{"id":3548,"date":"2010-03-17T13:10:28","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T20:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shibashake.com\/dog\/?p=3548"},"modified":"2010-03-17T13:10:28","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T20:10:28","slug":"thief-shiba-we-hates-it-we-hates-it-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/thief-shiba-we-hates-it-we-hates-it-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Thief Shiba, We Hates It, We Hates It Forever!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got a comment recently from Shiba Monty, a.k.a. Montasaurus<\/a> about his adventures at the beach, including a new game called beach-tag-ball<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Shiba Sephy was exactly the same way when I took him to enclosed dog parks<\/a>. He was not interested in playing fetch, but very interested in stealing fetch balls from other dogs, and then starting a fun game of catch Shiba if you can!<\/em><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the other dogs got annoyed with him, started chasing him, and tried to correct him. <\/p>\n

This got all the dog owners to join in and Sephy never had more fun in his life!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Puppy
Puppy Siberian Shania leading Shiba Sephy on a fun ball chasing game.<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

I decided soon after, that the unstructured environment of an enclosed dog park just did not suit a dog like Sephy. He was also starting to pick up more<\/em> bad dog habits<\/a>. In particular, he would get over excited, and redirect his frustration onto us when we tried to stop his Shiba craziness.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Not
Not an alpha roll - just a scratch session \ud83d\ude42<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n

In addition, it was unfair to the other dogs because they would not only lose their fetch-ball, but also get alpha rolled<\/a> by their owners for chasing after Sephy or showing aggression.<\/p>\n

We kept a very close watch on our Thief Shiba but supervision alone was insufficient.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once Sephy figured out that he can easily steal a ball to start a chase game, he just kept repeating that behavior. Since we cannot run as fast as a Shiba, the game continues for a while before it can be stopped, which rewards Sephy’s thieving behavior<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Using a long lead is unfeasible in an enclosed dog park because it will easily get tangled on dogs, bushes, and trees; ultimately becoming a safety hazard. <\/p>\n

\n

What worked best for Sephy is to let him play in a more structured environment, with fewer dogs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I started going to my local SPCA, which had a nice enclosed play area. Sephy would get supervised play and training sessions with friendly SPCA dogs; one at a time. In this way, he got to socialize and exercise, but if he started showing any bad behaviors, play would stop and he would have to go on a mini time-out. <\/p>\n

\"A
A more structured and supervised play session can also be a lot of fun!<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

This worked very well for Sephy.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n

He started playing a lot better, he stopped redirecting his aggression onto us, and he controlled his level of excitement. Best of all, he still had a lot of fun, especially with younger dogs that liked to wrestle. <\/p>\n

\"Sephy
Sephy and Kai having a fun wrestling session.<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n

I also learned more about Sephy’s dog friend preferences<\/strong>. <\/p>\n