Ruya's forum debut (pics/SPAM) + still looking for advice...
Hi All,
So, it's been a few weeks since my last post. And my oh my how my world has been turned upside down since...
My Shikoku arrived in early March: a six-week old 3-kilo kuro-goma (though he looks like an aka goma). There was much tail wagging, licking and jumping (mostly me, not the dog). All in all, overjoyed that I had brought a friendly and healthy shikoku into the family. Err, that is, the family of one, now became a family of two. He has been named: Ruya (a Turkish name chosen for the phonetics, not the meaning). I pronounce it Ru-yya (comes off sounding slightly eastern european, which is the reason I chose it).
He was a little young when I got him and this was the subject of much discussion before his arrival, but the circumstances were such that we had to take him a little early. I was all the more relieved that he seemed well-adjusted and genki (healthy/lively).
Life since then has been...interesting.
On any number of occasions I thought of writing to plead for help. He's a calamity (his informal name as of late). I certainly have a newfound respect for people who have raised shikoku puppies. Yeesh. I've held off from writing until now, but thought it was time to share a few pictures and anecdotes.
For those of you who just want pictures, please skip the rest of this. For those willing to give some advice/feedback, keep on reading..
--Anecdotes and Advice--
I've spent a fair amount of time reading books, blogs, forums and watching what I could on youtube. Ian Dunbar came highly recommended in a number of different places and I generally appreciate his approach to life. I've also brushed up on the Caesar Milan training controversy and took a rather long tour of clicker training. I basically was looking for advice on training, obedience, dealing with aggressiveness, immunisation vs. socialisation, and dog nutrition. I can't say that I'm satisfied with all the answers I've found, so I'm turning to the hands-on experts: the NK forum members.
Ruya has debilitating amounts of energy (I say this jokingly). He's quite curious and rambunctious. As many puppies are wont to do, he explores everything with his mouth. There isn't a corner of my apartment that hasn't been licked or chewed. I watch him like a hawk when he's outside of his play area and crate (both of which he is slowly getting used to). He can get into relatively little trouble when in the play area...or so I thought. One Saturday morning not long ago, I woke to find him muzzle -deep into my wall (pic below). He was clearly annoyed that I was still in bed at 5:30am (how insensitive of me!) and therefore took it upon himself to redecorate. Needless to say, his puppy play area has moved. He now has a rather large play pen attached to his crate, which he doesn't really like...but that's another story. I've also doubled the amount of toys, diversifying the range of squeaks he can produce (he's keen on toys that squeak).
To exhaust him and in order to encourage housebreaking (apartment breaking) we've been walking outside quite a bit. I know this is a bit of a risk, but I decided that I needed to get him socialised an housebroken ASAP. I also needed him to be a bit calmer, i.e. expend his puppy energy. He is going in for his second round of vaccines tomorrow, but has been out and about with only his first set of shots for the past few weeks. So far, so good. I am extremely cautious when it comes to him sticking is nose in places and licking things. I have created a bit of a fiction for myself, thinking that this extra vigilance will keep diseases at bay... anxiously counting the days until he is fully vaccinated.
The real concern here is the amount of running/walking he is doing. I find that when I make him chase after me he is often calmer/quieter when we get home. This is because he reverts to his only other mode, that of sleeping. But I am concerned about the stress I am putting on his joints. I would love to hear from other NK members about the amount of exercise they gave their puppies (and any other strategy you might have for draining puppy energy). He's only moderately interested in kongs and I am running out of things to give him to chew (was told to stay away from hooves, but have been supervising him with rib bones, pig ears, snouts, hardened chicken/gum sticks, greenies, etc.).
Keeping him entertained has been a real challenge. He gets bored of his toys rather quickly and much prefers chewing on my feet, jeans and hands to anything else. Yes, chewing. Bloody hell, the chewing. Ruya communicates by whimpering, occasionally barking and mostly biting. It's turning into a problem now at 12 weeks, as he doesn't know the difference between faces, hands and chew toys. I need to find a solution to this ASAP. I've tried the yelping when he bites+ignoring him. Haaaahaa. That advice was not intended for a Shikoku. He thinks I'm challenging him to do his best. Inevitably he does. I have invested in puppy training classes, but that doesn't seem to help with the biting. I'm concerned that having received him at 6 weeks he will not easily take to bite inhibition...
Okay, that is it for now. Summary, please send advice on:
- incessant chewing
- dealing with boredom
- depleting his energy
- running/walking limits for shikoku puppies.
THANK YOU!
David & Ruya
So, it's been a few weeks since my last post. And my oh my how my world has been turned upside down since...
