The Return of Shibasquatch

It is an amazing day in the Bay Area and Zuko and I trekked out to the famous dog beach Ft. Funston with two Boston Terriers, Winston and Porco.

Source: Uploaded by user via Tina on Pinterest

Some of you may remember the infamous "runaway" when our little Shibasquatch was last let off leash back in November. Since then his life has been tightly leashed. Always.

But Ft. Funston has huge cliffs that I don't think even Zuko could climb if he tried. And we were with other dogs so..... maybe? He only received half of his breakfast this morning so he'd be hungry and I took with me the secret weapon: cheese.

Once we were down to the beach I left him off leash and he was a good boy. He ran around, farther than I am comfortable with, but he always came back.

Good boy!

Source: Uploaded by user via Tina on Pinterest

- Posted by Zuko's proud mommy.

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

Exciting Day at the Beach

Zuko loves the beach. I love the beach because he can run and be a little monster off-leash (a.k.a. a Shibasquatch) and he gets very, very tired. Depending on the day, we may go to Ocean beach in San Francisco or stay a little more south and go to the Ft. Funston dog beach. Ft. Funston requires that I am in a mood for a work-out - the sand stairs back to the parking lot are a killer.

View about 1/4 the way down the sand stairs. Notice how tiny the beach looks?

Normally the beach has a fair number of dogs running around, but on this day we arrived and there was no one on the beach. Except....the wildlife.

Zuko likes to chase the seagulls (he believes them to be pterodactyls) and they always fly away from him. This time though, there was something new:

Will you be my friend?

I was pretty amazed - Zuko approached the Cormorant very carefully and was allowed to sniff its tail feathers. Not kidding. I didn't get a photo of him that close because I was busy hurrying over to shoo him away so he didn't get his eyes pecked out. The bird did not like me and would disappear into the water as I got closer. Zuko nearly braved a few big waves to follow his new friend into the ocean and thankfully thought better of it. 

We moved on and suddenly Zuko turned around and ran back. The Cormorant was back on the sand again. (Insert visions of a Shiba being attached by a bird with a hooked beak). The bird again tolerated Zuko but left when I got closer. Zuko got more sniffs in and really seemed to think this bird was going to play with him. 

We can play now?

FINALLY I get him to move on down the beach. He chased some seagulls and ran around, peed on everything and wore himself out. We headed back to the sand stairs and Zuko ran up on a crab in the surf. The crab, on its back, was waving legs and claws everywhere and Zuko rushed right up to it. Thankfully I was close and got him away from it but I was now having visions of Zuko lifting his head with a Shiba Scream and a crab dangling from his nose. 

What's that over there? More dangerous stuff? I'm on it!!

We move on...oh geez, there is the Cormorant again! Shit ... I managed to get a leash on Zuko and once I did he spotted ANOTHER crab flailing around in the surf and charged for it. This time I managed to get a photo: 

Will YOU play with me??

By this point my nerves were done and I still had to face the sand stairs. Awesome. Even Zuko was dragging a bit on the way back up the stairs. Ha!

Tired pup

-- Posted by Prince Zuko's frazzled mom 

I iz #Shibaquatch

Breaking news! I, Prince Zuko, iz the mysterious Shibasquatch that haz been seen on the beaches of San Francisco this summer!






Want more proof?

Here is my hudad trying to catch me when I iz off-leash. I am too fast for him tho.




And what iz this? I come running back to my humom! (She had turkey pepperoni - seriously, that stuff is GOOD).




-- Posted by Prince Zuko, #Shibasquatch

Another Shibasquatch sighting!!

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA - At Water Dog Lake park this weekend, a streaking Shibasquatch was seen off-leash at the lake. Only one image was captured of this amazing event. Sadly, our ace photograph did not get a good print of the Shibasquatch willingly getting into the water and getting his feet wet.

This black and white infrared image does a good job of showing the Shibasquatch, even though he is a bit far away.

Run Shibasquatch!

Stay tuned for further developments!

-- Posted by the Chief Shibasquatch Liaison.

Breaking news - Shibasquatch again spotted

San Francisco CA - Breaking news! An off-leash Shiba Inu was spotted today on the beaches of Ft. Funston. This phenomen, knows as a "Shibasquatch" is very rare. Our ace reporter and photographer was on site and captured the following images of this rare event. WE BELIEVE!

Is that a Shibasquatch? 

How far will he run without a leash to contain him?

We managed to catch the Shibasquatch investigating his surroundings. Shhh....don't scare him!

Close encounter of the Shibasquatch kind!!

--- Posted by Prince Zuko's Ace Reporter ;-)