Not a Morning Shiba

We’ve found that Shio is just not a morning doggy. Every morning at 6am, J or I will come stumbling out in a huff to grab him and run out so he doesn’t have an accident in his crate. When Shio was 3.5 months old, if we were late by just 5 minutes, there would be an accident so we are trained to jump up and go the second the alarm rings in the morning. This week we’ve found that he would just lift his head up to say “Hi” and then back down he goes. J and I will sit there until 6:30am while he lazily looks at us with his chin on his arm or stretches eveeeer soooo slooowlyyy in his crate.

Sometime in between 6:30am and 6:40am he’ll decide that he’s ready to trot out and join the rest of the world with his newfound leg lifting antics.

This is good news for us… we get to hit the snooze for 30 minutes before dragging ourselves out.

A Shiba Named Shio

It was hard to pick a name when we first had him in our home since there are so many Japanese words to choose from. What we did know is that we wanted a name that was original but also relevant to our puppy's personality.  His name is Shio (pronounced "Shee-oh") for two different reasons. Reason 1:

When we went to pick the breeder up, J and I stopped by a McDonald's for lunch on the drive over.  We had our value meals, complete with salty fries. When we picked him up from the breeder, Shio would excitedly jump up and try to lick or bite our fingers. The salt leftover from our fries instantly attracted him to us.  Shio means salt in Japanese so it was the perfect fit.

Reason 2:

Another underlying reason why the word holds sentimental value in our lives is because during our first date together, J and I went to a Ramen shop in the LES and ordered Shio Ramen for lunch. Our dog would be another first for us so the name Shio has an already implied significance in our lives.

Shhh... Shio is Napping...

 

Shiba in NYC

He arrived to our home in NYC the night of Saturday, 3/21/09. When we went to pick a Shiba from our breeder, we looked for a dog that would best fit our personalities.  Shio and his brother were both eager to meet us, but we chose Shio because he did not nip at us like Nate did and was not as hyper.  The other Shibas that were available either had food/toy aggression or carried the breed flaw of being too shy.

Although Shio wasn't as good looking as his brother, we knew that Shio's colors and markings would change over time. The black Shiba snout that Shio has will lighten up as he gets older and his fur color will change as he transitions into adult fur.

Name:  Shio Birthday: 12/24/08