Molly, Snickers and Mashi Learning Rally

I’ve done my share of breed education, both online and at special events such as Pet Expo and Meet the Breeds, and, yes, I do tell people Shibas "can be difficult to train," "aren’t recommended for first time dog owners," are "too smart for traditional dog training methods," and that they "bore easily."” All of this is true of most primitive breeds.

Is Snick An Exception to the Rule?

All of the above can be true of the Shiba Inu… But then people look at Snickers and what is he doing? He’s by my side, working the crowd, giving high fives, getting mobbed by children, having his ears pulled, speaking for treats, and merrily kissing faces. And what’s that hanging on his ID collar? A Delta Society Pet Partner ID tag!

It’s true. Snickers is a certified good dog. He’s a doll. He seems to understand almost everything I say. We go on therapy visits together, mostly with children. He will sit, spin, speak, high five and give kisses on command to amuse kids. But, he also pulls on leash more often than not and can NOT be trusted off leash outside securely fenced areas. He’ll steal a treat bag, jump on the kitchen table, or rummage through the garbage in a heartbeat if he thinks for a second that I’m not watching.

I take him with me when I go out for coffee and he sits at my feet while I read or work on my laptop. He adores most everyone who stops to say hello and most of them say what a well behaved dog he is. On the other hand, if he doesn’t like you, he’ll turn his back to you and no amount of my telling him “say hello” will make a difference.

Nope, he’s no exception to the rule. He was a terror as a puppy and still tests my patience from time to time.

So, how DO you train a Shiba Inu?

You think of it as a partnership. And you bring cheese. 🙂

Beyond those two important pointers, here are a few others that I think help with intelligent, independent breeds like Shibas.

• Mix it up. Don’t train repetitively. Work on one thing for a little while and then do something else. Don’t pattern train though! If you go in the same order all the time, that’s just as boring as doing the same thing over and over.
• Make it worth it for your Shiba. Reward often with whatever makes your Shiba happy – praise, treats, zoomies, play time. Hint: bring cheese
• Make it fun for both of you! If you’re enjoying yourself, your Shiba will be more likely enjoy it also.
• SOCIALIZE your Shiba well. No matter how much obedience training you do with your Shiba, if they aren’t well socialized, no one will ever know it but you.
• Check out Behavior Shaping which is a what "clicker training" is all about. This is absolutely the most fun way I’ve discovered to teach Snickers anything because it makes him THINK. We both enjoy it!

In summary, "training" the independent, primitive breed dog is about communicating – forming a bond – and making it challenging, fun and worth the dog’s while (otherwise, he’ll find more fun things to do). And don’t forget the cheese!

Feel free to share any training tips that have worked for you in the comments!

A couple years ago at a Shiba meetup in NYC, there was a young, female Shiba. She was a bit overwhelmed by the other dogs in the run. From what I remember, she was communicating appropriately with the other dogs… giving calming signals so they knew she wasn’t a threat, but also some warnings to keep them from crowding her. Another dog pounced on her anyway, she snapped at him and a tussle broke out. The female’s owner yelled at her, ran over, grabbed her, flipped her on her back and held her down, staring into her face. The other dogs were still right by them – over her – which must have made her feel extremely vulnerable and frightened. Her owner said something to the effect of her being aggressive and needing to respect him.

If she’d been my dog, I would have stepped between her and the other dogs, to let her know I was there to protect her and to break the attention of the dogs that were in her space. Hopefully, that would have given her more time to get accustomed to the situation and to gather the confidence to explore without feeling like she had to protect herself from overly boisterous dogs.

I think the primary difference between her owner’s take on the situation and mine was that he saw her actions as aggressive while I saw them as defensive. Was rolling her the right response if he was right? I don’t know. Did her owner even do it right? I don’t think so. I’m not sure what he really taught her that day, but I’ll bet it was not that she could count on him to protect her in new situations.

I think about this incident every time this training method comes up in conversation. I’m not a dog trainer, so I’m not qualified to offer recommendations on how other people should train their dogs, but it’s frustrating to see people misusing techniques that they see on television, hear about at the dog park, or read about online.

