KumaAkita

Wow SnoPaws - that's a stunning dog...

Thanks T-Time, you answered the question I was about to ask. I would have thought that euthanisation would be for those where the colour could lead to ill-health, not necessarily because it isn't "standard"

I'll add some from home - work computer doesn't have any workable design programs! ETA: competing with TN and Shell is going to be a huge challenge, awesome photos!

Then Kuma must have some Ridgy in him! His "ruff" is lovely, he has a happy ridge "yay, friends! Let's play!" and a narky ridge "oi u, get out of my yard"

Don't wanna hijack the thread so will PM

We get this alot too! Last time was when we were buying the biggest bag of dog food (PetBarn had a special deal ) and one of the shop people said, "that'll last, what two weeks?" You'd be surprised how little my boy eats! Those big bags last us 6-8 weeks (think they're about 15Kg bags)

RIP Suki. Dwynwen, she looks like she was a lovely boofer. Sending Akita leans to you

It's only really a worry when he's been lying on the concrete patio for hours... or sleeping in the car. If it progresses to a limp after exercise then we should worry. From now on, just keeping an eye on him. Kuma loves the vet tho - she was at his puppy classes, so was all wigglybum excited to see her. He even kissed her - right on the mouth. She wasn't expecting it and nearly died

Great pics Pandii - :D @ 1st photo of Sebbi... "i tired must stopzzzzz....."

heheheh.... Kuma only goes half way aswell, that's our trick for obedience - lump dog!

Morning all... Yeah, it's kinda new. The vet reckons he gets dead leg from lying on it too much, and we should keep an eye on him to make sure it doesn't progress to anything worse. Poor Vet was a slip of a thing and she stuggled to get Kuma to flex his legs! :D She got the male vet to come in and he had trouble too! If it gets worse they'll have to sedate him and take xrays and do movement tests when he's asleep... We weighed him last night - 45Kg. He hasn't changed much in the last couple of months, but is filling out not putting on weight. Weird. He has another 6-12 months of growing left! KTB: I can't watch too many of your vids - they are too heart breaking. I'd love to take all the doggies home, but think Kuma may have an issue if I do that! Great pics so far, I'm sure your effort will help get them homes. Max#1: Sorry it didn't work out - I'm sure you'll find a companion soon...

not that it adds much to the conversation, but when I was younger our neighbours got a kitten and a puppy on the same day. The puppy was the obvious favourite, and one night we had a little ginger kitten at our back door... we put it back over the fence. It kept coming over and hanging out at our house, the owners blamed our fence so dad fixed it and said if the cat comes back it stays. He was back in our yard in 40 mins, coz he had to go the long way around That's the story of Nigel No Friends... he stayed with us until he died at about 15 years old, he never went back to his original owners. I think whatever you do, be prepared to put effort into both animals to ensure they adapt...

So I have been a bit neglectful in reading all the posts over the last couple of days - think I have caught up: Kuma can push our baby gate over, but has only done it once and didn't leave the room! He just stayed where he was... think he may have scared himself. I now use the mat that came with the soft crate, it's fluffy on one side and plastic on the other. I don't think it really matters if the dog can fit or not - one of the dogs in Kuma's class, Jethro the Lab, uses a car mat! I think it's just the concept of going to a specific spot... I found it sooo interesting - Kuma does not enjoy training (and neither to do I) so I needed to find other ways to make him engaged. He has a huge prey drive, so we are going to focus on that, instead of stuffing treats in his mouth that he's really not interested in. Thank doG I have a few months to prepare myself for Kyojin's!!! Think I best be getting myself a force dryer. I showed the OH last night, when I opened my iPad this morning I see that he's been looking at buying one! It would make life sooooo much easier. I think that the dog in that example was a bit older than Kuma, she seemed to have a full adult coat whereas my boy only has his adolescent coat. I definitely want a force dryer before his first adult blow! At least he only blows twice a year... he doesn't lose too much fur in between... He would stand like that too, he absolutely loves being brushed at the moment - I think he's really itchy, so the rake comb is hitting "the spot"! Max#1 We're a one dog family, and think we'll probably stay that way. Mainly because we don't have a huge backyard, and I think Kuma may be an only child type dog. But, you never know!! In other news, we're off to the Vet tonight. When we met with Steve he noticed that Kuma is favouring his rear left leg... don't think it's a major issue, but best to be safe than sorry. hmmm... I think I got everything. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the weather ( )

hey all... just searching youtube to see what I'm in for with Kuma's coat blow:

