Japanese Akita Kennel – hahanarushizen.cz © Copyright 2023
11 - 12 years
Male:64-70cm
Female:58-64cm
Male:35-50kg
Female:25-35kg
Yes
Big,
majestic dog evokes respect at first sight. It has typical look of a spitz from
far east- sharp nose, small ears upwards, eyes far apart with raised outer
corners and prominent upwards curled and furry tail.
From asian
spitzes is the biggest and (not only) thanks to the legendary Hachiko the most
known.
The breed is
still gaining popularity but inexperienced cynologists should rather not choose
this breed.
Akitas are proud, calm and balanced dogs. They need a careful care, socialization and consistent leadership right from the beginning. It is a necessary for them to know who the leader of the pack is or else they could try to take over. It could go wrong when using the physical punishment because it could lead them to be more aggressive. Akita is not a dog for everyone and especially not for beginners. With right training he can be loyal family dog and a really good guard dog of its home and family.
Both Akita inu and American akita have the same history to a certain point. There is a very little of breeds that have their history this elaborated and recorded as Akita. Even though the real origin isn’t known, in the 16th century existed the oldest dog book ,,Kezuke-cho” in which Akitas were registered. There was a time when European dog started appearing and this book was able to keep the information on which dogs originated in Japan and which not. This book is also giving the information on how spitzes looked like and what they were used for and there is even information about their parents. Japan is the place that can be labeled as the place of origin. Its ancestors used to live in Japan a long time before Akitas itself. Even though Akitas didn’t have the height of the Akitas we know now, it is said that they are one of the oldest existing breed and the oldest breed in Japan.
Professor Hamanaka from Tokyo claimed that based
on his research Akita came to the north of Japan in ancient history from Europe
through Russia. All different art works up to 3000 years old that are located
all over Asia are evidence that spitzes originated in Japan. It is not possible
to identify which spitz in particular but it’s definitely Akitas ancestor. A
big part of art works and paintings prove how Akita looked like in the past and
what it was used for.
For a long time, Akita was a purebred dog without crossbreeding. But that was changed in second half od 19th century. At that time Akita crossbreeding started with tosa inu and mastiff. With these combinations the height and weight standards were increased. Typical features were fading. The goal was to make them better for fighting in arenas.
In 1908 the dog fighting was banned. Akitas started disappearing
after this decision. Fortunately, Japanese government realized the cost of
their Akitas and started supporting maintenance of purebred breeding. However,
at that time there was just a few of them. Most were around Odate. That’s why Akita
was called ,,Odate ken” at that time. The word ,,ken” has the same meaning as
,,inu” which means dog. Akita got its name because of the prefecture Akita on
the north of Japan located on the island Honshú and in region Odate. That is
the place where Akitas were bred the most.
In 1927 in Odate the Akita inu Hozonkai club (AKIHO) was founded. In 1931 Akitas were declared as a national monument. Nine best Akitas were used to renew the breeding and successfully without tosa inu or mastiff. People saw Akitas as a treasure and exporting them was banned for a long time. There was one exception which was in 1937 when a writer Helena Keller got Kamikadze Go as a gift from Ichiro Ogasawara. Unfortunately, the first dog died and so they gave Kamikadzes brother Kazana Go instead. This was a first Akita export in the United States. Akita started getting more and more popular thanks to this writer. Unfortunately, the army policy ruined this almost immediately.
Japan joined second world war as well which meant a lot of bad things. During the war there was a food shortage. People had nothing to eat, and their dogs were starving as well. Dogs started disappearing. Suddenly a surprising and devastating military order came: ,, Catch all of the dogs, use the meat for food and fur for clothing.” Only survivors were German Shepards just because of their place in the army and dogs in the remote parts of Japan that villagers successfully hid. Some Akita owners bred them with German Shepards just so they could disguise the puppies as German Shepards. More bad things came in the end of second world war with dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not only with more dead bodies of people and their dogs but also with deterioration of interstate and interpersonal relations.
In Japan after the second world war there was only a few dogs other than German Shepards. Due to exporting being banned before the war there were practically no Akitas in the world. Most of the dogs were just similar to Akitas but they were not purebred. Japanese breeders had no idea what to begin with. They started with diving them in three groups. First were Matagi Akitas, second Fighting Akitas and third Shepard Akitas. But this system just made everything more confusing and that’s the reason they made a different system with just two types: Goromaru Go and Kongo Go. Kongo Go was a very popular and likable dog that had a very strong features of German Shepard and transferred those genes to its descendants which Japanese breeders didn’t like at all. This type also known as Dewa was definitely not lost. After the war there were still a lot of American soldiers left and their were really excited about his type of Akita and so they decided to bring them back with them to America. Japanese breeders decided to stick with the Goromaru Go type also known as Ichinoseki which they considered as typical for their ancient breed. They used Matagi Akita for breeding as well that were supposed to help with making the natural and original features more prominent.
In 1948 Japan there was another new club founded for this breed, Akita Inu Kyokai (AKIKYO), even though there really was just a few of Akitas in Japan there were still two existing clubs that took breeding in their own ways.
Later on Akita that was bred out of Dewa started getting less and less like the real Japanese Akita which Japanese breeders didn’t like and started to show their opinion. FCI wanted to solve this issue and so they decided to make it a new breed and change its name to Big Japanese dog and changed it FCI group from 5 to 2. On 1. 1. 2000 was officially breeding between Akita inu and Big Japanese dog banned. On 1. 1. 2006 FCI finally decided to change its name to American Akita and changed its FCI group back to 5.
