Shio the Ruffian

My dog doesn’t take sht from anyone and I’m dmn proud of him for it. Last week, I took him to his usual dog run and he was roughing it up with Toto* and having his usual puppy fun. I know that Shio is a fearless face biter and wrestler when he plays. It took a little time to get used to, but I’m not fazed by it anymore. That’s his Shiba-ness and just how he rolls. Now, Toto and his mommy on ther other hand, are not used to it. Shio caught Toto’s skin with his sharp puppy teeth and gave him a booboo which I found that day while I was grabbing Shio and pointed out to her.

Come yesterday, I saw Toto and asked his mommy how he was. She said, “He’s good but it was because he was playing rough with other dogs… actually, it was THAT dog.” Naturally, she was pointing at Shio. Of course I came to my dog’s defense and said, “Oh, that’s MY dog.” She backed off a little but was clearly unhappy with them playing together.

Two minutes later, Shio comes running towards me bleeding from the mouth. The woman shoots a hah!-told-you-so look in my direction, grabs Toto, and leaves the dog run.

Turns out that he knocked another tooth loose while playing and bled from his gum.

Fabulous job, Shio. Way to prove your point.

(*Name changed to protect the innocent)

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...