Akitaowner

Must say im pleased to see Akitas creep onto a few peoples lists not really in any kind of order... 1. OES (has been top for a while now) 2. Airdale (creepin gup the list quickly) 3. Schnauzer (Mav was almost a giant) 4. Lagotto 5. Whippy 6. Bernese MD 7. Newfoundland (altho not convinced i could cope with the slobber LOL) 8. St Bernard (see newfy) 9. Wolf/Deerhound 10. Big poodle i am kinda tempted to have a SWF at some point too as an experiment! - just so i would feel i could chastise them properly and required PMSL

Just to clarify my response: No - i dont believe its a lost cause, the 'good' owners out there will continue to do the right thing but unfortunately for every good owners there are probably several bad ones making it an uphill struggle. I feel akitas have 'flown under the radar' so to speak on this issue for much longer than i thought they would - simply because there arent too many around and most of the breeders seem fairly intent on making sure they dont fall into the wrong hands. A strong 'united front' is needed to deal with BSL IMO

Couple of things - i have only had limited experience with AAA - they were holding a rescue akita bitch there a long while ago but are a no kill shelter. she was eventualkly rehomed but i was in fairly regular contact with a few people regarding her welfare. How long have these people had the dog? its pretty rare to get papers with a rescue dog. If they know shes definately purebred, they could try looking up her date of birth on the Dogs database - assuming she was registered they may be able to contact the breeder and get more info. Have they tried any other clubs? every club is different and has their own rules... another may let them join no problem. APBT and ASBT are not the same thing. but yes its appalling the club wouldnt let them join, however i have had clubs reluctantly let me join with a well behaved entire purebred akita so it doesnt really shock me that they were declined. i have also been told if i join a certain club in my area i cannot use a prong collar - and since my dog isnt food motivated i went elsewhere. They were only interested in competing with labs and collies...and not with helping people train their dogs even if it was to the same end.

i only saw this recently in the hire shop - ive known the story since i started resesarching the breed. Thers a statue of Hachi in the town where he lived and the akita is a 'national treasure' in japan. i'ma bit tentative about watching it after these remarks - i cry at anything at the moment! Im quite glad this movie didnt get much publicity as that would only encourage morons to go buy a cute puppy, some people have no idea that certain dog breeds might not be suited for their lifestyle, and insist on getting the one they like the look of. Seandres - this is correct but i believe the temperament is the same, my boy would do anything for me... they are very much a 'one owner' dog and this also makes them very difficult for rescue (i have been involved in a few cases) as some do not bond with new owners.

ideally my 2 would eat quite different diets - Rogue has a much more settled tummy (reflux and other end) when fed coprice and eagle pack - i combine them to make the eagle pack go further. She puts weight on easily so the coprice is fine for her with its higher grain content. However Mav always does best on raw bones everyday - he drops weight quickly and gets the trots if hes fed too much coprice. IMHO i tend to think that the holistic sensitive foods are just marketting. with a sensitive stomach roo and rice is always a good natural option... My vets didnt pick up on the reflux being the cause of our vet trip - didnt even suggest it after i told her about it? i wouldnt be overly concerned - but maybe try to honey, just a small blob before food to coat the throat and see if it helps - as i said Rogue has been 99% improved by doing this and reducing her bone intake. It cant do any harm and Rogue loves her honey !!

i have a dog that does this - i have never really thought much of it until more recently when i got home from work and she wasnt breathing normally - very laboured. So we rushed up to the vets before they closed and an x ray indicated fluid on the lungs. Neither the vet or myself could think of anything that she could have done to cause it at the time. However after some reading around the subject of reflux - which she has had since a pup, any time of the day often when excited or exercising and also soon after meals. I came to the following conclusion. The week i took her to the vets (she had never been for being sick ever before and shes 3) i had a new delivery of bones as they are both barf fed. She had lamb brisket everyday as i couldnt fit some in the freezer. Apparently a high protein diet can increase the incidence of reflux and weakenn the lower oesphogeal sphincter and let the stomach contents rise up and damage/irritate the tract. Some of the info i read recommended feeding a spoonful of manuka honey before a low protein meal to reduce irritation and let the tract recover fully. So i bought the honey and put a small amount on the top of her kibble (kibble brekkie and bones for dinner usually) which she loved and i have significantly reduced her bone intake, and we have had almost no reflux since. Apparently a tell tale sign of this problem is really smelly burps (especailly if you feed bones as you get the half digested smell being brought up all the time. With Rogue it was easily capable of clearing a room of people! hope this helps

i have the dremmel golf cleaning kit and it works great - i use rechargable batteries anyway so dont worry about them running down

thanks guys its always great to see people being able to understand the techniques and take it away for a better canine companion my 2 didnt know what hit them when i got home as always a bit of encouragment to get working them again does the trick! hopefully i can be more consistent/persistent this time Rocko is a beautiful big boy (sorry my heart belongs to the boofers ;)) who i think is VERY lucky to have been found by you - its not very often people are willing to take a dog on with his size and problems without knowing what your going to do with him, and its great that you only had to endure his 'tendancies' for a few weeks before finding the solution! full credit to you for taking on the challenge Thx as always to Steve i have some photos too but ran out of battery about halfway thru the arvo - ill get some up on my website hopefully in the next couple of days

bump still places available...

due to a couple of people pulling out there are now some spaces available for this...

Bump There are still a few spaces available Poomother - i have a spot for you if you still want it

apologies for the delay - i have now responded to all emails received i have been moving house so offline for week or so while they organised our new connection... Places still available

as far as e-collar and prong training go i personally wouldnt use them on a working dog until over 6 months - and im talking a med-large breed i started Rogue on a prong at 6 months and she never pulls much now without any specific training not too, it was more a preventative measure... i would be very careful of using an ecollar on a dog less than 12 months incase you inadvertently train or cause an inwanted aversion to training or situation

i had a friend who lost her baby girl in september and used pets at peace - she said they were great. I think they are franchised so would be good to get some good recommendations before proceeding with things like this ;)

i'm all for easy methods but i dont necessarily think this is what is often described by people as 'easy or lazy way out' for example there is a club here on the coast who ONLY allow the use for food as a motivator - expect you to show up every week and shove heaps of food down their throat - now i know for a fact that both my dogs prefer pack praise as a motivator and i tend to use a prong to enforce what i want as they wont lure off my property. so im not allowed to train at that club...coz i wont use their methods. i also see little use in training solely with 1 reward i cant give instantly - if the dog will work for praise i would always choose that over food. in the event 1 went for a wander i would want to be able to reward on return no matter what - not wait until i had some food later. it greatly depends what you want from your dog and what your expectations are from your training... for most well mannered pet dogs - the simple food motivator techniques are very good and often overlooked, altho i tend to be of the opinion for more advanced stuff like trialling etc something else is required - what, will depend on the individual dog and their drives