Uh-Oh - Space is entering adolescence
Hi all.
I was totally expecting to be all over this forum reporting every little event in Space's life. Then I got him, and everything went out the window.
So I'll have this post serve as both an update on Space the Shiba, and a place for me to describe some of Space's little quirks.
First of all, everything is going fantastic. I was honestly expecting him to be more trouble than he has been, which is nice.
I initially had some trouble with house breaking, because I couldn't get him on a schedule. Once he got his shots, and I could take him for regular walks, his pooping was a bit easier to deal with. He does still, however, take a REALLY long time to poop. He doesn't whine, and the poop seems healthy, but man he just hangs out and poops for like 3-4 minutes.
Right after he began going on walks, he started to get a TON of eye gook. Turns out he had puppy conjunctivitis brought on by some allergy. The vet gave me eye drops and the eye gook is much better.
He graduated puppy class (4 week class) and basic training (6 week). His Shiba-ness showed in full force in the class, in that he just kinda refuses to listen when there's something that excites him (in this case, other dogs). This problem rears its ugly head on walks in the park. In the house I can call his name from 3 floors down and he'll race right up to me and sit. Outside, he will NOT even glance at me when I call his name.
He's got complete control of some of the basic commands: sit, stand up, down, stay, speak, crawl. Unless of course, he's outdoors and its impossible.
He's starting to lift his leg when he pees. Is this something I should correct? How would I do that?
He also is VERY humpy with other dogs. I'm guessing neutering will fix some of that. He's about to turn 5 months old, so thats right around the corner.
He's not very food motivated, making training a bit difficult.
He likes playing but if he's in his pen or crate, he won't touch his toys. I could leave him with in the pen with his kong filled with yummy treats, and he won't touch it. Once I take him out, he'll attack it!
Anyway, here's his Flickr page I just hastily threw together and some pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/space-the-shiba/
I was totally expecting to be all over this forum reporting every little event in Space's life. Then I got him, and everything went out the window.
So I'll have this post serve as both an update on Space the Shiba, and a place for me to describe some of Space's little quirks.
First of all, everything is going fantastic. I was honestly expecting him to be more trouble than he has been, which is nice.
I initially had some trouble with house breaking, because I couldn't get him on a schedule. Once he got his shots, and I could take him for regular walks, his pooping was a bit easier to deal with. He does still, however, take a REALLY long time to poop. He doesn't whine, and the poop seems healthy, but man he just hangs out and poops for like 3-4 minutes.
Right after he began going on walks, he started to get a TON of eye gook. Turns out he had puppy conjunctivitis brought on by some allergy. The vet gave me eye drops and the eye gook is much better.
He graduated puppy class (4 week class) and basic training (6 week). His Shiba-ness showed in full force in the class, in that he just kinda refuses to listen when there's something that excites him (in this case, other dogs). This problem rears its ugly head on walks in the park. In the house I can call his name from 3 floors down and he'll race right up to me and sit. Outside, he will NOT even glance at me when I call his name.
He's got complete control of some of the basic commands: sit, stand up, down, stay, speak, crawl. Unless of course, he's outdoors and its impossible.
He's starting to lift his leg when he pees. Is this something I should correct? How would I do that?
He also is VERY humpy with other dogs. I'm guessing neutering will fix some of that. He's about to turn 5 months old, so thats right around the corner.
He's not very food motivated, making training a bit difficult.
He likes playing but if he's in his pen or crate, he won't touch his toys. I could leave him with in the pen with his kong filled with yummy treats, and he won't touch it. Once I take him out, he'll attack it!
Anyway, here's his Flickr page I just hastily threw together and some pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/space-the-shiba/
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Leg lift's when peeing is totally natural for boys, so don't worry to much about it.
Jesse
He looks great though, super cute! Looks a TON like Katsu!
Want to see something eerily familiar?
So as I said earlier, I'm biased. Spacer looks adorable. I can't get enough of puppy spam!
*edit* made Ichi smaller.
otherwise indoors or in the backyard he still squats
but, if u have issues with him lifting his leg, i unintentionally ran into a possible solution. when i first took toki on walks i didn't pay attention and I'd just keep walking so when he tried peeing by lifting his leg, me pulling on his leash would cause him to loose balance so he stopped doing it for awhile until I started paying attention and actually waited for him.
but i second the other posts, if u are worried about marking inside, i haven't had a problem and mines twice as old.
I didn't have any humping issues though
Humm....well as males mature they "hike" the back leg to boost their status as a tool of measure, sends a message to other dogs on how big they are along the fence lines etc. and also to help prevent peeing on their own front legs.
I would not worry too much about marking in the house at this point. If he is sufficiently house trained it should not be a problem.
On walks let him do what he has to do, unless you are visiting certain places, say outdoor cafe etc. He has to learn where it is appropriate but generally stopping the hiking all together is difficult and I would think rather stressful. Think about it, if you were peeing and someone taps you on the should you would get a little alarmed. I know I would get a little paranoid if I got bugged doin my business. Maybe I am anthropomorphizing a little.
Snf
What about humping? I stop him as much as possible, so the habit doesn't develop, but most of the time when he sees a dog his size or smaller the ONLY thing he wants to do is hump. Did anyone else have this problem?
Joe & Dawn, is Katsu's tail really long? Space's is huge!
Excuse me, I have to go look at adult Ichi pictures to see how Space might turn out
Don't worry, I doubt he'll get as leggy as Ichi. I personally am not in favor of letting the humping behavior prevail. I don't prescribe to any dominance theory, but it is mounting (humping). Mounting causes excitement in both dogs, and excitement can lead to unwanted reactive behavior. I've seen dogs get mounted, reach around and snap at the other dog, only for the other dog to wander away, and then circle back for the cycle to continue. All the while, the owners of the mounting dog are chuckling, "See? I hope you learned your lesson not to do that anymore. You deserved that!" Uuuggh...
Neutering should mitigate this behavior some, but I don't think it wouldn't hurt for you to train him with a command like, "stop" or "enough" or "get a room!";). Short of the long, yes, humping is something you should try to curb, especially if it's with other dogs. You never know how the other dog will react.
Jesse
If you are not showing, etc, definitely neuter but I don't think it will stop the behavior entirely.
Never let your dog totally abuse another dog or vise versa.
Snf
What about this behavior? I read so much about Shibas destroying things, and the best way to stop it is to keep the dog busy. So I was surprised to see that I when I leave him in his pen with his destructible toys, he doesn't even touch them. He just doesn't want to have fun unless he's out of the pen.
What does he do in the pen? Maybe that is just his relaxing time and he thinks of it as time to chill and not to go wild.