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ice cube for the teething pup

I guess Kai is going through a barking phase... he's been a lot more vocal lately.  He barks if a strange cat is in the yard, he barks at Molly, he barks if he sees people with dogs walk by the house, he barks at the neighbor when he's in his backyard... etc.  If it moves, it's worth barking at, as far as Kai is concerned.

Yesterday was borderline ridiculous!  First he was barking his head off after I got home from work.  I went outside to see what he was barking at, and he was staring at the fence.  His little body was shaking (anger?  fear?  I don't know!).  I couldn't even figure out what the hell he was barking at for a while... I thought maybe there was a cat, or even a skunk, on the other side of the fence, but I didn't hear any movement.  I finally realized that there was a small lizard hunkering down right by the fence.  The poor lizard was missing part of his tail (I don't know if Kai ate it or not...) and was definitely alive, but sitting very still, trying to camouflage himself.  Kai didn't want to actually get near the lizard... he stayed a couple of feet away.  But he would not stop barking, even after I tried to hide the lizard by putting some bricks in front of it.  I took Kai inside twice, and both times he ran right back to the lizard as soon as I let him back out.  Finally, I had to lock the pet door for about 20 minutes.  I guess that gave the lizard enough time to make his escape, because when Kai finally got to go back outside, Mr. Lizard was gone.  Whew. 

A few hours later, Kai was having another barking fit in the backyard.  This time, it was over a dragonfly... the dragonfly looked like it was pretty much dead.  But Kai wasn't convinced.  I tried to hide the dragonfly by putting an upturned bucket over it, and distracting Kai, and he eventually decided to stop barking.

About a half hour after that, Kai started barking his head off... AGAIN... this time in the spare bedroom.  I assumed he was barking at Molly, but when I went in there, Kai was by himself.  I was like "wtf are you barking at NOW?!" and then I saw it... it was something very scary... a Q-tip.  Yes, ladies and gentleman, my dog was barking his head off at a Q-tip that somehow had fallen out of the trash and was lying on the floor.  Chris and I laughed so hard we were both crying.

Poor Kai is still teething... I saw some blood spots on his stuffed shark the other day, and he sometimes doesn't want to eat.  But he seems to be doing okay with it overall.  He has his vet appointment to be neutered in a few weeks, and the vet said that any remaining baby teeth could be popped out at that time.  I can't believe he's going to be six months old soon!  Time flies!

Five Months Old!

lounging puppy

Kai had his five month vet visit to get his rabies shot and check on his, um, balls.  Unfortunately, one testicle still hasn't descended, but we went ahead and made an appointment for his neutering, which will be in mid-June.  The vet said that there is a chance that the testicle could descend on its own by then, although usually they both have already done so by five months.  If it doesn't come down by surgery time, Kai can still be neutered, but the surgery may be more involved, depending on how far up the testicle is.  Kai hasn't had any health issues at all so far... in fact, he's quite a sturdy, robust little guy, so I hope that this won't be too much of an issue.

I've been so busy with a demanding gig schedule over the last month (eight performances a week, in addition to still working my regular full-time job) that I haven't had as much time to spend with Kai as I would have liked.  His puppy class is over now, and we still try to take him out when we can, but it hasn't been as much as before.  Poor little Kai.  As soon as my gig is over (after this week) I really want to work more with him.  He has been really great, but he has a couple of issues we definitely need to address.  The big one is Kai's fear/hatred of putting anything on:  collar, harness, leash, all make him do the Shiba scream, BIG time.  I think it might actually be more traumatic for me than for him, but he clearly doesn't like the process.  I've tried a couple different types of harnesses, thinking that maybe he just didn't like the feeling of a collar around his neck, but the harnesses are even more difficult to put on him.  And FORGET about trying to adjust a harness once it's on him!  He will tantrum all over the place.

