Mason

downright · February 2011

Wanted to let everyone know that my wife and I took a drive from our home in NJ to Peggy's in Ohio. We went with the intentions of "checking out" her dogs, and especially the one 5 month puppy she had left from her unexpected Yamato and Suki litter, a brother of Cho Cho and Miyu. After hanging around Peggy's for a couple of hours and taking up way too much of her time, we made the decision to bring him home. Peggy never named him so we went with my wife's decision to call him Mason.

He is a completely awesome dog. Very chill and relaxed inside, great on walks and friendly with every dog he has met so far, big and small. Peggy said he had a dominant streak and I guess I could confirm this. He is not intimidated whatsoever by any other dog. My resident Shiba Sam is finally showing some signs of warming up to him. She is fine with him outside but is generally being somewhat aggressive towards him within the house. She's always done this with new dogs inside the house and it usually takes her some time to get comfortable with them invading her space (our fault for not taking the proper course of action and correcting this behavior sooner). But for the first time last night she initiated play in the living room and seemed to be loving his attention...until he started getting too excited and began trying to mount her. She wasn't having any of that. It's only been a few days and she seems to be getting better with him around....was thinking of bringing in a behaviorist (was going to ask for suggestions on here) but thought I would give it some time for her to adjust.

I have no pictures to upload right now. I'm at work and all picture hosting sites are blocked of course. Will try my hardest to get some pictures posted this weekend. He is a very good looking dog.

sunyata · February 2011

Congrats! Sounds like Sam and Mason are starting to get along. You may want to wait a couple of weeks for them to go through their own adjustment period before calling in a behaviourist. Unless of course the reactions between them are really that bad.

And yes... get some pictures of the little guy uploaded!

Saya · February 2011

Congrats must been a great visit I'd love to see her dogs one day..

Can't wait to see pictures.

Brego_mellon_nin · February 2011

Congrats, he sounds great

Hope we can see pics soon!

jujee · February 2011

Congrats on your new addition!

dlroberts · February 2011

First, congrats on the new addition!

Second, while in general I'm supportive of using behaviorists to help with behavior problems, I agree with @sunyata that it may be a bit premature. When you say she's aggressive towards him, what do you mean by that? In my experience and from numerous conversations I've had with various Shikoku owners, Shiba and Shikoku do not mix very easily. That's the main reason I abandoned my plans for a Shikoku and got a Kai. My Kai fit right in almost from day one. To get that level of comfort and trust between your Shiba and your Shikoku is going to take a lot more time though. It will require you to carefully control their interactions for at least the first few weeks, but more likely the first few months.

To complicate matters for you, at 5 months old your Shikoku is already starting to lose his "puppy pass." If you're not familiar with the term, it basically refers to the fact that mature dogs will allow young puppies to do things they would never allow an older dog to do. When a puppy pass gets revoked has to do with the hormonal changes that accompany maturity which tend to start happening around 5-6 months of age. Every dog is different though.

I'm sure with time your two will become great friends. But, due to their respective breeds, the chances of it happening quickly and easily are pretty low. Make sure you stay consistent and keep a careful eye on them. You'll get there!

Araks · February 2011

Congrats!

I had been scowering the shikoku club page looking at that guy a couple days ago. He sounds great

And yes, pictures please!

downright · February 2011

Hi Dave...just to clarify what I mean about her being aggressive...in the house she will growl and show teeth when he gets too close to her. She'll growl a little more loudly when he's starting to position himself to mount her. If he does go to mount her, she'll snap at him, which I think is fine. What I don't like is when she growls at him when he wanders too close to my wife or me while Sam is there also. Resource guarding I guess you could call it whereas she sees us as her resource. She'll do the same thing in the kitchen where all of her food is. We've revoked their kitchen privileges to help curb that behavior.

She also seems to be on high alert in the house. She tries to keep him in her sight. At first she would follow him everywhere, desperate to know what he was doing at all times. But now it's usually only if she hears something interesting...something that could be food related for the most part. But she's started to relax a little more. They'll now lay down in the same area a few feet apart.

BradA1878 · February 2011

Cool! Congrats on getting Mason. I'm glad things worked out.

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Calia · February 2011

LoL, great to know another forum member has one of Miyu's brothers...Can't wait to see pics of him. I'm pretty excited that he's living with a family that is sort of close to me, maybe one day we could do a mini family reunion thing;)

Anyways, when I brought Miyu home, Tetsu really didn't want her around. She couldn't be in the same room with him without him going batsh!t on her. What really helped was time outs and baby gates for inside the house, as well as walks and playtime at neutral places.

