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.