Teaching a Shiba To Come
I have a new rescued, 1 year old, male shiba. I've heard they are really smart and sometimes I think he may almost be as smart as me but............I know how to come when I'm called and don't dart out the front door and run in front of cars. I had the scare of my life!
Do/can they ever learn to come when they are called. I've heard differing stories that they are runners, stubborn and don't learn the come command when outside? Please give me tips on how to train him to come no matter what the situation or distractions around him.
Desparate in Colorado!
Comments
Hi Kereco, welcome to the forum!
Any dog can learn to come, some are just harder to teach than others. With Shiba I think they are not hard to teach, you just have to make it worth their while to come to you... and to do that you need to make sure every time you call them to come, and they come to you, you make it the best thing EVER.
Generally speaking tho, I would not trust any Japanese Spitz-type breed off leash.
If your Shiba gets away from you, don't chase him! Run the other direction, they will chase you.
We have trained our Shibas not to run out the door, we did that with just lots of patience and treats.
Thanks, after my scary experience yesterday and my sore legs from running after him for 3 blocks, you may be on to something. Run from him, anyway you slice it I'll get my exercise if this ever happens again. I hope not though, my heart nearly stopped several times. I would never take him off leash after yesterdays experience.
Is there some special technique that you used, besides the treats and making it the best thing ever? Maybe one of the long extendable leashes, let him go out so far, stop him in his tracks while saying come and have a treat ready. At this point I'll try anything.
Hey there,
Have you ever seen the movie "As good as it gets" with Jack Nicholson? He wins the dogs heart and attention by keeping a baggie of bacon in his pocket.
I have since started keeping a baggy of chicken livers (cooked and refrigerated) handy. When we go outside we work on our manners and attention. It has been a good week now and he is completely convinced I am the liver Pez dispenser and has been so cooperative and attentive. I can now get him to sit outside and allow me to pet him, before he used to jump back whenever I would reach for him for fear I was going to grab him I guess. He is just silly because I have never grabbed him or jumped him in his little life. His flight instincts are so intune it is uncanny, yet, I am so thankful that he thinks the world beyond my fenced yard is full of horrible puppy-eating monsters; I am going to try to keep it that way. Today he saw the dreaded Garbageman monster and is convinced it was coming for him.
Goodluck with your kid, he is handsome as all get out. I admire anyone that attempts to work with an older dog. Please keep us updated on your work with him.
Ron
I'm still working on the come when called, but Lucy has the door bolting thing figured out. I have trained her to wait for me to walk out first and then give her the "ok" command before she can exit the door. I did this pretty quickly using the following technique:
I do this all the time. When we leave the house, when we come back in the house, when we leave the bedroom, when we go out on the deck, and when we get in and out of the car. Its not going to help with the coming when called, but it will help prevent you from needing to call him!
Good luck and welcome to the forum!
I think this might have been the best thing I've done all day, joining this forum. So much good advice. I'm loving the liversnaps in the pocket, although the smell, look and feel grosses me out, I'm willing to try anything. He is beautiful, sweet, an attention hog, early warning system and hopefully a new best friend. I think it comes down to consistency.
I want to teach him a healthy fear/respect for cars too, so if this ever happens again, he will think they are big rolling monsters.
He just turned 1 year on Elvis's birthday and he is named King, (although, I gave him a new name yesterday after I coughed up my left lung running after him), so he isn't that old, at least I hope not that old that he can't learn a few new tricks.
Thank you, thank you, thank you all, I'll keep you posted on how things go. It's going to be one busy summer.
Hi Kereco, welcome to the forum!
I agree with everyone else. Basically, when I teach my dogs to come, I give them the best, most tasty treat ever and LOTS of praise. My Boxer Portia has a great deal of respect for us, but it took us LOTS of work and consistency. Now we can leave our front gate open and she won't run out. She will just stare at it like "uh oh, thats not supposed to be open!" But my Shiba Ninja on the other hand is quite the door bolter. He will run out any chance he gets. Although it is pretty easy to catch him, he just goes on our regular route that we use for walks, so we just get in front of him.
I have started to train them to "go home" after our walks. When we get close to the house I will drop the lead and tell them "go home" so it seems as if they are free, but not totally. And they learn where to go when I say the specific command. Also, how does King walk with you? If he is a good loose leash walker, you might want to try dropping the lead and walking with him, if he attempts to run or walk in front of you, you can just step on the leash and start again. I know I can trust Portia off lead, but I still don't risk it in public, you never know when a car is going to pop out.
Many Spitz breeds are difficult for the come command because they are so independent! I agree with what every one is saying here. I acutally find my Shikoku much easier and more reliable off lead than I did my Siberians (but maybe it is just this 1 Shikoku). But that being said, I only did off lead work in the fenced yard and made certain that he listened well there before I tried it out in the big world.
Here's one other thing to try. If you can get you boy to reliably "down" on command, I think this works great. As the dog is loose around me, I periodically give the down command and reward highly for him doing it (eg, praise, food) and staying in the down position until I says "ok" to release. That way, even if you are out and your boy bolts away, if the "down" is well conditioned, you can give the command and at least stop him from running further. I also do the same teaching for the command "wait" - ie, stop in your tracks and wait for me.
You may never get a good reliable come off lead, especially with certain Spitz breeds and/or individuals. But if you can make it very rewarding for them to listen (ie, food and praise) it will really help.
BTW - I love the "walking Pez dispenser" comment from above. LOL!
