Koharu Updates - Pic Spam!
So it's been about 5 weeks since Koharu's joined us and I thought I'd start a thread for my pup! I've been putting a bunch of pics on my Instagram (located over at starlightjellyfish in case anyone's into the social media) because I think she's the most adorable puppy in the world, haha. She and I and the boyfriend are settling into a routine and getting to know one another, and I think it's been going pretty well.
We imported Koharu from Japan, and since I barely did any of the work (super special thanks and probably my eternal gratitude to Shigeru!), my experience centres solely on picking up her up from the airport. We drove ~4 hours to Detroit to pick her up and she was super cheerful and she weathered it beautifully! All the people working at the cargo desk loved her, too. Something that I will note, though, is that when we crossed back over the border into Canada, we had to pay taxes on her. We told them the amount we paid, but didn't look at the actual paperwork before going back home (it was like 11 PM and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us!), and we ended up paying way more in taxes than we needed to. Our mistake, but if anyone else is doing the same, it's something to look out for. The Canadian border agent even came out on her break/while we were paying the taxes to meet our puppy because Koharu is just too cute - the boyfriend says it's the first time he's ever seen a border guard smile! Anyway arriving home at like 3:30 AM after like 8 hours of driving + a full day before that + an energetic puppy who is now wide awake is not pleasant... If I had to do that again, I would do it differently!
In the first few days of having Koharu, the boyfriend and I described her as the calmest puppy we'd ever met. Even other humans she met described her like that. She wasn't even afraid of the vacuum! We joked that if she stayed that way, we've used up all our puppy luck for the rest of our lives. As she settled in, she started acting up and pushing boundaries (now she tries to attack the vacuum, and she's learned how to jump onto the couch and bed) but she's still exceptionally calm compared to other puppies we've met. I'm still sure we've used up our lifetime puppy luck, and still hoping that dog puberty doesn't change her too much! Her personality and temperment are just exactly what we were looking for, even if she's sometimes a brat (but from what I hear, all puppies are brats anyway!).
At first, she took a while to warm up to new dogs. She loves meeting new humans but was wary of new dogs. Now she's realized that other dogs are fun to play with and tries to play with all the other dogs! When we go out, she'll try to run to every dog and human out there, so it's something for us to work on. We had our last puppy class earlier today, and she typically played nicely with all the other puppies! One sort-of problem we do have is with the boyfriend's mom's 2 year old standard poodle - that dog has all the puppy playfulness but the energy/stamina of an adult dog, so when Koharu's done playing, the poodle still wants to run around and bother her. Not really much of a dog problem but it's something we have to watch out for until Koharu is big enough to hold her own.
She's pretty wonderful with regards to being handled - she's fine at the vet (everyone loves her there!), has no issues being poked or prodded anywhere, whenever we brush her, good with her paws being picked up and touched... The only thing that we can't really do easily is get to her teeth. But, she has such a soft mouth! She'll put my arm in her mouth and gently mouth it, and while her jaw's gotten stronger, it's still very gentle and there's barely any pressure. She's started teething and chewing on strange items like the bars of her expen or crate (she's not trying to get out of containment since it's all open). I think she's also learned that chewing on certain items, like the couch, gets her attention from the humans... something for us to work on.
Speaking of, I've started leaving her alone at home for longer increments and it's been going swimmingly. When I was first starting, I was a bit worried, since she would bark continually while in her crate. Now that we've gotten a bigger one and given her free reign of her expen as well, she just lies down to nap or will chew on her various toys while alone. She'll excitement pee sometimes when I come home, but I'm assuming that'll stop once she gets better control of her puppy bladder. If I get her out before she gets too excited, we can avoid the excitement pee, but sometimes she just is too happy to see me again!
Also, she practically house-trained herself. We watched her very closely the first few days and so the only accidents she had were ones where we thought she didn't need to go (such as when she just came back in from a pee) and that was more on us since she was giving us the right signals. We tried to teach her to ring a bell to let her out, but she quickly learned that the bell means she gets let out and after a night of zoomies when she desperately wanted to go out to play, we removed the bell... Now she sits in front of the door to be let out, lol. She also sleeps through the night, although she sometimes asks to be let out if we forget to take her water away before putting her to bed.
With regards to food, she has become pretty spoiled. She has moved from shoving her meals into her mouth and me being able to use kibble for training to turning her nose at a bowl full of kibble and becoming bored if the training treats aren't higher value! And this is at home, too! It's frustrating because I don't want to fill her full of high value treats, but I also want her to get basic obedience down. I think she might love peanut butter more than anything else. I made pumpkin peanut butter cookies for her a couple days ago and she'll come running to me every time she thinks I might give her one. She also adores dried fish skin chews and fish in general. Her poops are inconsistent at best but she's her usual self and the vet told us it's nothing to worry about, so I just keep giving her pumpkin and hoping she gets more regular, lol.
