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El Toro!

The above image shows very plainly that Suki and your average plush dog toy don't really mix that well. The upper left was a stuffed heart with a rope loop attached that we got from a friend. The bottom used to be a stuffed rabbit, and the top is a gutted racoon, all of them viciously mauled by the Suki Beast.

So I was out in San Carlos today and I walked into a neighborhood pet store. I found this toy:



El Toro! Ok that's not it's name but I can't help but blurt that name out (in my head of course) when I see this thing. This toy weighs in at about 10 lbs, and it's size rivals Suki's. It's seams are protected by strips of tough nylon weave, and it's skin is constructed in four layers. The top layer is soft fleece, underneath that a layer of woven nylon, underneath that a layer of PVC, and underneath that ANOTHER layer of nylon. I guess that means it's heavily resistant to puppy teeth....and small arms fire....The owner of the shop assured me that this toy would last a good long time. We'll see....

I brought El Toro home to Suki and I think I agree with the owner of the shop. This is one tough dog toy that will take Suki's ravaging for years to come. Hang in there El Toro!

Uh oh, Suki wins!

Graduation Day Puppy Intermediate

Yay! Suki has graduated from intermediate. She is now proficient in many basic commands: sit, down, stand, spin, come, go, rollover, left paw, right paw, take it, leave it and a few others I can't think of right now. Puppy class was such a great investment!

Our last assignment for graduation week was to have our puppies perform a trick for the rest of the class. Suki showed off with a super combo! She did sit, down, rollover, sit, stand, right paw, left paw all in sequence. The class loved it!

At the end of the class the instructor told us that she's never seen such a social, happy, and food motivated Shiba Inu. We're very proud! The next class we will be enrolling Suki in is the Good Citizens class, and from there, on to Agility Training!

Once again, the entire class consisted of only three dogs, including Suki. The graduating puppies were Azie the unknown mix, London the Corgie, and, of course, Suki.

Puppy Intermediate Class!

Today was week one of puppy intermediate class at the SPCA. Suki is
one of only three dogs enrolled, which is great since it allows much
more attention on Suki. Today we worked on loose leash walking!

Big Beach - Little Dog

Can you see how small she is in this big world?

First day at the beach!

We took Suki to the beach at Fort Funston yesterday. We hiked
together for two hours around the fort, and finally ended up at the
water. Doesn't she look happy?

Suki gets sick

Suki was supposed to get spayed yesterday. We dropped her off at the
vet in the morning and went off to work, and the vet called us soon
after and told us the procedure could not take place because suki has
a resperitory infection. She's been sneezing and coughing and we
thought it was just her allergies(which she has had for a while). We
will have her on anti biotics for a couple weeks. To get ready for the
operation, they shaved part of her leg.  Looks funny! Hope it
grows back soon. She'll be back at the vet for her operation next
Thursday.

Top of the Hill

There's a little park at the peak of the hill we live on here, only a block away from the house. Suki LOOOOVES coming here. I snapped this super cute picture of Suki there this afternoon. Pretty girl....

Suki Descends the Stairs

Up until last week, Suki has been able to climb the stairs in our house with ease, but was always reluctant to go down stairs. Well, we decided to just put her in the middle of the staircase and block her way up. Sure enough, she figured it out and now bounds down the stairs faster than any of us.

Suki Meets Browny

Ok this happened a little while ago, but our friend just got a really great Pit Bull that Suki played with in our backyard for like 2 hours. Here's a pic of them together! It seems like many of our friends are getting dogs lately.

Softball

Suki sure has grown. We took her to socialize with friends and family this weekend, and played a little softball. Click on the gallery below to check out more pix. 

Softball 4/27/08 10:47 PM

Puppy Play Group - Another Shiba Inu!

Tonight we took Suki to her first puppy play group. There we met another Shiba!!! This one is named Fei. While Fei is older than Suki, she's a whole lot smaller! Very cute sesame colored coat and the perpetually sad eyes. Suki got to play for an entire hour with the other puppies, and as I type she is fast asleep. There were so many cute puppies there, but as has happened before, my camera was out of battery when we arrived. Apparently I left it on all day. So we got out our terrible camera phones and did the best we could. Fei's picture is to the left (hope I spelled her name right). Click on the other picture to see Fei and Suki together. Enjoy!

