That Update I Keep Talking About

Okay, so the rat, who has been feeling a tad under the weather (again) perked up when I went to give her a treat this evening and I decided to let her out since she spent the time I'd tried to let her out earlier sleeping in her hammock. This means that I now have some free time and so I'm going to try and actually write that update on Zim that I keep talking about.

So, firstly, he was at the vet again this Monday and had his third round of shots. He had to get a nasal vaccine, which Fathead tells me he wasn't too keen on (I wasn't in there with him since we'd taken the rat in for respiratory issues and I try not to let their paths cross too much) but overall he was really good. That's great since he's been more ornery (although still not too bad) since he's stopped sleeping so much and I was a little worried he might decide to act up a bit at the vet but, no, I've been blessed with a Shiba that behaves himself at the vet.

On the note of being ornery, he growled at me for the first time today. Well, not the first time. He's growled before but it was only in play---normally when he does it he's play bowing or otherwise trying to get me to play with him. It's cute when he does that. This time, though, it was an "I don't like what you're doing" growl and it was not cute. He'd gotten the end of a broken cat toy with a little fuzzy ball on it and I needed to get it away from him. Well, he really wanted it and he wasn't giving it up. I had to take it from him by force (though I did give him a treat afterwards, hoping that he learns that giving me things isn't bad) because I was afraid he'd swallow it. So, Fathead and I are going to try and start getting him to give us things in exchange for hot dogs to a command to try and nip this in the bud before he starts resource guarding. Really, we should have done this earlier. He's never liked it when he's had something in his mouth and we needed to get it from him, this is just the first time he's actually really thought enough of what he had to protest like that. Really, we should have tried to get him to give things up on a command from the beginning (we started to but it faded when we found it hard to actually make sure we always had a treat to give him) and never taken things from him without giving him something. This is our fault but since it's only the one incident I'm pretty confident that if we just work to teach him a command and do what we should have done before and always exchange food for what he has, we'll probably never have a problem with it again. He's overall a really good-natured puppy and I think that as long as we don't abuse that, there won't be any more problems.

On a slightly more positive note, potty training has been going better. He still has accidents, but he's started signalling to go out a lot of the time. Moreover, when I brought him out tonight for his goodnight potty break he just went. I definitely think he's getting the idea that outside is the place to go potty. What's helped in this is that he's started squatting to pee, making it much easier to reward him for going and give a verbal cue that he's doing the right thing, and we've started to figure out his patterns for going in the house. As soon as he tries to go behind the chairs in the living room, he gets taken out because he's probably looking to pee or poop. Too much carpet sniffing can also be a sign (although he does that anyway sometimes so this one is harder). Not letting him behind those chairs in the living room helps a lot too---if I keep chasing him out and he has to go out he'll literally go jump at the back door to signal to go out. We're still usually having at least one accident a day, but it's a lot better than it was. I'm thinking he'll be potty trained a lot quicker than I first thought he would.

Crate training is a more mixed bag. He'd gotten to the point where he was quiet while we were away but he stilled screamed at night. This was making it hard to tell when he needed to go outside and it was meaning accidents in his crate. Finally, his distress and these accidents convinced us to try something else. We both agreed that letting him have accidents in his crate certainly meant it wasn't accomplishing one of the purposes it was supposed to---helping to potty-train him---and I thought it might be hurting it. I want to encourage clean habits where he stays away from his poop, not make him sit in it because he's had an accident. Since the downstairs bathroom had baby-locks on the cabinets, no chemicals kept in there and basically nothing for him to get into at all, we decided we'd try putting him in there one night with his dog bed, which he loves. He didn't whine at all that night. He has since grown less fond of going in there, since he doesn't like being confined, but it's still way better than the crate. He whined a total of twice tonight (as in two discreet whines) and then has been silent. I flicked two Wellness jerky treats in there to reward him for his good behavior. It's great, because it means that we can get time away from him. Before, he was either sleeping  or one of us was having to watch him like a hawk. Frankly, it's exhausting to have to do that but chew treats don't hold his interest very long (bully stick=about an hour the first time he got it, antler=about a half hour) and we couldn't crate him to get a break either because as long as we were home and he in that crate, there was no peace in our house (not litterally, he would quiet down eventually at night, unlike the first couple of nights we had him, but still). Right now he's in the bathroom, safe and sound, I'm upstairs with Harley and Fathead is asleep. It's a good thing. We still plan on crate-training him, as not everyone's bathroom will probably be secure enough to make me feel okay about him being in there, but we're taking it slow. We're feeding him in there and dropping treats into it. Hopefully he'll eventually decide the crate is a good place and we can start shutting him in there without protest.

As mentioned above, Zim and Harley don't interact much and I try to keep it that way since Shibas are high prey drive. That said, the 3 or 4 times Zim has been around her, he's basically ignored her, so that's good.

