Separation Anxiety

Ronan in the car

So, I have been separated from my puppy for about 2 weeks now. Circumstances are such at the moment that I basically have two homes…and they are thousands of miles apart. In the beginning, I tried to come up with a way for Ronan to accompany me, but it quickly became clear that he does not travel all that well. Don’t get me wrong, he rides in the car just fine. In fact, he made two cross-country road trips this past summer. He had to share the back seat with his two kitties (who hung out the whole time in Ronan’s kennel). Yes, my shiba has pets of his own. At the time, he had two but now we are down to one. Anyway, back on topic…he loves the car…he isn’t so crazy about planes.

When I got Ronan, I did months of research on the Shiba Inu breed and expected a 19-23 lb male Shiba. Perhaps a dog small enough to fit in the cabin of a plane? But no. When his brown, puppy eyes locked with mine, he was already 18 lbs…at 11 weeks….I should have predicted that he would be a giant. He has to be shipped in airline cargo. When I finally picked him up at baggage claim after his first trip across the country, he had left me a nice present in the back of his kennel! He is quite funny about this actually, poop that is. He HATES it. I’m sure that he had his accident the first time that the plane took off on the first leg. All that noise, air pressure changes, shaking….you can’t blame him! So here he is, in VERY close quarters with the evil, hated poop! What he does he do? He buries it under his blanket! I find it caked under layers of blanket, shoved in the back corner. Thus, Ronan stays nice and clean despite the fact he just spent 6 hours sitting right on top of it. You really have to appreciate a dog that actually likes to stay clean!