Argos: An Update
Argos is now about 19 months old and is doing great! Much has happened since our last update. We have obtained our degrees, moved out of the city, and began new jobs. Argos handled the transition just fine and loves it here with all the wilderness walks. He is a little over 50lbs now and approx 21 inches tall. So he is on the larger side of the shikoku spectrum. We still feed him orijen but we switched to the fish formula a few months ago and he seems to prefer it. We still spice things up on occasion with tripe and meaty bones and such too.
I think Argos is happier than ever here. He gets his daily walks through trails and around a pond (2hours weekdays). Weekends involve a trip in the jeep to some other trail to explore. These trips usually exceed 2 hours and Argos has grown to like the vehicle now (no more pukoku). He has even seen deer and moose on our expeditions, so he has a face to put to the scent now. I am no hunter/tracker but it seems to me that Arg is a decent tracker, often leading us to deer beds.
A few things about Argos:
He is a cautious guy. This is especially true with strange/new man-made objects. He does not like large alcoves/roofed entrances to buildings. The vacuum is his nemesis! He is very wary of new things, and usually once he realizes there is no danger he relaxes. However, he is still wary of the wires near the entertainment unit, which is fine with me. All his caution dissolves in the woods. He is bold and brash. He will bound over, around and even through any obstacle with zero hesitation (he even had a tiny wound once where a stick must have poked him in his heedless charge).
He is a suck. He loves people so much! When company comes over, Argos expects attention from our guests. Those who say hello and play with him for a few moments are then free to engage Jess or myself in conversation while Argos resumes whatever it was he was doing. Those who try to skip the Argos greet session have a demanding dog on there hands who sits expectantly, cocks head from side to side as if puzzled by this lack of attention. Next comes pawing there air, which is often accompanied by subtle whimpers or less than subtle "I'm gonna jump you lick your face/hand then." Argos is absolutly lovable, I'm sure he knows it, and he loves the attention. He is even a bit of a lap dog.
And, Argos is awesome and we love him very much.
Argos and dogs:
Arg likes most of the dogs he meets, but not all. Jess and I have been making an effort to discern if there is any pattern among the negative encounters.
I'll start with small dogs. Argos tolerates small dogs and has a few small dog friends. Small dogs that are energetic or playful get along fine with Arg, but most small dogs he has encountered are the stand there and bark at you type. These get an unfriendly growl if they get too yappy too close to Arg and his playmates but thats it. He is actually very gentle when playing with his small dog friends.
There seems to be two types of dogs that Argos reacts to.
The first are some Molosser breeds. He has met 4 bulldogs, nothing escalated but none of them were friendly meetings. He has met more boxers perhaps 6-7, and there were a few of those he disliked. One lady, who owns a boxer Arg dislikes made an interesting comment. She noted that numerous dogs react to her dog the same way Argos did, posturing and vocalizing. She and other boxer friends of hers speculate that it might be the distintive sound some of these shorter muzzled breeds make while breathing. There was also a some encounters with cross breeds with shorter boxer-like muzzles that went poorly. So we excercise extra caution when we see these sorts of dogs coming.
The second type of negative encounters involve dogs that seem to lack confidence. There has been a variety of breeds here but one constant. These dogs seemed to be on alert, they walked in a crouch with that slinky gait, maybe best described as anxious, or fearful/skittish dogs. Its as though if Argos sees/senses that, he will attack. He has tackled and pinned a few dogs exhibiting this behaviour and put the chase on a big Mastiff that acted that way as well. That really raised our awareness. Nobody has been hurt and I wouldn't say Argos has been in a fight, but he would have were we not vigilant.
Not sure how Argos feels about puppies. He has met few. Seemed to like 2 of them, the lab pup was one of the fearful dogs Argos pinned though.![image]()
Huskies, Shepards, Rotties, and Weimaraners: He loves them all, but huskies most of all I'd wager. His best friend is a husky, and when they played together, they played HARD. It was a sight to see and he loved it so much. Its sad that we havn't found a husky friend here
Well here are some pictures from throughut the year.
Winter 2012:
He would howl whenever he would hear or see the neighbors children, so funny.
Summer 2012
Winter 2013
When his back curves down like that at the rump, it's a sign of things to come...
Arg loves the snow love burrowing his head/body in there after a scent, or sometimes a stick
Here's our boy, checking in during some off leash training, so proud of him!
I think Argos is happier than ever here. He gets his daily walks through trails and around a pond (2hours weekdays). Weekends involve a trip in the jeep to some other trail to explore. These trips usually exceed 2 hours and Argos has grown to like the vehicle now (no more pukoku). He has even seen deer and moose on our expeditions, so he has a face to put to the scent now. I am no hunter/tracker but it seems to me that Arg is a decent tracker, often leading us to deer beds.
