Hi all!
As you may remember, I have Yoko, 3 year old cream female shiba inu. We adopted her about a year ago, and she is fantastic. Super cuddly, loves people, and loves attention. She really doesn't seem to be the typical shiba, in my opinion.
I saw a shiba up for adoption near us that sounds like a wonderful dog. I have been in contact with the woman fostering her. She is also young but was being used as a breeding dog. She had to have a C section litter and they spayed her at the same time, making her useless as a breeder. The owner then decided to give her up so she could find a home. She does have some interesting issues. First of all, she is a female and so is my shiba, so I'm not sure if that'd be good or not. The woman fostering said she MUST go into a house with another dog companion because she would be "lost without" one. Here are some details she gave me about her other weird quirks:
"She is very shy. She still skitters backwards from me if I surprise her, and has a wary look in her eye if she is unsure what I want from her. However, I have kids, and she is never even a tiny bit aggressive, no matter what. She actually seems to be mostly house trained already, which surprises me, but I started with her just in the kitchen and gradually weaned out to the top floor and she has been accident free for a long time. I do crate her when gone, and she is fine in there. Her most frustrating trait is her fear of doors. I have to physically pull her from the crate, and to come inside, I have to leave the sliding door open and step away from it so she will come in. Once it's wide open and nobody is there, she comes right in. We force interactions with her, make her come sit with us for pets and stuff and once she's in the situation, she relaxes and enjoys it.
She is curious and sweet with the kids. She ignores the cats and absolutely adores the other small dogs here. She is highly dependent on them for routines, interactions, and to feel comfortable in a new situation. I think she'd be lost without a canine companion."
What do I do? The dog is a couple hours away, but Yoko was too and her adoption went well. They said they do a two-week foster period before having someone make the final decision as to whether or not they think the dog fits in their home. Do you think it's worth pursuing? She needs a lot of work. Do you think her strange fears are irreversible or could we work on it? Would Yoko and her get along? I understand we might not know until we get there, but any advice is appreciated. We are also talking about having children very soon, so I might be crazy thinking of bringing another shiba into our home, but it's not stopping me yet :).
[changed category ~mod.]