nice dogs!

Did you also had a dog that took part? How did it go?

Curious Aardvark wrote on Feb 17^th, 2012 at 6:52am:


No, this is the Akita that is currently bred in Japan. There is a bigger dog, now called the American Akita, that is more common in the English-speaking countries. The American-style dogs retain a lot of non-Japanese features that came from mixing in foreign breeds with the native hunting dog to produce fighting dogs. The Japanese were in the process of "purifying" when WWII intervened, and postwar they took to selling the culls to Americans. Breed standards are quite different in some respects, especially coat colors, and actual features are also different, especially body proportions, muzzle shape, eyes, etc. In 1973 the Akita Club of America closed its stud book, so the American Akitas are all descended from those big dogs with Mastiff muzzles, Saint Bernard color schemes, German Shepherd ears, all those features. The FCI (international dog federation) recognizes the two breeds as separate.

A Shiba is about the size (not shape) of a 2 or 3 month old Akita, so it woud be a bit hard to cross them.

Huge? The Japanese standard calls for 45 Kg, about 100 pounds, though they seldom get that big. usually 85 or so. Breeders of the American style advertise 130 to 150 pounds sometimes, so yeah, huge. That's the males.

200 pounds?  I'm not sure an Akita's bone structure would hold up under that for long. Too much weight contributes to non-genetic hip displasia, a problem with big Akitas.