Introducing Shoko [UPDATED 5/13]
Oh man, I couldn't be more excited! On Friday, our little girl finally arrived. We got her from Airreyalis in California, so she flew all the way to cold, cold Minnesota. We picked her up at the airport at around four. Due to typical airport biz, there was a fair amount of waiting, about an hour, and it was torturous. When she arrived while we were waiting (but before they brought her in), the guys unloading the ramp let us know that she was there and said "it's a cute one!" and the lady working for the airline who was helping us said, "when the ramp guys say it's cute, you know it must be." Needless to say, everyone was "aww"ing at her from afar. One worker even came up and said "I heard there was a dog that looked like a fox here so I had to come see. Yupp, she looks like a fox."
We decided to name her Shoko and she's been sooo good. As a new puppy momma I've been reading like crazy any and all info I can get my hands on regarding puppy rearing, so I was more or less prepared for the worst. That said, I am super impressed. She is remarkably calm and polite and attentive. Of course, she has her puppy moments. She loves to chew things (fortunately her play area is free of non-dog items)-- in fact, as I type this, she is attempting to chew on our patio door window. What the heck, Shoko!? Haha.
She's a fast learner though. She's already figured out two ways to get out of her play area, which we've had to remedy. She's doing really well with potty training too. She's had a couple accidents, but overall she seems to get that outside=bathroom. At first she just wanted to play or explore when we go out, but now she goes potty first thing. Then we can play! She's relatively unfazed with the cold, but sometimes she'll be shaking as she explores. We're gonna get her a jacket and booties I think. The past couple days have been nice out (nice in Minnesota in the middle of winter = >35F) but today it's starting to get chilly (it's 12F right now). And we wanna be able to take her on walks without her being uncomfortable!
Let's see, other things I'm impressed with about her... I've never heard her bark. She's pretty dang quiet, which I love. My cats are the talkative ones, haha. The only time I heard her come close to barking was on the first night when it started getting dark out and she noticed her reflection in the patio door window. She did a low growl and a little "boof" like noise. Like, "where did this other dog come from and why can't I smell it and why is it copying me???" She was over it in about one minute though. She doesn't mind being left alone. She doesn't mind being crated. She pretty much takes everything in stride and is totally calm. Sometimes she'll just sit and look at me all dignified rather than run up to me all wiggly when I'm trying to play with her like you'd expect from a puppy. Other Shikoku owners: is this typical? I know that in general they are sort of proud and standoffish but I thought maybe it's more something they grow into. Personally, I love it. Puppies are fun but even more so when they're polite. That's my #1 word for describing Shoko right now!
We're working on some aspects of Sophia Yin's Learn to Earn program with her and she's really catching on. It took her about three minutes to figure out that that I want her to sit and look at me to say please, and about half a day to realize that I want her to apply it to pretty much everything she does. She sits before we go outside, she sits before we go inside, she sits when she wants pets or when she wants me to come into her pen with her. She sits before I give her her food bowl. Sometimes when she's done going potty she'll just come up to me and sit and look at me like, "Alright, now what?" I have to give her the okay, like, "Good job girl, now you can have some fun time outside!" Of course, she needs reminders every now and then, haha. She really likes the game where we run and then stop and she has to sit and look at me to get a "treat" (aka kibble). We've got to work on reaction time though. It takes her 3-5 seconds after we stop for her to decide to sit down (she's gotta sniff everything first!)
And all this in just a couple days. Again, this first-time puppy owner is very impressed. I could write more but I think I'd better stop. Sorry for getting so long-winded, but no one else really cares to hear all these details, haha. Anyway, I'll get on with the good stuff. Pictures!
Sleeping with her beloved kong... lol
EDIT: Hmmm, I can't seem to get the pictures to work??? Anyone know what to do?
We decided to name her Shoko and she's been sooo good. As a new puppy momma I've been reading like crazy any and all info I can get my hands on regarding puppy rearing, so I was more or less prepared for the worst. That said, I am super impressed. She is remarkably calm and polite and attentive. Of course, she has her puppy moments. She loves to chew things (fortunately her play area is free of non-dog items)-- in fact, as I type this, she is attempting to chew on our patio door window. What the heck, Shoko!? Haha.
She's a fast learner though. She's already figured out two ways to get out of her play area, which we've had to remedy. She's doing really well with potty training too. She's had a couple accidents, but overall she seems to get that outside=bathroom. At first she just wanted to play or explore when we go out, but now she goes potty first thing. Then we can play! She's relatively unfazed with the cold, but sometimes she'll be shaking as she explores. We're gonna get her a jacket and booties I think. The past couple days have been nice out (nice in Minnesota in the middle of winter = >35F) but today it's starting to get chilly (it's 12F right now). And we wanna be able to take her on walks without her being uncomfortable!
