A few questions about Shikoku care

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  • edited August 2017
    Kaja doesn't shed year round, but will blow her coat twice a year. My partner developed allergies to our corgi/chi mix, who sheds year round, but he is absolutely fine with Kaja our Shikoku.

    When Kaja starts to have hair coming loose in tufts, or even a bunch coming out after petting, I know it's time to give her a bath and a good brushing. If you brush regularly for that week, there's very little fall off and you can catch it all pretty nicely. Baths are essential because they loosen up the stuff deep down and makes it a lot more efficient process. When she blows coat, Kaja will always, always be getting a bath. And while you don't have to bathe them/they clean themselves nicely, I use a pretty gentle and conditioning treatment that isn't that bad. She is absolutely fine in baths/showers. Just stands still and deals with it (I feel that is a key element of the shikoku temperament. They put up with a lot of sh!t. rofl)

    For catching the blow, I find a rake and a stripping blade absolutely essential. Just don't go hard, they are metal and can hurt your dog if you apply too much pressure. Kaja used to bite at them until she got used to it xD
  • I recommend reading this forum front to back ;) especially the Shikoku section, if you haven't already. I find it really helpful in preparation.

    Authors for books on training,I recommend Patricia McConnell and Dr. Sophia Yin
  • Thank you everyone with the help so far. Already started reading "Training the Hard to Train Dog". We also managed to get a hold of Corina Gonzalez, and will be visiting her Kennel, and have been lucky enough to set up a few potential meet ups with Shikoku owners. We are just so grateful for all of the help this Website's Community has provided. Thank you everyone for the help so far.
  • That is excellent that you are meeting Corina and her dogs, as well as other owners! You are doing great in your research! :D
  • Thank you. We were hoping to get the chance to visit アレヤリス while in California, and I'm really glad we were able to set something up! Again, we are also very fortunate to have the guidance and help from the community on this forum, and the other meet ups are essentially with members who have been kind enough to reach out and offer to let us visit them.
  • Hey all,

    I'm gonna commit a pseudo-faux pas and resurrect this thread to ask ANOTHER question that came up for me recently. I was lucky to meet up with a Shikoku owner in my general area who made a comment that made sense to me but that I hadn't heard before. Specifically, the owner stated that Females tended to have less behavioral issues in terms of doggy and people aggression, and were generally easier to raise. While this had not occurred to me, it does make sense in terms of primitive canine male roles. Also while with a breeder, it did appear that she was more guarded with the male dogs she introduced.

    So, my question after the wall of text, is for those of you who have had experiences with multiple Shikoku Ken, do you notice a significant personality between the genders, or in terms of trainability?
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