Welcome to Shiba...What?

I chose that name because that was probably the first thing I said when I heard about the breed. And, I get that quite often when I have the girls out and they meet new people. Most people have never heard of the breed, although we do occasionally run into someone who actually knows what they are! I do know one thing and that is Shiba owners love to see other Shibas and read about other Shibas. I recently came across I Am Shiba and within a few days, read the whole blog. Many times I found myself laughing so hard I was on the verge of tears. LOL While not every dog is the same, there are enough similarities. Through this blog, I would love to share how I came to have these two beautiful girls, what we have been though and what we are up to. Occasionally even the girls will add their input, they can be very opinionated you know.


Friday, April 30, 2010

Vicious Miko and the Alligator roll.

We always have great fun with Sami and Miko.  Today it was Miko's turn.  It was very warm today and that would probably explain why she was laying on the hard kitchen floor instead of her bed.  She always gets into the funniest sleeping positions. 

So, she was sleeping against the doorway and Evanita pulled her upper lip back to reveal her "smile"  LOL  And she will just keep it there.  So, I go and get my camera.  She really looks like a vicious dog here, but we know better.

We decide to have a little more fun.  We bring in one of their favorite toys, the Alligator and place it on her.  The Alligator is a really neat toy.  We have found out that they seem to prefer the bigger toys.  They are after all, big dogs in little bodies.  Also, it makes it a lot safer to play with them as they tend to jump and grab the toy.  The Alligators body is flat and has 16 squeekers in it and there is also a rattle in the head.  You probably can't see it, but one of the nostrels has been chewed off.  LOL


This toy is especially good when you have two dogs.  Sometimes they play tug-of-war with it.  It's kind of funny when you go toy shopping with them.  You hold toys out to them and they just don't seem that interested in anything.  So, I just have to use my judgement when buying toys.  If it looks like something they would like, I just buy it.  And, usually after all the tags come off, they are really ready to check out and play with their new toy.

Two are more fun then one.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Ouch!!!

I guess I should have known that it was going to happen, sooner or later. I should know that after hitting the half century mark last year, I should try to be a little more careful. But, that isn’t always easy when you don’t feel that old. Here’s how it happened.


When Evanita and I take the dogs out together, we often make it a little game to see who can get to the house first. Who’s dog actually gets inside the door first. And, there is often some cheating involved, like blocking the other dog or grabbing the other dogs leash so your dog can get inside first. LOL Also, it’s not always a good idea to run across the yard when it’s dark. We have many trees in our yard and there is always some kind of branch or twig that you can trip on. And, the dogs in the 3 years have dug a few small holes that you can trip in. During the day when it’s light, it’s easy to miss them, but I always try to keep the holes in mind if I’m running back to the house at night, even with the security lights on.

So, we take the dogs out and Sami usually gets her business done first. So, I take advantage of that to get the head start to the house. We sprint across the yard and make it to the stairs and that’s when it happened. Not exactly sure just how it happened though. The beginning happened so fast I’m not sure if I tripped going up the cement stairs onto the cement porch or if I just lost my balance. But down I went and then it was slow motion.

I’m sure my right knee hit first as it hurts the worst. Then the left knee and then I think I tried to save myself with my right hand and then the left hand. I did manage to roll to the right to keep from hitting my face on the cement porch. Must have been quite the sight! LOL So, I’m laying on my right side, both knees and hands stinging really bad and Sami is just looking at me like, what happened? What are you doing down here? LOL I finally manage to get back up and get inside. I sure hope the neighbors next door didn’t see that, they probably got quite the laugh!

Evanita and Miko have not yet begun to start back up to the house, so I go inside to survey the damage. Both palms and knees are a little skinned up, but thankfully no bleeding. I’m sure I will really be stiff in the morning. Evanita and Miko finally get to the house and here Miko just about got herself a bunny! Evanita took Miko around the Lilac bush and this bunny darted out in front of her. I’m sure Miko was wishing her leash was just a little bit longer. LOL

Two is more fun then one.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Morning Walk Interrupted......

I thought I knew all the dogs in the neighborhood, apparently I missed one. Either that, or the people just got a dog.


We start out on our morning walk as usual, going around the back way by the park. Sami and Miko are walking along the edge of the park sniffing things. We get just past the second house and that’s when we hear and see it. This little black and tan number, looked like it might have been a Chihuahua. It starts barking and the girls stop in their tracks and are now looking at this dog. It is up by the house. Now it is really barking at us and the girls are starting to bark back and the hair on Sami’s back is all raised up into her Mohawk. The dog starts heading for the road and I’m not liking this at all. It stops about half way to the road and I’m trying to get the girls to move on down the street.