Her training has been going decently, though. The first things I taught her were sit and come, back when she still took kibble regularly during training sessions, so she's pretty good at those now! The boyfriend has a 100 acre property a couple hours north of us, and over the May long weekend, we went up to try some off-leash work (well, more like leash-dragging) and recall. She was about 50/50 on that - you could see her look at you and gauge whether or not the treat we had was better than whatever fun she was having! We came across some fur that she ran off to sniff, where I had to run into a bunch of growth to catch her (good thing for our bright leash too - she blends right into the woods!), but that was the only real issue we had. Otherwise, if we let her do her thing, she'd eventually get her fill and would continue when we asked her to. She also loved jumping into the river, so I think she'll be a great canoeing companion!
I've seen a bit of her prey drive, but mostly in that she wants to chase leaves, ants, and flying insects (which she's caught and eaten because I'm not good at catching insects, lol). Whenever we walk past the (MANY) Canada geese, she also perks up at them and wants to chase them, but sometimes she just pays them no mind. When the boyfriend took her for a walk the other night, they walked right past some deer and she didn't even notice them! When playing with toys, it took a while for her to tug on things - her mouth is so soft that she didn't bite down hard enough on toys for us to play tug, and she'll chase balls and sometimes bring them back, but not want to drop them! Things to work on, haha.
She's about 50/50 on getting carsick or not. She's only thrown up once but she gets very drool-y when it's bumpy or there's lots of turns.
My place is currently covered in her fur. I'm not sure if this is her losing her puppy coat or her blowing coat or both, but I vacuumed yesterday and you can't even tell. I'll pet her and fur comes flying out. She'll shake herself and fur is ejected everywhere. The wind blows in through a window and, that's right, more fur. I expected the whole fur covering all of my possessions bit, but I'm constantly amazed at how much fur such a small creature could possibly lose without becoming completely bald! She's also growing more guard hairs on her neck, while her head is still very soft and fuzzy. The boyfriend adores her soft fuzzy head and would love it if she kept that for the rest of her life, hahaha.
Anyway, that has been my wall-of-text update on practically everything going on with Koharu. It's been a difficult adjustment for me, not having much dog experience before her, but I can't imagine not having her with us. She's adorable and I can't wait till she gets the all-clear from our vet to go to more dog-busy areas (just another week or so, I believe!). Here are a bunch of pictures:
We imported Koharu from Japan, and since I barely did any of the work (super special thanks and probably my eternal gratitude to Shigeru!), my experience centres solely on picking up her up from the airport. We drove ~4 hours to Detroit to pick her up and she was super cheerful and she weathered it beautifully! All the people working at the cargo desk loved her, too. Something that I will note, though, is that when we crossed back over the border into Canada, we had to pay taxes on her. We told them the amount we paid, but didn't look at the actual paperwork before going back home (it was like 11 PM and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us!), and we ended up paying way more in taxes than we needed to. Our mistake, but if anyone else is doing the same, it's something to look out for. The Canadian border agent even came out on her break/while we were paying the taxes to meet our puppy because Koharu is just too cute - the boyfriend says it's the first time he's ever seen a border guard smile! Anyway arriving home at like 3:30 AM after like 8 hours of driving + a full day before that + an energetic puppy who is now wide awake is not pleasant... If I had to do that again, I would do it differently!
In the first few days of having Koharu, the boyfriend and I described her as the calmest puppy we'd ever met. Even other humans she met described her like that. She wasn't even afraid of the vacuum! We joked that if she stayed that way, we've used up all our puppy luck for the rest of our lives. As she settled in, she started acting up and pushing boundaries (now she tries to attack the vacuum, and she's learned how to jump onto the couch and bed) but she's still exceptionally calm compared to other puppies we've met. I'm still sure we've used up our lifetime puppy luck, and still hoping that dog puberty doesn't change her too much! Her personality and temperment are just exactly what we were looking for, even if she's sometimes a brat (but from what I hear, all puppies are brats anyway!).
At first, she took a while to warm up to new dogs. She loves meeting new humans but was wary of new dogs. Now she's realized that other dogs are fun to play with and tries to play with all the other dogs! When we go out, she'll try to run to every dog and human out there, so it's something for us to work on. We had our last puppy class earlier today, and she typically played nicely with all the other puppies! One sort-of problem we do have is with the boyfriend's mom's 2 year old standard poodle - that dog has all the puppy playfulness but the energy/stamina of an adult dog, so when Koharu's done playing, the poodle still wants to run around and bother her. Not really much of a dog problem but it's something we have to watch out for until Koharu is big enough to hold her own.
She's pretty wonderful with regards to being handled - she's fine at the vet (everyone loves her there!), has no issues being poked or prodded anywhere, whenever we brush her, good with her paws being picked up and touched... The only thing that we can't really do easily is get to her teeth. But, she has such a soft mouth! She'll put my arm in her mouth and gently mouth it, and while her jaw's gotten stronger, it's still very gentle and there's barely any pressure. She's started teething and chewing on strange items like the bars of her expen or crate (she's not trying to get out of containment since it's all open). I think she's also learned that chewing on certain items, like the couch, gets her attention from the humans... something for us to work on.
