My turn at last?
So... finally, after ages and ages of waiting and an attempt in the summer that just proved to be impossible, it seems it's finally going to be my turn very, very soon to have a shikoku of my own.
He's scheduled to leave Japan /arrive in the US on the 24th, and he'll be just shy of 12 weeks old. I'm so very, very excited to be bringing him into my home, but also very, very nervous. It's my first time raising a dog as an adult / primary care giver, so... it's a very big step for me, but one that I hope I'm ready for, after all the reading I've done.
Still, I'm feeling nervous/anxious, as I keep reading and re-reading all of the guidelines posted by CDC regarding importation. Since he's under 12 weeks/3 months (again, just barely; he was born Oct 3), I have to hope that they'll allow him to come in since he's from a rabies free country. Shigeru's website indicates that there shouldn't be a problem, and I have gone ahead and tried contacting the CDC about getting an animal quarantine approval, since it seems like that will probably be necessary... I'm just basically on pins and needles here. Does anyone have experience with this process with importing without being vaccinated for rabies...? Were you able to get your dog in okay?
Please wish me luck that everything goes well, and all of these nerves can just be something I can look back and laugh on!!
He's scheduled to leave Japan /arrive in the US on the 24th, and he'll be just shy of 12 weeks old. I'm so very, very excited to be bringing him into my home, but also very, very nervous. It's my first time raising a dog as an adult / primary care giver, so... it's a very big step for me, but one that I hope I'm ready for, after all the reading I've done.
Still, I'm feeling nervous/anxious, as I keep reading and re-reading all of the guidelines posted by CDC regarding importation. Since he's under 12 weeks/3 months (again, just barely; he was born Oct 3), I have to hope that they'll allow him to come in since he's from a rabies free country. Shigeru's website indicates that there shouldn't be a problem, and I have gone ahead and tried contacting the CDC about getting an animal quarantine approval, since it seems like that will probably be necessary... I'm just basically on pins and needles here. Does anyone have experience with this process with importing without being vaccinated for rabies...? Were you able to get your dog in okay?
Please wish me luck that everything goes well, and all of these nerves can just be something I can look back and laugh on!!
Comments
From what I remember they required DOB, date and port of entry, breed, sex and a description of the dog (color) a couple weeks prior to importation. We also wrote them a letter telling them he was imported as a family pet, he was from a primitive breed and it was important that he begin his socialization with his new family before 16 weeks. They granted the quarantine approval in a couple of days.
They send a letter which you provide to the customs agent at the port of entry. They will fill out some forms and you go on your way. The only hard part was getting a customs agent that knew what to do. I think they were surprised we even bothered. I got an email from the local animal control a few weeks later asking if I was still obeying the terms of the agreement. Feel free to pm me if you have any other questions on the process
The issue that I think might come up is that particular customs officer not knowing that Japan is a rabies-free country and therefore trying to apply the wrong rules to your pup.
But know your rules and refer to the CDC website. Maybe print out the CDC's copy of rabies-free countries and highlight Japan.
http://www.cdc.gov/importation/rabies-free-countries.html
@yo_eddy: Yes, I sent them off an email last night... unfortunately I didn't include all tha information and... it's super late anyway... but from what I understand from Shigeru, the quarantine thing is so rare, and because he's coming from Japan, most likely it won't be an issue either way... but fingers crossed, anyhow, that if it comes down to it they'll get back to me quickly. If not... I guess I'll be figuring it out at the port of entry!
@jigzzor
Yes. I'm due to take him into the vet on the 9th for his boosters, and although I've gone ahead and scheduled his rabies to happen then as well, I'll ask for their recommendations / state laws. I'm not really eager to give him shots any earlier than necessary, but Texas has lots of wild animals like squirrels, possums, bats, and raccoons which can all carry the disease... so I just want to be sure I'm protecting him properly.
@ayk I'm not sure either tbh. The literature online makes it sound like it absolutely WILL happen when you read it, but according to Shigeru it's actually much less common that it would lead one to believe? Either way, I printed out a bunch of paper work that explicitly lays out the exceptions to the rule, especially the parts about coming from rabies-free countries and the list already and will be bringing that all with me on Thursday... just in case.
http://imgur.com/a/qvGdy
Picking him up at IAH was a breeze, and he was so happy to get out of his cage. So far he's been proving really excellent at riding in cars. He really is as friendly as Shigeru said, always excited to see people and eager to greet them. He did really well with my mom's mini schnauzers while they were here visiting for the holidays. We go out for walks around the street and the tiny little park close to my house and he's starting to really get the hang on being on a leash with the harness (although he never does want to sit still for me to put the harness on).