Let's see, other things I'm impressed with about her... I've never heard her bark. She's pretty dang quiet, which I love. My cats are the talkative ones, haha. The only time I heard her come close to barking was on the first night when it started getting dark out and she noticed her reflection in the patio door window. She did a low growl and a little "boof" like noise. Like, "where did this other dog come from and why can't I smell it and why is it copying me???" She was over it in about one minute though. She doesn't mind being left alone. She doesn't mind being crated. She pretty much takes everything in stride and is totally calm. Sometimes she'll just sit and look at me all dignified rather than run up to me all wiggly when I'm trying to play with her like you'd expect from a puppy. Other Shikoku owners: is this typical? I know that in general they are sort of proud and standoffish but I thought maybe it's more something they grow into. Personally, I love it. Puppies are fun but even more so when they're polite. That's my #1 word for describing Shoko right now!
We're working on some aspects of Sophia Yin's Learn to Earn program with her and she's really catching on. It took her about three minutes to figure out that that I want her to sit and look at me to say please, and about half a day to realize that I want her to apply it to pretty much everything she does. She sits before we go outside, she sits before we go inside, she sits when she wants pets or when she wants me to come into her pen with her. She sits before I give her her food bowl. Sometimes when she's done going potty she'll just come up to me and sit and look at me like, "Alright, now what?" I have to give her the okay, like, "Good job girl, now you can have some fun time outside!" Of course, she needs reminders every now and then, haha. She really likes the game where we run and then stop and she has to sit and look at me to get a "treat" (aka kibble). We've got to work on reaction time though. It takes her 3-5 seconds after we stop for her to decide to sit down (she's gotta sniff everything first!)
And all this in just a couple days. Again, this first-time puppy owner is very impressed. I could write more but I think I'd better stop. Sorry for getting so long-winded, but no one else really cares to hear all these details, haha. Anyway, I'll get on with the good stuff. Pictures!
Sleeping with her beloved kong... lol
EDIT: Hmmm, I can't seem to get the pictures to work??? Anyone know what to do?
Comments
I use photobucket for my pics. I upload them there and then share by copying the html to my post here. I'm not too computer savvy, but I hope this helps.
The pics are fine, the tags were just missing the first '<' part.
You may not have this problem, but Kaja was interested in windows too. Then she decided window sills were nice to chew on. So I had to spray some not-so-tasty-stuff on the base to save it from further bite marks xD
As to your question on typical Shikoku puppy behavior, from my vast N of 1 experience, it seems typical. Yuki is very chill for the most part. He just hangs and observes to get the lay of the land. My neighbors are amazed at how calm he is, especially when their dogs and the chiwi's are losing their minds. Yuki can just kind of sit there and watch. About the only time he gets all puppy wiggly is when he has been in his crate for awhile.
The only problem we've had is with soiling the crate. She can hold her pee through the night just fine but after a few days she started having diarrhea. It's started getting less runny but it's still pretty icky. We've been taking her out several times before crating her and she won't go, and then of course once she's in her crate she has an accident, and it gets all over her, and we have to wash her and the bedding and her crate. It's happened almost every time she's been crated the last few days. I'm assuming the diarrhea is just a result of switching foods and the accidents are because she can't hold the diarrhea but I'm worried it'll start being a habit for her. Last night we crated her after taking her out several times and literally immediately she pooped in there. Could it be a behavior thing? Or do we just need to wait for the diarrhea to pass? We are using a deodorized in there when we clean it too. Sigh. If anyone has advice I'd love to hear it! We're trying to do our best for her and I feel so sad like maybe we're failing her in some way. If there's anything I should be doing differently, let me know!
Did you do a cold turkey food switch?
Hmmm... ways to curb the soiling of the crate. Well she hasn't had diarrhoea, but when Kaja was young I paid REALLY close attention to her butt. I could basically tell if she had to poop just by looking at it. She's just turning 4 months now, and she lets -me- know when she needs to poop. I will take her out to pee in the morning, then half an hour later she'll tell me she needs to do #2. So I guess I'm trying to say yeah, it'll pass, and it'll get better. Kaja tells me when she needs to poop almost all the time now. I sometimes wonder if she purposefully holds it in when I take her out to pee and play, just so she can go out later o.O
Diarrhoea thing is indeedily probably due to switching kibble. If it keeps going on for too long, try a kibble with different ingredients. A lot of dogs are allergic to chicken, for instance. Kaja has done well on Acana and Orijen's puppy foods. Also to spur the pooping outside thing, find a place that she gravitates to when she normally goes, and walk her around that area/stand there for a bit. Or walk, then come back to it. I know Kaja has her favorite pooping spots and once she gets there it comes out almost right away.