Speaking of, I've started leaving her alone at home for longer increments and it's been going swimmingly. When I was first starting, I was a bit worried, since she would bark continually while in her crate. Now that we've gotten a bigger one and given her free reign of her expen as well, she just lies down to nap or will chew on her various toys while alone. She'll excitement pee sometimes when I come home, but I'm assuming that'll stop once she gets better control of her puppy bladder. If I get her out before she gets too excited, we can avoid the excitement pee, but sometimes she just is too happy to see me again!
Also, she practically house-trained herself. We watched her very closely the first few days and so the only accidents she had were ones where we thought she didn't need to go (such as when she just came back in from a pee) and that was more on us since she was giving us the right signals. We tried to teach her to ring a bell to let her out, but she quickly learned that the bell means she gets let out and after a night of zoomies when she desperately wanted to go out to play, we removed the bell... Now she sits in front of the door to be let out, lol. She also sleeps through the night, although she sometimes asks to be let out if we forget to take her water away before putting her to bed.
With regards to food, she has become pretty spoiled. She has moved from shoving her meals into her mouth and me being able to use kibble for training to turning her nose at a bowl full of kibble and becoming bored if the training treats aren't higher value! And this is at home, too! It's frustrating because I don't want to fill her full of high value treats, but I also want her to get basic obedience down. I think she might love peanut butter more than anything else. I made pumpkin peanut butter cookies for her a couple days ago and she'll come running to me every time she thinks I might give her one. She also adores dried fish skin chews and fish in general. Her poops are inconsistent at best but she's her usual self and the vet told us it's nothing to worry about, so I just keep giving her pumpkin and hoping she gets more regular, lol.
Her training has been going decently, though. The first things I taught her were sit and come, back when she still took kibble regularly during training sessions, so she's pretty good at those now! The boyfriend has a 100 acre property a couple hours north of us, and over the May long weekend, we went up to try some off-leash work (well, more like leash-dragging) and recall. She was about 50/50 on that - you could see her look at you and gauge whether or not the treat we had was better than whatever fun she was having! We came across some fur that she ran off to sniff, where I had to run into a bunch of growth to catch her (good thing for our bright leash too - she blends right into the woods!), but that was the only real issue we had. Otherwise, if we let her do her thing, she'd eventually get her fill and would continue when we asked her to. She also loved jumping into the river, so I think she'll be a great canoeing companion!
I've seen a bit of her prey drive, but mostly in that she wants to chase leaves, ants, and flying insects (which she's caught and eaten because I'm not good at catching insects, lol). Whenever we walk past the (MANY) Canada geese, she also perks up at them and wants to chase them, but sometimes she just pays them no mind. When the boyfriend took her for a walk the other night, they walked right past some deer and she didn't even notice them! When playing with toys, it took a while for her to tug on things - her mouth is so soft that she didn't bite down hard enough on toys for us to play tug, and she'll chase balls and sometimes bring them back, but not want to drop them! Things to work on, haha.
She's about 50/50 on getting carsick or not. She's only thrown up once but she gets very drool-y when it's bumpy or there's lots of turns.
My place is currently covered in her fur. I'm not sure if this is her losing her puppy coat or her blowing coat or both, but I vacuumed yesterday and you can't even tell. I'll pet her and fur comes flying out. She'll shake herself and fur is ejected everywhere. The wind blows in through a window and, that's right, more fur. I expected the whole fur covering all of my possessions bit, but I'm constantly amazed at how much fur such a small creature could possibly lose without becoming completely bald! She's also growing more guard hairs on her neck, while her head is still very soft and fuzzy. The boyfriend adores her soft fuzzy head and would love it if she kept that for the rest of her life, hahaha.
Anyway, that has been my wall-of-text update on practically everything going on with Koharu. It's been a difficult adjustment for me, not having much dog experience before her, but I can't imagine not having her with us. She's adorable and I can't wait till she gets the all-clear from our vet to go to more dog-busy areas (just another week or so, I believe!). Here are a bunch of pictures:
Comments
For the fur, you might already do this but I'll offer my advice anyway. I would advise you to give her a good brushing and then give her a bath... a good drying off... then after her bath give ANOTHER good brushing. That will usually get the worst of the blow out of the way. Make sure you have a rake. The best tools I have for brushing kaja are a rake: LINK and shedding blade: LINK. Seriously. Those are like the only two things you need. And while you wanna be thorough you don't wanna press too hard (it can hurt their skin!). I use the rake mostly for her neck where I have to get to the root of the thick stuff... and the blade is for the rest of her body. The blade is AMAZING.
You mentioned something about wanting her head to be soft and fuzzy forever? Kaja is still super soft and fuzzy on her head, so as far as my experience with her goes, I can say it seems to be a permanent thing. :P
I'd suggest getting a 50 foot long line for training. It's loads easier to reel them in if you have to.
She is sooo adorable. I def miss having a puppy around! There can never be enough puppy photos so take as many as you dare during this stage haha
As for the dog hair... welcome to the life. At least you only have 1 pup!
Thanks for the shedding recs though!! Definitely going to try that out! And the boyfriend is very happy to hear that her head will likely stay soft and fuzzy.