Turns out Kuma decided that the OH hadn't dug the holes properly and felt the need to "reshape" them... we have a hi-vis vest and hard hat at home, I'll try and organise a photo shoot! +1

Greetings all... it has been a long, long, big, eventful day. Last night, Kuma decided that it would be awesome to bark at shadows - at 11:00pm ish, and again at 1:00 am ish. Both times I'm in the deepest sleep and drag myself outside to quieten him. Think we'll start having him sleep inside from now on - otherwise I don't think I'll get another full nights sleep! We got up early and drove up to Sydney to meet with Steve - OH got a bit over-excited about the travel and made us leave REALLY early. We were there about an hour and half early, so we got to see the highlights of Kurrajong shopping village . We got to Steve's place and had to wait a while as he was out on a house call, but that was fine... Kuma was very well behaved. Steve said that he has a really sound temperament and that we just have a few things to work on, so we keep him being a solidly well behaved awesome dog. Most interesting thing was how to train him properly. i.e. that the style of obedience taught at BDOC probably isn't going to be the best way to get him to do anything. I found that really interesting, and it really struck a chord about how he behaves in classes and that the repetitions are not the right style of training. He said I should use the time differently and start training in drive - not clicker training... I may just lurk around a class and use them as an increased amount of distraction for our training. I do not envisage that we will become champion triallers, but hey... we could achieve anything. My lovely boy is sound asleep on the floor next to me, he has been sleeping soundly ever since we got home... funny little guy. Didn't have breakky this morning as we don't feed him before we travel, and then he's been too tired to have dinner tonight. He'll be ravenous in the morning! I am not going to BDOC tomorrow - I have too much to do around the house after a day away, as well as being away a few days during the week, that spending a few hours of my time at the grounds is not going to be the best use of my time. Sorry folks - next week! KTB: Yep, there was an aura reading and a group hug, highly suggest you try it out Glad Hoover's baldness isn't anything too serious... Wuffles: Sorry we couldn't join you on your walk - looks like you guys had a great time! Lovely Ava under the curtain I don't think Kuma's been around a severe thunder storm... wonder how he'll cope. He got a bit worked up in the car as we were driving through some heavy rain - mainly because it was soooo loud bouncing off the roof of the car! Ravenau1: cuuuutteee photos of the puppies! Do you know which one is yours? Niques: Poor James - hope his ear is on the mend Belgian.Blue: I haven't gotten anything other than pigs ears for Kuma - except one of those dried rawhide bones... it was a cheapie from the local hardware store. We got it about 3 months ago and Kuma's still nomming on it. I have seen the cow hooves, may try them out when this bone is finally done with. Ok - did I miss anyone??? sorry if I have, I'm absolutely ratsh*t tired. I think I'll be in bed very shortly!

new photos! OH was digging some footings for a couple of feature wall type thingies, Kuma appointed himself foreman and just coz he's cute

;)

+1

Would love to Wuffles, but we're off to have a play date with Steve at K9Pro!! How'd training go last night? KTB - poor Hoover and his bald patch - hope it's nothing serious! Hollar if you need help with your furkids at any time. Kuma will be more than happy to entertain them if needed! (see, i started giving away his things, now he has to start working for a living!). Your boys seems to be getting better at co-habitating! I do think that the photo of Hoover staring at the rock should be captioned "levitate damn you! levitate!" In other news... I got stopped this morning by a mature Indian gentleman who was petrified of dogs, I made Kuma sit and wait until he had passed. This guy was absolutely scared whittless by dogs. Kuma didn't disgrace himself, was calm and let him pass - curiously watching him the whole time. A little futher up the road there was this guy who is putting in grass around the local ponds. He said that Kuma was a very obedient dog - snaps to my puppy! Hope you're all enjoying your Friday!