Suki Puppy Play Group 4/25/08 9:16 PM

Video Chatting

Unfortunately Suki doesn't really respond too much to a digital version of Bridget, but it sure is fun to video chat with the doggie!

Graduation Day!

Yay! Suki has graduated puppy class. Above is our graduating class. The last class included something we haven't really done with Suki before: dress up! I found this bee costume for Suki. Dress up is a great social exercise, since your attention is on your dog and you're touching her everywhere. It's also hilarious. Stay tuned, we'll be bringing Suki to some puppy play groups and to her next school, the puppy intermediate course.

A major milestone in Suki's training this week is her response to "Come." We got her to come to us while engaged in her favorite activity, playing with another dog. We were soooooo proud. The instructor told us we have a great Shiba Inu, I say she's the BEST!

Suki is also very comfortable with sit, down, stand, left paw, right paw, and kiss, all on voice command with no food lure or hand signals. Awesome! Next we'll work on roll over, so stay tuned...

Suki Looks out the Window

Suki is tall enough to gaze out the window, and wise enough to know that whatever goes out the front door can be seen from there. I nabbed this shot as Bridget went out the front door this morning. Before, she was barely tall enough to do this on a step: 

                                 

Rilo Kiley LIVE!!!

Ok, this has absolutely nothing to do with Suki, but we got a chance to see Rilo Kiley live this week. No, Suki did not come to the concert. Click on the picture below to check out some of the pictures we got. Rilo Kiley is one of our favorite bands! We were able to get a spot in the front row. We'll probably be wearing hearing aids in ten years....but it was worth it!!!!

Rilo Kiley Concert 4/17/08

Vet Visit

It's been a while since we've been to the vet with Suki. This past week she needed her final round of vaccinations. I tried to take a stable picture of her on the exam table with my camera phone. Comparing it to our first visit, you can see Suki's growth over the past few weeks. 

First visit:                Last Visit:

Puppy Class Week 5

For week five's puppy class, we learned some stuff bla bla bla....then the puppies ran around the rest of the time. 

Puppy Class Week 4: Take it or Leave it!

Not too much to report on this class. More play, a session on guarding, or food/resource aggression (which Suki doesn't have), and a puppy swap, where everyone took turns trying to get other people's puppies to do basic commands. A couple of the dogs I tried to work with were way too scared of me, and one bit my hand as I held out a treat to reinforce a sit....eek....

We also learned "take it or leave it" where we trained Suki to take food with the command "take it" but refrain from eating a treat offered with the command "leave it." It didn't take long for Suki to see the difference between the two commands. 

     Take it!    Leave it!

One thing we really need to work on more with Suki is obeying the "come" command consistently. According to our trainers, it can take hundreds of successful recalls in order to really ingrain this command into a dog. Times that by ten million for Suki =P Bad Shiba!

Suki doesn't pull on the leash as much as she used to. Must be that new anti-pull harness we got her! More on that later...

New Coat

While Suki was chillin in the backyard this morning, I took a closer shot of her left side to show some detail on her adult coat. On the bottom you can still see the remainder of her soft teddy-bear-like fur, while on top the longer, more coarse hair is coming in. While we will miss the cottony softness, we are looking forward to the dirt and water repellency (she gets soooo dirty at the park). 

I also took a hilarious shot of her in the crate this morning. What is she doing with her paw???? Silly doggie...

Champion

This shot was taken by Jasmine right after puppy class. It is amazing to see such a stance from Suki, exhibiting the confidence of an adult at such a young age. What a champ! As the sun poured through the glass walls of the classroom, we noticed another significant change for Suki. With every movement it seems, tons of tiny hairs fly off of her like large pieces of dust. Yup, it's time for soft fluffy teddy Suki to start shedding that puppy fur. Her tail has already begun getting more firm. Ah, they grow so fast. 

Puppy Class Week 3

Puppy class focused on reinforcing the good behavior that we have taught Suki over the last few weeks. Of course, the best part was the playtime. We love the chow chow, named "Bear," who spent a lot of time playing with Suki this time around. 

