LOL @ testes-feeling. Noah and I were talking about how we hope Sosuke can be a stud dog, and then Noah said, "Oh wait, that means he'll have balls hanging off him. Gross. Oh well." lol
Yeah I do need to stop being anti-social... Julie, I put the training off cause of Ame's death but I will be taking my dogs to a place alled Big horn canyon ranch in Riverside for a hunt training.
@Ichigo - a few days ago he was 2 lbs lighter than Mika. I'm sure he is probably heavier than her now, or will be soon.
A little written update on Kyuubi since I've only been posting pictures, which is the best part of this thread, who wants to read boring wall of texts anyway? lol
We still have accidents every few days or so with him. He is 100x harder to potty train than Mika was. He does something really funny though when he does have an accident in his crate. I used to keep a towel in the crate (I don't really anymore) and there will be times when I wake up to him moving the towel around with his muzzle. Why? Cause he is trying to clean up his accident so he can go back to sleep! He really is just so silly! I wish he would whine if he needs to go in the middle of the night so I can take him out, but he doesn't cry or whine. He only does so if he already had his accident and that's if there isn't a towel in his crate for him to clean up his mess. There has been no poo accidents, which is great!
Separation anxiety! Omg! He screams and cries all the time when I leave. Bullystick, frozen kong with pb or yogurt, nope! Doesn't work. He always notices when I slip out of the room. I can't even go take a shower without him screaming his head off. I know they will grow out of it, there were a few times in the past few days where he didn't cry or scream as much, but he still has some anxiety. Upside about him wanting to be with me all the time is that I don't have to worry that he is going go bolt out the door. He also has AWESOME recall, I think it's mainly cause of the separation anxiety he gets when he doesn't see me, so he wants to be with me and comes to me when I call him.
Saturday he will start his first puppy class. I know, I'm so late on this. I would have liked to take him to classes 2 weeks ago, but there was a misunderstanding between the facility I go to and with my vet. The whole needing bordatella to take pup classes (which Mika did NOT need when she took pup classes at 9 weeks) kind of irritated me and then the fact my vet won't administer the shot until 12 weeks (this week). One big thing I'm happy about puppy class is that there will be other pups around his age, so he can play and hopefully those pups will correct him. Mika DOES NOT correct him. EVER. Which is very concerning to me because she does cry out in pain when they are playing when he bites down on her for too long/too hard. I make a loud noise or go over and break them up. But Mika doesn't care, she tries to kick out of my arms to continue playing with him. There were a few times when he got a hold of her front paw and bit down where when I made a loud noise they both looked at me and she had her paw up and didn't want to put pressure on it. I picked her up and held her for a bit, and then she wanted to go play with him again. I wish she would correct him, but she's never been the type to correct another dog while playing, she either takes it or cowards away somewhere. So really hoping he will learn how hard his bite really is. He is pretty good about not mouthing us too hard, but we still have to yelp or walk away from him.
Pet Expo. He was a star at the Shikoku Booth! He was in his crate most of the time, since a lot of people wanting to pet him can be overwhelming! We got asked a lot if he was a different color Shikoku since we were in the Shikoku booth, so we started automatically pointing to him and saying he is a different Japanese Spitz breed. We are really hoping to have a Kai Ken booth next year!
Testicles. Yes we felt both last night! Well, at least we think we did. We are no experts but pretty sure we felt two M&M sized bumps!
Nails. He hates getting them done. The first time he got his nails grinded he expressed his own anal glands, poo and peed all over himself. Luckily I wasn't the one doing it haha. We tried to trim his nails last night, and we only got the right ones (minus dew claw). He was really uncomfortable. We tried to coax him with PB, but he would be licking and then struggling in my arms. Hopefully over time he will get used to it. It's mainly his dew claws I'm worried about since he mainly walks on concrete, his nails would eventually get filed down. Mika's dew claws are ridiculously long (which scares me a lot, that she will rip it or hurt herself with it) and the quick is long too, so we can barely trim hers and I don't want that to happen to him. I would like to be able to trim his nails on my own someday, so going to keep trying and treating him while we attempt to trim his nails.
