Today is also his first day at Dog Camp or Doggy Daycare where he gets a full day of play sessions with other dogs at our local veterinary care center. This Tiny Terror attacked the animal handler as soon as she knelt down to meet him... with lots of puppy kisses. She also succumbed to his vicious lick-attack by petting him which only reinforced his onslaught!
0 Comments
We tried out the lessons as explained in our pamphlet. It covers the attention call (using his name, which he has had a head start in, of course), "sit", and "here" (touch nose to palm). The instructions were easy and he had already mastered sit, anyway. No problem! Shiba approved.
Last night was Orientation Day (humans only) at our 3-course, 6-month dog training school. The concept is you sign up for 6 months of weekly lessons and attend 3 courses, be they ever advancing courses or your pup failed one you can retake and pass. These courses are offered by Contented Canines in the Quad City area, home of the Midnight Mochi. The group has rave reviews among locals with one of the other human classmates bringing in her 4th pup to be trained via this program, so I'm hopeful. This very first course covers the very basics plus behavioural conditioning and reshaping. The very basics are your typical sit, down, and stay in a no-distraction environment. The real gem is the behavioural reshaping so that mouthiness is redirected away from tender fingers, jumping becomes sitting, and barking becomes blissful silence. The very first course is all about making you want to be with your dog rather than run away in fear of the Terror on Four Legs! This leads me to the next part. Now, the interesting thing is, our darling Mochi already has a bad rap. "Why," you ask? That's an excellent and very important question! Shibas are notorious for being stubborn and hard to train. Shibas are renowned for not always mindlessly following his or her human's wishes, blindly, faithfully, and without question. Shibas are even called (gasp) dumb -- or at least rated as low intelligence -- on generic dog sites! What blasphemy these people speak of the glorious Shiba! All hail Shiba Inu, the master ra-, errr... Sorry, I got a little carried away. To expand on this, the trainer at our class explained how many breeds, like the German Shepherd and Border Collie, have a work ethic that basically revolves around pleasing humans. There are other breeds that are more "what's in it for me?" and the Shiba happens to be one of them. Of course, there are terriers at our class, too, but for some reason the trainer called out "who's got the Shiba Inu?", specifically. Oh, that knowing smile she had on her face as she assessed the human family who adopted a Tiny Terror. Meanwhile, Ms. Terrier Mom is wondering how to fix her pup's peeing issue and later does bring it up. Little does our training group know that the Tiny Terror named Mochi is already ahead of the other dogs in the world of basic obedience. Sure, the stays are harder to master, but that's a "stay" for you and a Shiba is more likely to do something more interesting than sit around what feels like all day. However!!!! This little guy is already handling sits and downs by the front door of a veterinarian's office. Yes, I'm bragging, but how many dogs do you see at a veterinarian's office sit there calmly unless given the release to go do something fun? Sure, I use hot dogs but the way to a dog's heart is through his stomach -- even more so than the men that phrase was intended for. Mochi knows how to get the best treats so he does it. He even shows off to his doggy buddies in an attempt to get rewarded with play. I can't wait to see how the trainers react to the Mochi-butt next week... So I've read that Shibas typically don't like water. My pup's breeder said that most of her dogs dislike water but that his grandma was the oddball in the family. Maybe Mochi is his grandma's baby boo because this boy certainly loves the water! We play "chase the stream" games with him and have introduced him to a wading pool since his human family likes to go fishing. At first he wasn't too keen on getting his feet wet, but he eventually took a liking to the splashes he could make with his paws! Watch below and see for yourself. He also loves the empty pool, apparently. That's a Mochi-butt for ya!
Shibas bark, but not incessantly. Mochi's labrador neighbours bark incessantly for the sheer joy of it. The Shiba watches them quietly as they run back and forth barking until they're back inside their house once more. So what does a Mochi bark at? A Mochi barks at threats. Maybe it's threatening rap music with the thunderous beats as a high school kid drives by with his windows down. Maybe it's that threatening car door. Maybe it's the percussive thumps of a human walking up the steps to the front door. That's what a Mochi barks at. How nasty is a Mochi bark? Well, that depends on how close those threatening sounds seem. If it's just to alert his humans that something may be afoot, a little huff of breath is fine. Oh, it's a little closer? How about a sneeze? Wait, it's even closer! Mochi will "woof". Oh my gosh, it's AT THE DOOR! There's the real bark as the Mochi not only tries to alert his obviously deaf humans of the threat but also warns off that terrible porch invader that he's quite the tough guy. I mean, look at this face... It's pretty scary, especially since he's still wearing a cone from his neuter.
I thought this merited its own post. Yes, I'm doing the terrible double-post on the same day, but it's a new blog and the last was a preface, right?
Today, we got Mochi the above crate pad. Of his own volition he hopped on and laid down upon it like he knew exactly what it was for. It's clearly a winner in this Shiba's eyes and I feel proud to have picked out a good one for the fuzz-butt. If you're wondering, it's a "Quiet Time" reversible crate pad made by Midwest, who also happens to have been the company that made his crate in which he sleeps at night. Yup, he has a crate and he sleeps in it and he's totally fine with that. Crate time is peace time and it's also the only time he gets his absolute favouritest treat in the world! The Kong toy filled with a combination of dry kibble in the back (mainly to act as filler since his puppy tongue can't get all the way back there), a smear of peanut butter throughout, and super fancy wet dog food. Speaking of "wet dog"... As soon as I figure out how to get the video off of my husband's phone, I have a fantastic video of a dog prancing and pouncing after a stream of water, getting thoroughly wet in the process! Okay, so maybe I/we have had said puppy for almost a month, now. Did you know that puppies are a huge handful that require a boat-load of your time until they settle in and their active/inactive schedules align with yours? Oh you did? Okay. For those who didn't know, puppies are much like little babies with their own schedules and needing constant supervision, basically sucking all of your free time short of those all-too-short moments of baby nap times. We got our little guy from a breeder based in Illinois. She's a wonderful lady named Jane who is a Shiba enthusiast and invests a great deal of her free time in raising Shibas for competitions -- both conformation and performance. Our puppy was a potential show dog turned pet because the Shiba family was just too big and he needed a new family. Isn't his face adorable? Aren't his little paws to die for?! Yup, that's our pup. Now, I really wanted a red, red sesame, or even a cream, but ended up with this guy. Guess what! He turned out to be the most beautiful puppy in the world to me. Plus the "Batman" signal is on his chest and that's awesome. We picked him up at an AKC confirmation show in Dewitt, IA and brought him home. He was awesome in the truck on the 30-min ride home and his first night was quiet as he slept the whole night through. Being the age he was and the care given to him beforehand, even house-training was already in process and easy to take care of. This little guy settled in like he was born into our family. Last week we got him neutered and it was a good thing, too. Love was in the air as puberty hit and I'm afraid his love was unrequited. Post-op, however, he's turned into a rather sweet pup. Maybe it's the cone. It's probably the cone. He can't seem to just get his mouth around nearly as many things with that thing on and he absolutely loves being scratched more than ever. He still loves to chew, but now he's more interested in his own chew toys than the table leg and his cot.
That's a Mochi-butt for ya. |
AuthorZanne Cook, the lucky human. ArchivesCategories |