Dog Blog

We're back!

2009-08-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

so it was inevitable that with moving house we'd have a period with no internet connection. So, here's an update on what's been happening.

Obviously we finally moved into our house. That was stressful enough. Finding imperfections and bad DIY that was covered by furniture when I last saw the place is a bit disheartening, but seeing Tiger pacing out his new garden made up for it. There's a lot more work needs doing to this house than I thought but such is life.

First, the bad. Tiger had an incident where his lead snapped and he approached another dog while Claire was trying to catch up with him. The other dog happened to be a Japanese Tosa puppy (about 1 year old, and illegal in this country), and his owner had trained him to 'defend'. The dog bit Tiger in the cheek and held on, causing a lot of blood, a lot of screaming and the idiot with the dog bragging about his 'fighting dog'. I took Tiger to the vets, he had superficial cuts to his cheek but no stitches were needed and he got away with a course of antibiotics (and a £60 bill for me).

Backtracking slightly, the day before this happened he had his first visit to the vets. He was pretty well behaved, sat under my chair and let the vet handle him with no problems. He didn't even flinch at his first set of injections, and came away with a clean bill of health and some worming tablets, which he hate with his tea no problems.

Since the incident with the Tosa we decided to try muzzling Tiger. It took a lot of attempts to find one that fits his enormous head, but now when we walk him, he's a lot calmer, and more importantly, the people we meet on the walks are calmer, which I think he's picked up on. He's slowly progressing with his socializing with other dogs, he sometimes has a sniff, or allows a sniff, but every now and then he goes back to square one with his jumping, usually depending on how well behaved the other dog is. Having the muzzle on has the slight drawbacks that he looks slightly less magnificent with it on, and he spends the first five minutes of every walk trying to get it off, but the pro's mean he and the other dogs get a much better walk, he can get closer to other dogs more often and hopefully will learn some good manners eventually.

One episode stuck in my mind, he was playing with a white husky, no issues, then an old german shepherd bitch called Storm roamed into view. He went up to Storm, they sniffed each others backsides, which is the first time he's done that (both dogs at the same time), and I was thinking "great, he's getting some manners!". No sooner had I thought it than Mr cocky Akita tries to mount the poor old dear. She responds with a little growl and he climbs down. Tiger definitely needs to learn about dating.

His training is progressing steadily. He responds well to the clicker, but I'm trying to not do too much with him all in one go. He's got a pretty reliable sit and stay, a slightly reluctant down, and a surprisingly good 'leave it'. I've decided I'm going to concentrate on one behavior until he's got it on cue, because its one thing to do it for a click and a treat, but another thing altogether to do it in a park full of interesting smells and dogs.

Another thing the clicker has helped with is his medication. He ate his antibiotics with his food for the first three days, but on the fourth day I found he'd managed to dig it out of the piece of chicken and eat everything but the tablet. Today I thought I'd try using the clicker to help. I poured out his dry food into his bowl, which he usually gets to eat with a good on cue 'sit', but i took it through to another room, and fed it to him by hand one piece at a time, click, then eat, and so on. About halfway through I picked up about five pieces and the tablet, and wouldn't proceed until he'd eaten them all, which he eventually got and got rewarded with a lot of dry food.

On the whole he's settling in pretty well, still has a few issues, but the good far outweighs the bad. Now for some pics

The staffie in the pictures is my moms dog, Amber, who's an excitable little fat staff. The bottom pictures are in our new garden, on his first night here. We'll get some daytime pictures soon so you can see how big it is. Job 1 in the new house is to raise those fences to 6 feet so he can be off leash in his own garden.

Moving Day

2009-08-15T10:00:00.001-07:00

We pick up Tiger tomorrow afternoon. I'm so excited!

Claire.

Tiger makes some progress!

2009-08-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today I took Tiger out with my brother Lee and his girlfriend Nikki. She has a lurcher called Bailey and we decided to try and walk them together. Given Tiger's previous encounters with other dogs, this wasn't going to be a sunday afternoon stroll. As soon as they saw each other they were having a bark and trying to get at each other, but a little less than usual. Sensing a slight advantage, I let them get close to each other, and they jumped at each other and pawed, slightly playlike, if a little rough.