My Shikoku arrived in early March: a six-week old 3-kilo kuro-goma (though he looks like an aka goma). There was much tail wagging, licking and jumping (mostly me, not the dog). All in all, overjoyed that I had brought a friendly and healthy shikoku into the family. Err, that is, the family of one, now became a family of two. He has been named: Ruya (a Turkish name chosen for the phonetics, not the meaning). I pronounce it Ru-yya (comes off sounding slightly eastern european, which is the reason I chose it).
He was a little young when I got him and this was the subject of much discussion before his arrival, but the circumstances were such that we had to take him a little early. I was all the more relieved that he seemed well-adjusted and genki (healthy/lively).
Life since then has been...interesting.
On any number of occasions I thought of writing to plead for help. He's a calamity (his informal name as of late). I certainly have a newfound respect for people who have raised shikoku puppies. Yeesh. I've held off from writing until now, but thought it was time to share a few pictures and anecdotes.
For those of you who just want pictures, please skip the rest of this. For those willing to give some advice/feedback, keep on reading..
--Anecdotes and Advice--
I've spent a fair amount of time reading books, blogs, forums and watching what I could on youtube. Ian Dunbar came highly recommended in a number of different places and I generally appreciate his approach to life. I've also brushed up on the Caesar Milan training controversy and took a rather long tour of clicker training. I basically was looking for advice on training, obedience, dealing with aggressiveness, immunisation vs. socialisation, and dog nutrition. I can't say that I'm satisfied with all the answers I've found, so I'm turning to the hands-on experts: the NK forum members.
Ruya has debilitating amounts of energy (I say this jokingly). He's quite curious and rambunctious. As many puppies are wont to do, he explores everything with his mouth. There isn't a corner of my apartment that hasn't been licked or chewed. I watch him like a hawk when he's outside of his play area and crate (both of which he is slowly getting used to). He can get into relatively little trouble when in the play area...or so I thought. One Saturday morning not long ago, I woke to find him muzzle -deep into my wall (pic below). He was clearly annoyed that I was still in bed at 5:30am (how insensitive of me!) and therefore took it upon himself to redecorate. Needless to say, his puppy play area has moved. He now has a rather large play pen attached to his crate, which he doesn't really like...but that's another story. I've also doubled the amount of toys, diversifying the range of squeaks he can produce (he's keen on toys that squeak).
To exhaust him and in order to encourage housebreaking (apartment breaking) we've been walking outside quite a bit. I know this is a bit of a risk, but I decided that I needed to get him socialised an housebroken ASAP. I also needed him to be a bit calmer, i.e. expend his puppy energy. He is going in for his second round of vaccines tomorrow, but has been out and about with only his first set of shots for the past few weeks. So far, so good. I am extremely cautious when it comes to him sticking is nose in places and licking things. I have created a bit of a fiction for myself, thinking that this extra vigilance will keep diseases at bay... anxiously counting the days until he is fully vaccinated.
The real concern here is the amount of running/walking he is doing. I find that when I make him chase after me he is often calmer/quieter when we get home. This is because he reverts to his only other mode, that of sleeping. But I am concerned about the stress I am putting on his joints. I would love to hear from other NK members about the amount of exercise they gave their puppies (and any other strategy you might have for draining puppy energy). He's only moderately interested in kongs and I am running out of things to give him to chew (was told to stay away from hooves, but have been supervising him with rib bones, pig ears, snouts, hardened chicken/gum sticks, greenies, etc.).
Keeping him entertained has been a real challenge. He gets bored of his toys rather quickly and much prefers chewing on my feet, jeans and hands to anything else. Yes, chewing. Bloody hell, the chewing. Ruya communicates by whimpering, occasionally barking and mostly biting. It's turning into a problem now at 12 weeks, as he doesn't know the difference between faces, hands and chew toys. I need to find a solution to this ASAP. I've tried the yelping when he bites+ignoring him. Haaaahaa. That advice was not intended for a Shikoku. He thinks I'm challenging him to do his best. Inevitably he does. I have invested in puppy training classes, but that doesn't seem to help with the biting. I'm concerned that having received him at 6 weeks he will not easily take to bite inhibition...
Okay, that is it for now. Summary, please send advice on:
- incessant chewing
- dealing with boredom
- depleting his energy
- running/walking limits for shikoku puppies.
THANK YOU!
David & Ruya
Comments
They range from when he was 6 weeks of age to today, 12 weeks of age. Family and friends were kind enough to pose
Last, but certainly not least, my most heartfelt thanks to Shigeru for all his support and general awesomeness.
