This morning, as i was walking Mango to the lawn in front of the Queen Anne Medical Associates building at the corner of W Mercer St and 2nd Ave W, i noticed another dog owner was already in the vicinity. Since i know how distracting it can be for some dogs to do their business when other dogs are nearby – Mango is one such dog – i decided to wait about 10 ft north of Mercer on 2nd Ave W. The black and tan dog was taking a dump when i looked round the corner to see if i should start taking Mango there.

To my utter disgust, the owner of the dog was walking away from the pile of fresh poo. I immediately walked around the corner toward them. When the asshole saw me, he immediately turned back and pretended like he was going to pick up that poo. I decided to let Mango on the patch of lawn about 20 ft away from them, all the while looking at the guy from the corner of my eye. Every so often, he would look in my direction, probably hoping that i would walk away so that he did not have to pick up his dog’s poo. But i refused to move. I was ready to confront him if he was going to take off without cleaning up. Eventually, after he fumbled around for 20 seconds or so, he realized that i was going nowhere. He had no choice but to pick up the poo.

Lower Queen Anne residents, if you see an Indian-looking male with a medium size black and tan dog, keep a close eye on him!

Last Thursday (9/11), Mango was exactly 15 weeks old. When i weighed him three days later on Sunday, he was 13.2 pounds (5.99 kilos).

So far, our breeder Leslie has been kind enough to trim Mango’s nails when Smelly and i take him there for his weekly daycare. However, at some point, we really have to do this on our own. When i took Mango to his first week of daycare, Leslie showed me how she trimmed Mango’s nails with a Dremel. Mango was put on a grooming table and was secured by a short leash from the top. You would not believe the amount of screaming and whining Mango made as Leslie proceeded to dremel his nails. Even when Leslie got done and i was holding Mango, whenever Leslie turned on the Dremel to trim another Shiba’s nails, Mango would be trembling all over. I asked Leslie if there was a way to associate nail trimming with something that’s positive. Leslie responded that it’s probably very difficult with the Shibas. The best way she recommended was to get it over with as quickly as we can.

About a month ago, we attempted to trim Mango’s nails with the nail trimmer. Naturally, Mango threw up a fit. Really, he sounded like a pig that just found out that he was going to be slaughtered. While i was grabbing onto Mango to prevent him from jumping off the table, Smelly was doing the nail trimming. On one of the nails on his front paw, Smelly trimmed a little too much and it cut into the “quick”. Mango started bleeding immediately and was appeared to be quite traumatized. After applying some Qwik Stop Styptic powder, the bleeding stopped, but also that ended our second attempt in trimming his nails.

Two weeks ago, i decided to do some research on trimming nails using Dremel. I found this really good site that demonstrates how to do just that. The instructions are very clear and the idea is to associate the nail trimming session with something enjoyable for Mango.

The first step was to get Mango comfortable with his paws being touched and handled by us. Every time i touched his paw, i would reward him with his favorite treat – chicken jerky from Costco. I did that for about two days.

Mango investigating the Dremel when it was off.

The next step was to take the Dremel out and leave it on the floor for Mango to sniff and explore it. I would reward him with treats and praises when he was brave enough to get close to the Dremel to investigate it.

Mango sniffing the Dremel when it was on.

When Mango became comfortable with the Dremel, i would turn it on and leave it on the floor. Again, when Mango came over to investigate it, i would reward him treats and praises. This step was to get Mango used to the noise generated with the Dremel on.

Touching Mango’s nail with the Dremel.

When that went well, i moved on to the next step. With the Dremel off, i would touch one nail with the Dremel. This was follow by a treat. I proceeded to touch two nails and then gave him treat and praises. Eventually, i would touch all his nails and then give him his treat.

Mango came back from his daycare with trimmed nails.

I was planning on grinding his nails for a very short duration last week but when i picked Mango up from his daycare, i realized that Leslie had already did that for me. I also noticed that Mango was bleeding. After waiting for another day or two, i started getting Mango used to being touched by the Dremel again.

This morning, i have a slight break through. While Mango was eating his treat, i touched one of his nails with the Dremel while it was on. The grind bit was probably on his nail for only half a second but Mango seemed ok with it. Tomorrow, i am going to try it on a few more nails and see how it goes.

Mango at 13 weeks old.

The most obvious differences: Mango’s snout has gotten longer and his ears are bigger.

Mango spooked by the construction noise coming from one of my backyard neighbors.

I took Mango for a walk around the neighborhood. For whatever reason, the first part of the walk along Hudson St has been the hardest. There is something along that portion of the walk that Mango does not like. I guess whatever that he’s having a problem with, he just has to get used to it. On our way on Dawson St walking toward California Ave, there are a few patches of healthy-looking lawn. Mango loves to walk on these few patches of grass. Mango took care of his business right there, both #1 and #2 simultaneously.

A few posts ago, i mentioned that Mango was losing his puppy hair. A coarser and longer hair has started taking over, beginning from his tail on. Other than his head, there are only a few small patches of puppy hair on his body.

You can see Mango no longer has any puppy hair on his back.

I spent part of the morning training Mango on the sit, stay, down commands. Mango is still not able or unwilling to go “down” on command, without having a treat or pretending to have a treat in my hand. He seems to be able to “stay” better now, at least he can remain sitting when i move backward away from him with a treat in my hand.

Mango in his donut bed.

