Maggie on the lookout

Shiba books

I needed to stop myself before I bought an entire collection of Shiba Inu books and magazines in Japan. There is a monthly magazine called "Shi-ba" where Shiba Inus from all over Japan are featured, including one that have been made famous on blogs and youtube.

The comic books are about the Shiba Inu's everyday life and their little nuances. It makes me laugh because everything in the book is about Maggie.

Shibas in Japan

In the Land of the Shibas, you see them more frequently as you would a Lab or Golden Retriever here in the U.S. Everytime we encountered a Shiba I made sure to take pictures and pose with them when possible.

A few interesting facts came to my attention about Japanese Shibas:
- many are unkempt and tied to their house
- they are kept as watchdogs outside
- some are very friendly while others are very guarded
- puppies in petshops can cost up to $1600

I'm sure that there are plenty indoor, well-groomed Shibas as well, but it seems that overall the Japanese actually keep Shiba Inus to guard their houses. Good to see that they are still useful to society!

Another surprising thing was that in Japan, they have breed-specific dry dog food. I found one for Shibas but could not bring it with me because it was in a big bag.

Treats from Japan

Just yesterday, we (the owners) came back from a 10-day trip to the Land of rising Shibas (a.k.a. Japan). Maggie was not able to come with us to see her modern-day cousins, but she did get some yummy treats and boy did she love them! We found cheese and chicken flavored "furikake" that can be sprinkled on top of your ordinary kibble and turned into a delicious meal!

We assumed that, since food in Japan is so damn delicious, so are dog food. They must be chock-full of umami.

Shiba meetup fail

This weekend we took Maggie to Shiba Inu Party 2012 in  Novato, Ca. This was our first Shiba meetup, and we had heard that this was the biggest on the west (read it somewhere online so please don't quote me) so we were pretty excited. Knowing how playful she is with Goji, her white Shiba friend, we thought that Maggie would be delighted to play with other Shibas....

Unfortunately, Maggie wouldn't let any Shiba near her and she bared teeth at any dog that came by. It didn't help that this was at a leash-only dog park. (Maggie can be somewhat leash-aggressive)
We just ended up observing all the Shibas from afar and not participating.

Tora: let's play!!!  Maggie: I don't think so.

Maggie: "please get me out of here..."

All the other Shibas having fun.

So in the end, we ended up taking Maggie to the beach where she had the most fun retrieving tennis balls. *sigh* I guess we will attempt another meetup next time where it's off-leash. On another note, Maggie has been getting some serious play time at the beach. Every time we go, she becomes more brave and goes farther into the ocean.

Maggie: "I much prefer this."