We actually just started looking at 50 and 100 ft lines, so hopefully there will be less of me running into the bush to catch her haha.
Almost every picture on my phone is a picture of Koharu... I tell people that it's a good thing she's adorable because she can be such a frustrating brat sometimes! And everyone tells me that I'll miss the puppy days, but right now I don't really believe them hahaha.
Though yesterday the boyfriend did say that if we forego the human offspring bit, he'd want a second dog... or even if we do have a child... my response was something like "two dogs and a child?! :-O "
I also use just a regular rake, and also a plain comb it gets all the hair out. I give T a bath when lots of fur is loose and it helps to encourage it all out (+ another long brushing after he's dry). Beware the fur gets all in your drain though, so a little strainer is helpful, or take them to the dog Wash at the pet store
Re: food/treats, I try to rotate what treats are, so they don't know what to expect. It seems to keep attention more if I do that than try to feed the same kind all the time.
Lol don't get too frustrated yet, this is definitely the fun phase
Your post made me realize I didn't post about importing experience either - may start a thread about that!
We did end up giving her a bath and I appear to be inhaling less fur now hahaha. The next goal is to see if we can condition her to like baths... or at least not try to escape.
I'm trying to stay optimistic that I'll one day miss when she was a puppy! When she tries to chew on the wall after walking past almost everything she's allowed to chew on though... lol.
Definitely start a thread about your experience! I'd love to hear about it and it might be useful for others too!
It's going to be while before I consider getting a dog, but I have a few questions since I've just learned about the option of importing Nihon ken.
How old was Koharu when she arrived?
Are you responsible for the dog's vaccinations, or does the breeder from Japan take care of those?
Thanks much in advance!
So what had us interested in the Shikoku was a variety of reasons. From a shallow point of view, I think they're really gorgeous dogs! We also wanted a camping and hiking companion, especially the boyfriend, who grew up with standard poodles who had gone camping with his family. While we weren't opposed to poodles, they weren't really our top choice of dog - for me, they were just too clingy and affection-demanding and, going back to being shallow, they look really silly haha. Even looking at Koharu now, I'm just constantly impressed by how elegant she can look (until she does a silly puppy thing!). And from a size point of view, they're not a small dog, which both the boyfriend and I also aren't the biggest fans of, but still small enough that I can pick her up when I need to.
I don't quite recall how I came across the Shikoku but I let the boyfriend read about them (and probably all the Nihon Ken) and he fell in love with the breed description. It was pretty much everything he wanted in a dog. Since I had no dog experience, I kind of let him take the reins one what dog to get - as a kid, I wanted a Doberman so my opinion wasn't going to get us an easier first time owner dog lol. It's not like it took much convincing for me, anyway! There are probably other dog breeds that would suit us just as well as a Shikoku (or maybe even better!) but since the boyfriend fell in love, I didn't bother looking at other breeds.
Anyway, since you mention that you might be interested in importing, we only imported a pup because it kind of was perfect timing. This is probably going to be way more info about me than anyone needs, but maybe good to put out there for others considering importing a companion dog haha. Last year, the boyfriend and I had talked about sending in an application to Akashima, since they're in Canada and seem to be breeding some nice dogs. It would've still involved a flight, but hey, the same country is great! We ultimately decided against it at the time because we were both working a lot - it wasn't a good time for us and while we knew that we'd be waiting and we're fine with that, we didn't really think we'd have the time for a dog in the foreseeable future (for example, the boyfriend travels a lot for work and it doesn't look to be slowing down). We didn't see a point in even getting on the wait list since we didn't know when we'd be able to dedicate the time to a puppy! Then I lost my job last year and while I've been looking, I'm still unemployed.
Earlier this year, we saw that there were some Shikoku pups that needed homes in Shigeru's blog. The boyfriend and I had many long conversations about whether or not we should even contact him, since now I had tons of time for a puppy... eventually we decided that we should try since we have some savings and we also have a pretty robust support network (our parents are nearby, and a lot of our friends and family have dogs or love them) and various other reasons that we used to justify it to ourselves haha. Eventually, Koharu made it over here and I'm biased but she's the most adorable puppy in the world.
I don't think we would've imported normally, especially since there are breeders in North America who do things like health testing, and would be contactable for questions or concerns, and etc. I just feel really lucky right now that Koharu's been doing great so far since I was expecting the worst, and in some ways, still am (but I'm a natural worrier!). Koharu is just a companion for us, so I don't think there's any benefit that we gained from importing her - it was just good timing that we now have her with us and I can dedicate so much time to her. Anyway this has been my wall of text for a question you didn't ask so hopefully it's not presumptuous and you (or someone else) finds it helpful hahaha.
In general, she's the absolute best dog we could've asked for. There's a lot of stuff for us to work on still, but I'm happy at our rate of progress for the most part, and she definitely is a great hiking and camping companion. In my early post, I mentioned that she's an exceptionally calm pup. She still is! When we had friends or family meet her for the first time, they always commented on how calm and well behaved she was, and they let down their guard because they forget she's still young and full of puppy antics. That is, until she tries to steal a shoe or something. She's learned how to lull new humans into a false sense of security haha.
