Hello, and welcome to Tonka's page.
I am going to start out by saying he is the best dog ever! Now I know you all feel the same way about your dogs, but Tonka takes the cake. He never developed the habit of digging in the trash can, or digging up the yard, or chewing things, or taking things….well, okay, maybe he did snatch a glove right off my hand once while sledding, but in his defense he was having a blast chasing us down the sledding hill. He probably didn’t really even know what he was doing and that he actually had my glove in his mouth, until we starting chasing him to get it back and of course now this became a game of “catch me!” which we all know it’s nearly impossible to catch your dog when he is running from you.
We got Tonka when he was 10 weeks old through an online pet adoption agency. They had him listed as Yellow Labrador/Shepherd mix. With the puppy photo they had, okay, sure he looks like a Lab. As he grew, it became clear there was absolutely no Lab in this dog at all, Shepherd, yes, Lab, no. So now we have a dog and absolutely no idea what he is. So consulting the “Choosing a Dog for Dummies” book we purchased to help us in our pursuit of owning a dog, we found photos of other dogs that resembled ours. The most scary was the photo of an Akita. These dogs can weigh up to 150 pounds. That was basically one of me (at the time). So I’m picturing in the back of my mind, my cute little puppy who has taken a liking to laying on my lap while I am sitting on the couch and now envisioning a 150 pound dog wanting to continue his lap dog lifestyle……ha ha….. I think not!
So consulting with the vet, and doing more research, we still were not sold on our dog being an Akita/Shepherd mix. The light bulb went off for us one day while the hubby and the dog, accompanied by several friends and neighbors, headed up the mountain to chop firewood in preparation for the up coming winter season. When chopping had completed for the day and the hubby was giving Tonka the command to “load up” so they could come home, the dog just sat there (unbeknownst to my hubby, one of the other men was off to the side amusingly watching this owner/pet exchange). Each time the hubby tried to approach Tonka to get him in the truck, Tonka proceeded to do what we call his puppy thing (where he…..I’m not even sure how to describe it, it’s just such a quick movement on his part where he goes from a sitting position to laying on his belly with his front legs spread out, tail wagging, eyes wide open and mouth open as though he his smiling ear to ear then he bolts around in circles). So this stranger friend, who was up the mountain with them, saw all this and asked the hubby what kind of dog is he? Hubby had to admit we weren’t sure. “I’ll bet he is a Shiba Inu” this stranger friend told my hubby, “my girlfriend has one and he is just as stubborn as your dog is right now.”
WOOHOO! We have a Shiba Inu. Or is that really woohoo? I looked at it this way, which is the lesser of two evils, a 150 pound lap dog, or a smaller, stubborn dog who will make his own decisions when to obey a command?
Well, like I stated before, Tonka has truly turned out to be the best dog ever. Yes he is stubborn, yes he does tune you out when he is hot on the trail of some scent he picked up, yes he doesn’t immediately come to you when you call him, eventually he does, but he has to think about it for a minute (you can just see the wheels turning in his head), and yes he will sit on your lap, even non family members.
Tonka is 10 now and is as lovable as ever. He accompanies us on most of our travels. He even got to witness the total eclipse of the sun back in 2017. Only a very select few occasions we did have to leave him home with a babysitter. I look forward to so many more years with you my friend.