It seems like you might need a bit of funny yet great info on shibas. Please check out this website:
http://www.bravewolf.ca/shibainu.html
You have received a lot of great advice. I'd just like to say that you should never trust your Shiba off leash unless it is in a fenced backyard or at a dog park. They are hunting dogs with high prey drives. You might be able to train your Shiba to come 9 out of 10 times, but to me, that 1 times too risky.
We are able to keep a baby gate in between the entryway and the door to outside. I get everything ready for our walk or trip, then I remove the gate (front door locked), leash him, put the gate back in place and then we head out. Always keep your doors locked, it helps to cut down on "oops" the door was open instances.
Also, some people who have real door blotters have eyehole screws stuck in the walls in a few strategic places, if you have people coming over, or someone comes to the door unexpectedly leash the dog, and hook him onto the eyehole screw, then he can't run. This is great if you have not yet trained your dog not to run out the door (some dogs NEVER train to that).
Also you might want to keep your boy dragging a six foot leash for a long time, so if he does get out, you have something to grab onto if you get close.
There are a lot of really knowledgeable people on here, welcome to the forum.
Brandon, the website was wonderful and I've not laughed that hard in a while. I passed it on to the lady/friend who rescues Shibas. She currently has 6, one up for adoption. She got a kick out of the website also. It explains a lot about the Shiba that i've adopted. I'm glad I did it, but he is more than a little challenging. I did the baby gate thing the same day he ran out the door. I knew my legs and lungs couldn't take another work out like that.
By the way, he's doing quite well with the sit, down, stay, ok, give, shake and wait commands so I know's he's completely capable.
I'm excited about MY training, I say my, because I'm sure a lot of it is all about how we as owners handle our 4 legged children.
Thanks to everyone who's chimed in so far, I can't wait to put some of this advice in to action.
Never confuse a Shibas actions for stupid, they are really smart dogs, their logic just doesn't involve understanding cars. They are very smart when it comes to learning commands, obeying is a whole different game.
Shibas were bred to hunt, but not like retrievers. They were often used in packs, and the human would let all the dogs go and they would run off in many directions. They kind of worked in a large "circle" around the human, checking back in on him when they wanted. When they found game, they would hold it in place by barking until the human came to kill the game. It's an effective way of hunting, but not practical in a city where there are streets and cars.
If you have a big enough dog park, after you really bond, watch how your Shiba behaves. He might take off far away, but most likely he will continually check in, and keep you in his sites.
Oh no, this dog is not stupid at all, he's smart (like his owner
I noticed several times that he acted like he was going to come to me, but it was just his little PSYCH session, I actually thought I heard him say it and laugh. He did pretty much keep eye contact though, for the most part. It's a learning process for both of us.
We have several fairly large dog parks in Colorado Springs and as long as we don't get that snow storm, I think we'll give one a try one morning this weekend.
So, how many Shiba's do you own?
I have one Shiba, his name is Nemo. You can see him and a bunch of his friends here:
http://www.nihonken.org/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=535&page=1#Item_72
Welcome to the forum, kereco!
Brad, show me a shiba that doesn't look like a troublemaker!
Brandon, He's cute and looks so much like King. I really do love this little guy, pain in the arse or not! There is another rescue that I've been thinking about getting so King will have a friend. He's a black and tan male, and really small, maybe 20 lbs. They are pretty sure that he is about 1.5 years or so. I guess maybe I should try to get mine trained first!
Brad, He is cute and yes, he can be a huge trouble maker! Thank goodness the carpet is older, because i have a perfect quarter size hole right at the top of the stairs.
Leonberger and Hondru thanks for the welcome. It's been really nice learning more about this breed and that I'm not the only one experiencing the joys of a Shiba.
So, should I adopt or shouldn't I. The new little guy is so cute, almost irresistable! I said almost, how many of you own more than one?
By the way, I see some of you are on a first name basis. My name is Kevin, and I'm a woman! Before anyone asks, I was born in the 60s, so I think my parents were doing some illegal things!
Kereco - where in CO do you live?
Heidi - I know, you are so right... they are all little devils.
I live in Colorado Springs!
The other Shiba is a male, both are fixed. I don't know how well they get along, but we might have a play date to see! They are both young though, still puppies, so I'm guessing after the initial who's the boss thing, I think they would be great friends.
Yea, make sure you do a play date to see how they do, two males could go either way. In my experience, with our pack, the males are way easier going than the females. You just never know.
Hey, we are kinda close to each other, we are in Northern New Mex.
Very cool, where in NM? I love NM, I went to a bike rally this summer in Ruidoso, NM and loved that little town.
I don't really think I'm ready for another one yet, I've got my hands full with King right now! My friend always gets rescues, so I'm sure I will have another opportunity when I'm ready.
Did you all get snow down that way today? I know that the potential for more on Sunday/Monday could be big. We got quite a bit this morning of the really heavy, wet stuff.
Ruidoso is in my neck of the woods, about an hours drive from here. Right now is one of those times when I am not too please with New Mexico because we are having our spring wind storms. Today the sand was blowing horizontally about 60 mph...uggh.
Ron
Taos is lovely! It's pretty close to Red River isn't it?
We all have our weather we dislike, but when spring/summer are here I fall in love with Colorado Springs all over again. I'm a native of here, so living somewhere else would be weird for me.
Greensage, do you live in a specific town or up one of the passes on the way to Ruidoso. It was pretty perfect when we were there last year. Kind of reminds me of Woodland Park, Colorado which is about 30 to 45 minutes from Colorado Springs. It's really, cold, cloudy and partially snowy again today. I hate when the weather during the week gets up to 62 and the weekend turns to crap. Oh well, won't be long before that changes. I do hate the wind though.