I've taken to calling her a kleptomaniac dog. Both the boyfriend and I have taken her into work a couple times and she was a huuuuuge brat. She'd try to steal coworkers' shoes and coats and bags, and she's sneaky about it, too! Koharu once snuck into my boyfriend's coworker's office and was halfway out with a shoe before she was caught. I also found her with the boyfriend's wallet in her mouth the other day, so maybe I should be training her to steal wallets to she can earn her keep? She did find me a $5 bill on a walk once!
Anyway, we took her on some camping trips last summer, which she loved. She took to sleeping in a tent really well! And she had exceptional balance in the canoe. Her favourite thing to do was to wander around the canoe, on top of the canoe pack, and to perch against the gunwales. She only fell out of the canoe once, and while she didn't enjoy that experience, she went right back to her balancing antics lol.
It's winter now in Canada, and Koharu loooooves playing in the snow. It is super super cute. I love how happy she looks bounding through fresh powder or climbing into snow drifts.
Recently (as in just this week!) we hired a dog walker to take her out hiking twice a week while we're at work. Since it is winter over here, we felt like we'd been slacking on getting her outside enough during weekdays, especially during sunlight hours. So far it's been going well - our dog walker commented that she has no qualms playing with dogs that are twice her size hahaha. Everything he said about our pup, we were like "yep, sounds like Koharu," so I'm hoping this will be a good arrangement for the most part!
We've also met up with a bunch of the other Shikoku owners in the area a fair amount. We regularly go hiking with @GrayJJ since she's usually up for our antics (where "our" includes me, my boyfriend, and Koharu, lol), but the other owners also come out frequently! Whenever strangers ask about Koharu and her breed, I love seeing the look of shock when I say there's only like 10 in the area and we know all of them, lol.
Also, Koharu's almost done blowing coat again! I'm pretty sure my diet has been 50% fur for the last few weeks lol. I'm still amazed that such a small creature can eject this much fur, and the boyfriend still loves her super soft fuzzy head and ears.
Now, here's the real reason you're looking at this post - pics!
She's not a puppy anymore but this pic is toooooo cute.
Koharu used to be such a tiny fuzzy potato...
a very elegant dog
Camping antics!
L to R dogs: Kaiya, Koharu, Mayumi, Grayson, Takeo (one of these is not like the others)
Ducks over to the left!
This is what I meant by antics! The boyfriend loves to take her off trails... in this instance, he slid down a snowy hill with her haha.
Also, if you don't mind sharing, I'd love to know where you guys go hiking! Maybe all GTA Nihon Ken people can all go together sometime
Yes @koujichan, hope you can join us one day!
We also mostly coordinate over Instagram! But we go pretty much everywhere within a 1-2 hour drive haha. Would definitely like to see you some time though and meet your cutie. Maybe we can do a GTA NK hike in the spring or summer when the weather is a bit nicer!
She's still a kleptomaniac (it's adorable but frustrating) but I think she's finally regaining her brains from the teenage phase. We're going to be taking a Canine Good Neighbour course so I'll have to be more diligent about reinforcing those skills. Either I've finally found treats she's willing to take outdoors and are somewhat shelf stable, or she's maturing! I'm unreasonably proud of this lol but she managed a sit-stay outside my building today and also came when called, so I'm optimistic she'll get her CGN eventually. After that class (and hopefully passing the test...), I hope to start agility with her! It'll be mostly for fun but if she likes it and I'm not terrible as a handler, I'd like to compete.
She's becoming a bit more leash reactive but I'm not really surprised and it's manageable. She's still quite dog friendly, though small dogs are pretty iffy. I don't think she knows how to deal with them, especially because her play style involves a lot of paws. Her best friend right now is the German Shepherd who lives in our building, but she also loves to bully the boyfriend's mom's standard poodle.
We're working on recall and off-leash skills when we can. We have an 85' long line and she did really well with checking in and keeping up when we were in a smallish fenced forested area. She did less well when in the forested area at the boyfriend's family's property up north since it was full of critters to chase. But she did fine when in the meadow area, so there's hope! One day she may be somewhat reliable off leash haha. The boyfriend also took her camping this summer where they stayed on a small island where she could run around off leash (the joys of a dog who doesn't like swimming). She was happy as a clam, from what I heard, and would respond to recall for the most part, but preferred to hang out on the opposite side of the island to where the humans were haha.
Speaking of camping, we took her on a good number of trips this year! The season's pretty much over, since it's hitting 0C over here, which is sad but also means I can take her to classes (I complained to the boyfriend that I'd never be able to take Koharu to dog classes because he's always taking her camping!).
We started off the season with a short car camping trip in May over the long weekend in Killarney Provincial Park, which is absolutely my favourite park in Ontario. Koharu had a blast being able to clamber up rocks and do all the sniffing. Pretty sure she's 50% mountain goat because she has no qualms about jumping up and down rocks that are larger than she is, and she's so steady on her feet. She has a ton of confidence - I noticed that at one point, one of the other dogs we were hiking with got to the edge of a rock first and was unsure about the 3ish feet to the next level. Koharu caught up, looked at the other dog, and hopped down like it was no problem.
