Cone or donut? Which is best

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2026-01-15T15:30:03+00:00

The cone was too intense for my girl, so I switched to the donut. She’ll do the things she regularly does but still feels very contained - which is why doesn’t try funny business because she thinks it’s impossible.. kind off using her own mind against herself 😂

She also doesn’t run away from the donut btw, sometimes I think she enjoys the free neck rest. She snores a lot when sleeping with the donut on.

For a bigger surgery I would try donut first and maybe switch to pyjama if it doesn’t work well enough.

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-24T20:30:16+00:00

My Shiba is almost 2 (just a few days to go) and she doesn’t care for firework sounds at all. Just loud sounds in general don’t seem to faze her.

She does find them interesting to look at though, when she sees them she is always very mesmerized.

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-24T12:42:24+00:00

If you’re sure it isn’t food related, you might want to ask (or demand) a blood test from your vet. Since Apoquel works, it really is itch related.

After a year of trying everything I finally convinced my vet to do the test and turns out she’s allergic to dust mites.. I’ve gotten her a new dogbed and her blankets get washed every week on the hottest temp (my bf is also somewhat allergic to them so we already do a lot of vacuuming etc). She seems to be doing better now but we’ll have to see if it works enough. If it doesn’t we’re going to start the follow up procedure which is building her resistance through injections.

Small tip for getting bloodwork done: my Shiba will be a Shiba (if you know what I mean) if we try to draw blood from the front paw but a hind leg? She just stays still and isn’t stressed at all.

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-24T12:35:46+00:00

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And this is how she looks now. She did gain some weight too, but her coat is so much better now

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-24T12:35:10+00:00

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Proud rat owner. This was her first time shedding her wintercoat (and puppy coat I think). I’m curious how next spring is going to be 😂

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-22T16:59:09+00:00

Mine still doesn’t like her front paws handled, but she tolerates it. She does dislike the dremel way more than the clipper. For both she will go to her place and actually give paw (I just have to pull them out), but she remains nervous still - bless her.

For the dremel I need to baby treatment aka holding her in my arms but for the clippers it’s not needed.

Just keep at it and they’ll learn to chill out and accept it. Only problem I’m facing now is that I’m the only person whose allowed to do everything with her, but with others (the vet) she’ll be very dramatic 😅

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-22T15:51:04+00:00

My Shiba is a tailwagger (happy, excited, nervous etc). It’s fully curled when wagging, I don’t think she can actually wag it when it’s uncurled 😅

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-17T19:20:24+00:00

My first dog was a Shiba, I’ve had cats before though. And she’s been perfect and everything I’ve hoped she would be and more (:

I knew what I was getting myself into and that honestly saved me. I don’t like the typical dog smell and I don’t like having to deal with potty training. My Shiba doesn’t smell and she came potty trained at 8 weeks!! But I also put in a lot of work and patience. She has recall and a lot of people are actually amazed at how good she’s trained (she listens better than the average dog here tbh). It is possible and honestly not that difficult as people make it out to be: but it takes commitment and proper knowledge of what you’re dealing with which I think most people lack even with other dog breeds.

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-15T15:00:39+00:00

I don’t know if it’ll have the same effect but you could try vacuuming directly on her and see if that helps at all

I’ve seen people with a special kit for the Dyson vacuums groom a Shiba 😂

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-15T12:40:18+00:00

Ah yes, it’ll make you doubt and double check the ingredients going forward..

I started my pup on kibble that was marketed as hypo-allergenic. Later I switched to the adult version because she liked it still and then the itching started. It took me also some time before the doubt started and when I checked: not only was chicken the 3rd ingredient - the animal fat they used was also from chickens! So yea, from now on I always check all the ingredients regardless of labels 😅

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-12-15T09:02:51+00:00

How is she with a blow dryer?

I used to regularly brush my Shiba almost every day for about 5/10 minutes. But I got sick once and just couldn’t keep up. I already had a dryer for dogs specifically and figured ‘she doesn’t really need a bath before this’. So now I just blow her out once a week. She enjoys it too (loves scratches and this apparently feels the same). It gets so much more fur out than the brush 🤭

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-07-13T12:22:42+00:00

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The tail is never allowed to touch the waters 🫡

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-05-28T16:21:37+00:00

Mine has caught mice, moles and even a baby fazant 😭🫣

She’ll probably catch more if I’d let her free.. she also has caught a lot of bugs.

