Shikoku Twins pictures/videos

Tylan

Hi all,

Some of you are aware Shikoku twins were born last year (27th Nov 2011) and we were fortunate enough (or carefully selected, who knows) to take care of them. These two little furballs are Sugoi-Michi vd Egmato and Futago-Michi vd Egmato.

So, I uploaded pictures to Google+ and videos to my YouTube channel of the past months... they're getting into a lot of mischief but you gotta love them. Go take a peek

Pictures (monthly albums):
https://plus.google.com/photos/100585826845064438833/albums

Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/vincekoevoets

Bought me a new HD camcorder, which will be delivered this Wednesday; hopefully I can upload some highres videos soon.

Saya

Love the pictures they look great growing up.

Videos are cute too.

lizzysilvertongue

Cute cute! I have been thinking about getting a shikoku, and I was watching some of you videos. Do they have many behavior problems? I saw your mischief videos, I hardly consider destroying a roll of tp or two not much of a problem as far as puppies go. Like labs and retrievers are known for chewing up furniture. Do they try to chew on any of your furniture, knock lots of stuff inside over, or anything? And by the way where are you from? I noticed you have and accent.

ttddinh

cute!!!!!

Tylan

@lizzysilvertongue: We're from Belgium ... well, they're dogs and like any other dog they do have the tendency to touch stuff with their pointy little teeth... more so with puppies exploring new things. What really helps is stating a firm "NO!", and giving him/her an alternative to chew on instead (like a bone or a toy). Eventually they don't bother chewing up furniture anymore because there are far more interesting things to chew. I reckon this applies to any breed, it's a "dog thing" and not a behavior problem. Shikokus in particular are clever enough to quickly understand what is allowed and what isn't.

In our case, with the twins, they chew only on what we allow them to chew on (yeah right... gheh), at least when it's clear to them they're not to chew on this but it's fine to chew on that instead. They also always have one another to chew on / play with: it's simply more interesting chewing a leg of a dog than a leg of a chair. Knocking things over happens occasionally when they're chasing one another, but never on purpose. They usually stop chasing each other (albeit briefly) when something does get knocked over; they're fully aware such things are not supposed to happen.

The "behavior problems" we're experiencing at home is more a kind of sibling rivalry; competition between two dogs of same litter: same age, same gender, same genetics (and the "twins" factor adds to this too in some ways), trying to boss each other around for stuff, food or attention. You'll notice in the video about the toilet paper they're arguing who gets to play with the remaining piece of carton: they fend each other off using their bare teeth against bare teeth (0:50 for instance). This is actually quite normal and acceptable behavior, but it can get ugly at times - growling, snarling, lunging, fighting. Fortunately we have this under control and it is diminishing.

Sometimes we have to let them sort things out for themselves by letting them do their "dog way of communicating". We do step in to stop it from escalating; growling is okay (to some extend), but fighting is totally unacceptable. But I seriously doubt you'll be having such difficulties with 1 shikoku or when another older/mature dog is already present... if you ask me "many behavior problems?"; I'd say no ... a shikoku that knows his/her place is the sweetest, cutest, happiest and most lovable dog you can imagine.

lizzysilvertongue

I knew all dogs chewed on things, just some breeds are a little worse than others. They don't sound that bad at all. My family has owned several different dogs over the years and some were much better than others. But thank you that helped me out a bit knowing what to expect. They sound rather easy... my dad had a golden retriever that was a nightmare as a puppy.