First of all I am not your average four legged friend. I have a dominant nature, there is no two of us that are alike. We do not like to be approached face on by little yappy dogs. I find it much easier to hold them in my mouth until their owners come along to free me from their agro. I can however get along fine in a household with other animals as long as they are my own. Let me just say I do not adjust well to the neighbors cat, but my own cats are fine! I have a baby girl who lives along 5 cats, a rabbit and guinea pig with no problems at all... but she absolutely hates the neighbors cat.

Many dog owners love to have a dog off a lead, in my opinion it only gets us into a whole lot of trouble. No matter how much obedience training I get, I can honestly say I seem to go deaf when I see a bird flying up above, a rabbit running afar or even when I decided I have not explored a pathway before and seem to be feeling a bit curious that day... I will run off. I come back eventually but only after I have put my humans through much agro! My mom often receives calls from people who seem to think “their Akita” was different but has now been missing for a few days since their last walk off a lead. My mommy tells all her new owners to NEVER let us off a lead. My mommy uses a tracker lead to give us a good run in the park, or she will find somewhere that is secure and fenced before she will let us off a lead.

I am a lovely dog, with only a few important rules in place we all will get along fine. First and foremost before you even take one of my babies home I want you to know they need discipline just like my humans children.. so obedience classes are a MUST!! I say start off with the basic puppy classes and work your way up. I am no different to a human really, they attend school to learn and I need the same. If only for 2 hours once a week I will become a remarkably behaved dog. Just remember the more time you put into my training the better behaved I will be. Can I make one thing clear to all of you though, if you are a large family, can we agree that everyone uses the same commands, as I find my fur babies get quite mixed up if everyone has chosen their own word for a simple command. Working together as a family on my training will enable even the children to give me a command and yes I will understand it!
Speaking of children, I have 3 human children, Keisha who is 7 years old, Justin who is 10 Years and Tyler who is 11. My youngest child was only a small little girl when I first arrived, my human mommy always supervised us whilst we were playing together... as well she always taught Keisha how to handle me, pet me and even play with me and my toys. This helped me alot because she was never rough and always kind to me and I always enjoyed our time together. I have heard of Akitas going to homes where children are not taught how to act or react to having a dog in the household and sometimes it can be very scary for us Dogs if the children are not taught about to behave around dog.

My greater grandmothers used to look after the young Japanese babies in the rice fields whilst their parents were trying to earn a living. Being female we are very loving and were excellent carers for the mothers children. Even today we have not lost what has been inbred into us for years. We guard our family and our children, we protect them and sometimes we may not understand when the children have friends around and they are play fighting... we Akitas may have a tendency to protect our children from any danger. So please never allow us to be around children and their friends if they are getting involved with horseplay. Precautions are the best things with us Akitas. My human owners will be the first to say, myself and all my friends here all have fabulous temperaments, we all get along well with adults and children with no problems at all. SO no worries if you have young children or older children, I suggest with enough education and supervised access we will both live in the same household with no problems at all.

Another rule of the house ... I like to be top dog, especially if my owner will let me and believe me if you give me an inch I will run a mile with it. You are to always walk through a doorway first, you will eat first , and I will never ever be fed from the table but fed only after the family has finished their dinner. I need to know my place and that is at the bottom. I need to learn the respect my humans deserve. I will behave appropriately with these few rules in place. I will soon learn who really is “top dog” in the house. I have to admit us Akitas are a bit aloof, STUBBORN and most say we are very hard to train... quite the opposite in fact. Most who have ever trained an AKita will say we catch on quite quickly. What we have a hard time understanding is why you throw a ball 3 times and we fetch it back and yet you continue to throw it. I myself will just look at you as if to say you can go get it now.
We are intelligent in nature so beware we understand more than you think we do. I know I try to act as if I have no idea what my human mom says sometimes, but she knows me very well, so I do not get away with as much things as I would like to these days.
May I suggest when you are looking for a training class, try to find a class where they are familiar with large dogs such as us. I know my babies as well as myself react and train better with people who have experience with Akitas or large breed animals. You will find a suitable trainer by calling the Kennel Club and asking them to send you a copy of all the local “Good Citizen Scheme” training center’s near you.

I hope I have made it a bit easier and also have answered many of the questions that arise when considering ownership of an Akita puppy. If you have any further questions please feel free to email my human mommy and she will be more than happy to help.

Regards,

Hikays Covergirl At Dayami (Kameika)