The Canada Day long weekend was a canoe trip. We went on a short in-and-out and stayed on an island, though it was too big and marshy, and it had other campsites on it, for us to let Koharu off leash. She was also great there, though it was pretty relaxed! We ran into some issues with wind when we were trying to leave, and we were actually windbound on the last lake, but Koharu took it all in stride. She didn't like it and was a little bit stressed, but so were the humans. Since it was pretty hot, she had to be tossed into the water a few times to help cool down, but she's definitely not a swimming dog haha. The boyfriend started a blog for his camping and photography, so if anyone's interested, you can check out the trip report post here which has some dog pics.
The earlier canoe trip that I talked about that I didn't go on was apparently great too. Since I wasn't there, I'm not too sure about things, but it sounds like Koharu charmed one of the boyf's friends to the point where he couldn't stop talking about the dogling to his fiancee when he got back! They were out for 8 days and she got pretty spoiled. When she came back, she didn't want to sleep in her crate anymore because she got used to sleeping next to the boyfriend! Anyway no trip report yet but if anyone's interested, there's a short YouTube video that includes a little bit of dog (they strapped a GoPro to her on one of the portages!).
Then we recently went on a backpacking trip in Algonquin Provincial Park on the Highland Backpacking Trail. We originally were going to go to the Bruce Peninsula National Park but with thunderstorms in the forecast, we wanted to be a bit more protected. It still rained the whole time we were out, so it was a bit of a disappointment for a trip. Koharu doesn't like rain but didn't complain at all, though when we set up camp, she'd want to go straight into the tent. I also noticed that she was really good (for the most part) when I was going up or down steep sections - when I asked her to wait, she'd huff but actually wait for me instead of pulling! Though that went straight out the window whenever she saw a critter. She's still not off leash ready since she loses her mind when there's something to chase. One day... we'll get there eventually and there's no rush. Plus we don't have too many areas where it'd be appropriate for her to be off leash anyway so it's one of those nice-to-haves rather than a necessity.
I'm happy to report that Koharu is still super super soft and I hope she stays soft forever. She's also still ejecting so much fur that I wonder where it all comes from. Anyway, as usual, here's the pic spam that you're actually here for!
Okay so it probably doesn't help her off-leash/recall ability that we let her chase Canada geese, but to be fair, they are nuisances and some people actually feed them so we're helping balance that out. Plus, according to this goose management handbook by the Canadian government, hazing geese with dogs is one way to scare them off and doesn't require a federal permit. While I'm not putting a formal program in place to keep geese away from where I live, I feel vindicated by my choice to let Koharu chase them on leash (aka the human is too slow to let her ever injure or kill one) because these grassy areas are also used by various small children and geese are vicious. This is my wall of text because some asshole tried to tell me off and threatened to call the police on me for not realizing some geese were approaching me while I was walking Koharu and she naturally lunged at them. And sometimes people think Canada geese are protected against anything and everything but it's not the case.
Looking a bit like a wild canine with her tail down. I'm always surprised when people say she looks wolfy or foxy mostly because up the upright tail, but I guess I see it a bit more with her tail down.
We got to meet up with @koujichan and he's such a good looking dog! Wish we could've hiked together more!
Someone told me that it's unusual the Koharu looks up a lot. Apparently dogs don't tend to look up? She mostly wants to keep an eye on birds.
The boyfriend's sister works at this dog friendly winery and we got to take Koharu in for a tour of their barrel cellar!
I've put this pic up on my Instagram already but I think it's too cute to not put up here as well... Koharu and Ryuu were so matchy-matchy and it looks like they're on a date lol. Ignore my bad Photoshop job on the right where I took out Ryuu's owner :P
Killarney's terrain is all like this - quartzite ridges. It's stunning and that's why I love going.
She's a brat. She was pawing Ryuu in the face while he was trying to sleep lol.
Haha sorry for my legs but she is a weirdo who loves to lick them.
She's definitely an avid reader...
That's how impressed she was with the rain on our backpacking trip lol
The rare Shikoku meerkat, who is attempting to go and chase some horse riders.
Rarely have any pics of me with the dog because either I'm the one taking them or I'm the one holding her leash haha.
It's funny about the Canada Geese thing - they are protected by the Migratory Bird act, but also it's totally legal to hunt them during open season if you have a game bird permit. For some reason, I think it's just a common misconception that they're legally untouchable.
I didn't know that about Canada Geese, I might have to let Takeo chase next time LOL he would love that!
(Edited bcuz my post cut off)
Story A:
When Koharu was probably around 6 months old, we went up to the boyfriend's family's 100 acre property. We call it "the farm." This is because it a) has a farm house and a barn on it, and b) is right in the middle of actual farmland with actual farmers, and c) is rented out to a neighbour farmer to actually farm some of the land. We all use it as a vacation property though.