Overall though, he is very friendly and loves to be around people. His tail moves insanely fast when he's around people and getting attention.
Sorry for the wall of text! To make up for it, here is a pic taken last week Friday on our way home from work!
Sorry about the potty training stuff how big is his crate? is it those kind with dividers?
Nail trimming can be a pain.
I worked with Saya at 8 weeks I'd start by getting her used to me holding her in my lap and once she got used to that I'd put the clippers near her claws then treated her.
Once she did fine with that I'd clip one nail really lightly so I didn't get the quick or anything and she got a treat. She got one nail trimed per session and eventually I worked her up to two nails then three then one paw then a second paw etc.
Maybe canned fish like salmon or sardines will help with treating him? More smelly.
Sorry about the separation anxiety hope it works out soon. I'm lucky saya not too bad with that.
I know there's some dogs book on that I think it's called I'll be home soon or something like that..
Cute picture of Mika and Kyuubi.
Bella was like that with Saya when Saya was a young puppy. Saya would bite so hard and rough on her boxer lips Bella would get scratches. Bella never corrected Saya probably because she was so happy to have a dog playmate I dunno.. lol
Puppy class will definitely help with it I think. Did with Saya since the pups would yipe and stop playing with her for a bit when Saya got too rough.
Great update! Sounds like the little guy is doing fantastic.
I'd like to point out that two things about Mika's play with him. First, the squeak she does when he bites down too hard is a correction. You don't need to help her along on that front, it sounds like she's doing a perfectly good job of teaching him boundaries. Second, with regards to the paw bite, again you should probably just let them sort it out. By picking Mika up, you are 1) preventing her from establishing her own boundaries, and 2) reinforcing the Shiba drama that will inevitably result from rough play. If she was ready to go back for more play the instant you put her down, she wasn't really hurt. She was milking momma for some attention. I've seen it 100s of times with my Shiba. lol.
Sosuke's puppy classes start on Monday, so we're in the same boat on that one. I signed him up as soon as I knew I was getting him, but it has taken this long to get in. The only place that you can get into without a long wait is this place I really don't like. I took Tojo there when he was a puppy and the instructor went around telling people not to touch him because shibas are aggressive, and she kept telling me that you basically can't train shibas. So, when Tojo out-performed her poodles (she bred poodles and the puppies she sells go to her classes) she just kept telling me over and over again that I was extremely lucky and that no other shiba in the world would be that good. She was really miffed when she was talking about how hard it is to teach a dog to roll over and the next class, Tojo was rolling over like a champ. Anyway, yeah, don't like her.
Sosuke's got a bit of separation anxiety, too, but it doesn't sound like it's as bad. We've got baby gates sectioning off different rooms (because we can only manage to keep one room puppy-proofed at a time, lol), and as I walk around the house, I go through all the gates and of course he gets really upset when he's stuck behind a gate watching me do stuff over there. Getting him distracted with chews and toys works half the time, but when all else fails, he's perfectly happy in his crate. His recall is really good, too. To reinforce that, I've taken him out to the coulees and if he goes off somewhere else, I hide behind a tree, so he's getting the notion that when he's off leash, he really has to keep an eye on me because I keep disappearing.
As far as nails, I tried the grinder and he really just wasn't going for it, so I'm using clippers and he's much more open to that. I put him on the table, smear something yummy on the table, and while he's licking it, I clip his nails. He usually tugs his legs away, but every time he lets me clip a nail without putting up a fuss, he gets an extra treat like freeze-dried liver.
@jujee - I agree with Dave 100% about Mika's corrections with Kyuubi.
I would NOT intervene if it's play, even if she appears to be screaming in pain. The issue with intervening when Mika is screaming is that you end up correcting her for giving her correction. Like Dave wrote, the scream is her correction, and if you interrupt it too many times then she is going to start to think you are correcting her for giving Kyuubi a correction (even if you feel it is not strong enough). It's the equivalent of correcting a dog for growling - if you train them not to growl then you are taking a tool out of their "social toolbox" and therefore negatively effecting their ability to communicate.