A few things about Argos:
He is a cautious guy. This is especially true with strange/new man-made objects. He does not like large alcoves/roofed entrances to buildings. The vacuum is his nemesis! He is very wary of new things, and usually once he realizes there is no danger he relaxes. However, he is still wary of the wires near the entertainment unit, which is fine with me. All his caution dissolves in the woods. He is bold and brash. He will bound over, around and even through any obstacle with zero hesitation (he even had a tiny wound once where a stick must have poked him in his heedless charge).
He is a suck. He loves people so much! When company comes over, Argos expects attention from our guests. Those who say hello and play with him for a few moments are then free to engage Jess or myself in conversation while Argos resumes whatever it was he was doing. Those who try to skip the Argos greet session have a demanding dog on there hands who sits expectantly, cocks head from side to side as if puzzled by this lack of attention. Next comes pawing there air, which is often accompanied by subtle whimpers or less than subtle "I'm gonna jump you lick your face/hand then." Argos is absolutly lovable, I'm sure he knows it, and he loves the attention. He is even a bit of a lap dog.
And, Argos is awesome and we love him very much.
Argos and dogs:
Arg likes most of the dogs he meets, but not all. Jess and I have been making an effort to discern if there is any pattern among the negative encounters.
I'll start with small dogs. Argos tolerates small dogs and has a few small dog friends. Small dogs that are energetic or playful get along fine with Arg, but most small dogs he has encountered are the stand there and bark at you type. These get an unfriendly growl if they get too yappy too close to Arg and his playmates but thats it. He is actually very gentle when playing with his small dog friends.
There seems to be two types of dogs that Argos reacts to.
The first are some Molosser breeds. He has met 4 bulldogs, nothing escalated but none of them were friendly meetings. He has met more boxers perhaps 6-7, and there were a few of those he disliked. One lady, who owns a boxer Arg dislikes made an interesting comment. She noted that numerous dogs react to her dog the same way Argos did, posturing and vocalizing. She and other boxer friends of hers speculate that it might be the distintive sound some of these shorter muzzled breeds make while breathing. There was also a some encounters with cross breeds with shorter boxer-like muzzles that went poorly. So we excercise extra caution when we see these sorts of dogs coming.
The second type of negative encounters involve dogs that seem to lack confidence. There has been a variety of breeds here but one constant. These dogs seemed to be on alert, they walked in a crouch with that slinky gait, maybe best described as anxious, or fearful/skittish dogs. Its as though if Argos sees/senses that, he will attack. He has tackled and pinned a few dogs exhibiting this behaviour and put the chase on a big Mastiff that acted that way as well. That really raised our awareness. Nobody has been hurt and I wouldn't say Argos has been in a fight, but he would have were we not vigilant.
Not sure how Argos feels about puppies. He has met few. Seemed to like 2 of them, the lab pup was one of the fearful dogs Argos pinned though.
Huskies, Shepards, Rotties, and Weimaraners: He loves them all, but huskies most of all I'd wager. His best friend is a husky, and when they played together, they played HARD. It was a sight to see and he loved it so much. Its sad that we havn't found a husky friend here
Well here are some pictures from throughut the year.
Winter 2012:
He would howl whenever he would hear or see the neighbors children, so funny.
Summer 2012
Winter 2013
When his back curves down like that at the rump, it's a sign of things to come...
Arg loves the snow love burrowing his head/body in there after a scent, or sometimes a stick
Here's our boy, checking in during some off leash training, so proud of him!
Comments
TK often reacts poorly to dogs with little confidence, too. He tends to bully them (with rough play) rather than attack them outright. Those are the only dogs he really dislikes. A few of his "best friends" are a big ol' Mastiff, a Saint Bernard and a Boxer. My Mal hates dogs with "pushed up" faces. I've always thought it was a misunderstanding in body language, though (somehow, maybe, the body language or facial expressions are obscured in Boxers and other breeds with extreme features).
What the "personality" entails, I think it comes down to if 1) the dog respects Toki, 2)if they have a good chemistry, and 3) if they can communicate well.
But who knows, except Toki. Toki is a mysterious dog.
I would suggest that all you posted above about his likes and dislikes is pretty 100% shikoku. My guys (3 of them) are funny/shy about many man-made things, but brave out in the wilds/woods. My Kuma hates the vacuum too, or if I bang pots and pans too loudly. My 2 females also do not like those things, but to a much lesser extent.
None are good with timid dogs (they bully them) but are great with dogs that love rough play. I think that Siberians (which I used to own exclusively) play most similarly to shikoku and they love them. All 3 play really well together (one is a 4 mo old puppy that I just imported from Japan and they both took too her very well, my male immediately and my female within a day or two).
Argos is really nice looking! Glad you love him so much.
@crispy How far Argos ranges off lead depends on the visibility/terrain. I would say he runs out somewhere between 30-60m before stopping to look/wait for us. If he stops and can't see, us he comes running back. However, last weekend he did get on a moose's scent and left me behind. I got on his trail and found him happily nosing along about 5 mins later. Aside from that his recall has been perfect. So we are taking a step back in the of leash training, higher frequency with reinforcers.