Sachiko - Our Shiba Inu

Good evening!

We love our doggy.   She is such a good pup!!   Sometimes, she is a challenge because she loves to steal our socks.  She doesn't just take them and collect them under the bed either.   She chews them up!   We have to throw them out.  You'd think we would be better at protecting our socks.  We're not!!

She's a primitive breed and one of the oldest Japanese breeds.   She was bred to hunt small game.   Of course, she doesn't have to hunt for us.  However, you can't take the hunting instinct out of this dog.   She has replaced her instinct to hunt small game with... Legos.   I'm not kidding.  We try to protect them from her but it's useless.  Somehow she manages to sneak into the boys' room and get one or two a week.  It's a small victory for her.   She laps around the house like she's accomplished something great.  That's usually how we know she got something.  She can't hide her enthusiasm.

Here is a link to wikipedia.  It does give a good job of describing the Shiba's history, appearance and temperament. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiba_Inu

We went to a breeder in South Carolina to get Sachi.  Go figure.   An AKC registered breeder lived 15 minutes from our house.  It isn't easy to find a breeder of Shiba Inu's and we found one practically in our backyard.  Sachi was 3 months old when we met her.  She was being trained for show.   Her father was a champion show dog.  (We like to think so.)  Here's a link to the breeders website.  Her father is Little Big Man and her mother's name is Sunshine.

http://www.frerosekennels.com/

Anyway, they stopped training Sachi for show because she was a little on the small side.  However, I think she's the perfect size.  :)  Her birthday is July 16, 2006 and we got her in October of that year.

You may think a Shiba Inu is for you because they are such beautiful dogs.  They really aren't for everyone.  Shibas are very strong-minded, independent, aggressive to other dogs, and must be consistently socialized as a puppy.   Every vet that I have taken her to is so surprised at her temperament because she has a very sweet nature.  Aggression is a problem if not trained properly.  We are very fortunate she is so good, but it also took a lot of training and socialization the first year.  These dogs cannot be off a leash either because their hunting instinct is too strong.

Here's my favorite picture of her from last winter. 

We chose a Japanese name for her.  It means "joy" and when you add the ending of "ko" to Sachi it means joyful child.