Kyuubi really got a lot of time with the dogs here, from very early on, he mos def knows bite inhibition and understands a correction. Perhaps, by stopping them, you are not allowing Mika to get to the point to give a firmer correction and so Kyuubi is not learning his boundaries. That's just a thought.
I would do the opposite of what you are doing an actually praise Mika for correcting (screaming). Boost her confidence so she feels like correcting Kyuubi during the social interaction (conflict) is a supported - it's what she should be doing. The more you reinforce it, the more she will use it, and the more she uses it, the more confident she will become in expressing her boundaries to Kyuubi.
If you REALLY feel like you want to stop the interaction, grab 2 treats and call both of them to you. Treat them and then dismiss them with a "go play". If you plan to do this, then I would also stop them during play when they are not at the level where Mika feels the need to correct (scream). So you would call them over before it gets to that point, treat them, and then let them go back and play. This reinforces you interrupting them with a good thing (a treat) and teaches them that they get interrupted for treats during play often (for whatever reason their human feels like interrupting them), which will make it easier to break up a real conflict (between them) later. This is the method we used with Ahi, Loa, and Kona early on - beck before we had 10,000 dogs.
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As for the nail trim thing, Kai Ken just really suck with nail trimming, but they do get better with age. I think the goal is to reduce the negative association as much as possible when they are young so that later when they mature out of it there is no lingering nativity.
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About the separation anxiety. Haru has some too. Taka as well. This seems like another common Kai thing. I think the key is to reduce the "event" when you are coming and going. Also keep him in a crate when you are there, like even when you are close to the crate. You want to make it so the crate doesn't always equal "mom and dad are leaving" or "I'm getting dinner". You want him to learn that sometimes he just need to chill in his crate just because. IMHO it's a 3 step thing...
1 - Reduce the negative association with the crate (feed him in it and keep him in it even when you are there). 2 - Reduce the "event" - no exuberant greetings or departures. Put him in the crate before you leave, do some stuff in the house (so it feels like you just need him in the crate for a bit while you are there), then sneak out the door. This way he doesn't realize you are gone for awhile. Be mindful of the queues that let him know you are leaving. 3 - Treat/feed him in the crate (as you are doing).
Julie! I have the solution! You need to channel your inner toddler. I just realized that I've been doing exactly what Brad was saying with the crate, but not deliberately. Sometimes he goes in the crate because I have some other crisis to deal with (you know, the kinds kids create), so he's pretty used to being put in his crate at random times. I give them their chews (bully sticks, kongs, whatever) in crates because Naomi wants to put everything in her mouth, the dogs let her take things from them, and I don't want my daughter to have UFP breath, lol. And, I always put Sosuke in his crate about 15 minutes before we leave, because it's a whole process getting everyone out the door and settled into the car, and it's easier to not have Sosuke under foot. Then, I can't get him out of his crate right away when I get back because, again, there's a whole process involved in getting everyone inside and five coats hung up and five pairs of shoes put away, and whatever else. I guess overall, he's pretty used to the idea that he doesn't get 100% attention just because I'm there, and things can happen really randomly and without warning. I guess my kids are pretty good dog training assistants. lol
As for rough playing - I'm so surprised with how rough Rakka and Sosuke get. I've broken them up a few times because I'm thinking, holy crap, that's just a bit much! But then they're both smiles and tail wagging, and wanting to get back to it. Like, "Uh, Mom, we were having a fun game of 'brutally kill each other' and you interrupted us." Sometimes Rakka's like... chewing on Sosuke's face, but I guess that's fun for them, so whatever, lol.
Thanks for the advice all! It is my first time having more than 1 dog at a time so I wasn't sure what to expect with play styles. Plus Mika is my little princess lol, I probably do need to stop babying her so much. :P
Heidi - I just need to have kids! Lol
But yeah Kyuubi has been crated a lot more when I'm busy doing things. He cries for a bit then settles down and sleeps. I have stopped intervening when I hear MIka cry during play. I also have been interrupting them myself with treats! It's quite funny because they tend to just sit down in front of me for 5 minutes to get more treats instead of playing haha! Silly puppies!
