In preparation for her arrival, we’ve gone back to the basics.

1. Crate for training

Having very little idea of Goo Goo’s background, we are prepared to crate train her, just as we did with Shio. When Shio was a puppy, he was only allowed out of the crate under supervision and was crated when we were out of the apartment and bedtime. I remember for the first two nights after we picked up Shio, he wailed all night. If Goo Goo does the same, it’ll be a loooong weekend.

2. Potty training

Not sure where to start with this one. I’m sure that Goo Goo will experience some sort of anxiety and her whole system will be thrown out of kilter for the first couple of days. If she’s 11 months old, I anticipate four breaks a day like Shio had when he was that age.

3. Leash training

Being that the NJ-22s did not have room to run and were not walked, I’ve been told that though they are generally good dogs they lack the training for walking on a leash. We’ve stocked up on treats for that!

4. Puppy proofing 

Spent all morning making sure that the things that are touching the ground are moved to higher ground or run the risk of having it destroyed. Fingers crossed for this one!

Wish us luck!

Thanks to our little Shiba community for the well wishes. Hope you are just as excited to meet her as we are!

PS - Please consider donating to help with medical expenses for these Shibas on the NYC Shiba Rescue site: http://nycshibarescue.org/donate/

I feel that way every time I see baby Shibas. Or any puppy for that matter!

From the moment that we walked in, he seemed pretty happy about being there.

We checked in and he went into the little doggy play area (where I saw a friend of his from our apartment building). I thought he would be happy there. In the picture below, you can see the top of his head as he entered the room.

He seemed hesitant and scared. There were so many pups mulling around and sniffing him. I would’ve been terrified as well!

Next step was to walk him into the rest of the room. He did so but stayed by the wall for protection. He typically does that when he is not confident in a new area.

Seeing that he was adjusting to his new environment in the way that I knew he would, I left the daycare and peered through the front window to see if he moved away from the wall at all. He didn’t.

It broke my little heart to see him leaning against the wall and staring out the window. I left the daycare even though I wanted to sit there and watch him. Three hours later, I went back to the daycare to pick him out. This is what I saw:

My poor little bubba perched on the window staring out. He noticed me looking at him right away and became very excited. I was incredibly sad to see that he did not enjoy or play with any of the other doggies. The attendants at the daycare said he played “a little”. I knew that he would behave this way because it was a new environment for him and he IS a Shiba and will be shy when introduced to a new place.

Would I bring him back there? Probably.

He’ll warm up to the place… eventually.

“Puppy – sit.”

“Come here puppy.”

“Puppy, no!”

“Pupppyyyyyyy…”

*sniffles* I guess he had to grow up some day. Can’t believe this day is coming so soon.