AKITA THE JAPANESE BEAR DOG

Dogumentary TV, producing the best breed documentaries on YouTube. The Akita is a very loyal, strong, smart breed. Very cat-like. Their habits, their play features, they play like a cat does. I'm Linda Logan and I have had Akitas for almost 20 years now. I breed, I show. My now ex-husband wanted an Akita when we got the house and so I went out and did some research on breeders and found a local breeder that had some decent lines and so I went and picked out a puppy and brought him home. Surprise for my husband. September will be 20 years ago. I've had Akitas ever since. Akitas were originally bred in Japan. They were used for hunting bears. They were bred up in the mountainous regions of Japan in Akita and Odate and they are now considered royalty over there. Japanese Akitas and American Akitas are two different breeds everywhere but the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S. and Canada they are two, still one breed. Although the United Kennel Club through here in the states has decided that they are two different breeds. So showing for the UKC here in the states you can get a second, two different breeds. Otherwise here for the AKC they are all one breed. The original Akitas were pretty big. They were more the size of the American Akitas. Japanese Akitas only come in three colors. They're smaller, little finer boned. The American Akita is bigger. They have more substance, a heavier bone set and a bigger headpiece. They all should have the nice forward ear set with a nice triangular shape head. The American Akita comes in pretty much any color or any color is allowed through the AKC where the Japanese Akitas come in white, a white face red or brindle. Those are the only three colors allowed for the Japanese Akitas. A standard male American Akita is 25 to 28 inches at their withers. A female is approximately 23 to 25 inches at her withers and varying depending on the dogs and the lines can range from 70 for a small female to 120, 125 for a large male. Temperaments can be stubborn. Some have very friendly outgoing towards people and kids and others are not. Others don't like strangers. It depends. We have what we call an old school where they don't like strangers at all. They're great for their people, their family but anybody else forget it. And then we have the new what we call golden Akita that are more friendly and more outgoing and a lot of it is temperament and the lines for the breedings and socializing and training. This breed needs to be socialized a lot. Normally a life expectancy for an Akita is probably 10 to 15 years old but oldest on record is 18 years old. They can be very animal aggressive. They definitely don't get along with two of the same sex. Some people can and some people can't. I have females that run together and live together without any issues but I've trained and I work hard and I know what I'm doing. The Akita is not just a breed for anybody and especially not for somebody that's first time dog owner. You need to have a very strong strong demeanor and know what you're doing around dogs. The biggest health issues we have right now is bloat. The bigger deeper chested dogs all have an issue and can bloat very easily. Stress, sometimes diet. They're not sure what. There's no test to do it. We don't have any ideas as to why. We have a few eye issues. We have PRA, entropion, UVD which is similar to the human's form of VKH and then there's thyroid problems and a few autoimmune problems. Pemphigus and sebaceous adenitis which is a skin disease. A home for an Akita should have a mandatory six foot tall fence. Should have somebody that has had dog experience, knows history of the breed. They can be good with kids if they're raised with kids and kids are taught to respect the dog because if kids aren't good around the dogs the dogs will not tolerate it. But this breed is definitely and they can be very standoffish and very stubborn with training so you have to know what you're doing. Akitas don't usually shed. They blow coat and when I say blow coat they come out by the handfuls. They look like a buffalo at the end of winter losing all their coat. They come out in handfuls. Bunny is spayed. She's eight and a half years old, retired show dog. She's my guardian. She's my protector. She is my window watcher I call her. Bunny is blowing coat right now. She comes apart and when I brush them out in the backyard by the time I'm done just doing part of the dog it looks like it's snowed because they just lose that whole thick undercoat and then when they're done blowing that undercoat then the guard hairs will come out as the newer undercoat comes in and then they'll get the new guard hairs back in on top of it and then they get a nice thick full coat. Okay I have three different tools that I use for grooming. I use a slicker brush which is the thin like you would use on a cat or a smaller short haired dog. I have a pin brush which is like a regular brush that we could use and then I use what I call a rake. It looks like a little miniature rake with little long prongs on it. Okay Rags is a three and a half year old male. He is 27 and a half inches at the withers and right now he's approximately 93 pounds. He's completely out of coat and he's lost weight because I've had girls in season so he's been on a hunger strike. He usually weighs between 96 to 100 pounds in full coat and he is in the process of being shown. He has everything but his majors to finish his championship. Rags is also my service dog. He helps with my mobility issues and he alerts to my high and low blood sugars for my diabetes. Vixen which is Rags' grandma. She is 10 years old. She's a retired service dog. She's a retired show dog. She has six different titles. She's a show champion. She has all three of her canine good citizen, her CGC, her CGCA, CGCU. She's got a versatility achievement title and a service dog title. She has been my all around from day one when she came in has been one of the best dogs I've ever owned. She's got the best temperament. She loves people. We've done a lot of public education work with her. We've done meet the breed booths at Eukanuba when it was out here in California. We've done the pet expo up in Orange County for many years. She loves people and when she was out working with me as service team she some days she would forget she was working. The puppy who is Honey. She's not from my breedings but her mom is a half sister to Vixen and Bunny. So my dogs are all kind of related but I like the temperament that Bo produced and I liked the structure that he had and the soundness with the breedings and of course everybody's had health checks done. Hips, eyes, thyroid, elbows, patellas all before being bred. Everybody gets everything done. Akitas if trained properly can do pretty much anything you want them to do. Some people use them for protection which I personally wouldn't do especially if I have wanted it as a family dog and around my kids. A lot of people do shows. We do obedience, we do rally, we do lure coursing, nose work is a big do. I have mine as service dogs and they make great pets. They're big cuddle bugs with the right if you find the one with the right temperament when not a lot of health issues from a good breeder then you will have a nice lifelong pet. You can find a lot more information on Akita Club of America website at akitaclub.org