                                                                                                                                                                 

Jasmine's Pics

So I handed my cousin Jasmine my camera during the barbeque and found some pretty good images in my flash card afterward. I got a kick out of the one above. Check out the rest here: 

Jasmine's Shots

I've always been impressed with my little cousin's knack for composing shots. I'm giving her my camera next time we're at some kind of event, so I can give myself a break and maybe even BE in a picture. I tried to have Bridget take a picture of me with the dog and you wanna see what I got? HERE:

Yeah....that's me and my first picture with Suki. Great job honey... let's leave the picture taking to Jasmine from now on.

New Toys, and a Barbeque!

(Above: Suki and her new toys//My friend Arnold working the weber...mmmmmmm)

Apparently there was some sort of sale on doggie items somewhere, and Bridget went crazy on the toys. It's ok though, Suki needs lots of options...options other than what I wear on my feet. After talking and talking for months about how much I wanted to pick me up a good old fashioned weber and start barbequeing, we finally spent the day picking up everything we needed. Since I work for a foodservice distributor (please call me if you're opening a restaurant in the bay area!!) I picked up the meat: 12 lbs of skirt steak, freeeeeesh from the manufacturer. My good friend came over to marinate it with a special spice and lots of corona the night before, and Suki was salivating...so was I. 

It was a little cold today, but the sun was out,

 and my family was together. Burned meat, beer, the family, and our dog. What could be better? Everyone took turns playing with Suki and having her do her tricks (for treats of course). And after Suki waited patiently, we even let her have some skirt steak, which we set aside for her the night before (un-marinated). I've never seen her gobble something up so vigorously. 

With all the socialization, including watching us all play wii for hours, Suki was one happy dog by the end of the night. Very happy, and tired! She's sleeping as I type. 

Suki is such a great companion. She requires a lot of care as a puppy, but she gives back in ways you can't really understand if you've never owned a dog. I can only imagine that her loyalty and companionship as an adult will be even more rewarding. 

Puppy Class Week 2

After Suki met the other shiba yesterday, we took her to her weekly puppy class. She made us so proud with her awesome performance! We usually have difficulty with the "come" command with Suki, but by the end of the class we found that if you use the proper energy and technique, Suki will race over to you on command.  At yesterday's class, she nailed sit, stay, down, and stand in pretty much any sequence, all with minimal food lure. Great job Suki! She also played very boldly with all the other puppies. As usual, she plays the most with one dog of her choice whenever she meets a group. In this case, it was a little doberman. 

Meeting another Shiba!

Ok, so this is actually the second shiba that Suki has had a chance to meet. Last time I didn't have my camera with me. Unfortunately, all I had to take these shots was my cruddy iPhone camera, as my dSLR was out of juice. We chanced upon this shiba at the park today. She's three months older than Suki. They must have played for at least 20 minutes straight!

Suki the Yokozuna

Suki is absolutely positively fearless. She is completely friendly with humans of every size, age, shape etc, is unphased by strollers, cars, fire engines, bikers, runners, and all other elements of city living.  She loves playing with other dogs. While she tends to ignore dogs that are smaller than her (there aren't many at this point), she plays vigorously with the biggest of them. I captured this pic recently. This is why we call her Super Shiba!

Older Suki

We've got a lot of catching up to do on Suki's life so far since we started this blog so late. Oh well! Here is our most recent photo of Suki. She looks much older now. As far as behavior, she has completely stopped nipping! It was a real problem the first few weeks we had her. One day I guess she just decided to stop. Can't complain! She also does sit, down, stand, and stay on command, but "come" is probably about 70% effective right now. I think that command just goes against her Shiba nature. 

                                                                                                                     

Just yesterday she started fetching like a "normal" dog, as in "go get ball, bring back ball, let me have ball etc..." Before she would just fetch the ball and take it wherever she pleased.                                                     

                                                                

Say hello to Suki!

Suki is our very first dog. We're so in love with her that we decided to share her with the world! We picked her up at 8 weeks old, 6 pounds, and she is now 14 weeks old at 10 pounds. Stay tuned for pictures and posts of all her doggie antics!

The picture to the right shows Suki at 8 weeks.