Need Help With Japanese Spitz

[BC Crazy]

Might be a good idea if you just get a couple of toys of different textures & shapes. Maybe a small tug toy & engage him. Play with Maple. See what he reacts to or seems to like. He might like a little ball or an empty milk bottle. Kongs are great for a novel way to keep him occupied. A smear of cottage cheese or light peanut butter inside, most dogs love them. I give my 2 their brekkie in a Kong. They are on a mostly raw diet so I fill them with home made barf & à sardine topper. They love it. Summer time I freeze them sometimes.

Exercise is very important to help let off some steam. Walks are great. I find incorporating some simple obedience. Sits, stays,downs whatever. Maybe start teaching him some simple tricks. Rewarding wanted behaviour & ignoring the unwanted.

IMHO you need to start to enage him. It will help you to bond with him & keep him mentally stimulated in apartment accomodation.

Hope this is of some help. Just things that have worked for me :)

Edited September 7, 2013 by BC Crazy

[RuralPug]

Maple is very handsome.

If you are unsure of his lineage, he could be the less common German Spitz (Mittel) and has been misidentified as Japanese because he happens to be white.

The Mittel standard says they should only be up to 11kg, so he is still oversize (although apparently there is a variety in Europe up to 20kg, so maybe larger dogs are in the lines.)

I would also agree with quickie toilet breaks for him holding for such as length of time frequently is not good for his long-term health.

I wonder if he will be more talkative in a few weeks, when he feels more settled and comfortable in his new home?

[dancinbcs]

The height standard on JS was dropped a few years back so it is a constant battle to keep the size down to the required 13.5" to 14.5" with many males still topping 15" but certainly not over 15.5". My little guy is at the bottom of the standard, at 13.5" and 6.5kgs. An average full grown male of 14.5" now weighs about 8-9 kgs so Maple is nearly twice as big as the breed should be. The odd oversize male up to 10-12kgs does turn up occasionally in many lines but I cannot even imagine 15.5kgs. That is as big as some Border Collie bitches. JS are popular with puppy farmers who would no doubt stick to the bigger ones and keep breeding the size up, ignoring the breed requirement for movement to be light and nimble. Bigger bitches tend to have bigger litters, resulting in more profit so my guess is that he may be purebred but badly bred, most likely from puppy farm stock. He looks like a typical unregistered JS, not the show lines with their smaller size, much smaller ears and refined features.

JS are fastidiously clean and easy to house train but you need to encourage him to not hold on so long byy taking him out more. The breed should be very energetic and are usually rather noisy as they are alarm dogs that bark at anything unusual. Mine is at the very top end of energetic and middle for noisy and there are some that are lazier and quieter but Maple does sound extreme in that regard. Maybe a full vet check would be a good idea. It could also be that he is a lot older than you have been told.

[persephone]

Can you easily feel his ribs ? he may be disinclined to do anything because he is a bit heavier ? ;)

I missed how old he is?

tHERE ARE SOME LINKS BELOW WHICH MAY GIVE YOU SOME IDEAS :)

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[dancinbcs]

Can you easily feel his ribs ? he may be disinclined to do anything because he is a bit heavier ? ;)

I missed how old he is?

tHERE ARE SOME LINKS BELOW WHICH MAY GIVE YOU SOME IDEAS :)

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

He is supposed to only be 11 months. At that age mine was still bouncing off the walls and destroying his toys all day. Even now at two he is on the go most of the day and runs zoomies at least once a day.

[BC Crazy]

The height standard on JS was dropped a few years back so it is a constant battle to keep the size down to the required 13.5" to 14.5" with many males still topping 15" but certainly not over 15.5". My little guy is at the bottom of the standard, at 13.5" and 6.5kgs. An average full grown male of 14.5" now weighs about 8-9 kgs so Maple is nearly twice as big as the breed should be. The odd oversize male up to 10-12kgs does turn up occasionally in many lines but I cannot even imagine 15.5kgs. That is as big as some Border Collie bitches. JS are popular with puppy farmers who would no doubt stick to the bigger ones and keep breeding the size up, ignoring the breed requirement for movement to be light and nimble. Bigger bitches tend to have bigger litters, resulting in more profit so my guess is that he may be purebred but badly bred, most likely from puppy farm stock. He looks like a typical unregistered JS, not the show lines with their smaller size, much smaller ears and refined features.

JS are fastidiously clean and easy to house train but you need to encourage him to not hold on so long byy taking him out more. The breed should be very energetic and are usually rather noisy as they are alarm dogs that bark at anything unusual. Mine is at the very top end of energetic and middle for noisy and there are some that are lazier and quieter but Maple does sound extreme in that regard. Maybe a full vet check would be a good idea. It could also be that he is a lot older than you have been told.