We took them both over Bunkers Hill, which is a nice little walk in Wollaston, near Stourbridge, not too far from where they live. Bailey's ok off the lead, wheras Tiger's not, so for the first five minutes, Tiger was pulling this way and that trying to follow Bailey. After this, he chilled out immediately and we could walk the two together with no aggression from either side. They progressed through the walk to the point where they were licking each others faces. I was over the moon as it showed me Tiger can be around other dogs with some work.

About an hour into the walk we came up against an off leash rottweiler puppy (maybe 11 months). I was a little apprehensive as I thought a negative experience might ruin everything we'd built up, but we let Bailey run down to the rottie first, then Tiger, good as gold, went over and copied exactly what Bailey had done, even gave the rottie a little lick on the nose, before walking on, completely unfussed.

He met two other dogs on the walk, one who the owner warned us was aggressive (although was small enough to fit into tigers mouth whole, I'd say), which he just walked straight past, and a collie he politely sniffed and walked on.

My brother caught some of it on video, albeit on his camera phone. Unfortunately he missed all the good stuff, because his camera makes a noise that Bailey always comes back to investigate, but it gives you the general relaxed picture of the walk.

Tiger Goes To Clent, Makes An Enemy, Makes A Friend.

2009-08-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

We had Tiger again on Thursday, for a bit longer than last time so we took him to Clent Hills, which is a nearby set of hills that are on the slightly picturesque side. The day started off fine, Tiger got straight into his cage in the car, then came out nicely and got back in again when we had met up with Claire's dad, who was meeting Tiger for the first time. On the way to Clent, the bottom slipped on the cage as I hit a pothole, and Tiger got his foot slightly caught. We didn't think anything of it at the time. We got to Clent and started walking him and he loved it. He was really curious about the horses and cows, but certainly didn't seem to want to eat them.

Claire's dad, who likes his running, wanted to see if such a big dog could keep up being handled whilst running. Turns out he can.

Here he is having a look at some distant livestock.

He walked for about 2 hours, then we went back to the car. When we opened the cage for him, he wouldn't go near it. At the time I didn't remember the pothole, and for about 30 minutes we tried to get him to go in, lifting him made him growl, and neither of us can lift him without putting our face near his mouth. Whilst we were thinking about how best to proceed, along comes some old gent with his golden retriever. This was the point that we found out that Tiger really hates golden retrievers. Much pulling and barking ensued, the old man thought it was funny, We didn't. As I know Tiger is very well behaved in the seats of a car, I tried him in the back seats, which he jumped into straight away, leading me to believe its really just the cage he doesn't like.

We took him to Warley Woods after that, which is really more of a park than woods. Anyway, we're pretty much the only people in those woods that keep their dog on a lead. There were dozens of different sized dogs running and fighting with each other. Tiger did pretty well most of the way around the park. There was an incident where some kind of whippet in a muzzle ran over to him snarling, and at the same time a blind shiba inu wandered into his path. His head kind of did a double take on which he was going to deal with first, but Claire got a piece of cheese in front of his nose and got him doing some obedience commands, which diverted his attention while the whippets owner got a lead on him. Negative into a positive.

The next encounter didn't go so well. An off leash Golden retriever decided he would wander over and sniff Tiger's butt. A number of Akita owners have told me that they really don't like this, especially from strange dogs, and Tiger is no exception. Fortunately, if you can get his attention on something else he calms right down, so a quick distraction tap and walk off in the other direction and he's forgotten about it, but the retriever wanted some more action, so he follows. Tiger tried to get at him, Claire moved him along again. The retriever owner, who was an old lady, gave us a tut.