Right now our big issues are (1) working through potty training, (2) kennel training / night-time arrangements, and (3) eating / runny poo. The issues are all sort of interrelated and exacerbating one another, but not by any means unbearable, just something I want to seek advice on. Maybe some of you more seasoned folk could offer me some pointers?
(1) For sleeping and kenneling: Kuma is still only about 12 weeks old, which means he's too young to make it through the night without needing to use the bathroom. So overnight kenneling is not possible at this point, and right now even getting him to want to stay in it with the door locked for more than a few minutes at a time is something we're working on. Of course, we also can't leave him unsupervised during the night: even though he's been doing pretty good with using the puppy pads, he's still a puppy, prone to chewing, and he's shown an interest for wires. (I've already hosed everything down with bitter apple as a deterrent in case I'm not able to actively redirect him with something he can safely chew, but it's just an example of the kind of mischief he could get up to.)
I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that right now, we put him in the utility room overnight so that he can still use his kennel for sleeping but have access to the pee pads. At first I tried letting him just stay in my room, but he would fuss and cry at the closed door and it was keeping me up when I have work in the morning. I considered my bathroom as a possible alternative, since we set up a gate in there, but it's an echo chamber right next to my room, and he gets antsy if he can see me but not get to me. Eventually, he calms down in the utility room, but there's usually about an hour to an hour and a half of crying before he settles down... so far I've tried putting a radio in there, toys, kong treats / nylabone, a blanket that smells like me, and nothing's really worked. Is this just a stage that I have to work through and I need to have more patience/he'll get better in time? Or is there something else I can or should try?
(2) As for potty training... he actually has recognized the purpose of the pads from the get go. I was amazed and impressed by how smart he was. The difficulty lies in that when he's in the utility room at night, because he doesn't want to be left in there alone, he messes up the arrangement of puppy pads by the door. Later, he'll use the pads as intended, but due to the narrowness of the room and his own desire to be free, he'll step in his poo, and because the floor isn't completely covered, that gets tracked onto the tile. I've tried taping down the puppy pads, but either he takes this as a challenge or he's just so desperate to get out... he shreds them! I woke up the other morning to oodles of fluff everywhere on top of poo smeared on the tile. Tonight I have secured a towel at the front end of the hallway and the usual pad arrangements behind it, but... I don't know, does anyone have any suggestions for how I can make him be less destructive to the pads?
(3) Eating / runny poo. When Kuma first came to us, for about the first 48 hours or so he was really uninterested in eating. First I wasn't too worried, because I figured with all the stress, he probably just wasn't hungry. But he's still such a little fellow, when he kept turning his nose up to the kibble, I began to worry, especially when I weighed him and he seemed like he'd lost some weight since being sent. He started to eat some when we started mixing in a bit of turkey, but then his poo was coming out runny. So we figured it was the change in diet (turkey's not a common food in Japan; Shigeru said the breeder was feeding him a mix of fish/rice/vegetables, Shigeru fed him kibble/rice/veggies. He suggested just adding some warm/hot water to soften the kibble, and we tried that, but still no dice. Back to what he actually iseating--right now, we've got him eating a mix of kibble (as close to the kind he was eating in Japan as possible)+a tiny bit of turkey+rice, as well as a little bit of veggies (like, 1 sugar snap pea) for walks or going into his kennel. Yesterday his poo seemed like it was finally firming up and I was starting to finally relax--but then last night the runny poo came back. Part of me wants to blame the edible Nylabone / kong treat I gave him before bed (in the hopes of making him happy in the utility room) since they would have been richer / different, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any thoughts or tips....? He goes to the vet on the 9th (I tried to move it up, but no dice; the vet was booked solid) for his boosters so if he's still having problems then I will definitely ask.... I know nihonken are kind of well known for having sensitive tummies.
I probably sound like I'm helicoptering and worrying way too much, and I probably am, but it's my first time raising a dog more or less by myself (I say more or less, but my brother, who I live with, is helping me out a lot, bless him) so being completely new to this... I just thought seeking some advice from people who have been there would be helpful. Thanks so much!
So first things first. It's very natural to be a helicoptering worry wart it's a good thing but try not to over stress yourself.