Kyuubi will be switched to a raw diet soon! He will probably be fed kibble if I ever forget to thaw something. He has been snubbing kibble lately and wanting to eat Mika's raw food and Mika wants his kibble instead of her raw! Last night Kyuubi wouldn't eat his kibble so we had Mika come out and start to eat his food and then he started gobbling away. He did guard his food in the beginning with her, but they can eat out of the same bowl without any problems. We usually don't let them though. It was just to entice him to eat lol =]
First video is from today when he went to puppy classes. He got to go in the tunnelers Second video is from yesterday, he found his voice! I parked the car and he started barking. He usually never barks, so it was a bit unusual to hear something coming out of him because he's usually very soft spoken.
Omg Julie..he is adorable!!!!!! The videos were great- the one of him barking had Jake wake up and start grunting/barking. Too funny lol. He really is beautiful. How is the training going? Easier than Mika?
oh my so much to read.. I love it..the more the better...
I apologize if anyone answered anything I write. I will go back and read later but for now getting ready to go to class.
frist on nail trimming, start out slow, one nail a day, it will be over before you start and give a treat immediately or if you have help have someone treat as you do the nail..
Spirit (kai) would scream and fight and bite when it was time for nails. I swear she learned it from the Shiba's. LOL. So while she was sleeping on bed I would drop a piece of hotdog by her nose trim a nail or 2 and by the time she came out of her sleep, she had the hot dog gone and her nails were done. We repeated this process and eventually she got where I could trim all nails anywhere, anytime and then treat her at the end. I did always have to start with back feet for some reason though.
As far as the dogs playing rough, haven't had a chance to read everything as I stated, but the bits and pieces I did see I agree with.
Most of the time it is not an issue with one or 2 pups, but when you have 5 or 6 pups of various ages (10,000 dogs per Brad:) and introduce a younger one to the mix, older ones can get a bit rough. So whenever I get a new puppy I spray them with bitter apple to make the other dogs play gently with them. The dogs learn to bite to the side and never hurt each other.
I had to do this with my first ones Treasure, 5 months and Jewel, 8 weeks and he was actually hurting her. Because he was completely unsocialized at 5 months and raised with a bunch of other puppys and very little human contact, I chose to use the spray, so I did not have to correct him and take a chance he would withdraw even more from me. This worked well and eventually spraying puppys lead to the adult dogs biting to the side of puppys and never hurting them, but still giving effective corrections.
Jewel is definitely the pack leader and everyone rolls over and submits instantly. It is funny to watch Jewel walk through the middle of everyone, growling and dogs on each side falling to the ground and rolling over. And yet she has never hurt anyone.
p.s. never let them see you spray anything, they will associate the nasty taste with something you did and will learn when it is safe and when it is not.
Yeah, I am always watching the dogs like a hawk in the backyard. He was digging in the back corner and came around when I was trying to take a pic of him . After the pic was taken I made him get down from there. It really does suck though as we have about 4 of the sago palms. Moving into the new place next week so won't have that problem anymore
@brada1878 - Yeah, that was my first thought too. whenever i show coworkers or friends his pictures they think he's an aggressive dog but we both know he's a lover, not a fighter.
Yesterday we crashed a shiba meetup at the last minute, they only scheduled it a day before, so thought we'd drop by to let the pups have some fun. We are in the process of moving so they have been crated a lot more lately and haven't had a lot of time to play. Afterwards I had a little photo shoot with Kyuubi in front of our place.
@brada1878 now that you mention it, his mask does look a bit darker. Hmm, in the KKA standard isn't having a mask not preferred? Yeah he and Taka are definitely much darker compared to Juno and Sosuke. It is very interesting how there was an even split like that in the litter, 1 darker boy, 1 darker girl, 1 lighter boy, 1 lighter girl. I'm also still waiting for his testicles to descend. :T I know he's still young and there's still time, but I check him often LOL!
