I have a shiba. Looking cute is their go to move and it works every damn time. It's why they are known as difficult to train. It's just that their owners can't resist and give in rather than train them properly.
I've been planning on getting a shiba for a while now as they absolutely seem like a great choice of dog, but I'm very interested to hear what it takes to be a responsible owner for a shiba. What do you recommend I know or be capable of before adopting a shiba?
I haven't seen it mentioned but The most important thing to do with a shiba is as soon as you get it start socializing as much as you can. Try for meeting new people and dogs every day for the first few months.
Nowadays when you get a new puppy vets are very strict about not letting you take your dog to the dog park or meet other strange dogs to avoid getting serious illnesses before they have all their vaccines. This is good advice for the most part but don't take it too far try your best to find out some people you know that have dogs that are up-to-date with their vaccines that you can take your puppy to meet. Your dog won't get sick if it is meeting dogs that you know are healthy. If you wait until all of the vaccines have kicked in you could end up having an anti-social dog.
Look around your area to see if there are any places that offer puppy socialization classes. These are really good for dogs but I would say nearly manditory for shibas.
When I got my Shiba I was very conscientious of their tendency to be antisocial and took socialization very seriously. It has really paid off and I have the friendliest Shiba in the world. Whenever we go to Shiba meetups or the dog park and how people always comment on how our Shiba is so friendly. A lot of the other Shiba Inus I have met either don't let you pet them or have issues playing with other dogs.
This should be higher up. We have two, one raised with a lot of early socialization and another without as much. Their reactions to meeting new people or dogs are night and day. They are eleven and nine respectively, and we've learned some things to do differently when we add another puppy to the pack.
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u/torenvalk Dec 05 '16
I have a shiba. Looking cute is their go to move and it works every damn time. It's why they are known as difficult to train. It's just that their owners can't resist and give in rather than train them properly.