Anyway, the context is necessary. One day, we were taking Koharu out for a walk probably mid-morning. As soon as we stepped outside, we saw these 5 cows and a bull staring at us from across the field. They're cows that escaped from the neighbours and they were just casually grazing on the grass... Koharu hadn't noticed them at this point and we were hoping we could walk to the other side of the house and she wouldn't see them at all.
Unfortunately, as stories normally go, she saw the cows and was instantly at the end of her leash. We don't actually want the neighbour's cows on the property, and the neighbour would prefer that his cows stay on his property too, so when we saw the cows looking wary of Koharu, we decided (probably very naively) to inch closer and use our dog to shoo them away.
It worked.
The cows decided to saunter back to their real home. We were all happy for Koharu, and when the boyfriend crouched down to pet her and call her a good girl, she decided to dash off towards the escaping cows, pulling the leash clear out of his hands. The cows at this point are like WTF and hoofed it - I did not think a cow could move that quickly. However, at this point, the boyfriend and I were both running after our idiot dog, and I was thinking, "my dog is going to get kicked in the head by a cow and die."
The cows eventually made it back across the fence, and Koharu ran back and forth along the fence line chasing after them, having the time of her life. Eventually we managed to grab her leash, meaning our dog did not get kicked in the head by a cow.
Story B:
Last year, for Chinese New Year, I went to my mom's place. Since it was going to be the year of the dog, Koharu was invited (Koharu is usually invited because my family loves her, probably more than they love me). Anyway, my mom had a whole roast suckling pig on the dining table, and Koharu was very, very interested in it. We had to leash her up, because she was definitely going to steal the entire pig if she were loose.
We were waiting for some other family members to arrive, so I was chatting with a cousin and talking about how Koharu is the most adorable. Anyway, another cousin arrived with his girlfriend and their own pet: an 8 week old piglet.
The second they walked in Koharu switched from "I'm a lovable dog" mode to "I'm a boar hunting dog" mode - she knew exactly where this piglet was and didn't take her eyes off it for a second. My cousin's girlfriend was completely oblivious and was showing off this squealing piglet to all my relatives.
At one point, this girlfriend came up to Koharu, bent down, and introduced the piglet to Koharu, nose to nose. We're holding the leash extremely tightly at this point, but you could see that Koharu very much wanted to eat this pig, and the piglet very much wanted to GTFO.
The piglet was so terrified that it escaped to underneath one of the couches. We quickly excused ourselves since, y'know, I'm not about to start the family drama of my pet killing a cousin's pet. Anyway, I found out later that that cousin actually started up a farm and that's why they had a piglet as a pet.
Story C:
In her Canine Good Neighbour prep course, Koharu wasn't the best dog, but she was certainly the cutest (in my own biased opinion). When we practiced loose leash walking past distractions, she would pull extremely gently to investigate and then realize she couldn't get to it, where she could then be redirected to walking nicely. The other owners thought it was super cute.
We also practiced supervised isolation and she was the only dog to sit the entire time and not move. She wasn't distressed, but we asked her to sit and she held it until her humans returned! I was actually super impressed because when I work on sit duration with her, she often breaks it because she's bored (aka my rate of reinforcement needs work).
We're definitely not ready for the test, but she had some silly antics in class and it was good to see what to work on. We also discovered that she responds better to me indoors, since when the boyf tried to take her for various class exercises, she was less responsive. It's because I'm the one who does all the training lol. But Koharu responds better to the boyf when we're out, since he's the one who takes her exploring off trail.
Story
Koharu once stole an entire full carton of eggs off the counter and dragged it to her mat without breaking a single egg.
Story E:
Once we were at a dog park with another Shikoku. They were both taking a break from playing, so we were giving them some water. The other Shikoku decided to take a drink from Koharu's bowl, and Koharu took her paw and pushed the other dog's head into the water, like she was trying to drown this poor other dog.
Anyway Koharu's doing great still - she's her same usual exuberant self, very fluffy, and charming to a fault. She needs to be bribed with hot dogs to get out of her crate in the morning, but spits them out when we're finally outside lol. Her spay is scheduled for April, which makes me a little sad because I like to imagine how cute little Koharu puppies would be. But then I also imagine taking care of those puppies in my limited space and I'm okay with it lol.
Also! We're planning a trip to Japan in 2020, and want to take Koharu with us! We're going to get started on the rabies part of the import process this year. The current thought is to visit Shikoku for a few days, ferry over to Wakayama and walk some of the Kumano Kodo, and then head back up to the Tokyo-ish area since we have to fly out of there. I'm not sure how feasible this all is, because, well, dog. So if anyone has thoughts/suggestions/advice/things to consider/etc., I'm all ears! We're planning probably November-ish for the cooler weather and fall colours. Plus, we want to be able to take Koharu with us to most places, but if she has to be left somewhere in her crate for a short period of time, November shouldn't be so bad. Side note, my Japanese is poor at best but I'm working on it ;;;
Anyway, here's some pics to balance out the wall of text... There's like two really nice pictures and they're the boyfriend's lol.
Camouflage dog
Never would've guessed that a poodle would be such a great playmate for Koharu but I'm glad they get along so well.
This is at the farm! The bridge in the background is used to cross the river that runs through the property.