Mango had been doing quite well with not peeing in the house. When i was eating my lunch, Mango walked near the closed backyard door. Because he was not sitting while facing the door, i did not think that he wanted to pee. No more than a few seconds later, Mango peed almost right in front of me. I had to lift him off the floor and put him in the backyard while he was still peeing. The pee pattern on the floor clearly indicated what i did. There was a big pool of pee and then there was a trail of pee all the way to the door

Waking up from his afternoon nap.

Sometimes, Mango’s yawn sounds like a cat.

After circling around the backyard for several minutes, it appeared to me that Mango did not seem to have any interest in dropping his load. It was when Smelly came downstairs and told me i could take Mango back in the house as she found a big pile of doo doo and a pool of pee in the hallway on the carpeted second floor. I was upset. There we were tired and sore from the match and we had to deal with his mess. There was no point disciplining or correcting Mango as we did not catch him at the moment he was doing it.

Mango: What ‘cha looking at? I did what i had to do, just not where and when you wanted me to.

Mango seemed to sense that we were not too happy with what he did. When he climbed up the stairs in his attempt to go up to the second floor again, he was chased down. After being yelled at for chewing on some shoes, he started whining, like what he normally does when he refuses to give in to my command for him to eliminate in the backyard.

But no one can get upset at this little bugger, at least not long. Mango and us made up later and everything is good now.

When Diane first let the 90-pound Fraser out of her car, Mango was quite apprehensive of his bigger friend.

Mango hiding behind me when being approached by Fraser.

In a matter of minutes, Mango became quite comfortable with Fraser.

Mango getting comfortable with Fraser.

During the training session, Diane reinforced the “sit” command from last week. In addition to the new “stay” command, she also showed us how to make Mango look at our eyes when we are calling him.

With the help of Fraser, Diane was able to make Mango walk on leash without him throwing a fit. I was amazed. Prior to this, Mango had never been able to be led by the leash without stalling. While Diane was leading Fraser, Mango followed right behind. I had to keep up with Mango since i was not being used to Mango walking in front of me!

Mango following Fraser. This exercise was intended to make Mango be comfortable walking on leash.

It was really a pleasure to work with Diane. She is very knowledgeable about dog behaviors. She knows exactly when Mango was wanting to play with Fraser and when Mango wanted to go potty. Halfway during the session, Mango started becoming a little “out of focus”, so Diane told us that Mango probably needed a bathroom break. As soon as i placed Mango in the backyard, he relieved himself with a pretty big pool of pee.

Mango and Fraser paying close attention to Diane.

The last exercise of the session was the “come” command. It was so fun to see Mango running at full speed when he listened to the command and was able to sit on command as well.

Mango running toward Diane during the “come” command exercise.

Ups:
- Mango is now a lot more responsive to the “sit” command.
- The portion of his meals are being increased as he’s finishing all his food. This means he’s growing bigger
- For the past few days, Mango had this habit of barking at us when we are preparing his meals, as if he was trying to tell us to hurry up. To correct this behavior, Diane told us that when Mango is barking to us again, we should just walk away and ignore him until he stops barking. This appeared to work the first time we tried it.

Down:
- Mango peed indoor, this time on the hardwood floor, in the evening after our visitors left. Normally when he wanted to pee, he would indicate that by getting close to the door to the backyard. Last night, he did that but at the front door instead. I paid no attention to that and consequently, i found a puddle of pee minutes later.

After that incident, it was another trip to the nearby Petco, the second trip in three days, to buy Nature’s Miracle cleaning product. Supposedly, Nature’s Miracle products can deodorize the problem area so that dogs don’t go back and relieve themselves in the same spots. After cleaning the affected area on the rug, i took Mango to Smelly’s condo to get him used to it since this is where he will be spending most of the day from tomorrow on.

On arrival, the first thing i did was to take Mango out for a walk. My intention was for him to eliminate. I think the heavy traffic in the area was probably taking away Mango’s attention so he did not pee. After taking Mango back to the condo, i set up a baby gate in the opening between the kitchen and the living room and placed Mango in the kitchen. Mango stood up and leaned against the baby gate, kind of like what he does when he wants to go to the backyard. I paid no attention since we just came back from our walk. Within a few minutes, Mango was peeing on the kitchen floor. It took me a while to clean up the kitchen floor as Smelly has no mop.

Mango getting used to city noise at Buckley’s.

We went back to my house later in the evening. I made the mistake of not letting Mango out to the backyard first. I barely started to train Mango to sit when he proceeded to pee. I stopped him immediately but it was a little late. Again, i had to clean up his mess.

Today’s Ups:
- Mango did not throw up at all being driven around all afternoon, including several trips in the sling bag.
- Mango was able to pee in the parking lot behind Smelly’s condo. At least we know he does not need a grassy area to pee. Our trainer told me to avoid any public grassy area until Mango has his second shot.
- Mango managed to take three dumps today. That’s a record.
- Mango was able to sit a few times without any treat when i was training him this morning.

Today’s Downs:
- Mango peed three times indoor. I was partially to blame since i did not follow the trainer’s instructions.
- He’s still getting way too much attention on the streets. It is impossible to go anywhere without some girls coming up to me trying to pat him (not me).

Not sure what spooked Mango last night but he dashed back and forth among several spots in the living room for close to 5 minutes. Smelly and i were both completely amazed and were laughing our asses off.

Mango napping in the backyard.

Mango napping in the messenger-style sling bag.