49 Fun Facts About Shiba Inu

The Shiba is the smallest of Japan's six native dog breeds; which is the largest?

The Akita is the giant of the six, a northern breed that worked in packs on wild boar, deer and even bear.

The name Shiba Inu is usually translated into English as what?

Brushwood dog is the usual reading, but the origin is disputed: it may refer to the brushwood the dogs worked in, to its reddish autumn colour, or to an old word for small.

For what purpose was the Shiba Inu originally developed?

Flushing game while hunting was its job in dense brush: mostly birds and other small game, though the little dogs were sometimes set on wild boar too.

Which Shiba coat colour is a very serious fault under the American breed standard?

Cream is a serious fault in the American ring, yet Britain's Kennel Club lists white among its accepted colours, so a dog faulted on one side of the Atlantic can be shown on the other.

Which Japanese term, literally 'underside white', names the pale markings on a Shiba's cheeks, chest and belly?

Urajiro is required on every accepted coat colour, and the term is so hard to translate that the international FCI standard simply keeps the Japanese word.

In Shiba breed standards, a 'sesame' coat is red overlaid with what?

Black-tipped hairs over a red base make a sesame, but only up to a point: once the dark tipping covers more than half the coat, it no longer meets the standard.

What do breed clubs warn a Shiba can never be trusted to do?

Come back when off the lead: the American Kennel Club says no amount of obedience training makes a loose Shiba reliable, because the urge to bolt after anything that moves wins every time.

What nickname do owners give the Shiba Inu's dramatic wail of protest?

Shiba scream is the piercing wail the breed lets out when stressed or restrained; even a puppy's first leash lesson can set it off.

DNA studies place the fox-like Shiba in which group of breeds?

Basal breeds, the Shiba among them, branched off before modern European dogs were developed and sit closest to the grey wolf, which researchers suggest may explain why they seek less attention from their owners.

Small dogs thought to be the Shiba's ancestors have been found in shell mounds from which ancient Japanese period?

Jōmon people, named for their rope-patterned pottery, kept small dogs; around 300 BC newcomers' dogs bred with them, giving the prick-eared type that became the Shiba.

In what kind of terrain did the Shiba Inu traditionally live and work in Japan?

Mountain country was its home, working through dense undergrowth, and the breed's light, agile build still makes it at ease on steep hiking trails.

Crossbreeding with imported English setters and pointers nearly swamped the pure Shiba in the decades after which event?

Meiji Restoration: once Japan opened to the West in 1868, English dogs poured in and crosses became the fashion, so that by the 1920s a pure Shiba was a rarity and a rescue effort began.

Besides a curl, the Shiba standards accept a tail carried over the back in which shape?

A sickle curve is the alternative to the full curl, and the tail matters: under the international FCI standard one that simply hangs down disqualifies the dog.

The modern Shiba blends three old bloodlines, each named after its what?

Homeland: the Shinshu, Mino and San'in strains each took the name of a different part of Honshu, and after the Second World War breeders gathered the few survivors and merged them into the single breed known today.

What do Shiba owners mean when they say their dog is 'blowing coat'?

Shedding heavily twice a year is the rule, though owners quip that each moult lasts six months; the AKC suggests a blow-dryer to shift the loose hair.

Which early lesson do breed clubs say comes almost naturally to Shiba puppies?

House-training is nearly instinctive: the AKC says a Shiba is 'practically born housebroken', with puppies leaving the sleeping area to relieve themselves by four weeks old.

Researchers have traced a gene mutation behind the Shiba's susceptibility to which blinding eye disease?

Glaucoma, a painful build-up of pressure inside the eye, is inherited in Shibas and gives little warning: the parent club notes that a routine eye exam cannot show which dogs will develop it.

Japan protected the Shiba in the 1930s by declaring it a what?

Natural Monument status came after enthusiasts campaigned to save the native type from Western crosses, and all six of Japan's native breeds hold it.

Nippo, the Shiba's registry, has a full name meaning the society for doing what to Japanese dogs?

Preserving Japanese dogs is the meaning of Nihon Ken Hozonkai, founded in 1928 when Western crosses had made pure native dogs scarce; it keeps the registries for all six native breeds.

Which celebrated dog was a special guest at the first national show of Nippo, Japan's native-dog registry, in 1932?

Hachikō, the dog who kept waiting at Shibuya Station for his dead owner, drew crowds at the show, held on a Ginza department-store roof weeks after a newspaper story made him famous.

Who brought the first documented Shiba to the United States in 1954?

A military family brought the first documented Shiba home in 1954, but the breed stayed rare in America: the American Kennel Club did not recognise it until 1992.

In 2021, which company announced a Moon mission paid for entirely in Dogecoin?

SpaceX agreed to fly a small satellite called DOGE-1, weeks after Elon Musk promised to put 'a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon'.

To which American Kennel Club group does the Shiba Inu belong?

Non-Sporting is the AKC's most mixed group, a home for breeds too varied to generalise about, which is how the Shiba came to sit beside the Chow Chow and the French Bulldog.

The American Kennel Club's breed profile describes the Shiba Inu as Japan's what?

Number one companion dog: the parent club adds that Japan has more Shibas than any other breed, a turnaround for a dog that had almost died out within living memory.

What do breed clubs name as the most common health problem in Shibas?