We gave him a few hours in the park, where he had a few good walk-pasts, and without wanting to push him too hard in one go, I'd be happy with a few consistent walk pasts. We went back to the car and had the same debacle with the cage, which put Tiger in a grumpy mood. A Dalmatian owner decided to take this opportunity to park his car next to ours and let his unleashed Dalmatian out. Tiger wasn't happy. I took him on a short walk up and down the path to try and work him out a bit more, then he passed a lady with an Anatolian Shepherd puppy (which was as big as Tiger), and he didn't bat an eyelid at him. So I spoke to the lady, and it turns out we work for the same organization, and she was having the same issue with off leash dogs and training her pup to get along with them. We did about twenty successful walk pasts, for both dogs, and got them pretty close to each other and they stayed relaxed, which is good progress. Watching Tiger's behavior here, since we've had him I've been trying to work out if he wants to play or he's being aggressive, but with the Anatolian Shepherd I've settled on the fact that he's confused. He just doesn't understand how to behave around other dogs, further reinforced by the fact he didn't really care about the plentitude of birds, rabbits, horses and cows he'd successfully ignored all day. Hopefully we can work it out of him.

Anyway the pictures came out pretty good, we've got him again tomorrow, our house move has been further delayed, and I've replaced the dog cage with a dog guard to give him the whole rear of the car boot to travel in.

Tiger's Absentee Birthday

2009-08-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

I got a phone call yesterday from Tiger's original owners. I feared for a moment that they were going to ask for him back. All they wanted though, was to say that they had already ordered a cake for his birthday, which is today, and they wanted me to give it to him.

This is difficult for two reasons

1) Its a really nice fruit and cream sponge cake, and I'm not sure if he should be eating that kind of thing.

2) He's still at Rich's house.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cake yet, but here are some pics of it snapped by Claire.

We're next having him on thursday. The house move is still being delayed and delayed and delayed. I hate solicitors.

Happy Birthday Tiger.

My Day Out WIth Tiger

2009-07-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

I had a day off, and really wanted to see Tiger, so I phoned Rich, where he is staying, and picked him up. My friends Lucy and James were good enough to lend me a cage that they weren't using until I can get one made for the back of the car. Tiger didn't look like he wanted to get in to start with, but by now we've realized he'll do anything for a tiny lump of cheese. When he was in the cage he was no problem at all, he just sat down and looked out of the window.

We made our way to Kinver where I introduced him to my aunt and her family. Everyone was very impressed with him, he was really friendly. I'm still a bit wary when he's around children, I don't know him that well yet. He's started to do obedience commands for treats. He responds well to the clicker, and sits really enthusiastically. By the end of the day I'd got a pretty reliable 'Down'. I get the feeling he's had some unstructured training at his old home, but they don't speak english so he certainly doesn't respond to english commands yet, but he's getting better.

I took him on a walk over the canals there, where he met his first challenge, a great bit swan. He had a little look but with a quick correction he walked on. After that he met a field full of cows, a field full of sheep, followed by a field with a horse, dog and chicken. The first two he did fine, the third was probably a bit much for him, with the other dog barking and the horse walking towards him. I had to pull him away. The thing is with him, I can't tell if its aggression or playfulness, like I said, we're still in the early stages.

Next was a trip to Stourbridge, where he met a pub full of people. Everybody loved him, he behaved beautifully and even did his obedience sits with all the distractions around him. I met up with my dad there and we went back to his house, where my dad's westie terrier Millie. Again, probably a bit much for him, he doesn't outright go for other dogs, he just inches towards them as if he's going to sniff, then at the last second bolts for them. Maybe he just wants to play, but Millie is smaller than Tiger's whole head, so I don't really want to risk it just yet. He got to play in my dads garden. He really didn't care about the toys I'd bought for him to try, all he wanted to do was run around and play with Millie's frisbee, which is now Tiger's frisbee.

I bought him back home to Birmingham and had to leave him home alone for about 30 minutes due to an emergency at Claire's work. When I got back, all he'd done was sit on the chair by the window and wait for us. He's really well behaved.

After that, time was getting on so I had to take him back to Rich's. By this point he knew that the cage in the car probably meant walkies, so he got right in, with the help of a little cheese. We said goodbye to him, and now I miss him again. Surely rescuing a dog should be easier than this? Then again, if a little dog aggression is the only problem he has, he's not doing too bad (and lets face it, he's never met other dogs before).