Sleeping and kenneling - For getting your puppy to happily go into a kennel or crate, you need to first start positively associate the kennel as a good place to be. Don't just leave the toys and treats inside the kennel, he has to see that if he goes inside the kennel it means he gets a reward and eventually he'll just want to use it as a chill pad. This is really important because when he starts to learn that this is a positive area for him to be around. Things like sleeping and separation anxiety will be less difficult to deal with. As for chewing... That's just gonna be diligence, They will eventually stop wanting to chew everything. What you can do is if you see that they touch the cable and or things you don't want chew. Pick him up for about 5 seconds the moment his mouth touches it and then put him down. When he gets older you can start teaching him how to leave it and eventually he'll know through repetition things not to chew on. Make it fun and positive. I would also suggest get a play pen for dogs and set it up close enough to you for him to sleep at and have alone time in. For miyuki we have a play pen for her, she sleeps in it just fine and stays in there for when we leave. It took a lot of treats, toys, and positive association with the pen for her to sleep in it. Absolutely do not fall for crying as well, it sounds cruel but sometimes you just gotta cold turkey it almost all dogs will sound like they are desperate in need of you every second but in reality they learn independance. I'd start off leaving him alone for about 15 mins at a time, then taking him out to play with you for about the same amount of time and rinse and repeat. Eventually you can increase those gaps of time and all should be well.
Potty training is quite easy, he can hold it in for about 3-5 hours tops and just keep adding an hour per month starting at around 4 months old. Give treats whenever he does his business and give it a phrase like potty or something so he associates the word with doing his business. As for the destruction of the pee pad, it's a puppy phase thing. Miyuki destroys them. Use the typical positive reinforcement approach, treats for when he pee's on the pad. Take away as soon as he puts his mouth on it.
The best approach for food and runny poop is not to go too crazy on feeding him different things. Slowly transition him with rice, fish, and some veggies, and eventually move him slowly into good puppy kibble, try as best as possible to not give him too many different kinds of foods and i'd also check for giardia as it is rampant in many countries and especially in the US. DO NOT let him free feed. This was the first mistake i ever made for katsu and it has been a problem since.
And the crying has begun improving too. He still does it, and probably will for a while more, but the last two days he's cried less at night initially, and even though he started last night randomly around 2:30 am I think it lasted maybe 30 mins tops. I've definitely been very pro-cold turkey with that and it seems to be paying off (even though it does break my heart listening to him. Unfortunately tomorrow is the first day things will be "hard" in that my brother and I will have to leave him alone for a few hours at a time.... We're lucky in that his night-shift work and my day work means that it's only a few hours in the morning (when everyone's gone) and in the afternoon (he's asleep, I'm at work) when he's truly alone, but... there's nothing we can do to help it.
I think you're absolutely right about making sure he's not eating too many different kinds of foods; as soon as I cut down on the different kinds of treats he's improved, and now he's even starting to eat the hard kibble without needing to be bribed (thank you, god). When you say "free feeding" do you mean leaving the bowl down on the floor at all times? What kinds of problems has it caused you?
This is brand I use, but there are other kinds out there.
http://www.chewy.com/dog/animal-essentials-plant-enzymes/dp/49372
This is the pen we have:
https://www.chewy.com/dog/midwest-black-e-coat-exercise-pen/dp/45380
I actually don't remember if it's 30 or 36". I'm guessing 36". Either way, this one's well under $100. It was definitely worth the investment for us. The one problem with this is that it's climbable. Our trainer suggested getting one without the horizontal bars to avoid climbing, but we got creative instead. We have foldable chairs. We've managed to clamp the chairs on the xpen to block her from climbing out. It's quite sturdy and has worked really well for us. It's easy to put on and remove. She doesn't really try to get out anymore.
The first week will always be tough. Puppies cry when they know you are there but you're in a different room. Keep it up with @jigzzor's advice on that. Also it is not too soon to start training "leave it." Our girl took about ten minutes to pick up on it and we started when she was about 11 weeks. One way I did it was to lay a very small trail of kibble coming towards me and have a handful of small treats in one hand. I'd ask her to sit. When she goes for it I'd cup the free hand over the kibble and once she stopped poking her nose at it I'd say "good leave it" and she would get a treat. After a bit I started incorporating leave it and go get it (allowing her to eat the kibble I just asked her to leave) and alternating "leave it" with "leave it, ok go get it." It worked pretty well. Keep the sessions no longer than 15 minutes. The same night we taught her leave it we caught her going for a pair of socks and asked her from across the room to leave it. She turned around and made a beeline for us for a treat without touching the socks she was about to grab.
About potty training: any chance you can arrange a schedule with your brother to wake up and walk the pup every 3-4 hours? If you guys alternate you only need to wake up once during the night. I know it sucks but it is part of puppy ownership to lose sleep and in the long run it makes potty training much easier. I personally really prefer having the pup in the same room with me so that I can wake up if they don't feel well. Also to be fair, I'd much rather set an alarm to get a night time potty schedule going properly, than to wake up extra early due to having to possibly clean up a potty mess before work.