Allergies show up in dogs as itchy, irritated skin, and because breeding stock cannot be tested for them the AKC simply advises against breeding from affected dogs.

Pusuke, a Shiba mix from Japan, was recognised by Guinness World Records in 2010 as what?

Oldest living dog: Pusuke reached 26 years and eight months. Small dogs tend to outlive big ones, and studies in Japan and Britain both place Shibas near the top for lifespan.

Which disease, sweeping Japan's dogs in the 1950s, came close to finishing off the Shiba?

Distemper killed most of the dogs that had come through the lean years before it; breeders rebuilt the Shiba by pooling the few survivors from different regions.

The misspelling 'doge' is traced to a 2005 episode of which web cartoon?

Homestar Runner calls Strong Bad his 'd-o-g-e' while trying to distract him from work; eight years later the spelling stuck to pictures of Shibas.

The Doge dog was adopted in 2008 after being abandoned when what kind of business closed down?

A puppy mill had bred her as a pedigree Shiba; when it shut she was left at an animal shelter, and the unwanted dog went on to become one of the internet's best-known faces.

Which dog is pictured in the original Doge meme?

Kabosu was photographed on a sofa in February 2010, eyebrows raised and paws crossed; her sideways glance became the meme, and she lived to 18, dying in May 2024.

In which font is the Doge meme's text written?

Comic Sans, usually in clashing colours, is part of the look; in 2013 YouTube hid an Easter egg that turned its own text into coloured Comic Sans for anyone who searched 'doge meme'.

Where was the original Doge photo first posted?

A personal blog, where the kindergarten teacher shared pictures of her pets; she posted the photo in February 2010, more than three years before the internet made it the top meme of 2013.

The Doge dog was named after what?

A citrus fruit: a shelter volunteer picked the name, and her new owner kept it because she thought the dog's face was just as round.

The Doge dog's home city honoured her with a statue and which street fixture?

A manhole cover with her famous photo joined the statue in 2024: fame abroad came first, and only then did her home town, where she had been simply a local pet, honour her.

In 2021 the original Doge photograph sold for about $4 million in what form?

An NFT of the photo, put up for auction by the dog's owner, went to the collective PleasrDAO after a bidding war and became the most expensive meme NFT then sold.

Who created Dogecoin together with Billy Markus?

Jackson Palmer, then working at Adobe in Sydney, floated the idea online and bought the web address; Billy Markus in Portland saw it and wrote the code, and within two years Palmer had walked away.

Dogecoin launched in December 2013 as what?

A joke about the hype around cryptocurrencies: the pair put a meme dog on Bitcoin-style code, and within weeks the gag had a real market value in the millions.

Dogecoin's community raised funds to send which athletes to the Sochi Winter Olympics?

The Jamaican bobsled team had qualified for Sochi but could not pay its way; Dogecoin fans who loved the film Cool Runnings raised more than $30,000 in coins within two days.

In 2014 Dogecoin fans on Reddit crowdfunded the sponsorship of a car in which racing series?

NASCAR driver Josh Wise raced the Shiba-faced 'Moonrocket' at Talladega after fans donated about $55,000 worth of coins to put the Doge on his car.

The SHIB token was created in August 2020 by a person or group using what pseudonym?

Ryoshi, whose identity has never been made public, started the token from nothing and left half the total supply in the wallet of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Vitalik Buterin donated more than 50 trillion SHIB tokens to what cause in May 2021?

India COVID-Crypto Relief Fund received tokens worth about $1 billion on paper during India's coronavirus crisis; the price plunged as soon as news of the gift spread.

What speech quirk defines the meme character Cheems?

Adds the letter M to words: 'cheeseburger' comes out as something like 'cheemsburger', the mangled word that gave the character his name.

What was the real name of the Shiba behind the Cheems meme?

Balltze, 'Ball Ball' to his Hong Kong owners, was photographed sitting on the floor in 2017; two years later the picture became Cheems, and he died in 2023 aged 12.

The Shiba Inu Puppy Cam of 2008 streamed on which platform?

Ustream, an early live-video site, hosted the feed of six puppies in their pen; within a month it had drawn some two million views and was the site's most-watched show.

In April 2023, which social network briefly swapped its own logo for the Doge?

Twitter's blue bird gave way to the Shiba for a few days under Elon Musk; no reason was given, and Dogecoin's price jumped by around 30% at its peak.

Dogecoin's price fell by almost a third in May 2021 while Elon Musk was hosting which TV show?

Saturday Night Live was meant to be the coin's big moment, but when Musk, the self-styled 'Dogefather', called it 'a hustle' on air, the price dropped by nearly 30%.

Long-haired Shibas result from what?

A recessive gene from both parents is needed, so two normal-coated carriers can produce a fluffy puppy, about one in four on average; the show standard counts the long coat as a serious fault.

The breed standard sums up the ideal Shiba temperament as a good nature, an unaffected forthrightness and what else?

A spirited boldness renders the Japanese kan'i, bravery joined to composure; breeders hold that it must be balanced by ryōsei, good nature, and that neither exists without the other.

Which 2020 meme contrasted a muscular past with a feeble present using two Shiba characters?

Swole Doge vs. Cheems began as a Facebook post in February 2020 and went viral that May, used to set a nation's or a profession's heroic 'then' against its tearful 'now'.