So, we finally made it to good 'ole St. Robert, MO!! Ryu was a CHAMP! He had to stay in the crate for 14+ hours as we overnighted from Hawaii. Here's the spam:
Tim and Ryu exhausted after moving in and out of the vacation rental:
Giving some love to Ryu, he still doesn't know what the heck is going on:
We rented a rental van to take us from the St. Louis airport to the dealership where our new truck was waiting for us. As we waited in the parking lot for the keys to be handed over, I snapped this photo of a very exhausted Ryu who promptly crawled onto the floorboard behind the two front seats:
While in MO, we're living with our old roommates from Hawaii and Ryu was pretty ecstatic to see them:
So, we and our roommates are renting from a friend of ours while he's in Germany. He and his fiance don't leave until next month so it's a pretty full house. Much to Ryu's surprise, there's another canine in the mix too. Here's Moose, a poodle/chihuahua mix. He and Ryu get along for the most part, unless they are going for the same toy at the same time, and then a screaming match ensues. Thankfully, there are so many people in the house that they are kept under a few watchful eyes:
I forgot that I ordered this shirt for Ryu and had it sent here:
Showing how much progress they made in just one day : snuggles!
And, finally, Ryu's new fabulous backyard!!!!
I'm so excited to be back on the mainland - today was a fantastic fall day. I even got to wear a long sleeve shirt!!!!! wooohooo!!
Comments
Glad to have you back!!!!!!!
: )
Jessica, we're in MO until April 2009 while Tim attends the advance course. After that, we'll head to our next duty station for 3 years but we don't know where that will be yet just yet. We're going to be living with our roommates (just the one couple, not the owner and his fiance) for the entire time we'll be in MO. Which kind of puts a delay on our Shiba-adopting plan for a few months. After all the worrying about Ryu traveling, I'm hesitant to find another shiba until we know where we'll end up
He has an awesome back yard. I am sure he will claim it as his own in no time!
I'm glad to hear the move went well. Ruy looks tired, but happy to be with friends. Now that your here, no more excuses. I expect more spam from you regularly. :-P
Ryu's new yard is HUGE!!!
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You picked a good time to leave, we’ve got Kona winds and everything is voggy, sticky, and kind of junk right now. The good news is that we finally got to meet Derek (he is in our obedience class) and next Saturday we’ll get to meet Aya as well. Moach better behave himself.
About the whole Midwestern thing, having been there and done that; be sure to enjoy all the cultural advantages that come along with it. Specifically, White Castle sliders and the Annheiser-Busch plant tour.
Free beer and Clydesdales, life can’t possibly get any better than that. :0)
Dave: Don't worry, I'll be back to spamming in no time!
Diggah: I'm so glad you got to meet Derek! I'm sorry that we missed you both at the last meetup - it was kind of a hot, muggy, rainy day though. Where did you stay in the Midwest? We've done nothing but shop since we got here. It got chilly as soon as we got here so we loaded up on some outerwear today at the outlets.
All: A few points of interest that we didn't notice until we got here and had another dog in the mix (full-time). We think Ryu is food and toy aggressive. Pertaining to food, we had a few hints of it in Hawaii when our neighbor's dog would come in the house. If she got too close to Ryu's crate (where he's fed), he would go ballistic. And they got into a major scrap when Misty found Ryu's pig's ear that he hid behind a chair. Also, at our last meetup in Hawaii, Ryu got really snarky when someone was feeding him treats and the other dogs came around to get their share. He snarled really loud at another shiba and scared her to death.
Regarding toys, we noticed it here with Moose when each time they had a scrap, a toy was always involved. It didn't get so bad to where we had to remove all the toys from the room (which we probably should have done in the first place) but I thought it was interesting because none of these toys are Ryu's (so there shouldn't be any attachment, right? other than simple Shiba selfishness, I don't see why he got so possessive). Sometimes he would see Moose with a toy and couldn't care less. But when someone would throw a ball and Moose caught it first, Ryu would practically tear it out of his mouth. Or bark really loudly and obnoxiously in his ear until Moose freaked and dropped it. Which during the scrap, there is major Shiba snarling, barking and just terrible sounds (no bites or cuts, thank goodness) so it's pretty upsetting to everyone involved. One the one hand, since they are not hurting each other (which I know they would if they wanted to) I'm attributing to just plain rivalry but then again, I don't want this to escalate to a point where we can't bring another dog into our family
Other than those two instances, he did really well with another dog in the household. (Moose left this morning and only comes maybe every other weekend) I just want to nip this in the bud before it gets any worse
Any help or advice is appreciated!!!
That being said, a little competition is normal for high valued items like food or toys. If Ryu exhibits the normal warning signs (raised lip, low growl, a lite nip, in that order) then I wouldn't worry. If he pushes the issue further and things escalate, that is when you have to spring into action.
I'll third what Dave wrote, stay on it so you can stop it before it escalates.