Many folks above have given great advice. So I'll only add that it may be helpful to:
1) wake up in the middle of the night to let Kuma pee/poo, that's probably why he's walking up at 2:30 and crying. It sucks but it's reality of puppy ownership. You may have seen other threads on pee pads and why it's not a great idea (makes housebreaking harder)
2) start doing some positive association training with the crate/utility room. Look up some crate training exercises, feed your puppy there, etc, get him used to the space and not only for bed time, it will help out feel more like "his space".
3) I highly recommend a play pen, too. I use a 36" play pen with no escape issues. It will be less scary than being closed off in a dark room - and will probably help with the crying as well.
So... right now we're working on trying to get him to feel and be better, and the big struggle is now going to be making sure he doesn't stumble upon / sniff one of his old messes and make himself sick again.
@emi802
That is a nice pen and the price isn't bad either. I think what we've decided to do for now is put up two fences that block the living room from the dining room / stairs to the second story, which leaves him with the kitchen, living room, and my bedroom. It's kind of a large area still, but he hasn't been messing with the wires since I started spraying them with bitter apple and as long as I leave puppy pads out 90% of the time he makes it onto one of them.
@Saya
I'll have to give that a try when he's feeling better as well. I don't want to introduce too much new to his system at the moment but it seems like a good idea in general.
@GrayJJ
We've definitely been doing positive association with the kennel outside of penning him into it. He gets all of his meals there and usually treats as well, and I try to play with him by it as well as lay down near it sometimes to encouage him to rest there as well. I'll often move it into the living room for this purpose, so that he can be near me but inside it too.
Friday night I started letting him sleep on some bedding next to my bed instead of in the utility room and he's seemed much more quiet and content since. Although he does get up to roam and I can hear him chewing on his toys at night, he is not barking/crying/screaming anymore, not even at the gates in the living room (which he doesn't love either). I don't doubt that having to go to the bathroom in such a tiny space wasn't a part of the problem, but I think also having to be separate from me wasn't helping, either.
I probably need to start trying to train him for "leave it" due to how much he enjoys trying to put his nose in places I don't want him to right now... I'll have to go look for some videos online or something to see it demonstrated but I think we can get it.
@jigzzor
Oh no. That's stressful indeed. I've been picking up Kuma's food bowl when it appears he no longer wants to eat and also taking up the water bowl at night to help try to prevent accidents.
Your new arrangement sounds great, I'm glad you found a compromise
Here is a link re: basic "leave it", you can practice with kibble or treats: http://dogs.about.com/od/basiccommands/a/leaveitcommand.htm
Start really simply (just closing your hand).
You can also start redirecting Kuma's attention, if he does try to chew anything, say " leave it " and you can give him something more appropriate to chew (toy).
Good luck!
Chewing wires: when Kaja was a pup, she chewed through a wire of my $200 headphones! I was so upset. Not at her, because she is a puppy, but at the person who was supposed to be watching her. What I did in the end was I'd bait her with wires. I'd bait her with socks. Or smelly shoes. Anything that I knew she'd be interested in -- and I'd teach her leave it. Then you show them something that they can chew on. I don't understand it, but there comes a point when they magically know what they can and can't chew. Well, most of the time.
As for sleeping: Like others suggested, I'd just let him out in the middle of the night sometimes. Eventually you will find you don't need to do that any more. Their bladder will get some strength to it. Right now it's just a little thing! Now as for crate vs fluffy dog bed: Kaja admittedly sleeps on a dog bed now. She slept in a crate for the first few months of her time with me. It was fine -- a bit of whining at first, but sticking my fingers in to the crate and giving her little treats now and then would reassure her. Then it got pretty standard, and sleeping in the kennel was very uneventful. I only put her on a doggy bed because I liked being able to reach down and pet her, or have her say good morning to me.
Leaving dogs alone: Kaja HATED being kenneled when we left. She'd chew the metal bars and I would see damage to her teeth (anyone else get this, or just me?). I videod it once to see exactly what happens when we were away: she would be fine for the first half hour, but after that she'd get restless and go nuts. The ex pen (play pen) was better, but she started pooping in it just like she did with when we left her alone in her kennel (anxiety poops?). In the end what worked for us was confining her to the basement when we left. She's just over a year old, now, and we have no problems with her chewing/pooping/anything when we leave her at home.
One thing to note: don't ever leave bones or shreddable toys with your dog in the crate or pen or whatever while they are alone (knuckle bones are especially bad, and honestly I don't think anyone should ever give their dogs these)... it can be quite dangerous. Someone had given Kaja a knuckle bone while I was away and she was in her crate -- I came home to a terribly MESSY kennel (it stunk SO BAD), covered in poops and vomited up knuckle bone. I was noticing pieces of bone in her poop for a few days after that. We are lucky she wasn't hurt. I make sure people only give her things from her 'approved' doggy box now.