I leave you with this slightly symbolic pic (as I was too busy to take any while I was with him). Its the dent in the sofa where he sat at the window.

my very literal Akita Rescue

2009-07-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, things have moved on in the last few days. Let me begin at the beginning.

I was in the car with a friend, driving down a road. I was just saying to him how I was having a lucky streak. I mentioned the fact that I'd just passed my driving test, I was moving into a new house on a week's time, and by december I would be in possession of an Akita puppy, which I was very much looking forward to.

Suddenly, a beautiful male akita runs in front of our car. On go the brakes, he just happily trots onto the pavement. He's running around playing, there are some people standing about looking a bit scared. I happened to have a slip lead in the car, which after a bit of messing around, I managed to get on him. He was really playful, I couldn't see any aggression in him, but obviously the people in the street just saw a big loose dog. A couple of people approached me and said they were the owners, so I took the dog back to their house with them. They said "We don't want him, do you?" I was like "what???" They said "He's too big for us, he keeps getting out, we're just going to have him put down if no one else wants him." I hurriedly explained that I simply couldn't, but begged them not to put him down, and told them I'd find someone who would take care of him. I helped them put his collar on as when I first saw him, he didn't have one. His name was Tiger, and he was a handsome fawn and white Akita, roughly 2 years old.

No sooner had I left than I began to kick myself. A few hours passed and I caved in. I went back to the house to ask if they could hold onto him for a week until we moved, then I'd take him in until I could find a proper home for him. As I walked up their street, I look up and see Tiger sitting in the middle of the road. He carried on running between the cars, so I went over and pulled him back to the house. After quizzing the people for a bit, they told me that they had let him out in the hope that someone would take him away. Even when I was talking to them, another family member opened the front door for him to run out again. Getting him back in on the third occasion was a little easier. I asked them how often they walked him, to which they said "We don't."

So I made a decision there and then. I took him home, with the full intention of finding a proper home for him. As I walked him I noticed that he walked really well, barely any pulling, no interest in other dogs, and very placid around people. I tested him by walking him again that night, with a few friends, down to the local pub to see how he coped with lots of people. He couldn't have cared less, he let six-seven people fuss him and he didn't bat an eyelid.

The next day a representative from the Friends Of Akita's trust came around to assess and photograph Tiger to get him re-homed. I received a lot of practical advice and Tiger was his usual charming self.

At this point, there was no way I could give Tiger up. I'm going to rescue him myself. So, sooner than we thought, we've got our first Akita. Here's some pics of Tiger:

You can see from the pics that we live in an apartment. I didn't think it was right for him to stay in the apartment, so after the second day he went to live with my friend for a week, who has the space to keep him until we move. I can't wait to have him back.

Driving

2009-07-17T08:39:00.001-07:00

well, not much has been happening to do with dogs, but today I passed my driving test. That means I can live in my house, and having the house means we can have our puppy. Score.

Wags and Woofs

2009-06-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

I had a day off today, and decided to accept the invitation to come and sit in on a puppy training class at Wags And Woofs in Brockmoor.

It was the first class of the course, so I didn't think it would be too awkward showing up as the people weren't going to know each other anyway.

I turned up to what looks like an old multi-purpose village hall, with the big open room, a little bit of a stage, a kitchen and a toilet kind of thing. I had a brief chat with the trainers, who were very nice and made me feel very welcome, then I sat down and watched the puppies arrived.

I think there were about 20 in total, I remember a really beautiful 3 month old Husky, a Golden Retriever, a pair of chocolate labs, one surprisingly well behaved Staffie, two spaniels of some description, a Westie, about four random terriers, and a really nice Boxer which seemed interested only in playing with everything it could see (but didn't seem to accomplish any real training).

It was only an hour session, but they seemed to cover a lot, they did the basics, Sit, Stand, how to stop them jumping up, how to use a lure, when not to reward etc, aswell as a bit of walking.