For the first two weeks she was with us, Miyu was gated in the kitchen or crated. Anytime either boy went after her through the gate, mostly it was Tetsu, they went straight to timeout. Eventually they got used to her and she got to interact with them in the house. Now almost two months later, Tetsu has gotten way better with her, though he still gets put in timeout once in awhile. Miyu has also been put in timeout when she persists bugging Tetsu after his initial warning (and before she pushes him to freak out). Miyu isstarting to leave Tetsu alone when he doesn't want to play, and Tetsu has more controlled corrections towards her.

Edgewood · February 2011

Congratulations on your new addition! I think that Beth (Calia) gives you some very excellent advice.

Isn't Peggy nice! I enjoyed my visit to her when I picked up my Kuma 3+ years ago.

asia · February 2011

Congrats!!

TaraA · February 2011

Congratulations!

shishiinu · February 2011

Right on congrats on the pup, its always a set up when you go look at puppies thinking your gonna walk away without one.

downright · February 2011

downright · February 2011

sjp051993 · February 2011

very cute

Edgewood · February 2011

What a pretty Shikoku puppy! :-)

Calia · February 2011

OMG, he is a handsome boy, and just as stocky as his sisters. I can't wait to see what they all look like when they are older:)

Araks · February 2011

He is one adorable shikoku puppy

Stocky is right.

Brego_mellon_nin · February 2011

Gorgeous pup! He really has a charming expression

Can't wait to see how he develoups...

downright · February 2011

I'm happy to report that the 2 of them have been getting along great, inside and outside. Sam only gets a little nasty when we are preparing their food and Mason wanders too close to her or us but it's usually just a little growl, nothing more. We've been trying to force them to stay out of the kitchen, which helps.

The only problem that we are dealing with now is that he definitely has some separation anxiety. My wife is a teacher and was off all last week so she was with him all day long. She went out on Saturday night for a few hours and he had a hard time...kept pacing and whining, despite me and Sam being there. He also hates his crate during the day.....hates it with a passion. At night he is generally OK, whines and barks a bit but then sleeps through most of the night. But during the day, he freaks out, cries, screams, barks, and drools like crazy. Even with kongs and treats to keep him busy, it doesn't matter.

This morning she went back to work so it's going to be a rough week or two for him to adjust to being in his crate during the day. He'll be in his crate from about 7:30 to 11 and then from 12 to about 3 so it shouldn't be too bad.

Edgewood · March 2011

@Mason - I don't know what to tell you in regards to the separation anxiety. I have 1 shikoku (the oldest), who also hates crates with a passion (despite putting yummy things in there with him) and will carry on forever, it seems. Very loud complaing/barking/yipping. He is 3 years old and still does it. The other shikoku is fine with her crate and is actually quiet and content (she is younger, only a yearling). The only thing that keeps the older male more quiet and with less separation anxiety is that he now has the female for company. If we take her along and leave him behind, he carries on again.

Also, for a long while (before I got the female), my husband also said that my male would get upset if I left (even though my husband was still home with him), doing what you describe Mason as doing (pacing). He seemingly grew out of that.

Good luck, I know how hard it is when they get severe anxiety and bark all the time. I have never tried it, but maybe talk with your vet, I know that there are some meds for it now.

downright · March 2011

I'm hoping that he will start getting used to his new routine and become comfortable with being in his crate. For the first week he was with us, my wife was around 24/7, and now she isn't. When we first got him he hated the leash, hated the stairs..and now he walks great on the leash and goes up and down stairs like a champ. He learns very quickly, so I'm hoping he comes to terms with his new schedule.

7Stefan7 · March 2011

Akana wasn't to keen about her crate either in the beginning, now she's pretty ok with it. When we go to bed or leave the house she'l bark a few times, but after that she's in peace with it. She knows that we always come back i guess... Took some time, training and consistency but it paid off.
She just loves to be where we are, but when we send her back to her spot, where she cannot see us, she's also ok. So its more a curiosity thing with her me thinks

downright · March 2011

Not having all that much success with getting Mason to like his crate. Spent a good deal of time working with him this weekend, getting him to lay down in it, eat some snacks in there, etc. He is good for a few minutes if you are constantly throwing him treats but once you shut the gate and walk away, he loses interest in his kong and starts yelping. We also have a thundershirt on him which has helped slightly. And we plugged in a DAP diffuser Saturday night. Hopefully the combination of the two will help settle him down.

Might have to resort to sending him to daycare a couple days a week. Unfortunately we had a huge fight with our dog sitter a few weeks ago, who does it in his house and is very very cheap, 15 bucks for the entire day. The only alternative is around 35 for the day, which is steep. Does sending him to daycare, say tuesday and thursday make any sense? Perhaps getting to run around constantly all day long will tire him out for the other days when he needs to be in his crate for a few hours?

downright · March 2011

a couple photos. working on getting a video posted also

edit: will do this when i get home from work....trying to access photobucket and vimeo on my phone, upload everything and send the code to my desktop at work is proving to be a little more difficult than i thought.

Mason

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