Most recent photos of the 2 pups we have left

Our two pups: 2 days shy of being 4 months old!

Ichiban

Mushu

Mushu on the left, Ichi on the right . . .

The Puppies' First Baths

This past Saturday, Matt and I gave the puppies their first adventure in bathing. Our backyard is a dustbowl at the moment and the puppies were so dirty that if you patted their backs, clouds of dirt would come off of them. They were four little 'Pig-Pens', wandering around with their own clouds of dust. The first one to go was Mushu. He didn't like it at all, but was pretty quiet and didn't struggle too much. He mostly just stood their and shook and whined a little.

Mushu hating life . . .

Mushu drip-drying before being toweled off . . . .

Next it was Manny's turn. We have no pictures of him because he was a screamer and a fighter. I struggled to bath him (he only got shampooed once instead of twice), while Matt was running around looking for ear plugs, trying to calm the other puppies and trying to calm Mia (she started howling). I'm sure our neighbors thought we were performing some sort of ritual sacrifice in our house our summoning demons from the netherworld. Nope. Just giving a Shiba Inu a bath.

After all that ruckus, it was Matt's turn to jump in. He started with Mishka. She was very good considering she had just heard her mother holwing and her brother screaming bloody murder. She only fought a little and whined a bunch, but on the whole was way better than Manny.

Mishka's first bath . . .

Are we done yet? (Mishka)

Mia finally figured out that we weren't actually torturing her puppies and then seemed ok with the whole deal. She was definitely curious though.

Last, but not least, it was Ichiban's turn. He also did really well. Struggled a bit and whined, but it was nothing compared to what his bigger brother had done.

Ichiban trying to escape . . .

All clean . . . and pissed off!

Puppy Development Week 7

The puppies are getting closer to going to their new homes as we begin Week 7. Here's what should be happening with puppy development this week:

• Total hearing/visual capacity
• Will investigate anything
• Can't respond yet to name
• They should be weaned and on regular puppy food

Here's a little bit about each one:

Ichiban
One of the males that Matt and I are waffling about keeping. He definitely seems to be dominant (but hey, he's a Shiba). He is investigative and doesn't frighten easily. He seems to like us and will run up to great us.


Manny
The most shiba-like of the litter. Sometimes aloof (but in an independent way). Likes to do his own thing, but will be cuddly (on his own time!). Appears to have the best Shiba pose, Matt thinks he stands perfectly when there's something new to face. Also the loudest and the biggest whiner if he doesn't get his way.


Mishka
I think we'll call her . . . Mini-Mia! Not only does she have the white sock markings like her mother, she seems to have her attitude as well (look out world!). Matt thinks she shows the most aptitude for Shiba fighting technique (aka, the infamous Shiba butt-slam). She is definitely the most mouthy of the bunch (not afraid to bite the hand that feeds, the hand that pets . . . the hand that comes too close . . . but in a playful way!) And finally, she is not willing to back down to even mom when mom tries to put her in her place.


Mushu
This is the other puppy that Matt and I can't decide between. Still the runt and still UBER-cute! As with many small dogs, he also has an UBER small-dog complex! I watched him beat up/chase his bigger brother for at least 5 minutes last night after Ichiban had the gall to tackle him from behind. Don't mess with the runt, or the runt will mess with you! He also appears to be the one we see Mia playing with the most, maybe that's why he's got 'small-dog complex'. She's training him up to handle the big dogs of the world.

Puppy ROMP!

I realized this evening that if I use the "sports" setting on my digital camera, I can pretty much catch action shots of the pups as they terrorize every clump of grass in the backyard. Below are photos from this evenings romp, sorted into 3 categories:

1. Navigating (or falling off of) the stairs
2. Playing with (terrorizing) mom
3. Running everywhere as fast as they can

The Stairs . . .



Playing with Mom . . .

Romping!

That's all folks!

Puppy Development Week 6

The puppies are fully 5 weeks old now and are entering into Week 6. Growth and development of the pups will continue this week and according the the (un)authoritative puppy manual from the internet, we can start offering them damp food. We're a bit ahead in this regard, as we have already started giving them dry puppy food this past week and they seem to like it (although, not as much as Mia's milk!). They are also drinking water from a bowl now (when they're not running through it or pushing their siblings into it).

We are learning that at this stage of the game, the puppies seem to be "all or none". They are either sleeping (hard) and you can make them stand up, but they lay right back down and sleep on, OR they are playing, biting, jumping and really rough-and-tumble. Pictures are a bit tricky to get when they are cruising at top puppy speed, so the pictures we offer up for this post are of the crew sleeping (which is really how they are still spending most of their time!). Enjoy!

The Puppies make their First Trip Outside

The weather is beautiful and the puppies are getting more boisterous every day, so today we decided to introduce them to our backyard and sunlight! (Of course, we took pictures). They bounded around a bit and all tried eating dirt, and none of them seemed intimidated by the new surroundings. Once we brought them back inside they all crashed--hard, being outside really wore them out!