It was quite humorous to see the difference between the different handlers. For some reason about half of them couldn't seem to follow the basic instructions of the trainer, so I'm not sure how they expected their dogs to follow suit. I think one couple had only bought about five treats with them, then when they ran out they were trying to do the commands without treats, rather than ask the trainer for some of the 'liver and garlic' stuff she'd brought along.

I was surprised at how quick some of the dogs got it to be honest. There were a couple of overly negative people there, getting frustrated and telling the trainer that their dog wasn't interested in treats. Then the trainer took their dog off them and showed them perfectly in one go how to do it. I still think two or three didn't then think "Oh its the way I'm doing it then". A bit of humility please.

One of the exercises was 'bombproofing' the dog. I quite like the theory. After a while you get to know your dog, but people have their preconceptions of the breed. For instance, you walk down the road with your labrador, someone's going to run up to you and squeal "OHMYGODILOVEDOGSCANIPLAYWITHHIMOHYESWHATAGOODBOYYESYOUIS" and before you can stop them they've got hold of the dogs tail and scrunching his face. I can well imagine someone doing the same to an Akita. So you have two options, either shit your pants every time anyone comes near your dog, or 'bombproof' him.

Bombproofing is apparently handling every square inch of the dog as a puppy so that as an adult dog he's not going to react in an unpredictable manner, as far as is possible. So the puppy handlers got down on the floor and started rubbing the dog all over, messing with the ears, the face, the tail, right into their mouths, getting their teeth out, it was again, good to watch the sheepish going through the motions. No problem, you're the one who'll end up with the dog that the vet can't handle a few yeas down the line.

After an hour, the session wound to a close and the puppies went home. I had a nice conversation with the lady who owned the Husky (who's 7 year old child was taking the bombproofing advice in earnest and was dutifully trying to get his pudgy fingers amongst the dogs gums), then the 'Intermediate' level dogs started to arrive. This was pretty good to watch, as most of the dogs were graduates of the puppy class. All filed in, nice and well behaved, gave some of the puppies a polite sniff, which I think is a pretty good seal of approval for the course.

So maybe christmas time, a little Akita will be going to a school in Brockmoor

My small victory over a small dog

2009-06-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

I like most dogs.

But my aunt and uncle have a West Highland Terrier called Thomas, and he's a nightmare.

My dad got a Westie at about the same time, and they live on the next street to each other, but whereas my dad's dog is the kind of thing that pisses itself in excitement when it sees somebody, Thomas bites everyone. The first time I met him he bit me, he's bit me about 7 times in total, the last time was just over a week ago. Being a Terrier its just a sharp little bite, never any damage, but its still annoying.

So yesterday was my Nan's birthday (she also lives with my aunt and uncle), turning 84, so I wanted to go and see her. When I arrived I found that my aunt had put the dog in the garden and put up a little baby-gate to stop him getting in. He saw me through the glass window and starting going nuts as usual. So I did my visit of my nan, then before I went I though..."Bugger this, I'm not going to let this silly little dog mess me about."

I also have to admit to wanting to try a bit of this "Calm-and-Assertive" trickery on the TV. Wasn't expecting it to work, but still, I wanted to have a go.

So I marched out into the garden and just ignored him for a bit. He went nuts, yapping about and dancing around near my ankles but I resisted the urge to kick him away. I just went about my business walking around, and looking over the fence at the nice Labrador they found straying next door. After a while I started to notice that he'd calmed down and was getting a bit curious. He is still an uber-nervous dog, but he was sniffing and coming a little close, so I dropped my hand down so he could sniff it.

I went back inside and got some cut up apples (the only thing he eats as a treat apparently) and sat down on their bench, ignored him for a bit longer. About 20 minutes later I had him sitting for treats and eating out of my hand. I was feeling pretty good.

Then my brother came round and he went mental again. Oh well, a small victory nonetheless. At least now I know the ignoring thing works.