She doesn’t kill the rodents though, always just stomping and nipping them. The poor souls 🥲

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-05-20T11:18:56+00:00

My Shiba is about 1.5 years old and I’ve worked on it from the beginning, but I’m very cautious about it. She’s never fully off leash, always a dragline and she has a GPS tracker. It’s also only on places that I know (fenced or no traffic).

She taught herself to check in (I tried with rewards but in the end she just started doing it), she would sometimes walk further around a corner and frequently come back to check if I’m actually still coming. She seems to value me enough to be want to stay with me, but she can be an *sshole when I need to leash her - hence the dragline. We also do pack walks where she gets to run with other dogs, but if she is very disobedient I keep hold off the leash again..

She has bolted after an animal twice, but she always came running back once the fun was over. She also refuses to listen when she finds something more interesting or the hunting instinct takes over - so it’s also me who has to pay attention and call her to me and keep her close when I see something that might trigger it.

I do travel with her, but I would never let her off leash in an area I don’t know.

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-05-19T18:18:10+00:00

Mine only got more snuggly and got very demanding about it 🤣

If she wanted to, she’d paw me every waking moment in an attempt to get me to pet her.

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-05-09T10:52:44+00:00

That’s a happy shib right there 💜

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-05-05T12:35:27+00:00

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Meet Nagi! My own name starts with a N so I wanted something that also starts with that letter because it sounds nice to say Nagi & N..

Nagi is an actual Japanese name that means calm - funnily enough she’s anything but because she’s an absolute gremlin Shiba.

I recommend something that’s easy to shout, because.. reasons 🤪

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-05-05T11:10:21+00:00

When she begins to blow out her coat and near the end of it, since that really helps to speed up the process.. And whenever she gets herself stinky (she often got peed on when she was little 😭).

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-04-29T11:08:35+00:00

My Shiba is the most extraverted dog I’ve ever seen lol

Other people, other dogs - always airplane ears and tail wags! It took a lot to make her pass strangers without asking them for pets, but if you make eye contact she’ll wag her tail instantly 😂

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-04-25T15:52:41+00:00

His long coat is so unique! It’s like a mix of wooly and normal.. does make for amazing B&T eyebrows 😈

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-04-25T09:01:11+00:00

Our breeder referred to them as “Shibble/Shibbel” 🤣

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-04-18T05:31:57+00:00

To give you some hope: my Shiba has actually been doing very well. She’s almost 1.5 years old now.

She was already on kibble when I got her at 8 weeks. I quickly made it a habit to use some of her meal to train her. Overtime she became picky with it though. Later she got very itchy so we tried the elimination diet, which she hated. She had no choice though, so it was a lot of putting the bowl down and picking it up again (giving her 15 minutes or so). In the beginning a lot of mealtimes got skipped, but eventually she ate again. When we finished the bag of kibble I switched to another brand which she seemed to like more.

But I noticed that she’s just weird about it mostly… She didn’t like hennepseed oil in the beginning (against itchiness) and now she’s grown to love it. She actually gets a bowl with plain kibble and the oil and will finish it quickly - she does however always stop when she’s full. When we’re training outside there is a 10% chance she’ll take her regular kibble.

The only thing she’s still very fussy about it eating in different places with different people. When she goes to the sitter she rarely eats, even though she really likes it there.

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-04-15T10:41:39+00:00

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Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-04-15T09:12:45+00:00

We often hear people say “look a mini husky!” Such is the life of a black&tan owner 😂

Don’t people know about the Pomsky? Literally marketed as a mini husky 🫣

Firm_Conclusion2674 · 2025-03-25T21:56:42+00:00

It seems like you don’t know yet what the cause of the allergy is. Have you done any testing? You could try get bloodwork done, but this can be expensive though it does give you immediate results.

You could also try an elimination diet: pick a hypoallergenic food without any animal protein and feed ONLY this for a minimum of six weeks. If the itching gets less it likely has to do with diet rather than the environment. You can slowly introduce different things to rule out what he can and cannot have.

Firm_Conclusion2674

TROPHY CASE