A Shiba Fight and Battle Wounds

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Not having the best month here. We went for our morning pack walk this morning. Our destination was Petco because I needed to pick up some supplies for our boy. We headed over to the one in Union Square and I decided that we had some spare time to spend at the dog run over there. We've never taken Shio to that dog run before so it was definitely something new and fun for him. He trotted around and marked some poles.

Five minutes after we entered, two more Shibas walked in to play! I was so excited and started chatting with the owner. He had just mentioned that his Shiba can become aggressive towards other dogs just as his Shiba and Shio started fighting.

We were able to break up the fight quickly and pull our Shibas away from each other. It looked like the both of them walked away physically unscathed but they clearly hated each other. Shio displayed some fear aggression after the fight which has only happened once before when he was younger and another male Shiba lunged at him. I took Shio out of the dog run since it was clear that we could not have both in there at once.

We went off to Petco and bought what we needed to. I may have bought a bit more than we needed to because I felt so awful about what happened. I took Shio back to the same dog run after Petco to make sure he wasn't too traumatized by the fight and made sure he would be okay at the park if we were ever to return. Also made sure he wasn't afraid of white dogs or dogs in general. He was fine.

Then when I came home, I discovered that he had a battle wound. Right behind his left ear, I noticed some dried blood. When I looked a bit closer, Shio had lost a quarter-sized patch of fur ripped out and a small puncture wound.

I showed Josh and cleaned it right away with hydrogen peroxide and dabbed some neosporin onto the wound. Behavior-wise, Shio has been eating and playing like always. Doesn't seem to be affected by the fight in any other way but I am sure heartbroken.

There's always a risk when bringing your dog to the dog parks since you can only hope that the dogs in the run are well mannered. Even if you think yours is, all the parents need to be careful.

Over the next few days, we'll have to watch to make sure the wound heals properly. Just happy that we were lucky to walk away with little damage this time.

Shio the Escapee Part 2

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Looks like we've been having our share of mishaps these last couple of weeks. Yesterday, I took Shio out for his morning walk and while we were only a block away, he pulled back and slipped out of his collar and started running in the other direction. My instinctive reaction was to step towards him to lunge for him but something made me stop. Maybe it was because when I stepped towards him, he trotted in the opposite direction while looking back at me and I realize after much experience that he would continue to run away if I chased him. So I stopped, he looked, I called him name in a rather panicked voice (I could've lost him forever!) and he continued to look. Then a light bulb in my head went off and I realized that I had stuck a squeaky tennis ball in my pocket this morning and reached for it. The moment that I started squeaking the ball, he came running back.

Squeaky toys are truly his Achilles heel.

Shio the Escapee

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I'm glad that this is a story that I can look back on and laugh today. On December 19th, I had traveled back to Long Island with our precious little munchkin to visit my family before our holiday trip to Hong Kong. I needed to leave Shio at my parent's home while we went out to watch my niece's evening piano recital. I put up a gate in the hallway so he had some room to run around while we were out without room to be destructive. During this time, my sister went home and upon opening the front door, Shio bolts out and runs into the front yard. He had hopped the gate while we were out. My poor sister (who just got over her fear of dogs) starts chasing after him while screaming his name over and over again. True to his Shiba nature, Shio ran away from her because he didn't trust this "stranger" and ran in circles around the house. After a frustrating 10 minutes, sis finally gives up and calls me to tell me that she can't catch the dog and I need to come home and deal with him.

I hop into my car immediately and drove home to find my sis sitting in the freezing NY cold staring into the backyard. I walk over and yell "Sheeeeeeeee-ohhhhhhhhhhhh" and our little lamb comes trotting out from the darkness into my arms. Though my sis was happy that Shio was safe, I bet she was cursing us both out inside.

In the end, we both missed the recital (sorry Grace) and learned a big lesson. Never open the front door without sticking your foot in first.

My parent's neighbor, who heard the commotion from the chase, later went up to my sister and asked, "Was that even your dog?"