Let me just say this now, I have never seen any dog aggression from either one. They really don’t like dogs getting in their face or jumping all over them. They have never growled or tried to bite another dog, instead they just try to get away. As long as the dog is on a leash and they just let them sniff at each other, both are perfectly fine. So, I’m just hoping that this dog stays in it’s yard and doesn’t cause any trouble.

Well, the dog decided to come out into the street about 10 feet away from us which was ten feet too close. I’m really getting nervous now, still trying to get the girls to move. I look up at the house and notice that the door is open with just the screen door shut. So, I pull my glove off and start whistling, really loud, hoping that someone in the house hears me.

No such luck, but the whistling seems to scare the dog and it goes back into it’s yard and I manage to get the girls to start going down the street. As I look back, I see someone let the dog back in.

The whole thing just makes me mad. Apparently these people are not aware that you have to have control of your dog at all times. If they can’t keep the dog in it’s yard, then they either need to tether in the yard or take it out on a leash. A third option would be to fence in their yard. I just hope this was an isolated incident, because the next time it happens, I will be calling Animal Control.

The rest of the walk went off without much of a hitch until we almost got home. Miko stopped and started barking at this house. The guy that lives there is usually leaving for work as we are going by. I don’t see the guy and I don’t see the dog that lives there, so at first I’m not sure what she is barking at. Then Sami joins in and she has the Mohawk thing going again. That is when I figure out what they are barking at. They just put a flag on the front of the house and it’s flapping in the breeze. LOL

We get home and I take the harnesses off and they get a drink of water. Then it is usually time for a quick Shiba 500. The rugs get messed up and the blankets are usually pulled off their bed and in about 5 minutes it’s over and time for the morning nap. And, now it’s time for me to go to bed.


Two is more fun then one.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Looking out the Window.....

My daughters bedroom window is very popular with the pets.  They can see what is going on out front.  Calista, the cat in the box really loves to lay in the windowsill or in this box that my daughter attached to the headboard of her bed.  She loves to watch the birds and squirrels.  Sami and Miko of course like to look for the people and dogs.  Here is Sami and Calista looking out the window.

Two is more fun then one.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Which food and why.......

With all the dogs and cats I’ve had over the years, I really never paid much attention to what food I fed them. The dogs usually got something like Gravy Train and the cats, Meow Mix. I never had any issues with food allergies. When we had decided to get Sami and Miko, I thought it was time to step up to the plate and feed them the best food possible. So, after a little research, we decided to go with Nutro Max puppy food.


At around 8 ½ months of age, Sami got really sick and for awhile we thought we were going to lose her. She was throwing up stomach bile and her appetite was not very good. My vet ran various tests and tried different medications and nothing was helping. So, he had me take her to Indianapolis Veterinary Referral and they got to the bottom of her problem rather quickly. She was having a severe allergic reaction to her food causing Inflammatory Bowl Disease. They said it would be time consuming and expensive to find out what it was in her diet that was causing the reaction, so the best route to go would be to put her on a limited ingredient diet or novel protein diet. So, she now eats Venison and Potato and takes a small dose of Prednisone each day. She has blood work done to make sure the Prednisone is not affecting any of her organs and so far she is doing great!

So, after we got that figured out, we got to thinking about what to feed Miko when she was a year old. Since we didn’t know what triggered the allergy in Sami, we weren’t willing to keep Miko on a diet that could potentially cause her problems as well. Then we heard about Blue Buffalo.

It all sounded really great with the life source bits and all and she seemed to really like it. Then we started noticing the inconsistencies with the amount of life source bits in the food. We got one bag that was at least half life source bits. Well, after a few days, we noticed her poops were black. At first we were alarmed as dark stools can be a sign of blood in the stools. Then I got to thinking about the extra life source bits she was getting which are black in color. So, we separated out the life source bits out of about 3 days worth of food and after about the second day, her poops were back to normal.

Then, this last bag had no life source bits at all! Well, if these life source bits are so important, you would think they would make sure the bags of food were consistent. So, we decided to change her food because of that and a couple other things we were noticing. One, she chews on her feet a lot more then Sami does. She could be just more of a clean freak then Sami, but on the other hand, some things in the diet can cause skin allergies. The second thing is that she seems to belch a lot after eating.

Well, I had noticed a few people lately talking about California Natural. Since a lot of dog food has chicken in it, I decided to go with the Lamb and Rice formula. I’m just now starting to mix it in with the Blue Buffalo, so it will probably be a couple weeks before we can tell any difference. Also, I can’t remember what we had the cats on before we also had them put on the Blue Buffalo. So, we switched them to the California Natural as well.

It would be nice if others would share what they feed their Shibas. And why…..

Two is more fun then one.