The Misanthropic Shiba

Archive for July, 2009

One of the people on SHIBA-L met with the exceptionally talented Mariko, who crafts Shiba pottery.

I think my favourite is this:

I’ve had many a look like that from my Shibas.

fuck yeah shiba inu

Nicholas, you are ridiculous!

Check out NYC Shiba Rescue‘s blog post Shopping From Home Can Help Save Shibas!

Sweety Puppy Dog Doll

Only $8.99 US plus shipping!

Shiba Inu Tops List of Dogs for Ryan

Hi, Ryan.  If you’re doing some research on the Shiba, there’s a chance that you might land here.  Well, you’re going to be joining an elite group.  Special, even.  Here’s how to not be a failed Shiba owner.

First of all, don’t be like a number of clueless celebrities and buy your dog from a place that exploits dogs for money.  This includes pet shops, puppy mills and anyone who tells you their puppies are worth an unbelievable amount of money.  Seriously.  I know that you have a lot of money – well, at least a hell of a lot more money than I do, and you can afford a $10,000 dog.  However, think about the person who immediately jacks up the price when they see someone who they know has a lot of money coming to inspect their latest litter.  Does this sound like someone who cares about what kind of home their puppy goes to?  Does it sound like someone who cares more about their dogs than they do about money?  I don’t think so.

Second, do your research.  Find out how much the average price of a Shiba should cost.  Find out what health problems they have.  Find a decent breeder – the National Shiba Club of America is a good start, since you’re in America (if you happen to be in Canada, it’s Shiba Inu Canada).  You want someone who asks you questions.  They will want to know how you’re going to take care of a Shiba puppy with a busy show host schedule and what you’re going to do with the dog when you can’t take care of it.  They’re going to do genetic testing and you should know why.  Maybe you have an assistant doing a lot of the searching for you; I hope that this assistant knows what s/he is looking for.

Third, train the little bugger.  Crate training will save your Shiba’s life one day, especially the days when the dog’s being a little shit and you just want to kill it.  Don’t give in to bratty behaviour – make sure Something Unpleasant happens when Puppy decides to flash the pearly whites.  And train, train, train.  Puppy classes, beginner obedience, intermediate obedience… it may not turn your Shiba into a paragon, but it will sure as hell help.  Don’t hire a trainer to “do it for you” and don’t think the dog is trained because it comes when called in the privacy of your yard.

Remember, we, the Shiba owners, want you to do well.  This is our breed and we want to see it shine in the celebrity arena.  We want you to buy a dog from a good breeder (or rescue; lots of Shibas need good homes and you can certainly afford patella surgery for slipping kneecaps – one reason to buy from responsible breeders only).  We want your dog to bring you a lot of happiness and amusement.

And we also are eagerly awaiting the first time the dog nearly gives you a heart attack by scaling your 10 foot fence and gallivanting around the neighborhood while you try to catch it on foot, chews a pair of $5000 designer shoes, decides to not show off the trick you taught it on national TV… oh, there are many ways Shibas humiliate their owners.  Far it be from us to wish that you avoid one of the most memorable aspects of Shiba ownership.

Good luck.

This is what happens when your Flexi-lead snaps during a particularly hard lunge by your Shiba and the little plastic thingie hits you in the gut.

Me:  Hey, want to go for a walk?

Tierce:  Sure!

Friend:  I wouldn’t mind.

Me:  Awesome.

Me & friend:  Yadda yadda yadda.

Tierce:  Sniff sniff sniff.

Tierce:  OH HEY IS THAT A RABBIT OVER THERE?!

Me:  Forget it!

Tierce:  LUNGE!

Flexi-lead:  SNAP!

Little plastic thingy:  THWAP!

Me:  *thump*

Ground:  Hi.

Me:  NNGRGLE

Friend:  Here Tierce!  Good puppy… just stay there…

Tierce:  THERE WAS A RABBIT IN THAT HOLE!  I only need to dig for six more hours and I can get through to chase it!

Friend:  …gotcha!

Tierce:  Oh, poo.

Me:  NNNGH.

Friend:  Are you okay?

Me:  Just… fine… mind if I lie here for a while?

