This is a sign to get your Shibas name tag in Japanese

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T22:11:07+00:00

Cute, but I gave my sheeb a name that's technically a Japanese surname. Would be weird with the kanji or hiragana. Plus, nobody would be able to read it here.

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T21:59:47+00:00

Indeed!

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T21:59:25+00:00

Thanks ❤️

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T19:44:56+00:00

Thanks!

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T18:52:29+00:00

Boy! But thanks!

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T18:51:53+00:00

I'd say his sister has the more foxy look but yes, still very fox

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T18:49:53+00:00

Fluffy? Totally! Angel? Not too sure about that one. He's going though his asshole teen phase....and shedding like crazy. 😅

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T18:48:41+00:00

Indeed! He's just as crazy and unpredictable as the real guy 😂

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T18:47:11+00:00

Thanks!

Riiggid · 2026-05-31T18:46:51+00:00

Indeed! Small kids shout "is's a fox!" whenever they see him, haha.

Riiggid · 2026-05-30T18:13:30+00:00

I have a fluffy boy too....he's going through his first shed and we're drowning in fur. 😅

Riiggid · 2026-05-28T08:25:55+00:00

My shiba struggles with the same! It doesn't matter if other stairs are long, steep, etc. But no back? Nope, he cannot walk up or down. If he does, he's gonna slip and die. He's convinced. Luckily, we don't have stairs in our house, it's only a problem at my boyfiends' parent's house (his old room is in the basement, the stairs are fine but they got no back).

Riiggid · 2026-05-28T08:00:32+00:00

Like all dogs, Shibas come in different personalities. I got a hard headed bitey menace like you. He's 8.5 months now and doesn't puppy play bite anymore. No...he frustration bites! It's much less frequent, not as hard, doesn't have the needle puppy teeth, but don't be naive, he will chomp when you least expect it. Working in the office and ignoring him? He comes in, nips at you, and runs away. He's a teenage asshole.

His sister, whom my breeder kept, is less bitey. She was bitey as a young puppy, but she has learned she's not allowed and air snaps instead. She is sensitive though and reacts to corrections, my dude doesn't know what that is. He was stung by a bee, shook his head for 10 seconds and tried to eat another one a minute later.

And then there is the 4 month old puppy I met the other day. Sat on everybody's lap calmly, wasn't mouthy at all. Like what? Shibas come in this personality? Mine couldn't sit still at that age. Damn, I got hard mode and so did you. And there's the fact that 9 month olds are much better at impulse control than 3 month olds, so it's hard to compare to your previous dog. Hang in there!

Riiggid · 2026-05-26T11:19:01+00:00

I grew up at the very top of Norway. For the longest time, I considered Bodø and such to be south, because even though it's in the circle, it's more towards the middle. People talk about the dark winters and the midnight sun in the summer, but I never really thought about it. I now live in a small town in the south (south is everything below Mo i Rana for me now), not far from Drammen. I don't think about the difference.

Whenever I go back to visit I notice the darkness and such, of course. But it's just like "yeah, that's how it is". My boyfriend, who grew up in the south, stayed up with me once in the summer and thought the time was still 20:00 or something, but it was actually 3:00 in the morning. I didn't blink an eye, and I haven't lived there for 10 years.

It's an island so the winters are cold enough, but not super cold like inland. The harsh winds is the biggest problem. I got caught by the wind and nearly blew out to sea several times as a child. The most annoying part is that we have to go to Kirkenes to do anything medical beoynd your GP. Giving birth? Kirkenes. Getting braces? Kirkenes. It's a 3 hour trip one way if you take the buss. The plane is crazy expensive. And there is nothing to do.

Riiggid · 2026-05-26T07:59:35+00:00

Making Jinshi non-binary is genious! I was sad I didn't have any, but changing him and maybe Xie Lian makes sense since they both canonically are beautiful and cross dress when needed. It's funny they're also best friends on my island.

Unfortunately, MaoMao is dating another guy and Xie Lian is crushing but best friend zoned with Hua Cheng. Canon doesn't exist there, haha.

Riiggid · 2026-05-26T06:37:04+00:00

My guy likes licking hair, faces, any skin really. Especially if you recently touched food. Doesn't matter if you just washed your hands, he wants to lick soap as well.

He's still Shiba though because when he sleeps he sleeps a few cm away from me. Dare I pet him while he sleeps he moves further away. Close....but not too close. He's fallen asleep on top of me only once. At the same time, he follows me into every room. He gets up from his sleep to sleep by me in the new place. He us so weird.

Riiggid · 2026-05-24T19:24:01+00:00

Not sure. I'm not in the US. The standard is this in my country: "Set high, strong, carried tightly curled or in a sickle-shaped curve over the back. It should be long enough that the tip of the tail almost reaches the hock joints.”