Set Your Goals

2009-06-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm not normally the kind of person to have strange goals like 'I must climb Snowdon before I die' or 'I simply must absail down such-and-such cliff face.'

However, I do have one thing that I'd quite like to do.

The 'Friends Of Akita's Trust' annually walks the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge with their dogs to the best of my knowledge. Quite a lot of people I know walk the Three Peaks for charity quite regularly.

If you don't know what the Yorkshire Three Peaks is, go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_three_peaks

If possible, when my dog is old enough, I'd quite like to a have a go at it, maybe raise some money for charity along the way. Which charity? Not sure really, I'm always slightly dubious of them. I'm sure I'll find one beforehand.

Can't think of anything better really, beautiful English scenery, big long dog walk, and an element of challenge.

Oh, and the dog trainers at Wags and Woofs got back to us, I think we're going to go down to a new puppy class next week just to observe and see if we like what we see. Good fun

searching for trainers

2009-06-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

...and not the feet variety. Once again, I'm up early in the morning for work and the drunks and karaoke singers are doing their level best to prevent me from getting any sleep. So rather than toss and turn and swear in bed (which is an all new level of profanity), I decided to put my evening (or early morning) to good use.

Dog training is a very interesting subject for me. Obviously its beyond important, for the dog and for the owner, but I think the real appeal this time is that in all the dogs I've ever been around I've never been involved in the training of them, whether due to my age or due to who actually owned the dog and took responsibility for it. This time its my dog, my responsibility and I'm looking forward to it.

So long before our dog is even born I'm weighing up the pro's and con's and trying to make a bit of a plan. My aim is quite straightforward, I want a happy dog thats completely under my control. He's my responsibility, and he's going to be a big old devil, so control is important to me. I'm not really interested in agility, I like the idea of showing (and who wouldn't for such a beautiful breed) but certainly don't have the time to commit to it, and I really don't want a 'trick dog'. Fair play to the people who can make their dog spin in circles and weave between their legs, thats not how I see my dog, more as a member of my fledgling family than as an entertainer for us.

So the two key points for training for me are obedience and socialization. That makes my choices a little easier. Training in the home is all well and good, friendly territory and all that, but I guess its no guarantee the dog's going to be as attentive on the street when there's a million things going on. Also, socialization is a big part of the development. I know a handful of dog owners, who've all agreed to help me socialize my puppy, but really, an evening training class where my puppy can receive training and meet other dogs and people seems ideal.

So i found this place a few miles down the road www.wagsandwoofs.co.uk

Looks pretty good to me, fair experience, nice environment, more than reasonable price, and the key thing for me, there's lots of big dogs in those pictures. I sent them an e-mail clarifying a few points, hopefully they'll respond. Coincidently, its based in Brockmoor. When I traced my family tree last year, I got as far as 1601, the whole family is from or around Brockmoor, and were mostly miners.

Yet more preparation for a dog who's not yet even a twinkle in his sire's eye...

Go away drunk people, its like a special hell that I have to endure you...

preparing to move

2009-06-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

We've got just over a month left in the apartment before we move to our new house. After two years of renting together (and for me thats about 6 years renting in total) we bought a house.

What's the best thing about the new house? Well, the enormous flat grass garden of course.

It has a tall, maybe 8 foot fence at the rear. The fences on either side are only about 3ft. The fence on the right will belong to me, so I'll just raise it to at least 6 foot at the earliest opportunity.

The fence on the left belongs to my neighbour, who I think is elderly. My game plan is to go round and see him before the puppy arrives and have an adult conversation with him. After all, I'm sure he doesn't want my (big) dog in his garden, and I'm more than happy to pay for it. If he's unreasonable, I'll just sacrifice 6 inches of my land and double fence.

The hardest part is keeping the apartment in a 'showable' state all the time. When we saw this place, it was empty and perfect, but we still live here and all our stuff is here.

I'm tired of living in the city. I'm tired of being kept awake by drunk idiots on the street till 4am, I'm tired of all night karaoke's, I'm tired of finding people passed out in the corridors of our building and smokers who don't even live here propping the security door open. Don't get me wrong, I've really loved living in the city for like, 1 year 11 months. I guess what I really miss is having a dog, or having access to a dog.

