Hey, all! I need some help with my Shiba puppy, Kurama. She is 9 weeks old.
She’s been with us for one week, and this is our first time having a Shiba puppy. She is a sweetheart and lovely. But I think we may be doing something wrong.
During the first 3 days, we were amazed at how quickly she seemed to understand peeing and pooping on the pee pad, and also asking to go outside. We always give her treats when she does her business outside, because in the future we’d like her to go only outside.
But over the last 4 days, she has definitely started showing more of her personality 😅
Her biting has increased, and whenever she bites us, we redirect her to toys. She usually switches to them pretty quickly, which is great. But she has also started showing frustration when we try to dry her paws, ears, or head.
She now also barks when we’re serving her food, and sometimes when she hears noises outside (people, deliveries, etc.).
She wants to be with us all the time. We’ve been practicing leaving her alone for short periods (even though it’s hard because she’s so adorable), and she usually cries for about 10–15 minutes and then stops.
She also growls a few times a day, and we’re wondering if maybe we’re overstimulating her?
We love playing with her a lot — she’ll fetch the ball a million times and also loves playing chase with us.
At night she sleeps from around 10pm to 6am, but during the day she only takes short naps, usually no longer than 40 minutes.
Because of the frequent zoomies and overall intensity, we’re wondering if she may actually be overtired and not sleeping enough.
What we’d really love help with:
1) What are the most important commands to teach with food training?
Right now she already:
• responds to her name • knows sit What should we focus on next?
2) How can we reduce barking?
Mostly:
• when we’re preparing/serving food • when she hears noises outside (street sounds, mail/post delivery, etc.) For food barking, we’ve been trying to stop preparing/serving when she barks, and only continue once she stops. We also ask for a sit before putting the bowl down. It seems to be helping a bit, but we’re still a little worried.
3) How can we help her use the pee pad more consistently again?
I think she may now be a little confused between:
• going outside • using the pee pad Sometimes she pees away from the pad, and for poop she often goes close to the bathroom area but not exactly where we want.
We both work from home, so we do have some flexibility, but not unlimited flexibility. Some days we have 4–5 hours of meetings, and during those times we can’t always take her outside. So ideally, we’d like her to be able to use the pee pad during those situations.
4) How can we reduce growling and help her tolerate handling better?
Especially when we need to:
• dry her paws • dry her ears • dry her head • generally handle her after walks She complains, tries to escape, and seems very annoyed.
5) How can we reduce biting?
This is one of our biggest concerns.
We do redirect to toys, which works sometimes, but we’d love more advice on how to handle this better.
6) How can we reduce her extreme excitement when she wakes up?
When she wakes up, she starts:
• biting the crate • scratching around like crazy • getting super wild When we open the crate and pick her up, she starts biting us a lot, but also licking us at the same time. We understand this may be affection/excitement, but she gets so worked up in the morning that she sometimes forgets to pee right away — and then if she does go, it feels like she’s doing it in a frantic/anxious state.
7) How can we reduce distractions outside?
When we take her out to pee/poop, she gets distracted by:
• sticks • rocks • cat poop • random things on the ground Sometimes we spend 25 minutes outside in the morning, and she still doesn’t go — then comes back inside and suddenly remembers and does it at home.
Or… is all of this just normal puppy behavior and we simply need more patience?
I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos, and they often make it seem like if you just teach something once or twice, puppies will learn it quickly 😅
But I know real life is probably not that simple, which is why I wanted to ask here.
Thank you so much for any advice.
No matter what, she’s honestly a great puppy. She doesn’t cry that much, she’s generally very good, and while she does bite, it’s not constant. She also gets zoomies pretty often, which is why we suspect she may not be sleeping enough.
Also, if anyone has tips for helping her become a little less attached to us, that would be amazing. She seems to have major FOMO and really doesn’t want to sleep if it means missing out on being with us.
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