(upbeat music)
- Hello. Welcome back to another video.
I'm really excited to introduce you all today
to our new puppy Kibo.
Not pictured is Chibi.
She's hiding under the bed because she's still pouting
that we have a new baby in the house.
So we've just got the two white fluff balls
with me here today.
Ouch, Kibo.
We decided to name him Kibo.
It means hope in Japanese.
So keeping on with the trend of Japanese names
with Kokoro and Chibi.
Kokoro's name means soul.
Chibi's name means like little red short one. (laughing)
So Kibo is our little hopeful boy.
So a lotta people have been asking me,
"What kind of dog is he?
Why didn't you get a Corgi or another Eskie?"
And to be honest, we've always wanted a big dog.
So when we got Kokoro,
we were living in an apartment and just didn't think
that it was a good time to start off
with a really big dog for our very first pup.
So we ended up getting her and she is a nice 20 pounds.
She's very compact.
And same with Chibi.
When I got Chibi, I had just graduated from college,
so just sort of starting out in my career
and thought it might be easier to manage two small dogs
in a little apartment.
After we moved into our house
and now we have a nice big yard,
I've been trying to convince my husband
to get another dog for a really, really long time.
So he finally, finally agreed that we were ready
after we fostered Mello, we fostered another big dog, Polly,
we had friends' dogs here to try out
what it would be like to live with three dogs
in our house.
And it's definitely a tough decision
because when you have three dogs, you're outnumbered.
With Kokoro and Chibi,
each of us could take one leash
and each of us could manage one dog.
So it was just a little bit easier
to have one dog per person.
But upgrading to three is another level up.
So we were definitely considering that
for a really long time and making sure
that adding another dog was the right thing to do.
But thankfully, we have some more time now.
We have a nice big yard.
The dogs are a little bit older,
so Kokoro and Chibi are about to be seven and eight in May.
And we wanted our next pup to have the opportunity
to know them and become friends with them
before they get too old and cranky. (laughing)
So we ended up deciding to look for a big dog breed.
So Kibo is a White Swiss Shepherd or Berger Blanc Suisse.
They're actually not recognized as a breed
with the American Kennel Club just yet.
They're pretty uncommon in the U.S.
but can be found a little bit more in Europe,
Russia, I think Australia and New Zealand
has a few more kennels.
So there's not very many of them here in the U.S.
and a lot of people have never seen his breed before.
Even our vet that we took him to yesterday was like,
"What kind of breed is this?
I've never seen one here at the office before.
Can you tell me a little bit more about them?"
So essentially, White Swiss Shepherds are closely related
to German Shepherds.
They came from the white variation of German Shepherds
many, many generations ago.
The AKC doesn't recognize white German Shepherds
as a valid color.
It's a disqualifying color,
but people were still interested in the white color
when that happened,
so breeders continued breeding them
and eventually created a new breed of dogs
similar to the German Shepherd.
But they have a little bit different structure,
their backs aren't as sloped,
they have a more mellow, calm personality,
more of like an off switch compared to German Shepherds
who are very serious, driven working dogs.
And so they created the new breed of Berger Blanc Suisse,
and these pups are (laughing) similar to German Shepherds
but definitely, they make better family dogs.
They can make really good therapy and service dogs.
I was really interested in a dog
that still has some working drive,
similar to Corgis, but not as crazy as something
like a Border Collie that constantly needs a job.
And so these guys are supposed to be calm. (laughing)
You can see that he's just a little baby right now
and definitely a little crazy.
So we got Kibo from a breeder in Oregon
and we were really lucky that we were able to get him.
Most breeders have a really long waiting list
because there's just not that many reputable breeders
here in the U.S.
And he happened to be a singleton.
He didn't have any other litter mates,
so he's a little bit of a little man.
He thinks that he's the king of the world right now.
We got to meet his mom and his dad
when we flew up to pick him up,
and it's really nice to actually be able
to see the temperaments of the parents.
As I've mentioned in previous videos,
this is something that you definitely wanna do
because the temperaments of the parents
and what they look like and how much they weigh
and everything really are indicative
of what you're gonna get in your puppy.