If it happens in the middle of the night, I wouldn't get all hussle bustle/ruin your sleep for cleaning her and the crate and all. I'd just grab an old towel and replace her bedding, then put her back in and clean her up proper in the morning rofl. That way you get to bed sooner, and she doesn't get 'attention' for messing it up either (even if it is accidental diarrhoea!). But then again I love my sleep...
Her stool is still pretty soft though... Is this normal when switching foods? it's been about a week and a half. It was only straight up diarrhea for maybe the first four or so days, but it hasn't really firmed up yet. We're thinking, maybe this food isn't a good fit for her? But I'm not sure if we should try to switch it again or not...
Anyway, here's a video of her playing fetch with her tennis ball before bed (if I can get it to work...)
And here she is, successfully worn out:
edit: of course, the video is not working... sigh! I'll mess with that later. Meanwhile, enjoy the sleeping pic.
Jesse
Have to agree with @Crimson02 and @TheYeti, regarding Orijen. Our Shiba, would pretty much fart us out of the room when we were feeding him the Orijen 6 Fish. We let him finish the bag and needless to say, he's never gotten that again. He was okay with the Regional Red. There are so many other quality dog foods out there, you don't need to suffer from "room clearing" gas. Several brands (Merricks & Natures Variety, to name a few) also have a fairly good variety of different protein sources so you don't necessarily have to switch between different dog food producers. Change them over slowly to make sure. Luckily both our two NK don't have issues when switching between different producers
Jesse
I'll post more pictures soon! She's doing great and her poops have firmed up a bit. She's been making it through the night great without an accident but sometimes during the day she will piddle inside... We're working on it! Usually it's only like half an hour after she's been outside so I don't know what her deal is. Overall though she's doing very well. She's happy to be getting more free reign over the house while we're home but her favorite games during that time are drag the rug out of the bathroom and chew on the cats' bed, haha. She's a goof.
I feed both my dogs Orijen, I can't say I've encountered any major issues - but they've both always had horrible room-clearing farts since day one. I did hear that soft poops can happen when they are young. Sometimes the consistency can change depending how quickly they poop after they've eaten, too.
The accident pees can happen, especially when excited, just like kids! But maybe she just needs an extra break during the day, it happens
Where to start? She's doing really great! Almost six months old now. Oh, how time flies! She's halfway through her first obedience course and we've working independently with her on a lot of obedience too, and she's doing really good. For some reason, "down" was really hard for her, but she's got it now. She still does it cautiously sometimes, looking at us like she's confused as she slowly slides into a laying position, haha. But everything else she's caught on quickly.
Notably, she's done really well with other dogs. She had one incident early on where a husky sort of attacked her, but fortunately she doesn't seem phased by that at all, and she pretty much likes all the other dogs she meets. Of course, whether they have any interest in her or not is an entirely different matter... haha. She definitely has that "rude" Shikoku play style thing going on. But she just absolutely loves playing with other dogs. And before we got her I never thought I'd say this so early, but it makes me really wish she had a live-in playmate...!
Basically she's your typical six-month-old pup. She loves to play, she loves to chew, she loves fetch, she loves her daily walks. The other day I went rollerblading with her and she really liked that. I'm excited because I loooove rollerblading and it seemed to suit her well too. It seems like when we're walking we can never go fast enough for Shoko but rollerblading seemed more in line with her energy levels. Plus my style of rollerblading is less of a steady pace (like running or biking) and more of like spurts of going fast and moments of more leisurely blading, which I feel is sort of how NK like to express their energy (at least with what I've seen with Shoko). Like, she gets her moments of sprinting (she gets so excited!), but it's not for too long and she gets to do more of an alert trot otherwise. Overall, she seemed very tired and happy afterwards, which is really the goal, right?
We've gone on some hikes too, which she's loved, and we went camping once in March. It was still pretty cold at night but luckily I had Shoko to spoon and keep me warm.
Hehe, she blinked.
Shoko = Shoshuu x Kotomi
Nyx = Shoshuu x Sakura
We had the same training issue with Katsu. He doesn't like down. It's hard to get him to do it outside and very hard to get him to do it around other dogs.
@emi802 Thank you! I really like the look of male shikoku, they're kind of... wider, you know? But recently I've really been appreciating Shoko's more feminine look. She's my sweet girl
Nyx is about 1.5 years now. We do feed her chicken and she has not had a reaction to it. However, we do try to minimize the amount of chicken she gets and generally avoid it if possible since we know of Shoushuu's allergies.