The worst is when they have bouts of diarreah, and then I've had to get up and take mine outside (I kid you not) every ten minutes. Yup. In the middle of the night. It was maddening... I even tried to let her sleep in the shower and just clean it up in the morning. Nope, the whining was too intense. I just sucked it up and went out every ten minutes... telling her what a good girl she was for telling me she needed to go out. Now even if she has a bout of bile coming up, she'll get my attention and stand by the door waiting to go. So good news: temporary! House training will eventually become something you wondered why you ever worried about.
Regarding the not so friendly pals in his gut: I seem to recall reading one of Shigeru's posts about how almost all Japanese pups (ie: dogs FROM Japan) are susceptible to worms and whatnot -- so I'm not surprised. As soon as I read your post that's what came to mind. Just one of those chances you gotta deal with when importing dogs from other countries, I guess -- don't feel too bad
He seems to be doing much better, thank you! His energy levels have definitely increased, and he seems much happier to run around and play for longer periods of time, and the frequency with which he has to poop has decreased overall. He hasn't gone to the bathroom during the night since Monday and now even in the day he seems to need to go less. Best of all, he's finally putting on some weight and is feeling less bony. We haven't increased (or decreased) the amount of food he's receiving, so it seems that he's finally being able to absorb the nutrients from his food.
@Kaja
Anxiety poops! You know, I was thinking that him pooping at night was a natural thing (after all, his body is just so tiny, surely he must need to fairly regularly?) but maybe part of it came down to anxiety. I've definitely noticed a dramatic change in the amount that he has to poop lately, and I was assuming that's because his health has been picking up (parasites being gotten rid of) but maybe that is also a factor. In either case, I've been taking him out to pee before bed and again first thing in the morning, and leaving pee pads out, and there haven't been any inappropriate accidents since last weekend. Which isn't to say it couldn't happen again, but maybe we're both getting the hang of this. I'm so glad I stopped locking him up at night; I just wish that I could somehow not do it during the day when I have to leave but there is just no choice sometimes.
He has now chewed a few things that he shouldn't have--he managed to get down a shirt of mine the other day, as well as a bra. I blame myself in both situations, though; I should have kept them higher up and I should have kept a closer watch on him (although in the case of the shirt, I was napping, and he had been as well when I started. oops.) This week I've been seeing if I couldn't teach him "sit" while he was taking his medicine. But I think now I will start trying to teach him "leave it," it seems like it should be fairly straight-forward, I just need to actually do it.
I actually didn't know what a knuckle bone was; had to look it up. And then I realized you meant it's a literal bone from a knuckle! I'm still quite leery of giving him anything more bone like than edible "nylabones" though he devours those so, so quickly. My father, who does some hunting sometimes, brought me back a few deer bones the other weekend to boil... but I just stuck them in the freezer for now. He's such a little guy, I worry about giving him anything much, especially if he might want it while I'm not around (he goes nuts trying to find a bone if you take it away from him).
And yeah, I certainly don't blame anyone about him having gotten nasty bugs. I used to teach, and if there's anything I've learned from working with kids it's that young immune systems are not so great at defending themselves and will catch any/everything that comes their way... why should a puppy be any different? Especially given that a lot of Japanese dogs live in conditions that many foreigners would disagree with, it's not such a surprise. Mostly, when I contacted him, I was concerned about whether or not any of his other dogs might have also been exposed to anything harmful because he was carrying at the time, as well as perhaps his sister's status. Looking back, it was still a risk well worth taking, though I do feel bad he went through that for so long without me realizing. Next time, if there is a next time, I will know better!
As for bones: Ilium I for one would agree and not give your pup any bones right now (and if you do when he is older, better to leave them raw after you freeze them). It might be just my family, but I was always told never to give dogs cooked bones (chicken, pork, even beef).... and my experience with the 'surprise' knuckle bone has made me wary of bones in general now. In fact there's only one type of bone I give her, and even then I watch her carefully. I do really like bully sticks, whimzees and nylabones, too. Your puppy will be teething right? The key ring nylabone is really good for that
ALSO, I have a question, I'm sure if I go digging in the forum threads I'd be able to find it, but since there are people here... about how much food were you giving your pups at 15-16 weeks old? Since he was having diarrhea I wasn't worrying too much about whether or not I was giving him enough, but he seems to be doing so much better now, and his appetite definitely seems to have increased...