I was unaware that the JS where popular with puppy farmers Dancinbc's Coincidently just yesterday I bumped a lady with a brother & sister pair of puppies.

I asked her what breed they were as they looked like white Pom's. She replied she had brought them from a reg. breeder & they were JS x Pom . A new breed she informs me. Oh dear.....

With regards to Maple I was also concerned that a JS 12 months old was apparently that quiet. Not the norm for a puppy that age I wouldn't think either.

[persephone]

Mind you ... if he has been kept as an in-house puppy/dog and not played with etc .. he may be just that way .Mind you , I like JS's as they are usually so sparky and active ;)

Clarabelle , what was the vet's opinion when you took him for his "I have a new dog , can you check to see if everything is ok?" checkup?

(I am presuming he is up-to-date with vaccs, and is desexed?)

[Clarabelle]

Mind you ... if he has been kept as an in-house puppy/dog and not played with etc .. he may be just that way .Mind you , I like JS's as they are usually so sparky and active ;)

Clarabelle , what was the vet's opinion when you took him for his "I have a new dog , can you check to see if everything is ok?" checkup?

(I am presuming he is up-to-date with vaccs, and is desexed?)

oh dear.... reading those comments made me worry. I will bring him to a vet next thing tomorrow. He is really quiet.. not at all active and sparkly. ( unless we get really excited then he would get excited too , or else he would just sit or lay by our feet as we're on the computer etc.. ) He gets excited by food mostly (haha) And i haven't brought him to the vet yet because, the previous owners just got him vaccinated 3 days before we bought him over, c5 c3 so it didnt occur to me to visit the vet again so soon. They handed us a receipt with his microchip number on it. He is also desexed, he has no testicles. I just started trying to cut down on his food and feed him fish and he now weighs 13.6 kg. We put dry food out and he doesn't finish it. ( previous owners asked us to give 1.5 cups ) we're cutting to just fish in the morning ( twice a week) and raw chicken necks for breakfast and dry food ( 1 cup ) for dinner. We walk him twice early morning for him to poop pee about 10 mins for so, and then evening for an hour or so. He is doing very well with obedience training, we train him twice a day, he can obey sit, lay and leave it.

[persephone]

:) It's sounding good - and if he is a lovely calm dog , then that's great!! It is always wise though to get any new dog/pup to your own vet as soon as you can after getting it - as an introduction , and a checkup to make sure all is as it should be :) he sounds as if he is getting a lot of food ;)

If he is overweight ( you cannot feel any ribs easily with your fingers) the easisest way I've found is to just give 1/2 what they were being fed . That and exercise, and it usually works , with no drama.

Good for you in doing the training too

[Clarabelle]

The height standard on JS was dropped a few years back so it is a constant battle to keep the size down to the required 13.5" to 14.5" with many males still topping 15" but certainly not over 15.5". My little guy is at the bottom of the standard, at 13.5" and 6.5kgs. An average full grown male of 14.5" now weighs about 8-9 kgs so Maple is nearly twice as big as the breed should be. The odd oversize male up to 10-12kgs does turn up occasionally in many lines but I cannot even imagine 15.5kgs. That is as big as some Border Collie bitches. JS are popular with puppy farmers who would no doubt stick to the bigger ones and keep breeding the size up, ignoring the breed requirement for movement to be light and nimble. Bigger bitches tend to have bigger litters, resulting in more profit so my guess is that he may be purebred but badly bred, most likely from puppy farm stock. He looks like a typical unregistered JS, not the show lines with their smaller size, much smaller ears and refined features.

JS are fastidiously clean and easy to house train but you need to encourage him to not hold on so long byy taking him out more. The breed should be very energetic and are usually rather noisy as they are alarm dogs that bark at anything unusual. Mine is at the very top end of energetic and middle for noisy and there are some that are lazier and quieter but Maple does sound extreme in that regard. Maybe a full vet check would be a good idea. It could also be that he is a lot older than you have been told.

I'll go to the vet and hopefully he can tell me what age he is. I got a JS thinking exactly that, of having an energetic puppy around. Maple just seem like a company dog, he does seek out for affection but not attention ( he wont bark or bite to get attention like other puppies we had, he doesn't bite/nibble while we play with him either) How much does your puppy sleep? maple sleeps a lot . everytime we're not doing something with him he'll either take a stroll around the apartment or just sleep . (usually sleep)

[persephone]

( he wont bark or bite to get attention like other puppies we had, he doesn't bite/nibble while we play with him either)

:D sounds perffect !!! Biting/nibbling/barking pups/dogs are not what most people (including me ) want !

