i.am.kaiju

June iz here!! And she can be …

kaiju — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:12:55 +0000

June iz here!! She can be annoying but we play anyway!

check out my half-sis Stella!!…

kaiju — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:58:50 +0000

check out my half-sis Stella!! Isn't she pretty? She lives in my neighborhood, but I haven't seen her for 1+ yr.

Wag

the humans — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:29:16 +0000

Kaiju likes this piece of rubber mat we put on the kitchen floor so he could trot around without slipping. He sits here and watches us prepare food on the counter, perhaps hoping the food is for him. Often, when we look at him or approach him, his tail springs up and wags.

Shiba Mini-meetup

the humans — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:51:46 +0000

Raiden, Knox, Dakota, Cody, Jewels, and our Kaiju got together at a big dog park in the afternoon.

It was "Round 2" for Knox and Raiden, who had not-so-friendly "Round 1" some months ago. It was before neither of them were neutered. Their humans looked forward to and felt very nervous about this re-match. They even planned to let the pups meet outside of the park and do a walk together before letting them off-leash in the same space.

Well, none of that was necessary. Raiden and Knox sniffed each other and went straight into carefree happy chases and wrestles.

Jewels and Kaiju had met before at this park. Jewels tends to be calm and aloof, but she makes an exception when Kaiju is there. This time, though, perhaps because there were other Shibas, she did not engage much. She mostly kept to herself and her stick.

Little Dakota was a very vocal lady. She yelled at every new Shiba that came in at first. Kaiju, of course, got some scolding, too.

Kaiju seemed unaffected when she wasn't yelling, and happily played chase with her. However, he became very nervous every time she began giving her speech to others.

Knox tried to help by coming around and inviting Kaiju to play. Kaiju could not relax, though, with Dakota's yelping echoing in the park. (Note: she was not doing anything other than making noise, seemingly to guard the area around her people).

By the time Cody arrived, Kaiju had already distanced himself far from the crowd, and was not budging. He kept walking away and away, toward the gate, and looking back at us. He wasn't willing to go back to the pack of Shibas, who, by that time, decided for whatever the reason to have a joint howling session.

It was time to go home.

When we walked out of the gate, Knox came running all the way to the fence. He and Kaiju went toward each other and exchanged some sort of glance across the fence. Then Knox stood there to watch us get in the car one by one. He only ran back to the Shibas and humans when we drove off. He is such a sweetheart.

Do not disturb

kaiju — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:05:44 +0000

Do not disturb

Saturday Adventure on Ice

the humans — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:43:32 +0000

It's been such a warm winter that it was surprising to see the water frozen solid, even partially.

During our 2-hour walk at the Fells, we were very tempted to let Kaiju go on the ice.

It was just for a bit, and of course, he was on leash. We've read too many stories about dogs falling into water through cracked ice.

Kaiju was very curious and licked the ice many times. Wonder what he tasted...

We walked for a long time, and found many beautiful spots along the water. It was a gorgeous day.

Silly sleeping face of Kaiju

the humans — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:35:20 +0000

I run out of the door when the…

kaiju — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:59:54 +0000

I run out of the door when they try
to leave me behind.

They end up bribing me with treats!

Am i going to see any more Twi…

kaiju — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:14:22 +0000

Am i going to see any more Twibas at North East Shibapalooza in May? Let Knox's humom know via http://t.co/HECmQdyX

No Pressure

the humans — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:38:50 +0000

Kaiju has not improved so much in terms of his inability to walk in most public places without being very scared. He's still on medication, and he will be for a long time.

What has changed recently is that we have sort of given up on doing regular walks, for now. After Dr. D (our behaviorist) told us not to force the issue, we've stopped asking Kaiju to go once around the block, which we insisted before in the mornings and afternoons. Now, Kaiju only goes out for quick potty breaks. At night, we no longer take him to long walks in our residential neighborhood. Instead, every single night, we drive (10+ minutes) him out to a park for an hour walk. It's not a big park, so we make multiple rounds sometimes, to make it an hour. Kaiju loves this park. He runs around, gets the craziest zoomies, chases rabbits, runs around with dogs if we encounter them, mostly in the dark.

Basicaly, we've stopped trying to make him "better". For now, we focus on giving him a fun and safe life. We do ask Kaiju to take extra steps to go some extra feet every morning, with the help of good treats. When he feels good, he does, just for a few minutes. When he does not, he stops and looks back towards home. Then we go home.

Now that we are giving him practically no pressure, his body language during morning and afternoon potty breaks are noticeably more relaxed. We hope that the quality of life for him has gone up considerably also. One thing for sure. The quality of our (the humans') lives have definitely improved. We are not in despair nor stressed at every single walk. We are not sure how long we will continue this, but for now, we are all happier.