Aww! such cute dogs Zora is a beautiful rottie. =)Nicole, Bella(Boxer), and Saya(Shiba inu)

What a cutie! And I bet Zora is teaching him all sorts of things! :)Casey with Bella (shiba) and Nola (shiba) hanging out in the mountains of Virginia.

Kenshin is twelve weeks now, and is finally enjoying life outside. He is taking to walking very well. He doesn't pull and if he lingers, all I have to do is call him to get him moving. He actually doesn't seem to mind anything outside. As of now he has absolutely no prey drive towards wild animals. He looks at them and quickly looses interest. He loves people and gets especially happy when its either a child or an elderly person. He prefers to be the one to say hi when he is on the ground, but if I hold him he doesn't mind. I have been taking him on about seven walks a day as I try and potty train him, its going ok since he has only been outside for two days. He still goes in the house but its already starting to be something he does more outside then inside. it is also a little hard because of the heat in my area, and his constant need of water.

There are a few things about his walks that are a little iffy. The first being that I have a shiba who prefers to be carried in the heat, I'm not sure if I'm over walking him, but after a while he will beg to be picked up (I can't believe I'm having this issue with a Shiba, goes to show how they can vary). If I ignore it, he just plops on the ground. I wouldn't mind leaving him there until he got the message, but I am concerned with all of the disgusting things that tend to be on the ground. The second thing is his fear of clear plastic bags. It is the weirdest thing I have seen, he doesn't mind bags of any other color but the clear ones. I'm trying to show him its ok, but he keeps giving the bags warning barks. Any tips on getting over specific fear issues will be appreciated. The other fear he has is stepping over boundaries (like the boundary from my apartment into the building hallway, stepping onto the elevator, and stepping out of the buildings front door). He won't do it no matter what. I'm also wrestling with the idea of leaving him like that. In a way its kind of a good thing he won't bolt out of or into places. I would really like to hear anyone's thoughts on this.

Now I'm not sure if this a shiba thing or not, Kenshin is very people and animal friendly, except during the night. Once the sun sets, he doesn't want anything coming to close to him or me, this includes people he met when the sun was up (he becomes kind to them again during the day). If someone tries to talk to me, he jumps in front of me and snarls. I don't mind a suspicious dog at night, because I do live in a bad neighborhood, but I don't want him barring his teeth either. I'm not sure on how to handle this, it isn't exactly the best thing for me to make him blindly trusting at night, so I want to find a way to make him learn a little self control or at the very least, reduce his range of what he considers too close (unfortunately its a little under half of a block). The other thing is I can't use the Harness at all. I tried several times and each time he shiba screams, bucks then refuses to move. Because of this I'm stuck with the martingale. Luckily he doesn't pull and I have it set to be looser then a buckle collar would be (it never gets tighter then a buckle). If anyone had this problem and found a solution, I'll be glad to hear it.

I thank anyone who took the time to read all of this in advance, sorry to make it so long, here is some Kenshin Spam to make up for it.



Is it just me, or does kenshin's markings on his chest remind you of a Jack-o-Lantern?





Joint begging.





Kenshin's face is getting wider and fluffier by the day

Ariel (me), Zora (parent's/family Rottweiler), Haru (my ferret), Kenshin (my "first" dog, Shiba Inu)

Not sure on your other issues, but Saya does not like the harness she was fine with her harness as a puppy, but now she stops and won't move if it's on her. I'm planing on getting a bark and giggle harness for her and hopefully get her used to it. Not much help, but I look forward to replies on this..Nicole, Bella(Boxer), and Saya(Shiba inu)

Hi everyone. I noticed its been a while since I've given any updates on Kenshin, while I don't have the ability to upload any pictures (hopefully I can fix that tomorrow), I just wanted to say how things have been going. The last few months with Kenshin have been a blast. Kenshin who is almost five months is maturing into quite a character. Kenshin has gained his own huge circle of friends (both the two and four legged variety). At first he was sort of standoffish with strangers but now he is generally friendly. He really seems to have taken to people in wheelchairs and with walkers. If they call him over he will stand against the side of their walker or wheelchair so that they do not have bend to pet him. He even had a guy who hasn't walked in over a year to try taking steps, I was very shocked to say the least. This has got me thinking if I should see if I could get him to volunteer at our local nursing home, because he has a few friends there. Kenshin also loves greeting people with these long dances (back flips included), I never thought I would get a shiba who dances when he sees one of his buddies down the block.