There weren't many shibas at the meetup since it was scheduled very last minute, I think there were maybe 7 shibas there altogether? A few of them do not like interacting with other dogs and just stay close to their humans. So he played with other smaller dogs. He's been to that dog park before and has played with a french bulldog puppy, they had a blast together. As for Kurenai, they got to play a bit, but Jesse was holding onto her leash because she likes to chase other dogs and some dog park owners don't like it when their dog is running away from a 30lb shikoku lol.
None of the shiba owners had ever met a Kai Ken before. I got asked once by a shiba owner if he was also a shiba and I always get asked if he's an akita. I don't think there are any other kai ken owners in the So Cal area, but I could be wrong because when I went to register Kyuubi for his Training for Life package Romi got to meet him and said she met a kai ken at the dog beach. Even at the pet expo, only one person that came up to the Shikoku booth immediately knew that Kyuubi was a kai ken.
@jujee - hmm... still no testicle, huh? I think we may end up owing you another pup.
I know late dropping testicles seems to be a trend with these imports, and some of our imports have taken longer than this to drop, but it's still concerning and not "normal". In the cases with our imports that dropped late we knew they had testicles (we could feel them coming and going) they just had not dropped ("settled") yet. If you can't feel them at all, I think maybe we (you) should reconsider him for breeding. Lets give it to six months of age and then discuss it if his testicles are still not visible. Cool?
I don't want to make it a bigger deal than it is tho. If his testicles don't drop then you will need to neuter him. The vet can remove his testicles even if they have not dropped, and doing that removes any risks of cancer in the future. So, my point is, if his testicles don't drop then he shouldn't be kept for breeding, and therefore he should be neutered, and neutering removes the future associated health risks.
In regards to his mask, no a mask is not preferred in KKA or NIPPO but it's too early to worry about that, his mask will fade with age. That can take awhile, like he could be a year old before he starts to really show what his coat will be moving forward. Taka's mask is pretty crazy too, so we are doing the waiting game with her too.
I'm glad he does well with all the other pups. He used to play with Ahi, Kaiju, and Loa so he should have recognized some of Kurenai's antics. ) It's good to hear that he does well with dogs and people as that is something that's very important to Jen and I.
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@toecari -thanks for the pic!
A little written update on Kyuubi since I've only been posting pictures, which is the best part of this thread, who wants to read boring wall of texts anyway? lol
We still have accidents every few days or so with him. He is 100x harder to potty train than Mika was. He does something really funny though when he does have an accident in his crate. I used to keep a towel in the crate (I don't really anymore) and there will be times when I wake up to him moving the towel around with his muzzle. Why? Cause he is trying to clean up his accident so he can go back to sleep! He really is just so silly! I wish he would whine if he needs to go in the middle of the night so I can take him out, but he doesn't cry or whine. He only does so if he already had his accident and that's if there isn't a towel in his crate for him to clean up his mess. There has been no poo accidents, which is great!
Separation anxiety! Omg! He screams and cries all the time when I leave. Bullystick, frozen kong with pb or yogurt, nope! Doesn't work. He always notices when I slip out of the room. I can't even go take a shower without him screaming his head off. I know they will grow out of it, there were a few times in the past few days where he didn't cry or scream as much, but he still has some anxiety. Upside about him wanting to be with me all the time is that I don't have to worry that he is going go bolt out the door. He also has AWESOME recall, I think it's mainly cause of the separation anxiety he gets when he doesn't see me, so he wants to be with me and comes to me when I call him.
Saturday he will start his first puppy class. I know, I'm so late on this. I would have liked to take him to classes 2 weeks ago, but there was a misunderstanding between the facility I go to and with my vet. The whole needing bordatella to take pup classes (which Mika did NOT need when she took pup classes at 9 weeks) kind of irritated me and then the fact my vet won't administer the shot until 12 weeks (this week). One big thing I'm happy about puppy class is that there will be other pups around his age, so he can play and hopefully those pups will correct him. Mika DOES NOT correct him. EVER. Which is very concerning to me because she does cry out in pain when they are playing when he bites down on her for too long/too hard. I make a loud noise or go over and break them up. But Mika doesn't care, she tries to kick out of my arms to continue playing with him. There were a few times when he got a hold of her front paw and bit down where when I made a loud noise they both looked at me and she had her paw up and didn't want to put pressure on it. I picked her up and held her for a bit, and then she wanted to go play with him again. I wish she would correct him, but she's never been the type to correct another dog while playing, she either takes it or cowards away somewhere. So really hoping he will learn how hard his bite really is. He is pretty good about not mouthing us too hard, but we still have to yelp or walk away from him.
