Tigger’s foster mom, Jenn, sent the following update today:

Tigger is such a sweet and affectionate little boy to other dogs, females and kids. He has made remarkable progress with his foster dad and now I catch them both snuggling together in bed. He is still very timid around men that he doesn’t know that well, but is comfortable and lovable with men that he lives with after a brief adjustment period. Tigger has been to a couple meetups and has won the hearts of all the other owners and their Shibas. He loves chewing on his bone, playing with his kong and running the Shiba 500 with his foster brother and sister. Tiggers favorite things in life are scrambled eggs on the weekend, salmon, venison, going for walks and “chillin’ out” with Sydney and Sheba.

Tigger also loves his people - mommy and daddy. He misses them when they leave and gives them hugs and kisses when they get home. He has the cutest little yowl that I swear he is trying to say I love you. Every time he is happy to see someone he gives this yowl letting you know he is so happy to see you. He just loves his people and will make a wonderful family member and hopes he can share his life with at least one other non-aggressive brother or sister Shiba.

Posted on January 27th, 2008 by jenna
Filed under: Tigger | 3 Comments »

A warm hello to the sweet Kabuki! She is a 5 year old spayed girl who is up to date on all her vaccinations, crate & leash trained and housebroken.

Kabuki was surrendered by her owner due to allergies in the family. Kabuki is a very affectionate Shiba. She loves to play fetch with tennis balls, receive lots of petting and belly rubs with her humans. She also enjoys playing with her toys. Plushies are her favorite!

Kabuki is certainly a people’s dog. She loves visitors and is very happy to meet new people. She is great with older kids as well. Kabuki, however, should be an only dog. While she did grow up with other dogs in the home, she has grown accustomed to being an only dog and prefers the company of humans.

She also knows her basic commands including Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Off, No and Leave it. She even responds to hand signals for these commands.

If you are looking for an amazingly sweet and loving companion, Kabuki will be sure to fill that place in your home.

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by zennia
Filed under: Kabuki | 4 Comments »

Ella has a home. And not just any home, but the perfect forever home. It must have been fate… they submitted an adoption application almost six WEEKS before Ella became available. It was still in our queue when we decided to make Ella available and something about their app just JUMPED out the next time I was thumbing through them. They traveled to NYC to meet Ella this weekend and ended up adopting her today and taking her home. They’ve already emailed us that the trip went well and Ella is settling in quickly.

I want to say a HUGE thank you to Mitch Fuchs of The Jindo Project for taking Ella on as a foster when we were starting to lose hope and to Pete Campione of Kindred Souls Canine Center for giving Mitch the training ideas that put Ella on the road to being adoptable.

Also big thanks to foster dad Scott (who loved Ella enough to keep all of us hopeful), foster mom Zennia (who put up with being growled at), foster mom Molly (who continued Mitch’s work and put Ella across the finish line), and foster Mom Lydia (who took Ella to “test” if her training would stick through a transition and helped introduce Ella to her new family).

Most of all, thank you to Ayako and Dan for giving this wonderful girl the forever home she deserves!

Posted on January 22nd, 2008 by jenna
Filed under: Ella | 3 Comments »

We’re all so excited… eight months after arriving in foster care with serious resource guarding issues, Ella is available for adoption. There was a time when we almost gave up on her! I guess we’ve learned our lesson about not giving up, because she has turned out to be a great, GREAT girl!

The latest update from Ella’s current foster mom - Molly - says:

Ella is happy and playful. She LOVES to run around in the yard and play, especially with people. She also loves cuddle time on the couch. We can take toys from her now and she is gentle with food. She is very, very affectionate and loves to “purr” when she is happy. She can be a bully with other dogs, so should be the only dog.

Ella is moving to a new foster home tonight, so we can confirm that her new training and self-control will transition to a new environment. We’re so excited for Ella!

Posted on January 16th, 2008 by jenna
Filed under: Ella | 3 Comments »

Welcome Tiki! Tiki is, as you can see, a very cute red boy who is just under 2 years old. He is up to date on his vaccinations, neutered, housebroken, leash trained and crate trained.

Tiki was surrendered to us by his former owners as he was exhibiting food aggression towards family members. They came to us for help in placing him in the right environment for training and then in finding the perfect forever home.

Foster Mom Molly says that he’s a ‘…happy, outgoing, very friendly…’ boy. Tiki is good with other dogs in the home and seems curious about cats and birds. Tiki also love attention from humans, he is ‘very playful and affectionate. A major cuddler.’ He enjoys playing fetch and playing with stuffed and rope toys.

We are currently working on Tiki’s food aggression towards people. He has been displaying food aggression with only high value foods- not dog food or treats. High value foods for Tiki are human foods and food scraps found on walks, etc. He can become very possessive and protective of these food items and bite. We’ve had much success with our foster dog, Ella, with this issue and are confident that we can expect the same progress with Tiki.

Check back soon for updates on Tiki!

Posted on January 7th, 2008 by zennia
Filed under: Tiki | 7 Comments »