Emi's May Update

Nothing but progress for our little Emi last month. Physically, she's finally adding some meat to her bones and I'm guessing she's 17 lbs right now! She has very solid hindquarters and a big ol' tush now. Her once brittle fur now has a beautiful sheen to it after some much needed Omega-3s and the skin flaking has subsided. She and Shio have been shedding up a large fur storm and our apartment has become dust bunny central!

One of Emi's greatest skills is that she knows when to get excited and when to lay down and be a cuddle bug. She loves to hop onto the bed in the mornings and snuggle up next to me and I wind up losing an hour every day laying next to her with my face buried in her fur. I call that lost hour my "Emi Spending Time." She still gets very hyper around midnight and has Shiba zoomies by herself. We like this because she tires herself out!

When playing with Shio, you can tell that she's a lot more confident and will use her front paws to smack him around while biting his face. The four of us went away to New Jersey for the Memorial Day weekend and Emi did very well on the road trip. Our long neighborhood walks in the morning and evening are helping her adjust to her loud surroundings though we still have a ways to go. It has been tradition for her to shy away from new people so whenever we have guests in our home, we expect her to hide under our bed until she feels comfortable enough to come out. Our friends and family usually make a big deal about her emergence from the bedroom towards the living room so she retreats immediately back under the bed. This repeats over and over again throughout the night. In our last 48 hours while my in-laws visited, Emi felt very comfortable hanging out in the same room with them after her initial run to the bedroom and hide reaction. The difference was that they carried an even toned and light hearted conversation the whole visit and ignored her the whole time.

We were finally able to test her reaction around cats for the first time last month. We visited our friend Georgie at their apartment and Emi ignored him the whole time. Then she stole his window seat and his bed!

Now that Emi's a lot more comfortable, we've started working on training both the dogs. It's very difficult to have Emi acknowledge us when she's frightened outside but we're working on training her at night first when she's less afraid. Soon, we'll work on daytime training to reenforce the work we do at night and take it from there!

Overall we're very excited to see what next month will bring.

Shio @ 16 months

I actually had to sit here and count how many months old he is... which means that its just about time to stop calculating the months! Let's see... updates from February until now...

- Allergies are back! We've determined that he has seasonal allergies, just like his human daddy. I have two sneezy and snotty men in my life. :)

- Shio likes to grab his toys with his mouth and smush them into our legs as his way of beckoning us to play with him.

- Since I'm at home a lot more than Josh, Shio is actually very clingy towards me in the way that Shibas can be clingy. This means that he will become anxious and stared at the door I walked out of until I return or look for me after I walk away from him.

- We learned a couple of new tricks: "Play dead" and "beg".

- He is a bit afraid of dog runs/Shibas now. Since the incident in the Union Square dog run, he is much more hesitant about walking into a new dog park. During the last Shiba meetup, he was not as friendly has he used to be and even got into a fight with an intact male Shiba. I'm not sure if he's afraid of dog runs, Shibas, or both.

- He's been testing his limits. He keeps on trying to jump on the couch even though he knows that he's not allowed to. Of course, there's also the lay down protests during his daily walks.

- He will sleep til 10am. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! We haven't had an accident since January. Yayyyyyyy!!!!

- We are shedding. And we don't stop. Ever.

That's about it. Happy 16 months Shio!

Shio @ 14 months

I've realized that I have neglected to update this blog with the monthly changes that Shio has gone through as he progresses into adulthood. Last time I wrote about the monthly updates was when Shio was 10 months old (how embarassing!) so let's list the changes from then up until now.

- Shio has significantly calmed down since October. When J and I are busy at home, he will entertain himself with the toys that are lying on the ground and not bother us at all.

- The morning wake up calls have ceased and he will now walk into the bedroom (we hear the "tap tap tap" from his nails walking on the hardwood floors) to check up on us. He makes sure we're still alive and breathing and walk out the after he sees that we are still asleep. No more jumping on the bed.

- I can sleep til 10am without feeling guilty about not waking up at 8am to drag him out for a potty break. Yes, I've been pushing my limits. :X

- He's been telling hyper-active puppies off like a grumpy old man when they jump in his face.

- Thanks to proper exercise in Central Park in the mornings, Shio has trimmed down around his waist and his Shiba tummy tuck and leg muscles are showing. He is a big and healthy Shiba - the vet clocked him in at 29 lbs during our annual visit last week.

- His face has lightened and shows little blackness around the snout. The eyebrows have also disappeared. This is what he looked like when we picked him up: http://www.shiotheshiba.com/blog/?p=194

- The amount of loyalty that he has shown to J and I has increased exponentially. He trusts very few people and rarely lets a stranger pet him without shying away.

- No more testing his limits and boundaries.

- We had our last potty accident in January. The end of February will mark (haha) the first full month where we have not had an accident. For us, potty training was much tougher than anticipated.

- No more tearing up every rug he sees! Paper is another story however.

We love him more and more every day. He's such a wonderful dog.