A couple weeks ago, someone posted to a Shiba mailing list that their otherwise friendly ten month old dog was becoming overly aggressive with their other dog and had bitten that dog and a couple of human family members during fights. There was no other information given about what was happening before the fights or about the other dog’s behaviour. One lister’s response was "I would put her on the floor and put your hand on her chest and don’t let go until she stops struggling to let her know that you are in charge."

This seemed like dangerous advice to me. My thoughts were that if a dog is not actually aggressive (like the one I remember in the dog run), rolling it would be uncalled for and just frighten and confuse the dog, which would damage the owner/companion relationship. If the dog is truly aggressive, the alpha roll might be effective but if the human doing the rolling doesn’t know what they are doing, they could easily get bitten in the process.

The dilemma stuck in my head, so I emailed Pete Campione of Kindred Souls Canine Center in New Jersey and asked for his thoughts on the alpha roll. Pete is an experienced dog trainer who teaches owners how to socialize their dogs and communicate with them. I’ve found Pete to have a special insight into aggression cases and I have a lot of respect for his ideas. This is what Pete had to say:

The Alpha Roll is a viable and integral part of canine communication and ritual. It has many versions hence ongoing debates. The Alpha Roll, like many canine rituals, must be done correctly and it takes time to learn as it requires a good "read" of canine body language (this means many people dismiss it rather than take the time to study the nuances of how to use it effectively). It is also done differently on puppies vs adults. The key to the "Roll" is in the release (loads of praise and precise timing) and the key to proper release is recognizing submission in the dog. Done correctly it is highly effective. But it must be done specific to the dog.

I guess I’m one of the people who has dismissed the alpha roll instead of learning about it. Funny… this post started off to be about how evil it is, but I guess I’ve learned along the way that isn’t the case. I’d like to learn more about it now – when it’s useful, when it’s not, how to do it correctly. The thing that REALLY bothers me though is that most people won’t learn those things… they’ll either dismiss it or use it incorrectly.

I wonder how often that happens with other training ideas?

And why does it seem that there are always more questions than there are answers?!?!? 😛

To learn more about Pete Campione and his training philosophies, visit the Kindred Souls Canine Center online.

Training recall is tough with any dog – some breeds more than others – and, well, I think the Northern/Spitz-type breeds probably take the cake on this one. Ask most owners of a Shiba Inu what happens when they call their dog and they’ll tell you they get one of two looks from the little darling… either “F you. Try and catch me!” or “Why? What’s in it for me???”

This topic has come up 3 times in the past week. Once on a Shiba mailing list, once on the NYC Shiba Meetup message boards, and just now by email from a new reader of this blog. Since it is such a hot topic, I decided to post here about it also. Snick’s recall is fairly good – exceptional for a Shiba really. Here are a few things that helped get it that way.

How I Trained Snickers to Come on Command

• I have a life or death recall (“Snickers, COME!) and a common recall (“Come here Snick”). He knows the common recall is optional but the other is definitely not. This keeps me from “wearing out” his recall.
• He always, always gets yummy treats and happy praise when he responds to “Snickers, COME!” and I practice at random times so it isn’t just pattern trained.
• You should never give them the opportunity to fail when you train recall. Although I despise Flexi leads in the city, I started teaching him on a Flexi. I would let him get way ahead and then call him. If he didn’t turn back immediately, I would reel him in and then treat and praise. Be cautious in expanding their range. When I started doing it off leash, I started from about 3 feet away! First we did it at home and then at the dog run, but only when it was empty. I expanded the distance very gradually and waited until I was VERY confident before trying it with distractions. Add the distractions in slowly and always give big rewards.
• Don’t get in the habit of always using the life or death recall to make him leave fun things (like the dog run). Often, I will call Snick, treat and praise him, and let him go back to what he was doing. I want him to always feel like the reward for coming is greater than the potential for loss of freedom.
• Never, ever, EVER call them to you to punish or admonish them (even if they didn’t come the first time you called and you’re mad). If you need to correct your dog, go to him. The last thing you want is to teach your dog that he’s going to get in trouble when he responds to you!

That’s it. What are your experiences with training recall?