Shibasquatch No More: Trust Revoked

Last weekend we headed up to Mendocino County with some friends to a dog-friendly vacation rental on the coast. This should have been the perfect weekend.

Wild Shiba on the rugged coast

The night we drove in it was horrid weather - rain, fog, long winding roads in the dark. Bleh. We finally get to the house and Zuko immediately goes into "weird" mode - he decided he was terrified of the dog he's known all summer. Granted, she was very, very much in his face and would not leave him alone, but normally he'd just snarl at a dog being that rude. This time he decided to be terrified. (More on this new behavior in another post coming soon - looking for advice!).

The next day the weather cleared and we headed to a nice, secluded beach. Since Zuko had been so stressed I decided to let him off leash so he could burn off some energy. He's a confirmed Shibasquatch, so while I was a bit nervous because he was off his game, I knew there was only one way off the beach. It would be fine, right?

And there he goes....

I snapped the above picture just as Zuko made the turn and headed for the path...off the beach. My hubby was up the path before I could even react and had Zuko stopped just above the beach - but not caught. Zuko bolted again and ran up to the road - at which point, any attempt to remain calm on our part ended. 

Zuko "played" in the road, causing us to put ourselves in the middle of the country highway to stop traffic. At one point, I was sure he was gone for good. All the usual tactics failed us - sit, wait, here, touch, throwing treats at him, running away from him ----- nothing worked. At this point we were frantic and we all know that heightened "energy" from humans does not help, but when your little dog is running TOWARD a car like a brainless idiot, calm and zen go right the fuck out the door. 

Finally, we came to another dirt road that met the highway and I shouted at my hubby to try running away (again) and Zuko FINALLY followed him. Relieved he was at least off the highway, we chased the little monster up the hill and into a farmer's courtyard area. Zuko's hudad decided to just sit down in the dirt and see if that calmed Zuko down a bit. And finally, finally, the little jerk came back to me for a treat, did a sit and I tackled him with more force than was probably necessary. 

The Runaway was captured. And we both wanted to hug him and shake him senseless at the same time. I guess that makes us bad people but the sheer terror of nearly losing our little dog messed up our brains too.

"Iz all lies. I was sitting here the whole time being a good dog."

So what happened to make our trusty dog run off? We have some theories about stress and the other dog driving him insane, but I'll save that for another post. Zuko has no idea what he has done, but his status as a Shibasquatch is fully revoked. 

-- Posted by Zuko's mom and the leash that will be attached to him the rest of his life