Pet Expo. He was a star at the Shikoku Booth! He was in his crate most of the time, since a lot of people wanting to pet him can be overwhelming! We got asked a lot if he was a different color Shikoku since we were in the Shikoku booth, so we started automatically pointing to him and saying he is a different Japanese Spitz breed. We are really hoping to have a Kai Ken booth next year!
Testicles. Yes we felt both last night! Well, at least we think we did. We are no experts but pretty sure we felt two M&M sized bumps!
Nails. He hates getting them done. The first time he got his nails grinded he expressed his own anal glands, poo and peed all over himself. Luckily I wasn't the one doing it haha. We tried to trim his nails last night, and we only got the right ones (minus dew claw). He was really uncomfortable. We tried to coax him with PB, but he would be licking and then struggling in my arms. Hopefully over time he will get used to it. It's mainly his dew claws I'm worried about since he mainly walks on concrete, his nails would eventually get filed down. Mika's dew claws are ridiculously long (which scares me a lot, that she will rip it or hurt herself with it) and the quick is long too, so we can barely trim hers and I don't want that to happen to him. I would like to be able to trim his nails on my own someday, so going to keep trying and treating him while we attempt to trim his nails.
Overall though, he is very friendly and loves to be around people. His tail moves insanely fast when he's around people and getting attention.
Sorry for the wall of text! To make up for it, here is a pic taken last week Friday on our way home from work!
Nail trimming can be a pain.
I worked with Saya at 8 weeks I'd start by getting her used to me holding her in my lap and once she got used to that I'd put the clippers near her claws then treated her.
Once she did fine with that I'd clip one nail really lightly so I didn't get the quick or anything and she got a treat. She got one nail trimed per session and eventually I worked her up to two nails then three then one paw then a second paw etc.
Maybe canned fish like salmon or sardines will help with treating him? More smelly.
Sorry about the separation anxiety hope it works out soon. I'm lucky saya not too bad with that.
I know there's some dogs book on that I think it's called I'll be home soon or something like that..
Cute picture of Mika and Kyuubi.
Bella was like that with Saya when Saya was a young puppy. Saya would bite so hard and rough on her boxer lips Bella would get scratches. Bella never corrected Saya probably because she was so happy to have a dog playmate I dunno.. lol
Puppy class will definitely help with it I think. Did with Saya since the pups would yipe and stop playing with her for a bit when Saya got too rough.
I'd like to point out that two things about Mika's play with him. First, the squeak she does when he bites down too hard is a correction. You don't need to help her along on that front, it sounds like she's doing a perfectly good job of teaching him boundaries. Second, with regards to the paw bite, again you should probably just let them sort it out. By picking Mika up, you are 1) preventing her from establishing her own boundaries, and 2) reinforcing the Shiba drama that will inevitably result from rough play. If she was ready to go back for more play the instant you put her down, she wasn't really hurt. She was milking momma for some attention. I've seen it 100s of times with my Shiba. lol.
I can't wait to hear about puppy class!
Sosuke's got a bit of separation anxiety, too, but it doesn't sound like it's as bad. We've got baby gates sectioning off different rooms (because we can only manage to keep one room puppy-proofed at a time, lol), and as I walk around the house, I go through all the gates and of course he gets really upset when he's stuck behind a gate watching me do stuff over there. Getting him distracted with chews and toys works half the time, but when all else fails, he's perfectly happy in his crate. His recall is really good, too. To reinforce that, I've taken him out to the coulees and if he goes off somewhere else, I hide behind a tree, so he's getting the notion that when he's off leash, he really has to keep an eye on me because I keep disappearing.
As far as nails, I tried the grinder and he really just wasn't going for it, so I'm using clippers and he's much more open to that. I put him on the table, smear something yummy on the table, and while he's licking it, I clip his nails. He usually tugs his legs away, but every time he lets me clip a nail without putting up a fuss, he gets an extra treat like freeze-dried liver.
