Hi Jon,

This is Phoenix’s dad. It’s been about 8 years since I started training Kitsu so I may not remember everything. But I’ll do my best. I started by reading several different training books. There’s lots of different methods and theories about what works best. I recommend looking at all of them and deciding for yourself what works best for you and your schedule. Here are some of the things I latched on to:

When she was a baby we kept her in a kennel at night. She wined a lot when we first brought her home. Our solution to this was to put her in the basement and ignore her. Eventually she stopped. By being stern and consistent with that, and by discouraging her when she’d bark, we trained her not to make any noise. This was important to us. And it worked. Now she doesn’t make any noise. This has helped contribute to her mild manner and has been wonderful for us. However, there can be a downside. Funny story: on more than one occasion my mom has been watching her for us and lost her. Once she got locked in closet and another time she got trapped underneath a recliner. My mom went the whole day not knowing where she was because she never made a sound. Also, because we crate trained her, she kind of likes small, dark places and probably didn’t mind one bit.

My main method for training was to give her treats. We did our best to reward good behavior and ignore or punish bad behavior. It’s easy to fall in to a pattern where you are only punishing and being negative so I had to work really hard to avoid that and balance any negative punishment with positive reinforcement. I rewarded her with dog food. And I rewarded her often. I made sure I always had a plastic bag full of dog food in my pocket. And for the first several months of her life I’d say the majority of her food came from me. So instead of putting 1/2 cup of food a day in her bowl. Put it in your pocket and use it to help train her. Also, have your wife and/or kids or whoever you want do some of the training/feeding so she learns to listen and respect them as well. Make sure when you do feed her by traditional methods you occasionally take her food away from her or have another dog or other animal come into the picture. Shiba’s, like any dog can get very protective of their food. Discourage that behavior and reward sharing. This is important, especially if you have any toddlers or young kids in the picture. You don’t want a dog to get defensive and “snappy” around a baby. For this same reason make sure you introduce your dog to other people of all ages. Shiba’s can get very skittish around toddlers or elderly – basically, anyone that doesn’t move around or smell like the people she’s normally around. Acclimation is key. Same goes for other dogs. Take them to the dog park often. I did not do this enough with Kitsu and now she bares her teeth and gets snappy whenever another dog comes around and sniffs her butt. Part of this is the breed but anything can be corrected and this was one area that I failed in.

When I started training Kitsu I focused on the things that would be most useful to me. Sit, Stay, and Come were the first major commands I taught her. And I went over them and over them and over them several times a day until she had them down. I eventually got to the point where I could have her sit and stay and I could walk to another part of the house and back without her moving. Then I took it outside and did the same thing. It’s actually pretty easy with Shiba’s because they are less interested in and less distracted by other people or other dogs than most breeds.

For me it was important to also train her not to run out of the house when the front door was open. She’s only allowed to come out when I tell her to. I’ve also trained her to stay out of certain rooms in the house. She’s not allowed to come in the kitchen because she’s so small and so quiet that she could get stepped on or tripped over and the kitchen is a bad place for that to happen. So she just sits by the open entry way and watches. She’s also not allowed in the dinning room because I don’t want her begging for food when we have guests.

It was always a dream of mine to have a dog that would walk off-leash with me. I had my work cut out for me with a Shiba. But with a strong adherence to a few simple commands she does great off leash. Sit, Stay, Come, Heal, Stop. I’ve also got her to where she will respond to hand gestures and even a slight variation in my step. And by that I mean, when I want her to heal I’ll just step slightly harder than normal while I’m walking. I thought it was annoying to say “heal” while I was walking with other people so I shifted to a more subtle audio command. I’ve had her off leash since she was about 2 years old. Many Shiba owners think this is impossible but it just takes a little bit of work. Shiba’s, as you may have heard or read, are considered one of the hardest dogs to train. This is largely because they don’t have the same innate desire to please that other breeds might. Routine, repetition, and patience are important. Put in the time early and reap the rewards later. It’s worth it. Let me know if this helps and if I can be of any more assistance. And thanks so much for visiting Phoenix’s site and watching her videos 🙂