At least we haven't started putting stuff into boxes yet. That's the worst part of moving.

My Weapon Is A Dog

2009-06-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

For anyone who didn't see this very excellent documentary, or lives outside the UK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BvtnEDjW7I

Cars and Dogs

2009-06-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

So, I'm actually still learning to drive at the moment. I have a test booked for July 17th, and so I'll be looking to buy my first car for whatever pennies I can scrape together.

So this is pretty tough for anyone, however me being me I've decided to raise the pressure of the whole thing by buying a house, car, and puppy within a two month period. The arse-end of this year will be a stress-fest and no mistake.

A normal person passing their test in England will (unless they are in receipt of stupid parents with more money than sense) be looking to buy a cheap little run-around car until such a time where their insurance isn't a four figure sum. Now, I have to try and combine that with the need for safe and reliable transport for a large dog.

I found a company called dog pods which make custom crates for the back of your car, so I gave them a call for some information. The information I wanted was basically wishful thinking, i.e. "can I get away with buying a small hatchback car and will a crate fit in big enough for an Akita?". Short answer, no, buy an estate.

To give you an idea of how much an estate costs to ensure, I got a quote for a little Nissan Micra, which wouldn't fit the dog, which was about £1300. To ensure some old Ford Mondeo estate it was about £1500, so not too bad in comparison. Its still a lot of money to cough up just for 3rd party cover.

So really, I need to buy a big car so when my Akita grows I won't have to change cars. Having a built in car-crate means I won't have to keep lugging his normal crate in and out, or face the difficult situation of 'oh bugger his crate doesn't fit in our crappy little car'. I certainly wouldn't want my dog bouncing around in the back while I'm so inexperienced at driving.

Why am I so fussed about how my dog travels? Because taking my dog for forest walks and to the lake district and all sorts of places like that is one of the things I'm most looking forward to.

If anyone is selling an old estate let me know....

The Waiting Game

2009-06-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

Not much going on here, I'm afraid. Just what do you do when you're waiting for a puppy to be conceived. Patience is a virtue, right enough.

I've decided to spend the time mulling over decisions I haven't made yet. I want a dog, not a bitch, so that raises the question, should he be neutered?

I'm completely against the idea of neutering at a really early age. As someone with a lot of knowledge once told me, if you neuter a puppy, you never give it a chance to grow into a dog. Chemically speaking, no testosterone is going to affect growth, no two ways about it.

At the same time, I really don't want any shady liaisons in the park. I don't want people from the neighbourhood blaming me because they've suddenly got an unwanted litter of really big puppies. Maybe I'm overthinking that aspect of it. Hopefully my dog will have manners and buy a lady flowers first.

Then there's the 'life choices.' At this point, I have no intention to breed my dog, but I might not always feel that way. I don't think we'll be showing him (even though in my opinion most Akita's are good enough to show), so neutering him won't affect his show career.

Then, there's the aggression issue. Everyone says something different here, some people say it brings down their aggression levels, some say it doesn't make any difference at all. Whilst I don't believe that belonging to a particular breed makes an animal bad, you'd be stupid to ignore characteristics of particular breeds (I wouldn't keep a Border Collie in a house and expect it to do no exercise, I wouldn't keep a Fila Brasilia in a house alone with children). An akita is a big dog and, although any good breeder will tell you a list of possible hereditary diseases and problems the breed encounters, the worst affliction by far is that of 'Chronically Stupid Owner.'

I'm going to go on a tangent here, because when dogs bite children all the media ever say is 'A powerful hunting breed' or 'bred for fighting'. Hello? All dogs were bred with a job in mind. Terriers are bred for hunting, albeit for vermin. Small dogs kill small animals, thats just maths. Akita's were bred to bring down bears. I fear that in a society where the rights of wrongdoers are fiercely protected, people are scared to act and do the right thing for fear of losing their job or being sued, we are passing on this misguided idealism onto our dogs and overly-humanizing them. When a dog bites someone, why do the media immediately say "This dog was bred for hunting, ergo, it hunted this persons leg" as apposed to, "the owner temporarily lost control. Was this a momentary lapse of an otherwise good owner or consistent failure to appropriately train and control the dog?" A dog can be your best friend, a part of your family, trusted even more than the people around you, but its still a dog and treating it like a human borders on neglectful.

