Love Sick Relationships

The most amazing thing about dog ownership is the relationship that you have with your dogs based purely on interpretation of each other's behaviors. Shio understands my quirky habits better than I do and I always make the effort to figure out what he is trying to tell me. For example, if there is food on the counter he'll sit on the floor closest to the bowl and stare at me until he grabs my attention. Then whips his head to look up towards the bowl, then look back at me. It's very obvious what he's trying to tell me there! There are some less obvious interpretations that can only be known after co-existing for longer time periods. I came home early from work today to nap after feeling sick and found home greeting me at the door. He was not as enthused as normal but I was too groggy to realize. Then I went for a catnap in the bedroom and noticed that he climbed onto the bed to nap with me. Still groggy, I thought it to be a rare sign of empathy from our Shiba. I lightly napped and was awaken several times by his restlessness. Finally realizing that sneaking in a good nap was futile, I stood up and went back to my computer with him following closely behind. I had the inkling that something was wrong the whole time and finally followed my instincts and leashed him up for a walk.

Immediately upon walking out the door, Shio laid down on our welcome mat and vomited his breakfast. He then proceeded to quickly trot to our park to finish the rest of his business on a pile of leaves. This circle of excretion processes happened several times over the next 30 minutes and I took him immediately to the vet for some medication to ease his discomfort. I felt pain for having made him wait so long to go out and realized how considerate he was to hold it for as long as it could so that he wouldn't soil the home.

He is now feeling much better and has been sleeping it off. Test results come back tomorrow.

Shio and I had a difficult year but moments like these make me realize how fragile we both are and how much I love him.

Breaking Shiba Halloween

Towards the beginning of fall, J and I started watching Breaking Bad and were quickly addicted. This fantastic show became the inspiration for our Shibas' Halloween costumes this year!

Shio costumed as the badass Walter White aka Heisenberg. Emi is the symbolic pink teddy bear cameoed in several episodes during Season 2.

Shio was very cooperative in posing with the hat and the tee with Heisenberg's face screen printed in the back. We couldn't forget the blue meth of course!

Emi was none too thrilled about her costume but still managed to look the adorable part. Can you see that the eyeball on her costume lights up?

Best costumes yet, we think!

Taken with Olympus OM-D + Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4.

Post-Sandy

Quick update to let everyone know that we're okay! It's been a week since Hurricane Sandy passed through the tri-state area and we feel very fortunate to emerge unscathed by her wrath. We know that our neighboring areas, friends, and family have all suffered as a result and we have been helping where as we can. The whole ordeal was pretty frightening as we watched it unfold outside our windows in the media. We see the aftermath every day during our walks. Last week we thought that going to DUMBO and seeing water levels that reached up to 4 ft high was bad but today's trip to South Street Seaport revealed levels above 5.5 ft. We haven't even been able to see the worst of it yet. Needless to say, there is a lot of collective work that needs to continue in order to resume normalcy, starting with regaining electricity and public transport.

Here are some photos of the pups the morning before the hurricane. We took them out at 10am and walked them for as long as we could knowing the that storm would arrive any moment. The next walk was timed by watching the news obsessively to figure out when the worst of the storm would hit Brooklyn. We took them out at 5:30pm after news broke that the worst part storm would pass between 6:30-8pm. Venturing out at that time was frightening - winds were at high speeds and large tree branches had fallen. We carried the pups a few blocks to a relatively tree-free area of the park so they could potty and ran back carrying them as fast as we could. They sensed that something was happening in the air but luckily our Shibas are relatively unfazed by the loud winds and rain so they slept peacefully through the night.

The next morning, we took them out as soon as sun came out and rain stopped so they could relieve themselves. Everyone outside ventured out to survey the damage and awe at nature's strength. There were parts of the neighborhood where fallen trees were the worst of it but once we ventured to DUMBO, we saw that the small businesses in the area were severely damaged and would not be able to immediately reopen.

During the last week, we were unable to leave our immediate neighborhood in Brooklyn because most forms of public transportation were flooded. There have also been massive lines for cars and people with gas containers to refill gas. We weren't even sure if there was any place to go since all major parks were still closed under advisory of the state and many areas throughout New York and New Jersey were without electricity. We've been incredibly lucky to survive the hurricane unscathed and did not want to take away from people who need gas and need the limited public transport that was available so we've been rationing out the remaining 1/4 tank of gas we have left and keeping within walking distance of our apartment. Pups seems restless but they have to make some sacrifices too!