Lastly, Zimmy is now 5.1 lbs at 10 weeks old. He's pretty small, even for a Shiba, but I still think that's quite a bit of growth since 8 weeks when he was 4.2 lbs. That's almost 25% growth in two weeks! I wonder sometimes if he might not have been a bit premature, given how small he is and how much he slept that first week we had him but either way, I think he'll probably still be really small as an adult for a male Shiba. Well, that is what we needed, given the weight limit on our apartment, so no complaints here. He's also about 9 inches tall at the shoulder. I'm not sure how that makes him measure up to other puppies his age, though. There's a bit less information out there about puppy height. Moreover, he was interested in chewing on the tape-measurer, so that was the best measurement I could get of him while standing. I verified it while he was sleeping though by going from shoulder blade to where he should be standing on his foot, so hopefully it's right.

Also, here's a video of Zim meeting his cousin, Molly, who is the dog of Fathead's sister, Mandy. We're doing some catching up in these, but really it's all about the dogs. :D

Making Friends Everywhere He Goes

So, Zim is quite the popular little dude. I had him outside to try and go to the bathroom the other day and the secretary for our landlord saw him and we talked for a little bit while she went to her car. Well, then yesterday Fathead and a friend of ours had him outside and the building manager came by. He was quite taken with our little boy and petted him and whatnot. Well, apparently the secretary was quite taken with him too! He told us that she's offered to watch him sometimes in the morning. I think we might take her up on it, since I think that the more time he spends with people about in his house, the better. Either way, though, I'm pretty pleases to see my adorable little puppy getting this much attention. I'm even more pleased by the fact that he's totally cool with it. I know a number of Shibas are not okay with people just coming up to them and not only does Zim not mind, but he'll actively seek it out when he's in the mood.

I'm so glad he's good with people. I just hope we can keep him that way.

Adventures in Crate Training

As I believe I mentioned in my last post, and as the video below demonstrates, Zim hates his crate.

Well, today I think we've had our first real success with crate training him. We've found that he seems to not cry when we leave him alone in the crate during the day---where he will cry all night even though we're upstairs---literally all night---when we get home from being out, he's not. Now, he used to start as soon as we walked in the door, meaning we couldn't let him out because then he'd think that crying was the way to get out of his crate. Well, today when we got home, he stayed completely silent until he'd been let out. Both times! I think we're making progress. Hopefully he'll be quieter tonight and I'm going to try and video him while we're out tomorrow to see if he actually does stay silent the entire time we're away.

In other news, however, potty training is not going so well. It's damn near impossible to tell when he's peeing since he just stands to pee---no squatting or anything to indicate he's going. This makes it really tough to both stop him from having accidents (although Fathead has successfully done that twice) and to reward him for going outside. You can't reward him for what you don't see! It's no better with pooping either because his stool is loose right now and I think it's made it hard for him to control his bowels. Either way, he's had three poop accidents and all were in his crate. :( I feel really bad for the little guy. It can't be nice to be in a box with your poop. He stopped crying for a bit last night and then started back up again, we think because he'd had an accident, but he's been crying so constantly that we didn't know to take note of it---have I mentioned how sorry I feel for him? I do feel pretty bad that we left him like that, even if we had no way of knowing it was a potty accident.

Well, my little boy may have some crate and potty issues, but he's not the little shark I was expecting to bring home (he barely mouths at all) and he's super great about being handled. Moreover, he really seems to like us. Like, he basically wants to have at least one of us in sight whenever possible. I know some people have trouble bonding with their new Shiba puppies because all they want to do is bite you and they feel like the pup doesn't like them. Zim's just not like that and I have to say it's made bonding a lot easier. It's pretty easy to bond with a pup that's happy to let you man-handle him into a harness and is perfectly happy being petted while he naps in your lap.

More pictures!!!

Adventures in Puppy-Proofing.

So, Fathead and I lead a highly electronic life. We have a large LCD TV, an Xbox 360, a Playstation 3 and Surround Sound in addition to our computers, printers and Wi-Fi network. Well, this means that there are cords everywhere in our house. All over the living room.

Well, this was simply not going to do when Zim came home. Leaving the cord situation the way it was just begged for an extra crispy puppy, courtesy of electrocution. So we took today to get our cords in order. Fathead drilled holes in the shelf we put the TV and game systems on in order to put the cords through the back. Then I started stringing all the cords that needed to go to other parts of the house into cord protectors. It took hours. As in about 8 of them. But it's done now. There is significantly less chance of the puppy biting on cords. The living room also looks somewhat nicer (other than all of the crap sitting around in it that we still need to find places for, anyway).

Exactly one week from today is the day Zim comes home!

Zim's on Facebook!

I just put my baby on facebook. :D

http://www.facebook.com/OBEYZIM

Only 8 days until he comes home!

I AM ZIM!

So, since we now know which puppy is ours, I'm reposting a picture of him even though he is in one of the pictures below.

He comes home January 28th. We're naming him Zim, after Invader Zim of the Invader Zim Nickolodeon cartoon. We think that naming him after a narcissistic member of an advanced alien race trying to conquer Earth seems really appropriate. After all, our little boy is probably going to be trying to achieve Shiba world domination.