He's from Gaelforce Kennels. Possibly maybe more towards NSW border? Ah ha! Yep, they're just ouside the ACT... I got Kuma from Daykeyne and I know Tabatha also breeds Pointers, just wondered if we shared a breeder! Your guys are beautiful! I've managed to waste most of this afternoon, and am thinking of sneaking off - wonder if anyone will notice!

howdy folks... been away for work (again) and have been lurking while I should be in meetings/conference sessions... KTB - hugs for you, Mr KTB and Papa Koala. hmmm, lets see what else I missed... belgian.blue: what beautfiul doggies you have... Badger's from Canberra eh? Wouldn't happen to come from Daykeyne pointers? ravenau1: ooohhh, lovely puppy shots. You must be getting a touch excited now! Lilly_star: Roo's a lucky girl getting such a big bunch of toys! Kuma is lacking in the toy department, but I'm not allowed to buy anymore!! Glad she was ok while you were out. Apparently Kuma started howling at the moon at 4:00 am yesterday morning - just kinda sleeping in the middle of the yard howling... that makes for great neighbourhood relationships! He's normally pretty good, so he must have been dreaming about something that kicked him off! I was in Sydney so the OH had to deal with it on his own (awww... shame ) Wuffles: Good luck with Satch tonight... I feel your pain! You can drop Ava off at our house, she and Kuma can do Zoomies around our yard, no worries!! Apologies to anyone I have missed... I'm lacking sleep and short on time

Kuma does this! He loves dirty undies and socks. I'm sure he has a Death To Socks thing going on... Other favourite toys... he had bunny (see back a few pages for the death of bunny photos) which we gave to the breeder to have with the pack for a week or so before he came home to us. Apparently his Granddaddy Treason took a real liking to bunny, and was really gentle with it. Bunny was slept on, carried, loved, sucked, chewed... and now is armless and legless... If you have the option of sending a stuffed toy to your breeder, I'd highly recommend it. It comes home with the scent of the pack and I beleive helps them settle in with you a bit easier. As a pup, he loved powerade bottles (coz they were tougher and didn't deform so easily) and would roll them around the place! We also played fetch with them. We had puppy kongs and he didn't really like them. His ultimate all time favourite toy is the couple of metres of Ag pipe that got left the back yard, he pounces, chases, chews and carries this all around the back yard. It's a classic. He also loves playing soccer - got one of those balls with the rope attached, he keeps himself entertained for hours with that thing! Thanks for the kind words about my boofer... I'm sure that we'll be apples next time we go to training. He had fun playing with Ava - he's getting faster, but Ava still runs rings around him!

We walk at 5:30 every weekday morning - regardless of the weather. I look like the Michelin man in winter with a beanie, a couple of coats, scarf, gloves, longjohns, trackies... Kuma's got his thick wooly coat, so he's fine! We will sometimes walk on weekends, but he will always have obedience or other longer play sessions on the weekend. He has migrated to sleeping outside in his kennel as he's gotten older. He loves to lie on our concrete patio or in the dirt... He's inside when he wants to, but prefers to spend time outside. We are thinking we may have to keep inside on Saturday nights as the weather warms up and our neighbours start getting home late - last two saturday nights he's been barking at shaddows in the wee hours! Doesn't make for neighbourhood harmony

The best advice would be not to start until growth plates have closed - that's later in larger breeds than in smaller ones. For an Akita? I'd probably wait until 18 months old unless you want to x-ray the growth plates earlier. I'd not do that before about 14 months. Thanks PF, will stick to walking for a bit longer