Ruya is looking very handsome
Think about human kids: they can play outside all day, but once they sit down to do their math homework they tire at once (at least that's what I used to do). Puppies need to use their brain as well as their feet (and mouth). I believe mine sleeps better after learning something new
On the straining skeleton/muscle thing on a puppy: Kuma would walk up a mountain at around 4 months. We decided to do it at his pace and we almost had to run to keep up with that little thing (we did have a backpack with us in case we had to carry him). He still turned out fine with back and front free of dysplasia.
One way to entertain you boy could be putting some of his food in a bottle, like an empty soda bottle (the hard plastic kind), and let the doggie work to get his lunch out of there.. Works as a very cheap activation ball
With the puppy classes, is it basically an obedience class for puppies or does he actually get to play with the other pups?
One thing I've tried with mouthing is to play tug, and every time they bite/graze my hand and not the rope meant that the game would stop for a few seconds, not starting back up until they did a command or two. It worked well for my husky since every time I did yelped when he nipped excited him more.
@paranoidparrot: thank you for sharing your experience with Kuma. Between you and MirkamM I am feeling much better about the amount of exercise I've giving Ruya.
@MirkamM: ahhhh. That's what an activation ball is; got two of them already! Moderate successes, but will attempt the soda bottle next
@Walrus: his black hairs (outer coat?) are growing in all over; I swear he looks different every day. I'd really like to see a picture of the dam one day, curious to know what the other half of the gene pool looked like. The sire was certainly very kuro-goma. It's been exciting watching him change. He's certainly growing into his shikokuness. By the way, dates confirmed on for the UK--it'll be an early July departure. More on this in a separate message
@jellyfart: well, housebreaking certainly was/is a challenge. I basically have him peeing in a box/pad thing and he #2s outside all the time. Not quite sure how to transition from peeing in the box to peeing outside ONLY. No magic though, just try to take him out 3-4 times a day and exercise him quite a bit, which tends to get his bowels going. Then copious rewards when he does go.
@Calia: indeed, we've been unmasked. I've signed him up for a training package. Essentially, the first ten classes are puppy training: this includes play time with an older border collie (trainer's dog) and some other little runts. The first ten classes also include basic things like crate training, de-sensitization to vaccuum cleaners, people in uniforms, strange surfaces, vet table, etc., also some recall and basic tricks to avoid fighting (between owner and dog). It's been very helpful so far, but I had a terrible first experience with a different trainer. The trainers came over the firs time for an in-house consultation. We practiced tug-o-war techniques as a strategy for wearing him out and for teaching him to 'let go'. I'll try your approach and see if I can get him to keep his chompers off my extremities/clothing. On top of the ten puppy training classes, there's another six classes of obedience training. Let's hope we make it that far in one piece...
Jesse
I think you've got good advice here--tire him out as much as possible and keep him busy. As for the worry about the joints, what my AA breeder told me was that normal activity is fine and good, but too much jumping is not good for young joints. So that's all I'd worry about.
As for the biting, you might check out the (multiple) threads on the mouthing on the Shiba side of the forum, where there are many, many people dealing with the shark mouthed Shibas!
I have a JA pup so the only suggestion that I can make is lots of chew toys and obviously crate training...not only to reinforce potty training but to give him his own space for down time.
For our JA pup we go on long walks on a hiking trail near our house to expend his energy. Most likely you will have to devote a lot of hours keeping your shikoku pup occupied and using up the energy or he'll probably take it out on your apt! yikes! Good luck and you'll find that this forum has a lot of dedicated and knowledgable owners and breeders.
Best of luck,
Rob
Our Kai is 5 months and she, like other pups we've had before her will at least once a day do the crazy "butt tuck run" The only day she has been drained enough to not do the butt tuck was her first big hike day last week... it was great seeing her so content!!
He's beautiful, please keep all of us updated with him and good luck!
I think he is just bored with the view. Ever think about moving into a nicer apartment?
I wanted to say what a great looking pup he is but man what an apartment for Tokyo!!
About the chewing, I notice that your wall treatment/paper is textured. Puppies it seems like and gravitate to the different shapes, textures and fibers of so many things. To circumvent and puppy proof we have plexi glass over wall paper etc behind crates and specific spots around windows or doors. As an alternative, as someone above suggested, plastic milk jugs, soda bottles filled with treats or purchase of tug a jug and similar toys like Kongs are a big help. I think there are some kong type products that have bumps on them too. Simple cardboard boxes that can be filled with amazing thing to find are a good idea too. Given his age I really would crate away from the wall and most certainly away from the window if you have a lot of sun and when you can not watch over him. It is amazing how fast they can go into "distructo" mode if you can't be be on top of the antics.
