She took turns looking at me, then at my flatmate. We were both standing there for about 10 minutes…in silence, glaring at her. Pondering on what to do. She just looked at us, looked sad, then nibbled on it some more, then hid under the chair.
I swear her name should be ‘buxing’. I gave her a bath after that, and she was SO afraid of us that she didn’t give any trouble. And Shibas HATE water. I hit her once, then held the book in front of her and every time she nibbled at it I yelled buxing.
I’m good with toddlers…but Sambuka has issues standing in the corner with her hands on her head.
That last picture is awesome. My boyfriend and I have a 6-month-old Shiba. The picture of the innocent, relaxed pup amidst shreds of pulp looks awfully familiar.
Listen, you probably have quite a bit on your mind, what with the hip problems you’ve just discovered in your Sambuca, but I actually have a question about her shave. Did it help?? Is the dog really happier because with a summer cut??
Our shiba seems pretty miserable in our un-air conditioned apartment during the day, but I suspect he’d also be kind of upset to lose his fur…? And the blow to his ego, oh! oh! I’d be giggling at him nonstop for at least the first few days…
So, is it worth it??
I don’t shave my Foxie (a fox-dog), as I’ve been under the impression that fur helps cool an animal, too, by trapping the cooler air close to the skin and by preventing the sun striking directly on the skin.
Not sure if it’s true, though. :s
Well, I can provide at least some anecdotal information.
I have a german/black lab mix and he puts on a very dense undercoat in the winters here. He has a decent sized yard to roam and he gets a lot of outdoors time when it’s not too cold.
In the summer, due to the continental climate of interior Alaska, it hits upwards of 30C pretty often. When he still has the undercoat, he basically hides in the shade.
It takes well over a month for me to get rid of all that undercoat. I have two different brushes. One kind of looks like a currying comb/undercoat rake combination and the other looks like a old sawblade bent into a loop. I brush him about twice a week during this month, focusing especially around the chest and back. It doesn’t help that the dog kinda gets fidgety when i start combing out the undercoat. Usually I can placate him by giving him his favorite mini soccer ball (which he finally punctured just recently) to chew on while I brush.
He does get a lot more active without the undercoat. It’s later in the summer and hotter out by the time the winter undercoat is mostly gone and he’ll be actively patrolling the yard, pretending to be a vicious attack dog. The coat will insulate from the heat, but I think too much coat will just result in a dog which kind of slinks from patch of shade to patch of shade.
I didn’t shave her because of the heat. I also believe that the fur actually protects her from the sun. I only shaved her because she shed like hell…it looked like that scene from Gremlins where the baby hair-ball gremlins popped out of the mama gremlins back. Or was that Critters…anyways…I got tired of mopping 5 times a day. I will only do it once, while she sheds. Amazing the patterns that were hiding under her thick black fur!
Right now, I keep her out of the sun. She sweats and smells a lot more than with hair. Really not something I will do just for fun. She went a bit nuts for an hour after the shave, then was fine.
Thanks for the anecdotes, everyone.
Shibas have a really dense undercoat too, and I’m afraid that’s what’s trapping the heat. Ours is still going from fluffypuppyfur to big dog fur, though. We do our best by brushing him at least once a day, and that seems to help. Nevertheless, battery9, I can understand your motive for shaving your shedding shiba. As for direct sunlight, I don’t know that it’s much of a factor for our dog, since I stick to the shade when walking him in the sunny afternoons, and he gets most of his walking in the evening.
I’m surprised that she sweats and smells more, though. At any rate, I’m letting my boyfriend make the 1200NT decision, since he was the one that proposed shaving our dog in the first place. This will be information that aids in his decision. 
I’m sorry if I’ve hijacked the thread and steered it off topic…
I met your Shiba today. He has cute eyes…I hear that he enjoys being combed. Lucky you! Sambuka goes after the comb like it’s her biggest enemy.
Hey, I didn’t get to meet you or your dog! … Maybe the next time Animals Taiwan has an event.
Yanow, Bowdu used to terrorize his brush, and the hand attached to the brush… but the first dozen or so times that we brushed him, we plied him with treats. It was something to keep his mouth occupied, and seal the association that brushing=good.
I can’t believe it has been 5 years! Sambuka is 7…I’m in denial…to me she is still 3! She now has 5 brothers and sisters and is still the moodiest dog I’ve ever met:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoZnWZbpMA4
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