By CHOI CHAE-SOO/ Staff Writer
September 2, 2016 at 09:00 JST
Editor's note: This is part of a series of videos offering an up-close perspective on the animal kingdom. A special 360-degree video camera system was set up in zoos and other facilities to show how the animals view their world as they interact.
Also visit our special 360-DEGREE LIVES page (http://t.asahi.com/360lives), where you can watch all the previous videos.
* * *
Rule No. 1 when getting a puppy: Learn how to train it if you want to ensure that the dog becomes sociable and gentle with people around it.
Dog Woof, a Tokyo dog lodging, grooming and training facility chain, can help.
On any given day, a visitor to Dog Woof’s Shinagawa-Shibaura branch will come across toy poodles, chihuahuas, Bichon Frises and other popular dogs romping around in an enclosed dog run walled with glass.
Although the puppies are fighting for a ball and playing with each other, they hardly bark.
“That’s because they are not afraid of each other, so they don’t bark and keep playing,” manager Akito Tachibana explained.
The chief dog trainer also said that staffers determine the characteristics of the puppies based on whether they have active, aggressive or other personalities and whether they are compatible with other pooches before letting them play together to train them not to be afraid of other canines.
It is also Dog Woof’s goal to have the puppies play hard to improve problematic behavior, such as barking apparently for no reason and jumping at people. These are traits caused by stress from long hours of the owner’s absence and a lack of exercise.
Generally, it is said that dogs start to become less curious and more cautious about their environment at around the age of six months, and after that it becomes very hard to discipline once they are adults.
But Tachibana, a certified dog trainer for the past 13 years, disagrees.
“In my experience, whether dogs can be trained or not depends on their personalities. It’s not that adult dogs can’t be trained,” Tachibana said.
Dog Woof’s kindergartens accept dogs of all ages, he added.
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II