our shibas look out for us isn't it not so much now but in the house if leo heard the slightest sound he would bark away at whatever it was he doesnt do it much in our house but if we stay over somewhere he does it every 5 mins it can get a little frustrating especially if your trying to sleep and don't want to wake the whole place up...
When we are on dog walks with lots of other dogs if leo sees a hill walker he will march right up to them and bark bark bark this can be a bit of a night mare as people think your dog is crazy and i feel like i gotta explain myself usually i dont really care what people think especially on a walk with a few other dogs you get the odd person " oh you have alot of dogs" "got your hands full" "GET YOUR EFFING DOG AWAY FROM ME" hahah but hey shibas are the best and im glad Leo looks after me!!

Heidi

Back when we lived in an apartment, our balcony was pretty close to the main door, so you could see all the people coming and going from our window. Tojo would sit by the window and just watch people come and go, and if it was someone he'd never seen before, he'd let out an alarm bark. I've also gotten his alarm dog greeting before when he didn't realise it was me coming home and I've always been impressed at how confident he is when guarding the place. I always see what he's barking at when he does his "alarm" bark because he only brings it out in some circumstances.

Lately he's been alarm barking at all the coyotes that are causing a ruckus.