I would NOT intervene if it's play, even if she appears to be screaming in pain. The issue with intervening when Mika is screaming is that you end up correcting her for giving her correction. Like Dave wrote, the scream is her correction, and if you interrupt it too many times then she is going to start to think you are correcting her for giving Kyuubi a correction (even if you feel it is not strong enough). It's the equivalent of correcting a dog for growling - if you train them not to growl then you are taking a tool out of their "social toolbox" and therefore negatively effecting their ability to communicate.
Kyuubi really got a lot of time with the dogs here, from very early on, he mos def knows bite inhibition and understands a correction. Perhaps, by stopping them, you are not allowing Mika to get to the point to give a firmer correction and so Kyuubi is not learning his boundaries. That's just a thought.
I would do the opposite of what you are doing an actually praise Mika for correcting (screaming). Boost her confidence so she feels like correcting Kyuubi during the social interaction (conflict) is a supported - it's what she should be doing. The more you reinforce it, the more she will use it, and the more she uses it, the more confident she will become in expressing her boundaries to Kyuubi.
If you REALLY feel like you want to stop the interaction, grab 2 treats and call both of them to you. Treat them and then dismiss them with a "go play". If you plan to do this, then I would also stop them during play when they are not at the level where Mika feels the need to correct (scream). So you would call them over before it gets to that point, treat them, and then let them go back and play. This reinforces you interrupting them with a good thing (a treat) and teaches them that they get interrupted for treats during play often (for whatever reason their human feels like interrupting them), which will make it easier to break up a real conflict (between them) later. This is the method we used with Ahi, Loa, and Kona early on - beck before we had 10,000 dogs.
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As for the nail trim thing, Kai Ken just really suck with nail trimming, but they do get better with age. I think the goal is to reduce the negative association as much as possible when they are young so that later when they mature out of it there is no lingering nativity.
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About the separation anxiety. Haru has some too. Taka as well. This seems like another common Kai thing. I think the key is to reduce the "event" when you are coming and going. Also keep him in a crate when you are there, like even when you are close to the crate. You want to make it so the crate doesn't always equal "mom and dad are leaving" or "I'm getting dinner". You want him to learn that sometimes he just need to chill in his crate just because. IMHO it's a 3 step thing...
1 - Reduce the negative association with the crate (feed him in it and keep him in it even when you are there).
2 - Reduce the "event" - no exuberant greetings or departures. Put him in the crate before you leave, do some stuff in the house (so it feels like you just need him in the crate for a bit while you are there), then sneak out the door. This way he doesn't realize you are gone for awhile. Be mindful of the queues that let him know you are leaving.
3 - Treat/feed him in the crate (as you are doing).
I hope this helps.
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As for rough playing - I'm so surprised with how rough Rakka and Sosuke get. I've broken them up a few times because I'm thinking, holy crap, that's just a bit much! But then they're both smiles and tail wagging, and wanting to get back to it. Like, "Uh, Mom, we were having a fun game of 'brutally kill each other' and you interrupted us." Sometimes Rakka's like... chewing on Sosuke's face, but I guess that's fun for them, so whatever, lol.
Heidi - I just need to have kids! Lol
But yeah Kyuubi has been crated a lot more when I'm busy doing things. He cries for a bit then settles down and sleeps. I have stopped intervening when I hear MIka cry during play. I also have been interrupting them myself with treats! It's quite funny because they tend to just sit down in front of me for 5 minutes to get more treats instead of playing haha! Silly puppies!
Kyuubi will be switched to a raw diet soon!
First video is from today when he went to puppy classes. He got to go in the tunnelers
Second video is from yesterday, he found his voice! I parked the car and he started barking. He usually never barks, so it was a bit unusual to hear something coming out of him because he's usually very soft spoken.
Jen
Funny how Mika wants his kibble and he wants her raw. lol
Saya loves kibble so she usually hangs far enough to not bother Bella and dink, but she just sits there wanting some kibble. lol
I give her Bella's kibble as treats and for training.
