Can't Catch Me!

If you adopt a puppy, make sure you have LOTS of energy because they love to run around... and that includes Pepper. She loves it when we chase her... and I think it's because she thinks we can't catch her, even when she was 12 weeks old.

Of course, it's nearly impossible to catch her now that she's full grown; even other dogs have trouble keeping up.

Dogs Will Be Dogs

I've learned (the hard way) that no matter how old the dog gets, if you lock it in a room, don't give it the right chew toys, and if it gets bored enough, it can still eat your furniture. Pepper did, however, have a lot of help from her friends: Bosco, the Boston puppy, and Zoey, the Collie-Aussie puppy

Training as a Puppy

I've learned that training your puppy as early as possible increases your success of compliance and obedience. Because Shiba Inus and Huskies are known for their stubbornness and willingness to comply only on their terms, we started training Pepper as soon as we got her... and with many hot dogs.


We picked her up when she was 6 weeks old and immediately started to work on her recognizing her own name. A week later and she had already mastered "sit" and "paw." We didn't want to use the word "shake;" she actually shakes (her whole body) when we use that command.

Here's a video of her doing tricks to get her pet bed:

First Meeting

We drove four hours to the mountainous areas of Georgia to see the 5-week-old puppies... and it was well worth it. By the time we got there, there were two girls and one boy left (out of a litter of eight). They were all sired by a pure-bred, registered Shiba Inu, and the mother was a light-colored Siberian Husky, neither of which exceeded 30lbs. Both were on site, and we were able to look at them.

Initially, William wanted to get the last boy, but he quickly changed his mind (and put down the poor little guy) when the puppy went number-two on him. Meanwhile, I picked up the darker colored little girl and held her for a while. As I held her and looked at her, we locked eyes and I could swear she talked to me; it was more mewing then anything else, but she had already stolen my heart.

Finally, William made me put her down so that we could consider all of the puppies, and as soon as I did, she did her duty on the floor. Quickly behind her came the other girl (a lighter coated puppy) who began to eat her poop! From then, our final decision was going to be the dark-coated puppy, who sat in the corner away from her poop as her remaining brother and sister played in it.

We had a week before we could go get her, so we went home and prepared for our new puppy, who we still hadn't named yet. Finally, we settled on "Pepper," for her dark coat.

Shiba Inu or Siberian Husky

I wanted to rescue a dog or adopt one from the local shelter, but William was against it. He wanted to know for sure what his dog was so that he could know what to expect behavior-wise. I couldn't blame him... a small part of me wanted to know, too. Don't get me wrong; I REALLY wanted to adopt one from the shelter... but at the same time I wanted to make sure that I could be as prepared as I possibly could, for the sake of the dog and for myself, and that meant knowing what your dog was so that you'd know what to expect.

So, after a LOT of researching and arguing, William and I narrowed it down to two breeds: William wanted a Siberian Husky and I wanted a Shiba Inu. Even a pet compatibility test put Shiba Inu in our top 3... but he really wanted a husky. Why? They were smart dogs and they were pretty. Living in South Carolina, though, I knew that would not be in the best interest for the dog, and so was dead-set on getting a Shiba. Be that as it may, I occasionally kept an eye out for Huskies, just to give him a glimmer of hope.

We looked EVERYWHERE... shelters, pet stores, newspapers and websites... until finally, we found a semi-local breeder who had just had a litter of --you guessed it!-- Shiba Inu/ Siberian Husky puppies!

The Decision

I'd been wrapping my brain around the idea of getting a pet, and when my sister beat me to it, that sealed the deal. She adopted a puppy, a black hound mix, from the local shelter and named her Bella. From the very beginning, Bella was very shy and cautious, and thus required a lot of time and devotion. While everyone took turns caring for her, I quickly realized the strength of the love and companionship that a dog brought to the family. I figured, "why spoil my sister's dog when I can get my own?"...

At that time, we were all in our final year of college, and were graduating soon. William (my boyfriend) and I would soon have to spend our time searching for jobs. If we wanted to get a dog, the time was now. With our flexible class schedules, we could use what time we had to train it and love it and teach it tricks... but what kind of dog would we get? One from a shelter? A breeder? And so the search began...