Koharu curious about the camp stove
dog is broken
This is how close she likes to stay with us haha.
Sometimes we have to stop walking because she wants to chew a stick. The real reason we can't hike faster...
Group picture from this past weekend! Loki (L) and Tochi (M) are both females from Akashima.
Anyway, as mentioned in my last post, Koharu has been spayed. Everything went fine, and we got her all x-rayed while she was under, too. OFA graded her as slightly dysplastic but her elbows are fine.
I also said in a different post that we had started doing agility. Well, we ended up not continuing with agility because Koharu didn't really see the point in it (alternatively, I'm not a good enough handler to get her motivated enough hahaha, but I think the structure of the class wasn't great for her in general, even though I really liked our instructor). But I actually ended up at the local obedience club, hoping to get her trained up to take her Canine Good Neighbour this year, and found that she actually was quite good at Obedience! Before the whole pandemic thing, we were actually on track to take (and likely pass) her CGN, as well as start Rally classes. We got to do a small mock Rally course in the "regular" obedience class, and Koharu seemed to really like it. Plus, it was super nice to get feedback on my handling in person. Our instructor also mentioned at one point that Koharu has the makings of a good therapy dog, which was really surprising to me.
An unintended side effect of doing more OB with Koharu is that my coworker, who's fostering a standard poodle puppy for future service dog work, thinks I'm great at training and asks me to troubleshoot her puppy behaviours haha. I'm no expert but my coworker and the pup both seem to be happy, so I think it's working!
I think part of why Koharu is doing really well in OB work is because she's gotten a teensy tiny bit more interested in food as she's settled into adulthood haha. Plus, the work is very clearly defined and structured in a way that she can "get" the exercises. We're struggling with some of the jumps, because she problem-solves them as "it's less energy to go around, why would I go over" but she did this with all the agility obstacles too hahahaha. I mentioned in that other comment that following cues isn't inherently rewarding for Koharu, but I want to rephrase this. I don't think following cues is inherently rewarding for a good majority of dogs, but one can certainly condition the dog to find it rewarding. We did all these classes on a martingale collar, too, and I think it really helped for Koharu to have different equipment to understand when it was time to do OB stuff compared to the regular harness (or even the camping harness!).
While I don't think she'll ever have a super flashy and precise heel (partially because I'm a novice handler), I think we're definitely on track to competing for fun. I'm looking forward to getting back into it in September (hopefully! pending how the pandemic pans out!).
Speaking of other things that were cancelled due to the pandemic, our trip to Japan in November has absolutely been postponed to next year haha. We actually got Koharu's rabies test done, and she's extremely not rabid. Like, 7 times the minimum level for entry into Japan lol. I'll probably have to redo her test for next year but hey, at least I know she's unlikely to fail it now haha. I had it 75% planned out, so I guess there's now lots of time for me to figure out that last 25%. And I suppose this means I have more time to learn more Japanese, especially since the plan involves mostly travelling in the countryside by campervan hahaha.
And since I mentioned camping, we of course did a bunch of backcountry camping last year. We try to stay on island campsites so that Koharu can run around off leash, and her recall/general behaviour and response while off leash here makes me really optimistic about her general off leash reliability. Of course, she's still not trusted to be off leash in areas that are not bounded by either fence or water, but it's all good haha. During mine and Keelan's annual trip last year, it poured rain almost the entire time. Koharu tended to stick closer to us, underneath the tarp lol.
Most of my camping trips this year have also been cancelled since I was planning to take some of my coworkers, and that's not going to work with continued social distancing. Keelan and I are probably going to do a week-long trip in the early fall, though, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure Koharu is too, lol.
Anyway, I also have this to show off - it's a fluffy video series about Nihon Ken that aired in Japan back in November. Wondering if I should perhaps put this in its own post instead haha. But apparently this is a big(?) idol group in Japan, and they have this TV series that introduces various aspects of Japanese culture, and they even produce an English version. Thanks to the magic of Instagram, someone working on the show actually asked to use some of my pictures in the program!
(I'd have to look up the exact wording, but they wanted to show the popularity of Japanese dogs overseas, and when I asked which pictures they were interested in using, most of them were ones with Keelan in it, aka the white dude lol)
I've been working from home for ... oh man, like 4 months now? And I've really discovered how lazy Koharu is. I mean, I kind of knew it, since we always had to bribe her out of her crate in the mornings, but she actually doesn't even get up when Keelan leaves for work in the morning. And she'll keep on snoozing after I've gotten set up for work. It's ridiculous haha. It's made me lazy as well!
But otherwise, we're all doing well over here and Koharu is still absolutely the best dog we could've asked for.
And to make up for the wall of text, here's a bunch of pictures - especially a lot of IG formatted pictures that never actually made it to IG hahahaha. I might come back to this later with even more pics, since I'm not on the computer with the main collection of dog photos.
Sad cone dog after she was spayed. It was very sad to see her try to sniff with the cone because it was too big for her sad head haha.
look at this dumb face of hers
someone always gets in the way lol
Koharu looking extremely skinny here because she blew out her coat