So unfortunately for Kokoro and Chibi,
we just didn't know any better then
and didn't have the opportunity to do that.
So it was really great to see this little guy
with his mom and his dad.
His poppa is a big boy.
I think he's over 90 pounds
and he was just the goofiest, goofiest pup.
And so we can't wait to see him grow up
and see what he looks like.
We basically did a day trip,
flew up 7:00 a.m. from LA to Oregon
and then we drove out to the breeder's house,
spent a couple of hours there just talking to the breeder,
meeting Kibo, and he was definitely
a little shy baby at first.
You're a little shy baby.
But he's a little crazy, crazy man now.
We're also really lucky because the breeder
did a lot of training with him
before we brought him home.
So he already knows how to sit, down,
touch, shake, and he's pretty much potty trained already.
We think he's gonna end up being like 90 pounds at least.
He's already pretty big for his age.
Yesterday, we went to the vet for the first time
and he weighed in at 20 pounds.
And so half a week ago, he was 17 1/2 pounds.
So that gives you a little bit of an idea
of how fast he's growing.
He did amazing on the plane.
So we had a little carrier that we got from Roverlund
and we put him in the carrier when we were
at the breeder's house to get him acclimated to it.
We left for the airport and he was a really good boy.
He was a good boy in the car.
He was a good boy on the airplane.
We did a lot of socialization training with him
at the airport.
We unzipped the top of the carrier
and were giving him treats for just looking around
and not reacting and keeping his attention on us.
So it was a really good way to start getting him used
to socialization training.
We got home Saturday night and introduced him
to Kokoro and Chibi right away.
It's always a good idea to introduce dogs
in neutral territory with lots of open space,
so if they feel uncomfortable,
they have some way to get away
or not feel so like restricted,
which can cause a lot of reactivity.
So we always like to introduce our dogs to friends outside,
which is exactly what we did with Kibo.
We brought the dogs into the backyard,
had them sort of do their sniffs and greetings,
and let them roam around on the grass together.
Kokoro and Chibi did not really seem (laughing)
to care about him at first,
but it was really expected because like I said,
they're almost seven and eight.
They are getting up there in age.
They kind of know who their people and their friends are.
A little annoying puppy being added to their life
is not something that they can be bothered with right now.
But they have been really nice to him.
Kokoro is sort of bossing him around a little bit,
so Kokoro's very, "I'm the queen of this house,"
and when he tries to take her toys or her chews,
she'll definitely put him in his place
and kind of be like, "Uh uh, we're not doing that.
You are bottom of the totem pole."
And Chibi usually likes puppies
and starts to play with them,
so so far, she's kinda just acknowledging his existence
but not really interacting with him.
And he's learning to not be an annoying little puppy
and jump on his sisters and bother them.
So we'll definitely keep you guys updated
the next couple of weeks on how they get along,
and I'm sure they're gonna become best friends.
So far, Kibo's personality seems to be very, very confident.
He is a Shepherd, so he's definitely observant.
He looks around when he sees new people, new places,
new situations, and he's sort of just taking it all in.
Once he gets adjusted,
he is just the most confident little nugget.
He had his very first playdate with one of our neighbors
and she has a Pomsky puppy,
and the two of them got along so well.
They played tug together.
And so I can't wait to introduce him
to all of our other friends' dogs
and see how he plays.
Kokoro and Chibi have never really been that into toys.
They're both very food-driven
and Kokoro's very human interaction-driven.
So it's gonna be really fun to have a dog
that's really into playing tug, fetch.
We wanna try out a bunch of dog sports with him,
so agility, dog diving, lure coursing, rally,
Frisbee, and we've got high hopes for this little man.
We wanna make some more videos about training,
socialization, just raising a puppy in general
over the next few weeks.
So if you guys have any questions about puppies,
about his breed, what a Berger Blanc Suisse is,
feel free to leave them below
and I will try to talk about them
in as many videos as possible that my schedule will allow
over the next few weeks of crazy puppyhood.
That's about it.
I just wanted to check in, say hi,
introduce y'all to Kibo, tell you a little bit more
about him and our decision to get a third dog.
Thank you guys so much for watching
and we'll see you next time.
(upbeat music continues)