Other issues that we need to work on are:  leash skills (he can walk on a leash, but he pulls.  I think/hope that once we start properly working on leash training, he'll get this one down quickly) and mouthing.  He STILL wants to mouth people when they pet him.  He has a very gentle mouth, and I don't mind if he gently mouths my hand, but I want to cut the habit because I don't think everyone who pets him would want him nomming on them!  Especially kids.  There was a girl at the gym the other week who really wanted to pet Kai, but I had to be careful in letting her because I didn't want her to think that Kai was going to bite her.

The gig has been a great experience (I normally wouldn't be able to accept a gig with such a demanding schedule, and have been so lucky in that my boss at work and my boyfriend have both been really helpful in managing everything) but I will be glad to return to normal life soon!

Camping With Kai

Camping Master

Kai experienced his first camping trip with a group of our friends, and he had a blast!  We went to Sunset State Beach.  There were 10 people and two other dogs for Kai to play with.  I wasn't sure how he would do, having to be on a lead all weekend, since he still doesn't really have any leash skills yet and sometimes will tantrum on a leash.  But he did great.  We had him on a 20' lead, so that was long enough for him to run around camp and play with everyone and still keep him secure.  We put his crate under one side of our tent's rain fly, draped a blanket over it,  and he was cozy in there at night.  He had so much fun at the beach, digging lots of holes and throwing sand everywhere.  It was such a nice, relaxing vacation for everyone!

Kai with his new friend Bailey

Attempting to dig back to Japan with Dylan's help

Kai had no problem taking the only chair on the beach

happy puppy

frolicking on the beach

catching some shade

curled up by the campfire

Teething!

nomming an ice cube

Kai is definitely loosing some teeth!  I noticed yesterday at lunch that he was missing both of his upper front teeth and one bottom fang, in addition to his lower front tooth.  I guess the teeth all decided to start coming out at once!  He did seem more tired than normal yesterday, too... when I opened his crate during lunch, he did his customary strrretch front and back, walked out, and then turned around and went back in.  He's still eating fine, though.  I gave him an ice cube, which he had fun with, and also some old dish rags which I soaked in water, knotted, and froze.

so sleepy, and naked!

Chris took Kai's collar off so that we could give him a good brushing.  I ordered a harness for him, so hopefully that will fit and Kai won't mind it so much.  Kai's puppy collar is getting too small for him, anyway.  I also bought him a martingale collar, but I sort of think he might hate that. 

We will be taking Kai on his first camping trip this weekend.  I really hope it goes ok!  Kai will have to pretty much be on a leash or tie out all weekend, since we can't trust him to hang around on his own.  He's too young to really do any hiking or anything, so this will be an extremely leisurely trip... most likely just hanging around the campsite and the beach.  Should be interesting...

16 Week Old Monster

two monsters

Kai is 16 weeks old!  And after having a good couple of weeks, he more than made up for it yesterday.

All the stuff I had been reading about teething has so far not applied to Kai.  He definitely is missing at least one tooth now (bottom front) and some others look loose.  But he hasn't cried or chewed any more than normal.  Maybe he's not far enough into the teething stage for it to really bother him.  I'm just glad that it hasn't escalated his monster-ing so far!

Saturday was a fun day for Kai.  He got to meet his cousin Ke$ha, a 30ish lb. dog who is still young herself, only about a year and a half old.  Kai and Ke$ha hit it off immediately and had lots of fun running around Ke$ha's big backyard.  We actually left the two dogs alone together for a few hours while we took Ke$ha's parents (Chris's cousin and her husband) rock climbing.  Kai was sad when we finally had to leave.  I think he has a bit of a crush on Ke$ha.  I wish we lived closer to Chris's cousin so that the two dogs could play more often.  It was so fun to see them together.

Ke$ha and Kai

Kai also had his 4-month vet visit on Saturday morning.  He did great, and now that he is fully vaccinated against Parvo, we can start taking him out more without being so paranoid!  His testicles still haven't dropped... the vet said one was right there, waiting to drop, and that the other one is probably right behind it.  We will take Kai back next month to check on that.