Friend:  Uh, sure.  Are you sure you’re okay.

Me:  Never better… oh gods.

Friend:  Um, try seeing if you can walk.

Me:  Okay.

Ground:  Seeya.  Drop in again some time.

Me:  Fuck you.

Tierce:  Oh HEY!  THERE WAS A RABBIT AND I CHASED IT AND IT WENT THROUGH THIS HOLE-

Me:  Shut up.

Friend:  Okay, how are you doing now?

Me:  I think I’ll live.  Shall we?

Friend:  We shall.

Tierce:  RABBITS.

Yesterday, a SCA friends of mine lost their very young dog to a congenital hernia.  In a very beautiful tribute to Finnegan, his owner wrote:

I think I have this loss in some perspective. We lost a pet we loved. We did not lose a spouse, a child, a parent, or a loved human relative or friend.

But goddamn it hurts.

I wrote back:

He was a dog but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t hurt as much as when a human dies. It’s how much someone has given to your life that matters, not what species they are.

This poked a tender spot for me.  Only a few weeks ago, I listened to a drunk “friend” rant on about how people spent too much money to save their pets and how he thought it was stupid that anyone would spend 3, 4, 5 hundred dollars or several thousand to preserve their pet’s life or improve its quality.  In the past, when friends have lost their pets, a significant number of them felt impelled to add the “disclaimer” of “I know it’s only a dog…” or “It’s not the same as losing your spouse/kid/friend/whatever, but…”.

I wonder whether it’s because they’re afraid that if they say, “I lost my dog and I feel as awful as if I had lost a very dear friend or family member” they will be censured for it.  Worse, perhaps people will band together to tell them that their feelings are really misguided and wrong and mean that they are in some way emotionally defective.

Some people who can accept that you love your spouse or your boyfriend or your girlfriend or your kids or the friend you’ve had for twenty years or even the friend you’ve only had for a few weeks cannot accept that you can love your dog with a deep and abiding feeling that goes just as deep for you as the many relationships you have with your friends and family.  In fact, they will often outright attack your love with the infamous, “It’s just a dog!” or “At least it wasn’t your CHILD”, continually picking at the love you have and the loss you feel with little belittling comments designed to relegate your feelings to their level.

Perhaps it’s fear that prompts this response.  Of what?  Is it that these people are afraid that you’ll save the dog first if you’re all in a burning building?  Do they think that loving the dog so much somehow means that you’ll value them less?  What insecurity prompts people to say things they would not dream of saying if it was anyone but a dog?  And to say it in such a way that you can hear their smugness in putting forth an opinion they feel is backed up by the majority of humanity?

And why should we, as pet owners, bow to this insecurity and support it by denying ourselves the full measure of grief that our pets have earned by sharing our lives? I don’t like it when people feel that they have to justify their feelings for their pets.  I think that it’s bullshit.  To feel a huge, agonizing loss at the death of a pet should not carry with it the need to reassure people that you value human life more.

Formerly bravewolf.ca, Tierce’s new blog chronicling his SCA adventures is at http://tierceforbaron.blogspot.com.

Shiba

Jindo

Coombs is an awesome little place between Parksville and Port Alberni.  It has become something of a tourist attraction, especially the Old Country Market.  There are a lot of little shops there and it’s jam-packed in the summer.  Despite the tourist traps that some of the stores definitely are, I love it there.

During this morning, the temperatures got up to about 30 Celsius.  That’s 86 Farenheit.  Whatever scale you go by, it equals not leaving the dog in the car, so my boyfriend and I took turns visiting the Market.  When I returned from shopping, Mischa had an interesting story to tell me.

Apparently a Korean guy came up to him and was very excited about Tierce.  Unfortunately he didn’t speak a lot of English, so the conversation went something like this.

“Ah!  Jindo-ka!”

“No, Shiba inu.”

“No, no, no!  Jindo-ka!  Korea!”

“No, man, this is a Shiba inu.  Japan!”

“Jindo-ka!”

And the man wanders away, probably convinced that we had picked up a Jindo from a shelter somewhere that had it listed as a “husky mix”.