What is a Mame-Shiba Inu

Recently, more and more people think that the smaller the better, but this is not true.

We have observed many Mame-Shiba dogs all over Japan and studied their skeletons and other characteristics

when we started breeding and promoting the Mame-Shiba.

We also have owners who bring Mame-Shibas to our kennel for breeding requests, and sometimes we see Mame-Shibas that are much smaller than the standard Mame-Shiba purchased elsewhere.

If we observe closely, we sometimes see dogs with individual anomalies, such as skeletal distortions or missing teeth.

It is also true that many Mame-Shiba Inus, which are much smaller than the standard, have various disorders and deformities, such as being out of shape as Shiba Inus, mentally restless, males have poor fertility, and females have many problems, especially at delivery.

Mame-Shiba under 25 cm will be issued a Mame-Shiba pedigree if they are healthy and have no particular problems.

However, be careful with Mame-Shiba that are too small.

The Shiba Inu has long been loved and bred by the Japanese people.

However, because they are not suited to today's cramped living conditions, the Mame-Shiba was bred through generations of crossbreeding by selecting Shiba Inus with smaller body sizes.

More than 80 years ago, before World War II,

small Shiba Inus were kept by hunters in mountainous areas throughout Japan as hunting dogs for small animals such as rabbits, marten, mujina (cave bear), raccoon dogs, and foxes.

The Mame-Shiba is the same in appearance as its ancestor, the Shiba Inu, but the most obvious difference is its size.

Comparing the height of the two breeds, the Shiba is 38-41 cm (male) and 35-38 cm (female), while the Mame-Shiba is 30-34 cm (male) and 28-32 cm (female) (all as an adult dog).

If you are used to seeing Shiba Inus, you will realize how small Mame-Shiba is in size.

More and more people are having Mame-Shibas these days because they are small, cute, and can be kept in the house.

You can see many Mame-Shiba sold in pet stores, but until 2008, there was no pedigree of the breed ""Mame-Shiba"" because the breed was not recognized as a breed. However, until 2008, the breed ""Mame-Shiba"" was not recognized, and there was no pedigree of the breed "Mame-Shiba".

The Mame-Shiba is still not recognized as a breed by some organizations

and is still being bred and sold without a breed standard, resulting in various problems.Therefore, KC Japan created a standard that depicts the ideal image of what a Mame-Shiba should be, and became the first organization in the world to officially recognize the Mame-Shiba as a pedigree-issuing organization.

The Mame-Shiba has inherited many of the characteristics of the Shiba Inu, and is simple, graceful, and loyal to its master.

Compared to the fearless expression of the Shiba Inu, the Mame-Shiba's facial features have a lovely expression that suits its physique, and as a small family dog, it is required to have a cheerful and friendly personality.

Due to housing conditions, the Mame-Shiba is attracting attention from people who wish to keep a Shiba indoors.

They have adorable faces and small bodies. Because of their small size, they can be easily groomed and walked, even by the elderly and children.

Mame-Shiba's coat color is red (brown), black, sesame, and white, but more than 90% of them are red, and within the red, there is Aka-ichimai (all red) and Ura-jiro (red and chest area white).

The Mame-Shiba is a wonderful dog that has the cuteness of a pet dog rather than the fearlessness of a Shiba Inu, and yet has the dignified nature characteristic of a Shiba Inu.

The Japanese dog is said to have its roots in the Shiba Inu.

Despite their small size, Shiba Inus are said to be spirited, brave, and obedient to their masters. They are also sensitive to the senses, which helps them in hunting, and they display a high homing instinct when they are separated from their masters. They are also known as "loyal dogs" because of their high level of loyalty and preference for cleanliness.

Shiba Inus are dogs with such deep affection for their owners.

The Mame-Shiba is a wonderful dog that has all the advantages of the Shiba Inu condensed into its small body.

As a side note, our first little Shiba Inu disappeared suddenly and we were all depressed.

But we were too close to moving to search as best I could...

And a year and a half later...

The house next door to our former residence called us and said, " It seems that your dog is back. She's wandering around."

All my family members rushed to check on her.

There, covered in mud and a little tougher than ever, was my family's little Shiba Inu...

Founder Masanobu (a father of mine, the current owner) started breeding Mame-Shiba when he met a very small Shiba Inu in the 1960s.

The Shiba Inu suffered badly during the war and its population was drastically reduced, so efforts were made to preserve the breed shortly after the war in order to protect the unique Japanese breed.

The Shiba Inu has flourished thanks to the efforts of many people, including preservation societies and other organizations that have conducted powerful activities and collected excellent Shiba Inu from all over the country.

However, the establishment of a reference averaging in the process of attempting to recover the population would later become problematic.

"The problem was that among the Shiba Inus of the time, there were many large Shiba over 38 cm, which was the average size, and many small Shiba that were 30 cm shorter than the average size.

These dogs were excluded from breeding because they were outside the regulations. As a result, the range of Shiba Inu sizes became narrower."

Nearly 100 years have passed since the preservation of Japanese dogs began, but the fact that large Shiba over 38 cm in height and nearly 20 kg in weight are still being produced is proof that such genes are still present.

Although size diversity was sacrificed for the sake of species recovery, our kennel focused on the preservation of the small Shiba (Koshiba and Shaku-Shiba).

When founder Masanobu first started breeding, he and I visited people who had struggled to make Shiba Inus flourish, learned about their history, and ran around the country looking for small Shiba Inus to protect them.

Not only small, but also the Shiba Inu's skeletal structure, appearance, coat, loyalty to people, or the lineage of their parents and grandparents were examined to see what he could confirm with his own eyes, and he began to collect and breed lines that would produce truly small Shiba Inus from many generations ago.

He had to be very careful about collecting small Shiba Inus, because even if the child is small, if the parents are large, the parents' genetics can suddenly appear.

Although the name Mame-Shiba is now well known to the public, many elderly people have told me that before World War II, small Shiba Inus were familiarly known as "Koshiba" or "Shaku-Shiba.

Mr. Yoshihiro Saito, who made great efforts to preserve the Japanese dog, regretted in his later years, "It was a mistake to set the size of the Shiba Inu to the current range".

This testimony was heard by many people involved in the preservation of Japanese dogs at the time.

Today, our kennel is the oldest Mame-Shiba breeder that has preserved the Mame-Shiba.