As an anecdotal tale.... there was an owner similar to your situation that had a Weimaraner in an apt (very very active dog), but he refused to crate his canine friend. The dog created all sorts of havoc while the owner was away at work. I think he went through three couches, a door frame, and one wall. Needless to say management/concierge left the owner quite a bill before he finally got a professional dog sitter and training help. I know the owner eventually decided to go jogging with the dog to burn the extra energy as well.
I think you are on the right track with the good advice that everyone has given. It is good not to let little problems become big ones. Keep at it.
Snf
@MAGMAGAL: particularly thankful for the solidarity and for providing hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Two years it is then, with heaps of patience. Also, will begin reducing the toys in the pen and changing them more frequently. I would like to walk him to work in the morning and keep him there in a dog pen (there may also be a kennel down the road...), but it's 5.5k going and 5.5k back at night. I'm not sure the little fur ball can take it just yet. Will also be looking into dog day care for added socialization. There is a dog park not far from my place, but there seems to be a bit of controversy about whether dog parks are good or bad.
@CRIMSON02: puppy play dates also added to the to-do list--thanks!
@MUSASHI: Thanks very much for your insights. As soon as I feel he can handle hikes in the mountain, he'll be clocking oodles of kilometers in Japan's mountain ranges. It was in fact, one of the reasons I opted for a shikoku. That should sap his energy well and good
@CARIBOOA: hahaha, I laughed when I read 'butt-tuck run'--I know exactly what you are referring to! He does it almost daily. Runs circles like crazy around the living room. While it has tremendous comedic value, I'm not sure it's very good for his joints given the flooring in the apartment.
@STATICNFUZZ: you raise a good point about texturing. I have covered the walls around his play area to avoid him scratching/biting/eating the walls. Unfortunately, I learnt that lesson quite late. Building management is going to have a field day with my deposit...Cardboard boxes now on the to-purchase list, as well. Many thanks for the advice!
Regarding the apartment, I can assure you that there would have been less shots of the dog in the apartment if I wasn't forced to quarantine the pooch from all things outdoorsy (read: fun for a dog). There'll be more pictures of nature next time around, less of hard wood floors ;-)
While on the topic, I must admit complete ignorance as to Ruya's take on the view. Frankly, I don't think he is as interested in the view as he is in the windows themselves (@guySean: and the birds that occasionally fly by)--I find him attempting to bite the glass more often than not. But the view certainly helps calm me down! Joking aside, thank you for the kind words on the apartment. @JEFFNKAZUKO: it wasn't my first apartment in Tokyo and you'll just have to trust me when I tell you that I've been in a variety of verrry different places.
There was a lot of really helpful advice given. I am really very very grateful. Milk jugs and plastic soda bottles are next on my to-purchase list. We ran again this morning and he happily conked out when we got home (fatiguing the dog: check!). As for the biting, tug-o-war is hit and miss. I think, like MAGMAGAL's pooch, playing these types of games just encourages the biting. I didn't mention in my earlier posts that he seems to be naturally quite adept at fetch. For the time being, I am milking that game for all its worth!
Cheers!
----
Lot's of good recommendations already. I also concur that long walks won't hurt your shikoku puppy, only jumping up and down from high places. So as much outdoor walking you can give him would be good. I also like to rotate the toys -- and bully sticks are super.
Young shikoku love fetch, so I would do that very often (ie, as much as possible). I would also intermix the fetch with a brain activity. ie, making him sit or down before you throw the toy again. Mix it up between just throwing and then him having to work to get the toy thrown again for him. That way you are exercising his body and his brain.
I also recommend many short (ie, 5 min) training sessions teaching him to sit, down, stay, come, heel, etc. I know that my 2 shikoku learned all of that just like a huge sponge, right from about 9 weeks of age onwards. I use clicker training and made the training a game and FUN. Like I said, lots of training sessions in a day (like 10+), that were really short and challenged the brain. After they learned one command, like sit, I tried to teach them to be precise, ie, like sitting directly in front of me and straight (a formal front), or sitting in heel position. Or learning how to heel properly in the correct position. Or how to hold a bone in their mouth. Totally made it a game for them with food treats and clicks. Tiring their brain out works really well. They are really smart dogs and love to work (esp for food!).
Otherwise, I do think all the other suggestions are great!
Oh -- and both my puppies LOVED this toy (when they were young, as older dogs it was not as interesting) http://www.amazon.com/Kyjen-PP01056-Hide-A-Squirrel-Pet-Large/dp/B0002I0O60