If you obtained your Shiba Inu from a well respected breeder, and there really is no excuse for not doing so, they will have spent much time playing and bonding with your puppy. This is very important as it helps to acclimatise your puppy to being handled and loved, something you will have no problem doing yourself once they are home with you.

Nor will the other important steps necessary in your puppies training, that of creating a bond with your puppy. You do this by placing them on their backs in a submissive position whilst rubbing their tummies. A Shiba puppy will often show reluctance to this initially as it's in their nature to be defiant, but this is an important step for you to take to show your dominance in the pack. Another important thing to do in this regard is to hold your puppy up close to your face, making sure that he focuses on you, while you talk gently to him and look into his eyes. All these steps are necessary to show your puppy whose boss without him realising exactly what you are doing, it will increase his trust in you and must be done before the puppy is three months old.

This conditioning is essential as this particular breed has some interesting traits that later in life can cause you problems. One such trait is temporary deafness, not literal. This is something your Shiba will practise on you from time to time as it gets older just so it can work out who is in control. You need to make sure when this happens that you take decisive action as your Shiba needs to be aware that it is you and not him that is to handle the situation. If done properly this will be a pattern of behaviour that he will learn to expect. Your Shiba needs to know that pretending to be deaf is not acceptable behaviour and will only do so if you are always in complete control. If your dog ever feels threatened it needs to know that you are there to protect it.

You can build up your Shiba's trust whilst he is still a puppy by using restraint. Try this by picking up your puppy and placing him on his back using gentle restraint, but only for a short period of time. This will help your Shiba puppy to understand that your restraints are to be accepted, he will obviously try to resist this at first and you need to be careful that you are firm without causing any fear to build up. Increase these restraint periods very gradually and make sure that your Shiba knows exactly what you want him to do by giving precise commands. Never confuse your Shiba puppy as this will cause him to decide that he needs to take over and you will lose his trust entirely.

These are just the first of many steps that a successful Shiba Inu owner need's to take to build up a loving and trusting relationship with this, at times challenging, but on the whole wonderfully rewarding dog breeds.