 Barked: Thu Feb 9, '12 9:49pm PST |
 | |  | | Okay, My shiba / mini husky mix has been a handful. I'm going to post my pitfalls and solutions in the hopes that others might learn from them, or at least tell me if I'm waaay off base.
Since we picked her up at 2 months, she's always been food possessive making matters worse after she eats she freaks out like this guy. Cesar just did a video about it and you can find it here.
http://t.co/eEQ1dKH1
We're working towards being able to get her to back off her off her food and she's getting better, slowly. I just wish I didn't try handfeeding her from months 3 - 6. That was crazy!
2) She's mouthy and play bitey, but if we dominate her she hasn't given in since 3 months ago. Now when she gets bitey and doesn't stop we've got a kennel set up in a dark separate room so she can calm down for a minute or two and we let her out. This is working well, I think. If she acts up again, she goes back into the room she goes. Is there any point in trying to dominate her by holding her mouth shut if she never squeaks to submit. She does roll over, and wiggle her tail, so it seems like she's just having fun.
We tried timing her out in her home crate while we're in the same room but last week we realized, she doesn't see that as punishment either because that's where she spends a big part of her day anyway.
Does an independent Shiba really care if its left alone? Ours likes to be around us, but after 9:30 she turns into grumpy gus and growls and snaps if we get close to where she's sleeping. We're working on this by having her sleep in the doorway to the bedroom where we have to walk past her. She started in her crate but now she's calm enough to let us walk past unchecked.
Here's where I'm stumped now, if she's on her pillow and growls at me walking past, should I get her off the pillow and take it away or let her trust that we're not going to take things away from her in the hopes that she'll stop growling.
Yes, I'm aware that I could just take the pillow out of the equation entirely, but I like that she has a target I can send her to. Also, I think this can be an opportunity for training if I play it right.
Does anyone elses shiba growl and snap if they get woken up? For 2 months, if she's laying on our lap and falls asleep, when she wakes up she'll growl and snap. You've usually got 2 seconds of growls before she makes her move. We usually flick her off our laps and on to the floor to avoid it.
Finally, has anyone got any good tips on teaching bite control and 'calm down' with their shiba?
Phoo.. that's a lot, thanks for reading. |  |  | |  |
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