Running through the rain puddles and debris really aren't their thing (wet paw alert!) but they'll have to make do!

Bear Mountain Hiking

Given the nice, cooler fall weather that we have had, we took the chance to take Shio and Emi hiking upstate around Bear Mountain at Lake Skanatati. The fall foliage was beautiful:

Shio is actually a very good hiker. We used an extra long leash so that he could go his own way, and he really enjoyed finding his own path while staying with the pack. Emi, on the other hand, was very nervous and tentative at first. It took her about an hour to get her courage up -- she wouldn't even climb over fallen branches in the beginning!

Of course, crossing little streams was very interesting. Shio would always try to find the driest possible path -- and most of the time he would do so quite effectively (much better than us humans actually). However, there was one particular crossing where there was a running body of shallow water that we initially thought Shio would be able to get over on his own. T was very patient and tried to lure Shio over. He was having none of it.

In the end, I had to carry Shio over...

All in all, it was a very fun 5.5 mile hike. And if you love taking photos as much as I do, then this time of year is the perfect time to go on these short trips with your pups!

P.S. The only downside to hiking is that both humans and pups are targets for ticks! I personally found 2 on my body (with one attached to my stomach!!) about 3 hours after the hike... YUCK!!

Photos taken with Leica M9 + Summilux-M 50mm and Olympus OM-D + M. Zuiko 12mm f/2.

Bringing Home a Shiba

Since Emi's arrival to our home 11 months ago, we've received a number of readers contacting us directly through the 'Contact Us' form submission on this site. Thank you all for the kind wishes and sentiments! We've also received more general questions from readers who've stumbled upon this site and I usually like to answer them through a public post since it's likely that other people also have the same questions. Most recently, we've had readers contact us for advice on bringing home a new Shiba. The closest we've ever come to a blog post highlighting tips was back in April 2010, where I listed the Top 3 Training Tips we received from other people. Two years and two Shibas later, I finally feel comfortable dispensing our own list of must-dos when bringing a new Shiba puppy home. As a disclaimer, this is purely based on our own experience with Shio so please take this advice with a grain of salt!

1. Crate Training

This was a lifesaver for us when we brought Shio home. He was 3 months old when he came home with us and not fully potty trained and didn't know the house-rules so we crated him to keep him out of trouble when we couldn't watch him. He cried bloody murder in the living room for the first two nights that we crated him but we ignored him (sorry neighbors!). Shio adjusted to his crate quickly and it helped save our apartment during the potty training and teething process.

2. Socialize, Socialize, Socialize

Knowing that Shibas can be aloof, we had Shio meet as many people and dogs as we could. Most of the dogs were from our neighborhood and luckily very tolerant of puppies and allowed him to jump on their faces but corrected him whenever Shio went too far. By meeting and playing with so many dogs, he learned what was and was not appropriate behavior. Shio was stopped by a lot of people outside our apartment building because he was so little and fluffy at the time and socialized with adult humans in that way. We were more particular about the children that were allowed to approach him because we didn't want him to have terrible experiences with kids and kids to have bad experiences with dogs. In the end, Shio wound up becoming aloof as he entered adulthood but that's something that's our of our control.

3. Training and Exposure

It's never too early to train a Shiba puppy basic obedience commands. They're very smart and the sooner you train them to listen to you, the better. We also exposed Shio to as much as life as possible when he was young. From sitting on a park bench to bringing him down to the subway tracks, I took him everywhere with me so that he saw everything that I saw. He learned to master  riding escalators, traveling on trains, watching fireworks, and shopping with me by the time he was a year old. We saw that Shio loves to figure things out by watching our physical behavior and the elements so we kept him busy by showing him everything we could.

4. Martingale Collars

Though there are many different opinions on collars/harnesses, we personally stand by martingale collars. We find it the best at helping us control Shio during walks and also the only type of collar/harness that he hasn't managed to slip himself out of when used and sized properly.

5. Set the Ground Rules

Rules of the home with a new puppy should be established prior to the puppy's arrival. Bullet point the rules on a list and post them on the wall in your home for every family to see and memorize. Nothing is more confusing to a puppy than mixed signals. For example, J and I established that Shio would not be allowed table scraps so we never gave him scraps from the dinner table no matter how much he begged. Correct unwanted behavior the moment that it happens even though the pup will inevitably be adorable when ripping the toilet paper roll to shreds. :)

Hope this is helpful to those who are bringing a new pup into their home.

Good luck and congratulations to you all!