Oh what a year 2014 has been! It’s hard to believe it’s already July and the year is more than half over. A quick recap of the year to-date:

• I’ve kept my race-a-month streak up, including another half marathon, and the current streak number stands at more than 33 races in 33 months.
• We went on a few trips, including finally getting to Cubs Spring Training in Mesa, AZ!
• And, last, but certainly not least, we added to our family by 4 paws.

Shandy joined our family the last Monday in April. We’ve learned a lot from her in the 2.5 months since she’s joined our family, and she’s learned a lot as well! I’ll spend a few blog posts over the next weeks detailing some training milestones we’ve hit together, but here’s a few highlights from the past months.

When she came home with us, we knew she was a 3-year-old Golden Mix, but didn’t know what her other main breed characteristics were. We thought she might be part Chow, with her spotted tongue, but she’s so small, at 40 lbs, that we figured she had to have a smaller dog as her primary second breed, since most female Goldens are between 55 and 70 pounds. She has a lot of strong Golden characteristics. She has the “golden feathers” on her hind legs, she’s been the best dog with humans and all kids that she’s met and loves the attention and petting of strangers when we’re out and about. She’s highly trainable and smart as can be. We actually stumbled upon our best guess as to her second breed the first week we had her… when we heard her “shiba cry”.

As she was getting acclimated to the house, and we learned her personality and she learned ours, we were crate training her. She didn’t mind the crate at all, and would often lay and sleep in it even when the door was open. But, she had some separation anxiety issues when she came home, so after more than 5 or 6 hours in the crate at night, she would start making this horrible “cry” noise that was not a bark, but a very distinctive painful sounding cry. It was completely foreign to us the first times we heard it. We would try to let her out, she wouldn’t have to go, we’d check her for injury, took her to the vet, and each time she was fine, she just wanted to be close to her “pack”, us, and ensure she wasn’t alone. The cry, however, was so distinctive in not being a bark or a howl, that we started googling it. As soon as we did, we found out about the Shiba Inu breed and are fairly certain we’ve found her secondary dominant breed. The characteristics were uncanny.

• Shandy can often be caught grooming herself, like a cat.
• Shiba Inus are protective and not submissive. We’ve been working with Shandy on her reactivity and she’s made remarkable progress over the past few months. She’ll never have the Golden temperament with other new, strange dogs, but we are using training tools to grow and socialize to be able to be in a crowded area with other dogs and ignore, rather than react.
• Female Shibas are usually about 17-20 lbs, which puts her right in the middle of standard Shiba and a standard Golden
• Her Shiba-cry is a dead giveaway!

Shandy’s made herself at home by now and we’re happy to announce that the crate was moved to the garage, as she’s now trusted and well-behaved with the run of the house. We get a ton of exercise together, and I call her my little 4-legged treadmill. We’re up to 2-4 miles a day of walking, with the occasional runs. She’s completed her first round of training classes, and starts agility in a few weeks.

Because her first training class became more of a behavior/reactivity class than true training, we’re planning on going back for a second round of basic training in the fall as well. Dog socialization is still the main training focus for me with her, and we try to accommodate 2-4 dog-dates a week. She now has two great friends she can play with well, and hang out with well, off-leash, in-house, and outside. Both are Goldens, one is a 7-year old Golden, and one is a 3-month old Golden. Once she’s familiar with the other dogs she plays well with them and enjoys their company. We’ve even seen her be protective of her pup-friends when other dogs get close to them on walks.

My own running has suffered a bit as we’ve invested in her training, but it’s all for the best. Shandy loves to run with me, and we plan on increasing those miles as I prepare for my fall half marathon. Initially, I was hoping to run my first full marathon this fall, but based on all the changes this year, and the amount of time I’m spending training and acclimating Shandy to the world, that goal is going to be sidelined a bit until next year. I’m excited to take Shandy through 1/2 marathon training with me and think she’ll love the extra mileage as the weather cools off. The title of this post is a revelation that we had the other week.

Just like humans, some days are more playful and others are more reserved. Some days are more independent and some days are more social. We call those days “Golden Days” or “Shiba Days” based on her dominant personality.

We love both, but know on the less social/more independent days, that Shandy needs a bit more space and those should be less social walks, with more conditioning and food lures. “Golden Days” we can push her a bit farther to be more dog-social, and we try and take advantage of those days. Neither is set in stone, but we try to watch her cues and adjust and work with her based on her mood that day. In just two months she’s grown so much in her comfort level, personality and training skills. I’m going to start to tell some new stories on the blog, and retell some training stories and experiences we’ve had from our first months. Continue to follow this blog for running tales, healthy life and food tales, but also now the addition of dog tales!