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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...