Kai and Chris waiting to see the vet

Sunday we had puppy class with Kai.  He was fine for most of the class, but he threw a GIANT tantrum at the end.  We had taken him off his regular leash and put him on a long leash for some training activities, and when we tried to put his regular leash back on he threw a huge fit.  The trainer ended up having to put his leash on, and he bit her in the process... not hard, but he did break skin.  I felt so bad and embarrassed.  The trainer was great with him and gave us some suggestions on how to desensitize him to that.  I also am thinking maybe we should try using a harness instead of a collar for attaching the leash to him.  He just HATES it when we try to mess with anything around his neck.  :(

Sunday evening, we left Kai crated so that he could chill out after his tantrum while we had dinner with Chris's family.  I went for a run when we got back.  After my run, I gave Kai some water, and he was really really thirsty.  He drank two bowls of water.  (We had given him his first heartworm/flea/tick pill that morning... not sure if it was that, or the tantrum, that made him so thirsty.).  A couple of hours later, while we were watching TV, Kai all of a sudden just started peeing right in the middle of the living room, in front of us!  He has never done that before.  I grabbed him and said NO loudly and put him outside.  He definitely was startled, and knew he had been bad.  We cleaned it up and let him back in after about 10 minutes.  And then... about 20 minutes later, he did it AGAIN!  This time, he was lying on his side on the floor in the living room, and he just started peeing as he was lying there.  I looked over and saw him lying there but holding his upper leg up awkwardly, and then Chris was like "he's PEEING again!".  Sigh.  I hope that the two accidents were just from him drinking so much water, rather than being some side effect of the medication.  I looked up the drug, and it didn't list anything like that in the possible side effects.  I was really worried about how he'd do in the crate overnight, but he didn't have any more accidents.  I guess peeing twice in the house pretty much emptied him out.

peaceful, right before the second peeing incident.

Needless to say, Sunday was pretty rough.  I had also had a 3.5 hour rehearsal that morning, and Chris and I had climbed three days in a row, so I was feeling pretty wrecked even before the day began.  And dealing with Kai's tantrum and peeing was pretty exhausting.  I hope today will be better!

The Calm Before the Storm

14.5 weeks handsome

Kai has been pretty good this week... which makes for a less interesting blog, I know, but a calmer home.  He is 14 1/2 weeks old, though, and I know that something traumatic is right around the corner:  teething.  From what I've read, it sounds like 15 weeks is the average age for Shibas to start teething.  He has wanted to chew everything in sight ever since we got him, so I have no idea how him teething will be!

I guess I can say that his ears are officially "up"
 now.  In this photo, they certainly are up.  The tips of the ears, however, still flop much of the time, and I've noticed that his ears tend to flop more when he's tired.  he's looking like a little man these days, although he still has his puppy fur, and definitely his puppy attitude.

Buster cube fun!

I am so happy that Kai finally figured out how to play with his Buster cube!  I bought this toy for him before he even came home, since I had read so many good things about it.  But at 8 weeks old, I guess he wasn't ready to play with it yet.  He was not even a little bit interested in it.  So I put it away until a few days ago, when I decided to try again.  I put some of his kibble in it and gave it to him.  At first, he was trying to get his mouth around it (it's too big for that).  Then he started licking the hole where the kibble gets loaded into.  I showed him how to roll the cube around to get the kibble out.  He got it after a couple of demonstrations, and was fully occupied in getting the rest of the kibble out for the next 20 minutes.  I think it may be his new favorite toy!  (I think it may be MY new favorite toy, too, since he can play with it on his own!)

Trip to Walnut Creek

Kai went on a trip to Walnut Creek this weekend.  He had lots of admirers outside lululemon while I tried on some things :)

He was pretty tuckered out after such a long day.

Chris was tired, too.