It is a large, mighty dog with strong skeleton and just slightly rectangular frame. Head of Japanese Akita is described like this: the size of skull is adequate to the proportion of body. Forehead is wide. Without wrinkles. Mouth is medium long and strong with wide root of mouth, tapering but not pointed. Nasal fungus is wide and black. Lighter nasal fungus is accepted only for white individuals but black one is still preferred. Lips of Akita inu are tight, American Akita can have them looser but not too much. Only scissor bite is accepted for Akita inu, for American Akita scissor bite is preferred but pincer bite can be accepted as well. Eyes are dark brown almost a triangle shape and kind of small. Ears are triangle shape with slightly rounded tips, pointed upwards and forward. Neck is strong. Chest is supposed to be deep, spine straight and solid. Bottom line of stomach is nicely adjacent to the abdomen. Tail is set high, strong, rich in fur, if it is stretched out then it almost reaches the ankles. Thoracic limb are strong bones and when you look from the front, they are straight. Pelvic limbs are strongly muscled, wide and strong bones comparable with the thoracic limb. Paws are round and compact.
Akita inu has cover coat, which is rough and straight, undercoat is soft and thick. Shoulder and back are covered in slightly longer coat, coat on the tail is longer then on the body. Color is slightly limited. Accepted are only red-beige, brindle and white. All of the mentioned colors except white have to have ,,urajiro”. Urajiro is whitish fur on the sides of mouth, cheeks, bottom side of jaw, neck, chest, body, tail and on inner side of legs.
Height at the shoulder for males is ideally 67cm and for females 61cm. Accepted tolerance is 3cm upward and downward for both genders.
It is hard to place Akita in a group with certain focus. Akita, maybe
thanks to isolation of Japan, was with other small spitzes the only dogs that were
in the country. That’s why it had to everything needed. Akita was hunting dog,
watchdog, police dog, draft dog, social dog or used for fighting in arenas. Akita
did anything that came to mind. We can talk about it as an allrounder dog. Of
course, we need to take into consideration its personality difference from
other ordinary breeds and its natural intelligence with very strong
independence.
It is hard to ask dog that was hunting alone or in group to be
easily manageable. It is hard to ask dog from fighting arena to everywhere else
be nice to other dogs or animals. It is hard to ask an incorruptible watchdog
to love people in other situations. Akita still has some of these features from
long time ago and controllability isn’t its strong side. It is a independent dog
that has its own opinion on situations and people around. It has a need to rely
just on itself.
Akita is not a dog made for sport cynology, races or obedience. Some individuals can do some obedience exam, but it is not ordinary. They aren’t dogs that would like to do everything perfectly and they don’t always listen to one command.
However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t intelligent because they are very intelligent and good learners but of course they have their own head.
This dog needs a good socialization if you want them to be and easy-going dog that doesn’t add up more problems to the family. This should happen at 8.-16. week of its life. Training should already be apart of socialization. Training should start from the right beginning. Right when you bring it home. If you want, the training to be successful then it is going to be long and hard way.
What Akita doesn’t really like is repeating the same trick or
something that seems unimportant to them.
They are mostly able to listen, but it is mostly for your happiness even
though it doesn’t make them as happy as you. In short, they mostly do just
things that they think are correct or useful.
Yet it is a very
understanding dog. It doesn’t take them long to get what you need them to get.
Normally female learns faster then male. Problem is when you need them to
actually use the trick in real situation. They know what you want and how to do
it, but nothing is really motivating for them to listen. New owners can be
confused and mad that their Akita is not listening. But in reality, it is just
a feature of the breed which means that it is not a suitable breed for owner
that wants to do agility or a really sporty dog.
Training in normal
training center isn’t really it for Akita but if you are really struggling with
some training problems or you want to teach it some basic manners and you don’t
know how then you should find an instructor for individual training. Group
training is definitely not good for Akita. Not only that it doesn’t get the goal,
but it is just making it less concentrated. Akitas can get bored easily during
the training which can make it harder.
In a lot of states Akitas need to have various examinations before being marked as a breedable dog. Usual are: hip dysplasia and fundus examination. Less usual are: X-ray of the elbow joints, thyroid examination, heart and blood examination for von Willebrand’s disease. Hip dysplasia is another defect that can affect Akitas. It is a very usual defect for big breeds, and it can be found by X-ray
Mandatory examinations
Both clubs are focused on purebred breeding of Akitas and are demanding hip joints x-ray and their evaluation. Only licensed veterinarian can take and evaluate the image.
Akita sheds twice a year. In shedding season, you will be able to find chunks of fur everywhere which is why it is important to comb the loose fur regularly. Most intense shedding is the first one when the puppy coat is changing itself to adult coat. Long coated individuals have it worse. Long coat isn’t allowed for any Akita. Long coated Akitas are called ,,kurafuro”.
In Czech Republic are two clubs that focused on purebred breeding of Akitas- Akita Inu Czech club and Klub chovatelů málopočetných plemen psů.
When choosing an Akita puppy from a litter, you
should get some advice from the breeder. The breeder knows their puppies the
best. Each has its own personality. It is the same as choosing the breed which
means that you should be careful and think about it as much as possible. Not
every puppy is suitable for every person. Even the breeder is interested about
the puppy even after you buy it.
Text: Eva Nohelová, Šárka Štíchová
Source (cz): https://www.ifauna.cz/psi-atlas/akita-inu/
Translation: Hahanaru Shizen
Japanese Akita Kennel – hahanarushizen.cz © Copyright 2023