Yuki asked to share an interesting fact. It turns out that almost all shiba inus in the world (600,000) are descended from a specific dog named Ishi (Ishigo) who lived in Japan just under 100 years ago, in the 1930s. He belonged to the ancient Japanese breed Sekishu Inu, which lived in the Iwami region in the west of Shimane Prefecture. A local hunter kept him as a hunting dog. Ishi was part of a large kennel in Japan that specialized in breeding shiba inus with an emphasis on traditional breed standards. During and after World War II, the number of shiba inus greatly decreased because at that time, Japan was not focused on dog breeding.
Thus, the shiba inu is both a very ancient breed (akin to primal dogs which include the Akita, Alaskan malamute, chow chow, shar-pei, and about a dozen others) and at the same time young – they nearly went extinct a hundred years ago, and now all those we see share the same great-great-great-grandfather.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 