When my boyfriend and I go to bed, the general outline looks like this:
The bed is a double and has ample room for both of us. Generally, when we fall asleep, it’s quite comfortably and with plenty of room to stretch out.
However, come the morning, the outline looks more like this:
Somehow, during the night, a 23 pound dog manages to move 350 pounds of human onto half the space it started in. Does anyone else have this issue with their Shiba(s)? If we got another Shiba, would we be evicted from the bed altogether?
Due to popular acclaim, I have decided to instate an old incarnation of TMS right here (or look at the very top of the left menu). I think this is a good move, as it gives people a single page to review the joyousness of bringing a Shiba into their lives. Thanks to all whose feedback made their enjoyment of the original page apparent to me!
No website is really good without the input of the people who read it, who ask questions and who make comments. To horribly misquote and butcher John Donne: “No Shiba Blog is an Island.”
Kelly Osbourne goes into rehab
I’m not usually a big fan of chronicling every breath a celebrity takes, but take a look at this Shiba puppy of Osbourne’s:
Kelly Osbourne and her Shiba
While I’m pretty sure this is a Shiba… it looks rather odd. The ears are pretty big and the tail doesn’t look a lot like a Shiba’s… could it be a cross? Or maybe it’s a Jomon Shiba! (One really, really hopes it’s not; from the description, this would be a Shiba, but even more primitive. Yay.) My bet is that this dog is a result of an impulse purchase at a pet store, but Yahoo Answers isn’t really the most reliable source! According to the EuroPuppy Blog, Osbourne has “earned some criticism for her inability to keep her dogs properly and changing them regularly“, which doesn’t bode well for either her choice of sources for the pup or the pup’s future life.
Get it for FREE and HURRY!
Yeah, I know this looks like a cheap ad that’s going to promise you 3″ length or cheap knockoff jewelry, but this is only available for the month of January. It’s a free PDF download of “AFTER You Get Your Puppy” and outlines a lot of puppy needs, recommended equipment, training issues, etc. 
The Shiba inu joins a top 10 list. Yay.
Some varieties are hard to breed, such as bulldogs, she said. The French bulldog, new on the list and sharing 10th place with the Shiba Inu, “has risen in popularity. It’s a cute little dog, small, and it sells for a big price.”
“We need to have careful breeding. When you have a breed that a lot of people want to get, you find novices getting into breeding for fun and money. One of the heartaches is when so many people want to have puppies, it can damage a breed,” Cadiz said.
Oh, please, popularity, stay away from my breed, ohpleaseohpleaseohplease. If the words, “cool”, “in”, “latest”, “hot”, or “style” are in any way involved with your desire to get any breed, it’s pretty much a sure sign that you shouldn’t get one.
If any of you are involved or have a working knowledge of the SCA, Tierce’s “other blog” might be amusing for you: Tierce for Baron
It started when the latest attempt to get the local Shires together into a Barony flared to life. Shires are smaller SCA groups and Baronies are larger and have more pomp and circumstance. For an introduction to the SCA, go here.
I am quite hopeful that it will work out and, in the interests of keeping things light, started a campaign (just in fun!) for Tierce to be Baron. Everyone seems to be having fun with it, so we’re going to continue until we get a Baron and Baroness!
I got this email today from VancouverShibas.com:
Hi everyone,
I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Holiday season and enjoyed the snow – I know both my Shibas loved it. At this point in time, I’m uncertain if we’ll have a Meetup for February. We’ll have to see what the weather is like but I’ll keep everyone informed over the upcoming weeks.
The last few months, I’ve been receiving quite a few emails about Shibas in need of a new home or inquiries about fostering a Shiba until a new home is available. One of the people I’ve turned to for help and advice is Susan Norris-Jones – the President of the Shiba Inu Canada national breed club. Her insight has been a huge help and now she’s asking for my assistance to get the message out there about the efforts of several canine rights groups fighting Ontario’s Bill 132. Please check out the links listed in the email below and it will give you all the info on Bill 132.
You may think that Bill 132 does not affect you because you live in BC and you own a Shiba Inu, not a “pit bull” or “pit bull type dog”. Think again… Our province is considering breed specific legislation (think Bill 132) which will give the government the right to tell us which breed of dog (that includes cross breeds or dogs resembling the banned breed) we are allowed to own. Right now our government is looking at “pit bull” type dogs but there are other breeds they are considering as well. In many European countries breed specific bans are already in effect. For instance, the Akita, the much larger cousin to Shiba, is one of many breeds that have been banned. Any form of breed specific legislation sets a terrible precedent for actions against any breed of dog. It’s not a far stretch to think that this could happen to our beloved Shiba especially with the breed gaining in popularity and notoriety.
Please consider making a donation to the Dog Legislation Council of Canada (DLCC). Even if it’s only $5 or one dollar for every dog you own. I have made a donation myself and urge others to support the DLCC and the Banned Aid Coalition as they take their fight to the Supreme Court of Canada. The deadline to make a donation is January 23, 2009. You can make a secure payment through PayPal at this link: http://doglegislationcouncilcanada.org/donate.html
Thank you for taking the time to read this message. Let’s hope Bill 132 will be struck down once and for all. “Ban the deed, not the breed”
Jen Jung
Reposted with permission
I donated $10; not much, but combined with more $10 donations, it can amount to a lot! Please consider giving or telling your friends who own breeds targeted by BSL to go to the website to check things out.
The Man Who Saved The Breed: The battle for the Akita, the samurai of dogs
This is a news story that alerted me to the book “Dog Man: An Uncommon Life On A Far Away Mountain. It’s about a man and his Akitas and, if my search inside books.google.com is any indication, there is no mention of Shibas at all. However, from the reviews, it provides a great deal of information on life in Japan and the Japanese attitude towards their dogs. The author spent a great deal of time with Morie Sawataishi and his wife, Kitako, learning about him and his work with Akitas.
I’m hoping to find this at the Vancouver Island Regional Library. Once I do, I’ll come back and tell you fine people what I think of it.
Google Books Excerpt
C-BARQ is a series of questions that are designed to evaluate your dog’s behaviour. It’s interesting, but I find that it is somewhat imprecise. Tierce was red-flagged on areas where I think he’s pretty much normal. He’s never threatened to bite or snap at a stranger of any age, but he is nervous around small, erratic children. His energy is pretty much normal to me – off the charts. Of course, right now, he’s not living up to that rating:
Oh well; any online test isn’t guaranteed, right? You can find C-BARQ here.
Yep, I loves me some Wordpress. This blog won’t be updated any more. Head on over to
http://shibainus.ca
for more Shiba goodness!