The Wait is Close to Over

So, Pam contacted me today asking if we wanted her to bring the two pups she thinks will stay small enough with her to Nova, MI, where she's headed this weekend, so we could come pick up our pup. Unfortunately, that would add 2 hours to our trip, though, so I declined. It's really probably best for the pup to have a shorter car trip. Possibly nicer to our ears, considering that I've heard stories of pups screaming the whole way home (hoping we'll avoid that one!). Anyway, she also told me which two she thinks will stay small enough. One of the red girls should stay small enough and . . . the black and tan boy with the green collar! As I noted in my last post, I was somewhat taken with that last pup when he crashed in my lap, so I'm thinking we have a winner. I'm so excited! We'll be going and picking him up the weekend after next (the weekend of the 28th and 29th).

Why oh why isn't that town in Michigan closer? I really want my puppy. :D

Back from Visiting the Pups!

So, today Fathead and I drove 4ish hours (I think it took us more like 4.5 but we hit traffic, ate a short lunch and made a wrong turn in Cincinnati, so I think it should be more like 4) to go visit the puppies. It was super fantastic. They're all fabulously cute and given the way they mobbed us, they all seem very friendly too. Pam has some seriously great dogs. Definitely feeling really good about getting one of her pups. The pups were all pretty charming (even the ones feeling slightly traumatized by worming, shots and microchipping) and all of the adults were simply fantastic. Really fantastic.

Anyway, so an update on the pup we will be getting. Firstly, after our visit today, Fathead basically said that if black and tans were still my favorite, as long as it looked like one would be small enough for us, we could get a black and tan. I was super thrilled about this, of course. Apparently he was really taken with Pam's adult black and tans, especially the father of the black and tan litters, Ike, and has decided that he really doesn't have a color preference. So we'll probably be getting a black and tan. :D

Nextly, we might actually end up getting a boy! It's too early to be really sure, but at least right now it's looking like a couple of the black and tan boys may stay small. Since we don't really care about sex, and just want a puppy that has a nice temperament and should stay small enough to be within our apartment's weight requirement, we'll be perfectly happy with a male if it looks like he'll be small enough. Indeed, I believe the one color-marked green is supposed to stay small enough and I have to admit, I found him pretty charming. He was very friendly and ended our visit by taking a nap in my lap. If it does seem like he'll stay small enough, then he may very well be the one we pick. :D

In other news, we rented a Chrysler 200 to drive out there (our car had developed an odd noise when idling and we didn't feel it was a good idea to drive it that far) and I have to say, I'm really glad we'll be going and getting the pup in our own car. I have two words for you, Chrysler: lumbar support. The Impreza is rally-bred and has noticeably stiffer suspension, but it gives my back no trouble, even over long distances. I came out of this trip with my lower back aching. The difference? The Impreza has very comfy seats with lumbar support. I never appreciated that before, but I do now.

Well, I would be posting pictures of the puppies, but I have a confession. I don't have any. We brought our camera with us, intending to take a ton of video and photos, but we left it in the car and once inside, we were just too enamoured with the puppies to leave them to go get a silly thing like a camera. I kind of regret it now, because it means that I have only my memories to over-analyze, trying to figure out which puppy may end up being mine, etc, but that's just how it is, I suppose.

That said, I will go ahead and post the pictures from the website of the black and tan boys, since we might actually end up getting one.

Unfortunately I have no idea which of these is color-coded as which.

Puppy Pictures!!!

Just got an E-mail this morning with pictures of the puppies available with our breeder. Posted here are the pictures of the females and therefore the puppies we might end up getting. They're all soooo cute!!!!

As you can see from the pictures, another black and tan female was born since I last spoke to Pam (she'd mentioned she had one last litter due when she e-mailed me), so our chances of getting either a black and tan or red and almost 50/50 now---which is great because I would really like a black and tan (although Fathead prefers reds).

Puppy should probably be home the last weekend in January. So excited!!

PUPPIES HAVE BEEN BORN!!!

So, when we mailed in our deposit on November 15, Pam was expecting a couple of litters, but none had been born yet. Now they have! :D :D There have been six girls born, which means, minus whatever Pam keeps for herself, we'll have our pick of six puppies (we're getting a girl because of weight restrictions on our apartment). I'm super excited about that because I'm really concerned with getting the right temperament for us. This is our first dog and Shibas are a challenge so working really hard to pick the dog with the right temperament is even more important than normal, I feel. I'm also somewhat excited by the mystery of what the new puppy will look like. There are two black and tan girls and four reds, so we'll probably end up with a red, but you never know! Ah, mystery.

PUPPIES!!!

Also, here's a picture of the unsuspecting the little rat-sibling of our puppy. Because she's just too cute and she deserves to have her furry little face plastered all over the internet. Too bad my pictures are a bit blurry from being taken with an iPod. Oh, well.