The old man went to the mountain to shibakari... 柴刈り (shibakari): gather firewood

Until now, I just ignored that one passage in Momotarou and kept reading on, but...

What exactly is shibakari?

Obviously, it means...

Cutting a shiba dog's fur. He basically read 柴刈り(cutting wood) as "cutting shiba"

Why would the old man trim the fur of some wild dog while the old woman is washing clothes?

But if a dog's bound to join Momotarou anyway, isn't it better to have one that looks clean and neat?

Eh!... Huh!? Foreshadowing!?