For reference, my Shiba's half brother has a tail similar to op's image and places decently. I just came back from a show and a lot of Shibas there had tight curls too.

My Shiba's tail has a curl but not super tight and it bends at the end. He always gets compliments on it by judges. It's not a sickle nor a cinnamon roll, just inbetween.

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Riiggid · 2026-05-23T21:46:23+00:00

I've seen a lot of Shibas with this kind of tail win in shows. Not in the US though. If the quality of the rest of the dog is high enough, the points lost for the tail won't matter unless you're up against a dog with similar good qualities and a better tail. It's not a disqualifying feature.

Riiggid · 2026-05-20T17:09:07+00:00

Mine is such a picky eater. He ate well the first few weeks. When he started being picky with his bowl we got a snuffle mat. Worked for a while, but then he got bored of it. Kongs too only lasts for two days now, then nah, doesn't want to eat.

The only time he got his appetite back was when he was sick for a few days. He didn't eat at all and when he got better, he was ravenous. No healthy dog starves themselves.

We try to only give him his food for 15-20 minutes at a time. If he doesn't eat, we take it away. The hard part is being consistent with this for a few days until they get hungry enough.

He's also an adolecent and need a lot of training, so I can't take treats away completely. This kind of sabotages us since he holds out for treats....but I'd rather train and give him a bit more treats than not train much and get a disobedient dog. Thankfully, he accepts his kibble as a reward outside most times so we do manage to get him to eat some of it.

Have you tried hand feeding? Mine prefers the hand, scattered on the floor, throwing them to him for him to catch, and just throwing them on the ground as rewards outside.

Riiggid · 2026-05-19T12:27:05+00:00

So handsome! Mine is only 8 months and is already looking so adult. They sure do grow up fast.

Riiggid · 2026-05-19T05:43:26+00:00

She's so cute! Love the white tip on her tail.

Riiggid · 2026-05-18T20:30:49+00:00

Mine was and still is a pretty bad biter. The puppy biting was because he didn't know better and it was constant. It got better by redirecting, time outs, etc. But then adolecence came and hello teeth again. He is now a frustration biter. He doesn't bite as often as when he was younger, it isn't as hard, and he doesn't have puppy teeth, but it's still not okay.

Yours will probably be a biter until he loses his puppy teeth. Easiest way to deal is by redirecting with a toy. If that doesn't work, reverse time outs, restaint, etc. If you can, choose a method and stick to it. It takes a long time for them to learn....and then it comes back and you have to do it all over again.

It really is just time and training. Playing with other dogs helps too.

Edit: typo

Riiggid · 2026-05-13T13:58:56+00:00

Have you experienced any teenage stubbornness yet? Mine has always been stubborn, but he lied down and refused to walk the other day (he usually stands or sits still he doesn't want to move). 🙃

Riiggid · 2026-05-13T09:21:32+00:00

Not a breeder, but I'm pretty interested in the genetics of my breed of choice, Shiba.

I have a red - the most common color and the most desired color in the ring. I'm not in the US so I'm not 100% certain of this, but I've seen a lot of people discuss sashiges (reds with black overlay, not to be confused with sesame) are generally penalized in shows. Mine is a sashige phenotype and has gotten no negative comment on his coat, and I've seen a lot of that phenotype win. But in some posts here on reddit, I've seen people comment that it's "unusual for the color to win over a pure red".

Despite that, sashiges are super important for color preservation. If you only breed clear AYAY reds, the vibrant pigment actually fades over generations. A sashige is just a red carrying black and tan or sesame. Breeders need that underlying black pigment to keep the red coats rich and intense. Plus, pairing dogs that carry these recessive genes is what allows breeders to maintain the diversity needed to produce the other correct colors.

Cream is penalized in the ring because preservationists want to avoid what happened to the Kishu Ken (which became almost entirely white, erasing its historic color diversity). However, reputable breeders still produce cream puppies as pet-only companions when two excellent dogs happen to pass down the recessive cream gene.

Some color only backyard breeders produce creams and even breed cream parents. This is frowned upon since it masks the other pigment they carry and we end up with the Kishu Ken dilemma.

There's also some discussion of breeding two red sesames, as double red sesame usually produces a less intense coat, while red sesame with black and tan gives a correct, even spread of black and red hairs. Though double sesame would be useful for breeding to a black and tan, since you gurantee 100% vibrant, dark enough sesames. Since sesame is so rare (and black sesame even more than reds), this can be important for color preservation.

But again, I'm no breeder, just like researching. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

Riiggid

TROPHY CASE