Somewhere around five months, Zuko decided it was too much effort to chew treats. Basically, once his adult teeth were in, he'd chew on chew toys, but not treats. If the biscuit or cookie is too big, he'll just carry it around and WHINE. I use to give him chicken jerky treats and he'd devour them. Now he carries them around in his mouth and cries. It is so funny - not sure how / why he decided we would do anything about this (cause we don't) but it doesn't stop him from trying. Now I give him jerky treats as we leave the house. Strange: we return and they have been eaten. ;-)
Will you please break up this squirrel cookie into bit size chunks for me?
Little help here? *crying*
-- Posted by Zuko's mean horrible mom who won't chew his food for him or at least break it into bite size chunks.
crying cookie?
ReplyDeletehttp://myfirstshiba.tumblr.com/post/553634954/the-crying-cookie
i commented on that old article, but it seems not to be there... hmmm.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, @_tar0_ does the same thing. However, the key for him to break it up is to go with him to the places he feels the safest--either his crate or (to my wife's chagrin, especially if it's a cookie) in our bed. If we get him to those spaces, he'll stop whining and start munching! om-nom-nom: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_tar0_/4637913511/in/set-72157624007931131/
My Shiba does this too! So funny to read about the exact same behavior!
ReplyDeleteThe great thing about the Internet: all of us with crazy Shibas can find comfort that we are not alone! LOL! Thank you everyone for commenting.
ReplyDeleteThat cookie is totally cute. I wouldn't break it up either!
ReplyDelete@Ting: LOL! Three Dog Bakery special! It is a pretty cute squirrel. However, carob melts like chocolate and after Zuko had dragged it into our bed and let dog-slobber-melted-carob get everywhere, that was the end of the squirrel! :-(
ReplyDeleteHa! I knew I wasn't crazy, I've never heard of dogs doing that until Tidus, when I mentioned it to the vet she looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said she'd never heard of it before either, then suggested only that he might not like the treat, which only proves SHE might be crazy my shiba loves ALL treats!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: My vet loves Shibas (apparently, this is a rare thing) and handled many while in school. But even he gives me that look once in awhile like "uh, huh - sure crazy dog lady". We Shiba owners have to STICK TOGETHER!
ReplyDeleteOMG this is so funny...our dog does this too, we didn't realize it was a Shiba thing!!!! nice to know she's not insane, at least not in that aspect.
ReplyDelete@Niki: Cute logo on your website! Thanks for commenting. So - any theories on WHY Shibas do this? Was it a hunting thing - they went and caught the wild boar and our job was to take it apart into bite-size chunks, cook it, and provide it to them on a silver platter? Hmm...(Zuko says yes, this is correct).
ReplyDeleteAw, why thank you! I made it myself. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have absolutely no idea why Shibas do this, that's a good theory, though. ;-) We just thought she was weird, or confused as to what to do with the treat since it seems to only happen with new treats, and she is only a puppy (well, 8 months). We've now decided to compile a list of all the weird things she does, and post them all at once to see if they are "Shiba" things. We thought she was just weird, but I don't know! We'll see! We can compare notes once we've finished the list. :-)
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ReplyDelete@Niki: Oh, please do share! I made a list here: http://demondogsports.blogspot.com/2010/05/zukos-odd-shiba-behaviors.html
ReplyDeleteNotice the comments! :-)
haha, that list is great! right now Katsumi can only relate to the shredding paper part...but maybe it's because she's only 8 months old? Maybe these things need time to develop...anyway, we're compiling our list! maybe we'll get it up tomorrow? check our website: shibainuhawaii.com, and let us know what you think!
ReplyDeleteWe finally finished our list! Check it out on our website, and let me know what you think! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to hear that so many other Shibas do this! I just stumbled across this blog while googling the exact thing out of curiosity! Hana will do this with almost any treat now, even briefly with bitesized treats!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the list. All very familiar actions.
@Lele - too funny! I do wish we could find a REASON for this Shiba Behavior!
ReplyDelete