Lessons From My Teacher- Yuki the Shiba Inu

Greetings fellow Intenders. I have been busy for the past few weeks with my new puppy- named Yuki. Yuki is a shiba inu. You can click that link for some more info on this breed. I never even knew about them until the shiba inu puppy cam was all the rage on stumble and digg. Then after doing some research- it was undeniable this was the breed for me.

Admittedly, I am a big advocate of adopting dogs- since my past 6 dogs have all been rescues. But I had never had a pure breed, and never experienced purchasing a dog from a breeder- so in the spirit of new experience, my wife April, and I went for it. We picked her up from the airport, brought her home, made a youtube video, and then it was back to reality. We had a living breathing creature in our house that had no idea where she was, or how to handle her surroundings.

Dogs need boundaries. They are pack animals, so they either believe they are the leader, or they act as a follower. If they are anything but a follower to all humans, especially you- it can cause all kinds of problems in our human society. Biting, insecurity, aggression, peeing in the house, chasing prey in the middle of the road, and all kinds of cute displays of control- like incessantly licking your couch. :)

We're big fan of the dog whisperer, and our previous rescue, Toby the half golden / half australian shepard, was a wreck and a half when we got him due to an abusive past- so we were keen on the rehabilitation, but honestly, I had never trained a puppy from scratch!

The steps needed weren't as obvious as I thought they'd be when we had our first thoughts of getting a new puppy. We weren't at a complete loss, she was house trained in just a couple of weeks, and for a dog that never put a leash on before, she was doing very well. But there were elements of past relationships with past dogs that were missing for me.

Intention. If you ever have any doubt that such a force exist- get a dog. Dogs can read minds, and they feel and see your intentions. With my past dogs, if I wanted my dog to come to me, I would think of him coming to me, and he came. If I wanted him in the kitchen, I'd think it, and he'd enter. If it was cold outside, and I needed him to hurry up and go to the bathroom, I'd think it, and there he went! So the processes of teaching the dog hand signals, voice commands, etc seemed absurd to me. Can you believe I was so dependant on intention that I never bothered to learn the basics? Intention would be enough for the new puppy as well- but other elements of the relationship had to be built first- mainly trust and respect.

Dogs not only sense your intention and what you want (and if you are a good pack leader, they will act on it everytime), and they not only feel your emotion and how you feel, but they smell it too. So much of what I am having to teach my puppy now is how to let the world pass you buy in a calm state- no matter what the state of being some other dog or human or wild animal might be in. And she only knows what I know, since the city of Boulder is not her natural habitat. When I am outside with her, in a calm state- letting the buses, cars, bikes, skateboards, etc go by- she sits and does the same. If I am feeling stress about the circumstances and events of my life, and let something or someone annoy me or make me angry, then proceed to go out to walk the dog in that mindset- she is going to feed off of that energy and act very insecure.

Thank god for dogs. They keep us in line, when we let them.

Often, we won't let go of stress for ourselves, but we will become a calm, confident leader for our dog- because we can't stand to see their cute little faces in the same unbalanced state of mind we may have found ourselves in in the moment.

But alas, knowledge really gets you nowhere, it is its application that creates wisdom and experience. I knew I needed a tune up as a dog owner, so April and I went up into a ranch in the mountains 25 minutes behind our home, and found who I believe to be one of the best dog trainers in the country. And for the past 24 hours we have been practicing techniques based off of the knowledge above, and Yuki is noticeably happier, calmer, much more tired (because of all the mental stimulation), much more obedient, and is becoming a happy follower in this pack.

Shiba Inu's are stubborn little creatures, so thankfully, she won't let me not be a calm and assertive leader for a split second, and for that I am very grateful.