Look how BIG I look in the picture on the left. I dunno if it’s an illusion or if I’m really that big!?

Nov. 13, 2010                                                                              Jan 13, 2010

Here is what happens. We bring him outside. He walks quite fine until he finishes his business. Then, he starts pulling back. He refuses to move forward. He looks back towards home and then sits down, trembling. We look around, and there is nothing moving, nothing coming our way, and nothing making any noise. He used to at least not tremble. It started this fall.

This video was taken just around the corner from our place.

This is really hard on us. We need to walk him for exercise. We know that exercise is good for fearful dogs. But he does not have fun walking in our neighborhood. No matter which directions we go, he is scared. He just does not seem to want to go further away from home. Treats does not work once he is in this mode. He just looks away and shuts down. This makes us feel really mean, especially while we coax him to move. We often have to pull him quite hard only to end up dragging him, at which point we stop pulling.

The video on the left was taken on a better day, a quite Sunday afternoon. This is before peeing, so he walks without resisting. You can see that he’s still quite nervous.

The funny thing is, after 5-10 minutes of coaxing, we do get far enough from home and he suddenly starts walking. Still alert and hesitant with frequent stopping and thinking, but he moves forward, on his own. He also trembles much less. It’s like he decides to just get it over with.

And once he realizes that we are headed back home, he is much more confident. He even pulls forward quite hard to get home.

Those daily walks have not been fun for us. It is stress-inducing. We are always on the look out for possible fear triggers, so we can avoid them. It is sometimes maddening.

Deep breath. Deep breath. Ommmm….

I was born a year ago (Nov. 1st) and I guess it’s a big deal! My humans sang a happy birthday song to me at midnight.

Then, they brought out this thing called “cup cake”. I had never seen nor smelled anything like it before, so I pushed it around with my nose and investigated it for a long time before my first lick. I had to be careful in case it was a cupcake monster.

The cupcake turned out safe, and very tasty! I wonder why they don’t give me this more often. I couldn’t finish all of it, though, so I buried the rest under the towel. I will take it out when I want it later…

They also gave me a toy that made kitty meaw noises. I’ve not made up my mind about it…. For now, I’m keeping my distance.

Tonight, my people cooked chicken with rice and veges. It was my first time to have a meal like that…. I ate it all, except for my regular kibbles they so sneakily mixed in.

Anyway, I think I like birthdays. I get to eat yummy things, receive lots of hugs and kisses, and get a present! (even if it makes weird noises and makes me suspicious!)

I am a Shiba Emo. Listening to The Cure right now…

I met a really quiet and seemingly nice dog yesterday.

She didn’t seem to be too interested in me, but I really wanted to get to know her. I wonder what kind of dog she was….

Kaiju was born on November 1st last year. He spent the first 10 weeks of his life with his mom Sugar, his littermates, and the breeder Charleen in the suburban house on the Cape. It has been about 10 months since he left the place to live with us.

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of visiting Charleen with our little dude. We had been talking about this for a while so it was exciting when it was finally scheduled and confirmed!

The reunion scene was so very heart-warming. When Kaiju first saw Charleen walk towards him, he was curious but cautious. He slowly approached her and extended his neck as far as he could to sniff her toe. At the same time, he heard her voice. Then, he knew. His dangling tail sprang up to the cute curl and started wagging rapidly. After that, it was all jumping, licking, play bows, panting, and everything else you would expect from an over-joyed puppy.

We the humans were of course very happy to see her, too. She has been there for us to talk to, on the phone and via email, throughout this whole unfortunate ordeal with Kaiju. We were happy to have a chance to show her the sweet and handsome Shiba that he had become (even with the bent knee…).

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find a corgi! (found on http://bgvillea.tumblr.com/post/1268924950)

click to enlarge

thinking about being a mummy for halloween.

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i got a new bed, because i made holes on the old one. now i know how i get new stuff!

Modeling the new bed

Ever since Kaiju got rejected from the nosework class, I have been obsessively reading online about fearful dogs, trying to find any signs that Kaiju is “not so bad” and that medication is not really necessary. We’ve been struggling with Kaiju’s fear issues throughout the recovery periods after the injuries/surgeries but we always hoped that this was a temporary aftermath, and that as soon as he resumed training in various obedience classes, started exercising more, and felt less and less pain in his legs, he would show noticeable improvements towards becoming a happy active dog. However, in the nosework class, watching other dogs easily and happily perform the tasks, then seeing Kaiju unable to take even one step forward towards the boxes, and being advised to medicate him by the trainer, totally bursted our little wishful-thinking bubbles.

That’s how I found fearfuldogs.com. I bookmarked it and went back to it several times because it seemed to offer relevant suggestions and perspectives for Kaiju. You find a lot of tips on mildly fearful dogs online. Most of those involve treats that help dogs make positive associations with frightening objects. Kaiju, however, snobs treats in a most of those situations. He shuts down and refuses to even glance at a high-value treat right in front of his nose. This site, and the Yahoo mailing list called “shy-k9s” are the only two places I found that discussed severely anxious dog.

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