Kenshin is also still a "Vampire dog" and is still leery about people at night (this seems to be isolated to my area, I think he may be reacting to my nervousness), especially since a guy started asking me a lot of questions then quickly reached for him. Kenshin snapped and the man left us alone. It was a little unsettling, so I really have stopped correcting him if someone comes near (less then a foot away). Outside of that one case Kenshin hasn't snapped at anyone, but he does point his paw at everyone on the surrounding blocks. He doesn't bark as much but will watch them intensely, (he does bark if I don't look at them). I don't know if this is normal for a Shiba Inu to be so protective at night, but I really don't mind since my area has had a very big rate of crimes. He seems to only get alarmed at people who I honestly think are up to no good. I feel like its sort of wrong to let him behave this way, but at the same time I think its for the best. Especially since he doesn't do it to everyone and no longer treats people he knows the same way. I would really like to hear your opinions on this. He did however loose his issue with boundaries, he seems to not care anymore.

Kenshin has also taken to going to the dog park. He has made friends with plenty of the dogs both large and small. I find it hilarious that my tough boy will allow a 3 pound chihuahua to flip him over and "pin" him. I don't know if its becuase he has been playing with my rottweiler and she lets him "win", but he is always really gentle when he rough houses with the very small dogs. However when its a big dog, he will play as rough as he can. I have been fortunate enough that my friend who owns a house down the block has a six month lab who lets him get his wild side out in an enclosed yard. Its very funny to see my pup who is half of her size bossing her around. He also gets along with cats. He wants to play with them so badly but they just smack him. Kenshin's solution to this has been for him to get close enough for them to swipe and he dodges. This has actually worked in him making friends with a cat who generally hates everything.

Training has been going ok for the most part, he is very food motivated, but praise also makes him quite happy. Most of the basic commands he listens to, and I have started training him a little off leash. I only started because whenever I hand his leash over to my mom to go to run a quick errand, Kenshin will scream if he can't follow. However I keep him on 30ft worth of lead in a huge field with multiple people (along with Zora) so I, or they can step on it if he looks like he is going to bolt. I'm doing this training so that in the event he ever gets loose I'll have some control over him and I am seriously considering placing him a sport. So far its actually been going very well. Kenshin stays close to me, and when I call him over he runs to me. If I walk away he follows. I can only get him to really move away from me if we play fetch and even then he runs back as soon as he catches it. When another dog bounds by, he looks like wants to go but he stays. Kenshin has also learned that its very fun to wrap his lead around my mother and zora's feet so they can't move. I know I shouldn't find it funny, but its hilarious for him to suddenly run around circles so fast and wrap them up. The good thing is Zora, and him have turned this into their weird little game. I think the only problem I have had with his training is that if I tell him to say, stop chewing on the wall, Kenshin will do so but try again as soon as I turn my back.

Over the last few months Kenshin has also integrated into my family rather well. My parents adore him (especially my father) and spoil him a lot. My younger brother also spends time with him every day. I think my family was meant to be Shiba Inu people because we have never had a pet fit so smoothly into our household as quickly. He is affectionate with everyone and tends to divide his time, though he spends the most time with me. He still begs to be carried and loves to cuddle. The only rough bump is between Kenshin and my ferret Haru. The two got along great, but Kenshin harassed him to play too much that Haru attacked him. A fight broke out, and even though neither of them got hurt, I made the decision to keep them apart. Its kind of tough because they want to play together sometimes but I'm going to try and reintroduce them once Kenshin is older.

Sorry for the long update, but the last few months have made me so proud of my little pup. I can't wait to get pictures up so you guys can see how much he has changed in appearance =]Ariel (me), Zora (parent's/family Rottweiler), Haru (my ferret), Kenshin (my "first" dog, Shiba Inu)

As promised, here is some Kenshin SPAM.

Here is Kenshin from last month:







Kenshin apparently thinks he is a ninja, even though he forgot to hide the paper he tore up, all the way.

Here is Kenshin from this week





Kenshin from today: (we ran into this very cute bulldog pup today and it turned to a sidewalk play session)















And finally Kenshin with Zora:



Ariel (me), Zora (parent's/family Rottweiler), Haru (my ferret), Kenshin (my "first" dog, Shiba Inu)