Puppy Program
Thoughtful early experiences, calm routines, and positive training foundations help puppies grow into confident companions while still honoring the bright, aware nature of the Shiba Inu.
Our Approach
We believe thoughtfully raised dogs can live harmoniously with humans while still retaining the intelligence, awareness, and individuality that make Shibas so special.
At Takikawa, socialization is not random exposure or simply introducing puppies to as many things as possible. We focus on thoughtful, age-appropriate experiences that help puppies build confidence, recover from small challenges, and develop trust in people.
Foundation Work
Each part of the program supports the next: connection, confidence, recovery, cooperation, and thoughtful placement.
From the earliest stages, our puppies experience gentle handling, household rhythms, enrichment, and carefully planned opportunities to explore the world around them. Each experience is chosen with the puppy's developmental stage in mind, with the goal of supporting emotional resilience rather than overwhelming them.
Before puppies leave for their new homes, we begin building the foundations for communication, cooperation, and calm engagement with people. Our goal is not to create finished puppies, but to give each puppy a thoughtful start in learning how to learn.
As puppies are developmentally ready, they may experience car rides, stroller outings, new people, outdoor environments, household activity, novel surfaces, and age-appropriate field trips.
Field trips are selected for the individual puppies in front of us, not checked off a generic list. A calm outing may help puppies notice water, wind, movement, new surfaces, people, or distant animals while still being supported by familiar hands and thoughtful handling.
The goal is not to make tiny puppies brave by overwhelming them. The goal is to help them learn that new experiences can be safe, interesting, and recoverable.
Puppies are introduced to simple skills such as name response, beginning recall, food manners, handling, and settling routines. We also teach early manding, which means puppies learn to sit politely and offer attention instead of jumping, pawing, or demanding.
These early lessons help puppies discover that people are worth paying attention to, that calm behavior opens doors, and that learning together can be enjoyable. At this stage, success is not about perfection. It is about helping puppies build confidence, trust, and the ability to engage with people in everyday life.
Puppies do not just need stimulation; they also need rest, rhythm, and opportunities to settle. Throughout our program, puppies experience the ordinary patterns of home life: household sounds, people moving through the day, quiet rest periods, supervised play, and calm time near people and other dogs.
We pay close attention to each puppy's ability to recover after activity, relax in familiar spaces, and find calm after exciting experiences. These moments are just as important as field trips and training sessions, because family companions need to know how to live peacefully in everyday routines.
As puppies grow, we watch more than color, size, or who happens to be the first to run to a visitor. We pay attention to how each puppy approaches people, recovers from new experiences, explores unfamiliar spaces, handles frustration, and settles after activity.
By observing puppies across many different situations, we begin to understand their individual personalities, strengths, and needs. This helps us guide each puppy toward a home where they are more likely to thrive, not just as an adorable puppy, but as a lifelong companion.
Our puppies are raised with intention and placed with care. Because we breed selectively and match puppies thoughtfully, families often begin the process before puppies are available.