[Pattycake]

He sounds like a lovely chilled out little guy, I would be very happy with him not chewing things :)

Once he settles in more (and loses a bit of weight if needed) he might get more energetic. Once you see the vet they should give you a better idea of if he needs to lose weight or if indeed he is older than you have been told and out of the 'puppy' stage.

[BC Crazy]

Mind you ... if he has been kept as an in-house puppy/dog and not played with etc .. he may be just that way .Mind you , I like JS's as they are usually so sparky and active ;)

Clarabelle , what was the vet's opinion when you took him for his "I have a new dog , can you check to see if everything is ok?" checkup?

(I am presuming he is up-to-date with vaccs, and is desexed?)

oh dear.... reading those comments made me worry. I will bring him to a vet next thing tomorrow. He is really quiet.. not at all active and sparkly. ( unless we get really excited then he would get excited too , or else he would just sit or lay by our feet as we're on the computer etc.. ) He gets excited by food mostly (haha) And i haven't brought him to the vet yet because, the previous owners just got him vaccinated 3 days before we bought him over, c5 c3 so it didnt occur to me to visit the vet again so soon. They handed us a receipt with his microchip number on it. He is also desexed, he has no testicles. I just started trying to cut down on his food and feed him fish and he now weighs 13.6 kg. We put dry food out and he doesn't finish it. ( previous owners asked us to give 1.5 cups ) we're cutting to just fish in the morning ( twice a week) and raw chicken necks for breakfast and dry food ( 1 cup ) for dinner. We walk him twice early morning for him to poop pee about 10 mins for so, and then evening for an hour or so. He is doing very well with obedience training, we train him twice a day, he can obey sit, lay and leave it.

Try not to worry too much :) See what the Vet's visit brings. Maple may just be a quiet kind of fella. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. How about we swap furkids for a week :laugh: you can take care of my

girl, Stella & I'll look after your Maple. I feel like a rest :p You will need a rest after a week with my little miss. She is a 100 miles an hour with attitude to burn :laugh:

On a more serious note. I'm so pleased you are cutting down Maple's food. 1.5 cups of dry food, provided it is a good quality one IMHO is WAY too much for him especially as it is not all he gets. My neutured Border Collie only

has half a cup + some home made Barf a day & he is 23 kilo's. He is also exercised 2 hours a day.

Lovely to hear he is now having more frequent wee walks & you've started training him too. Well done Your doing really great with him clarabelle. Keep us posted on the Vets visit please :)

Edited September 8, 2013 by BC Crazy

[luvsdogs]

Mind you ... if he has been kept as an in-house puppy/dog and not played with etc .. he may be just that way .Mind you , I like JS's as they are usually so sparky and active ;)

Clarabelle , what was the vet's opinion when you took him for his "I have a new dog , can you check to see if everything is ok?" checkup?

(I am presuming he is up-to-date with vaccs, and is desexed?)

oh dear.... reading those comments made me worry. I will bring him to a vet next thing tomorrow. He is really quiet.. not at all active and sparkly. ( unless we get really excited then he would get excited too , or else he would just sit or lay by our feet as we're on the computer etc.. ) He gets excited by food mostly (haha) And i haven't brought him to the vet yet because, the previous owners just got him vaccinated 3 days before we bought him over, c5 c3 so it didnt occur to me to visit the vet again so soon. They handed us a receipt with his microchip number on it. He is also desexed, he has no testicles. I just started trying to cut down on his food and feed him fish and he now weighs 13.6 kg. We put dry food out and he doesn't finish it. ( previous owners asked us to give 1.5 cups ) we're cutting to just fish in the morning ( twice a week) and raw chicken necks for breakfast and dry food ( 1 cup ) for dinner. We walk him twice early morning for him to poop pee about 10 mins for so, and then evening for an hour or so. He is doing very well with obedience training, we train him twice a day, he can obey sit, lay and leave it.

Well done on making improvements with his exercise. My boy isn't that lively either apart from playing with my Border Collie several times a day & a daily zoomie. He's also not destructive, only chews up the occasional peg or tissue.

Not to worry you further but did the previous owners give you a sterilisation certificate with the vac & microchip papers? Does he look recently shaved for desexing? I ask because my little boy had retained testicles & had to be spayed like the females are. Also chicken necks aren't a good choice for raw bones, much better to have a couple of lamb ribs/shanks or chicken legs. One of either is all my guy gets per day & he's starting to get a little tubby. He does a happy dance at meal times. I don't give him kibble because of his teeth. The raw meaty bone diet is to get his teeth reasonably clean. It's a long battle in his case.