The second video nice bark on him how old is Kyuubi?
I apologize if anyone answered anything I write. I will go back and read later but for now getting ready to go to class.
frist on nail trimming, start out slow, one nail a day, it will be over before you start and give a treat immediately or if you have help have someone treat as you do the nail..
Spirit (kai) would scream and fight and bite when it was time for nails. I swear she learned it from the Shiba's. LOL. So while she was sleeping on bed I would drop a piece of hotdog by her nose trim a nail or 2 and by the time she came out of her sleep, she had the hot dog gone and her nails were done. We repeated this process and eventually she got where I could trim all nails anywhere, anytime and then treat her at the end. I did always have to start with back feet for some reason though.
As far as the dogs playing rough, haven't had a chance to read everything as I stated, but the bits and pieces I did see I agree with.
Most of the time it is not an issue with one or 2 pups, but when you have 5 or 6 pups of various ages (10,000 dogs per Brad:) and introduce a younger one to the mix, older ones can get a bit rough. So whenever I get a new puppy I spray them with bitter apple to make the other dogs play gently with them. The dogs learn to bite to the side and never hurt each other.
I had to do this with my first ones Treasure, 5 months and Jewel, 8 weeks and he was actually hurting her. Because he was completely unsocialized at 5 months and raised with a bunch of other puppys and very little human contact, I chose to use the spray, so I did not have to correct him and take a chance he would withdraw even more from me. This worked well and eventually spraying puppys lead to the adult dogs biting to the side of puppys and never hurting them, but still giving effective corrections.
Jewel is definitely the pack leader and everyone rolls over and submits instantly. It is funny to watch Jewel walk through the middle of everyone, growling and dogs on each side falling to the ground and rolling over. And yet she has never hurt anyone.
p.s. never let them see you spray anything, they will associate the nasty taste with something you did and will learn when it is safe and when it is not.
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Kyuubi meets Kurenai for the first time~ :]
How did he do with the Shibas and Kurenai? Had many of the Shiba owners met a Kai Ken before?
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There weren't many shibas at the meetup since it was scheduled very last minute, I think there were maybe 7 shibas there altogether? A few of them do not like interacting with other dogs and just stay close to their humans. So he played with other smaller dogs. He's been to that dog park before and has played with a french bulldog puppy, they had a blast together. As for Kurenai, they got to play a bit, but Jesse was holding onto her leash because she likes to chase other dogs and some dog park owners don't like it when their dog is running away from a 30lb shikoku lol.
None of the shiba owners had ever met a Kai Ken before. I got asked once by a shiba owner if he was also a shiba and I always get asked if he's an akita. I don't think there are any other kai ken owners in the So Cal area, but I could be wrong because when I went to register Kyuubi for his Training for Life package Romi got to meet him and said she met a kai ken at the dog beach. Even at the pet expo, only one person that came up to the Shikoku booth immediately knew that Kyuubi was a kai ken.
I know late dropping testicles seems to be a trend with these imports, and some of our imports have taken longer than this to drop, but it's still concerning and not "normal". In the cases with our imports that dropped late we knew they had testicles (we could feel them coming and going) they just had not dropped ("settled") yet. If you can't feel them at all, I think maybe we (you) should reconsider him for breeding. Lets give it to six months of age and then discuss it if his testicles are still not visible. Cool?
I don't want to make it a bigger deal than it is tho. If his testicles don't drop then you will need to neuter him. The vet can remove his testicles even if they have not dropped, and doing that removes any risks of cancer in the future. So, my point is, if his testicles don't drop then he shouldn't be kept for breeding, and therefore he should be neutered, and neutering removes the future associated health risks.
In regards to his mask, no a mask is not preferred in KKA or NIPPO but it's too early to worry about that, his mask will fade with age. That can take awhile, like he could be a year old before he starts to really show what his coat will be moving forward. Taka's mask is pretty crazy too, so we are doing the waiting game with her too.
I'm glad he does well with all the other pups. He used to play with Ahi, Kaiju, and Loa so he should have recognized some of Kurenai's antics.
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