[Clarabelle]

Just came back from the vets ... Oh god ): it was a nightmare... First he tried to bite the vet, ( I couldn't believe my eyes) then when the vet tried to muzzle it, he literally leapt off that high table and almost choked himself because of the leash around his neck. The vet told me he is at least 2 years old, ( so the previous owner lied about his age) and is severely overweight, ( cause he said he could feel tons of fats around his rib area ). I had to do a DNA test to confirm his breed. Paying that 130 bucks was least of the problems, he looked TERRIFIED when the needle went into him. It took 3 people, me, my boyfriend and another helper to hold him down before the vet could draw his blood. We think that the previous owner just fed it whatever from the dinner table and couldn't care less about his health.. I was also told by the vet to be stricter to him so on the walk home, I was so strict and he did heel way better, but when we got home, he usually comes and snuggle by my leg etc. but he didnt, and just stayed in his bed. ): ah ): bad dayyyy.

Edited September 9, 2013 by Clarabelle

[persephone]

Oh Dear ... sounds as if the vet visit was very upsetting

Just a note here - vets are not experts in dog behaviour/training ... so perhaps take their comments with a grain of salt ,so to speak ..... Your poor boy must have been so scared -

he stayed in bed ,probably because the stress of the visit , and , on top of that , your new method of 'being strict' left him feeling exhausted and unhappy.

What did the vet say about him diet-wise?

Edited September 9, 2013 by persephone

[OSoSwift]

Yep see a trainer for training advice not a vet.

It has been a huge day for you both so just take it one step at a time.,

1.5 cups of dry food a day is an enormous amount for a dog that size. Over time when he drops some weight and gets fitter he should become more energetic.

[Salukifan]

Just came back from the vets ... Oh god ): it was a nightmare... First he tried to bite the vet, ( I couldn't believe my eyes) then when the vet tried to muzzle it, he literally leapt off that high table and almost choked himself because of the leash around his neck. The vet told me he is at least 2 years old, ( so the previous owner lied about his age) and is severely overweight, ( cause he said he could feel tons of fats around his rib area ). I had to do a DNA test to confirm his breed. Paying that 130 bucks was least of the problems, he looked TERRIFIED when the needle went into him. It took 3 people, me, my boyfriend and another helper to hold him down before the vet could draw his blood. We think that the previous owner just fed it whatever from the dinner table and couldn't care less about his health.. I was also told by the vet to be stricter to him so on the walk home, I was so strict and he did heel way better, but when we got home, he usually comes and snuggle by my leg etc. but he didnt, and just stayed in his bed. ): ah ): bad dayyyy.

I'd not be banking on that DNA test to confirm anything breed wise - its not an exact science and members here have had some pretty iffy results.

A frightened dog will do a lot of things you might not expect.

I would recommend you go to dog training - in addition to teaching you some skills, its a great way to bond with your dog.

Getting weight off him should see him become more lively.

Edited September 9, 2013 by Haredown Whippets

[Clarabelle]

Oh Dear ... sounds as if the vet visit was very upsetting

Just a note here - vets are not experts in dog behaviour/training ... so perhaps take their comments with a grain of salt ,so to speak ..... Your poor boy must have been so scared -

he stayed in bed ,probably because the stress of the visit , and , on top of that , your new method of 'being strict' left him feeling exhausted and unhappy.

What did the vet say about him diet-wise?

Vet told me to just cut down to half cup kibble twice a day . He's not responding when I call him to come now ): aw heart broken .

[Clarabelle]

Just came back from the vets ... Oh god ): it was a nightmare... First he tried to bite the vet, ( I couldn't believe my eyes) then when the vet tried to muzzle it, he literally leapt off that high table and almost choked himself because of the leash around his neck. The vet told me he is at least 2 years old, ( so the previous owner lied about his age) and is severely overweight, ( cause he said he could feel tons of fats around his rib area ). I had to do a DNA test to confirm his breed. Paying that 130 bucks was least of the problems, he looked TERRIFIED when the needle went into him. It took 3 people, me, my boyfriend and another helper to hold him down before the vet could draw his blood. We think that the previous owner just fed it whatever from the dinner table and couldn't care less about his health.. I was also told by the vet to be stricter to him so on the walk home, I was so strict and he did heel way better, but when we got home, he usually comes and snuggle by my leg etc. but he didnt, and just stayed in his bed. ): ah ): bad dayyyy.

I'd not be banking on that DNA test to confirm anything breed wise - its not an exact science and members here have had some pretty iffy results.

A frightened dog will do a lot of things you might not expect.

I would recommend you go to dog training - in addition to teaching you some skills, its a great way to bond with your dog.

Getting weight off him should see him become more lively.

Yeah I will consider dog training (: man .. I should've consulted you guys before that DNA test then . To save the $$