Tangent over, but bearing all that in mind, my point is about responsible ownership. I should keep in mind the characteristics of my dog, and make a responsible decision about whether neutering him will aid proper control. Now, I don't expect that I'll be taking my Akita out to hunt bears, and I don't think that they are vicious dogs, but the actions (or inactions) of a few irresponsible (or in some cases just plain unlucky) owners have put me in a cautious mindset.

I haven't made my mind up about neutering yet. I guess I'll know when the time comes, I hope by then I'll know my dog enough to say 'hmmm, you're a bit boisterous, lets go to the vets.'

Waiting sucks.

Johnny

Such is life

2009-06-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

You'll probably tell from the standard of writing but this is Claire, not Johnny, typing. Unfortunately on Tuesday we got the call we'd been anticipating but we didn't hear what we'd been hoping to hear, Henrietta is not pregnant. I don't know about Johnny, he probably wont admit it, but I cried a little when he told me.

It didn't help that the vet bed we'd ordered had been delivered, that thing is going to be covered in mine/Johnnys scent by the time we actually get a pup.

In some ways it's for the best, we'll be more financially secure by the time the pup comes and we'll have done so much reading we'll be the best 'parents' ever. The beautiful members over at NihonKen.org have been keeping me going with spam of their own pups, so I'm feeling a bit better now. Everytime Johnnys phone rings my heart goes "oh, oh! The other bitch is in season. Puppypuppypuppypuppy" but it's only been a day so I suspect I'm overreacting.

It'll be ok. In the mean time, I have clickers to train Johnny with and a vet bed to scent up. We'll refrain from buying things now until we hear from the Breeders again because it's too hard to have things around, we'll order the crate next month regardless of what we've heard from them because financially that'll be one of the biggest things and it is wise to do it slowly over time instead of getting it all at once, a week before.

Buying things already...

2009-05-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm aware that a dog is a huge financial commitment, so in the spirit of being prepared I've resolved to buy some odds and ends as and when I can so that when the puppy arrives it won't mean dozens of last minute trips to the local pet store so the assistant can stare at me blankly while I try and explain how big an Akita is.

Todays purchases are:

a pair of clickers. I'm absolutely in love with the idea of clicker training. God knows if it will work. I'm trying to read a couple of books and websites on different kinds of training, but I really like the idea of being able to pinpoint wanted behavior. So to that end I picked up a pair of these rather inexpensive little things

For anyone who's never heard of clicker training, its fairly simple. It goes hand in hand with 'positive reinforcement' strategies. The theory is that by the time your dog has done the task you want it to, you've reached into your pocket, dug around for a treat, fished it out, broke it into little pieces and given it to him, he's no longer connecting the treat with doing the task right. So basically you use the clicker as soon as he gets it right, and soon will understand that the click means that the treat s coming. There's some pretty good examples on Youtube. I believe Karen Pryor is the authority on the subject.

Purchase number 2, a Giant size Vetbed

This bland looking thing is apparently the last word in bedding for your dogs crate. Our dog is going to be enormous, so obviously we needed the biggest size. Its got all kinds of qualities I won't bore anyone with. Suffice is to say, our dog is spoilt before birth.

Meeting the breeder

2009-05-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

29/05/09

Before I talk about todays adventure, I want to talk about buying a pup from a breeder rather than a rescue.

Rescuing a dog is a good thing to do. It really is, but its not the only way to get a dog. We decided long ago that what we really wanted was an Akita. Akitas are big dogs, and I would be mortified if my dog ever went loco and bit a person or mauled another dog, which is a risk you take with large dogs. With the best will in the world, a rescue dog is often going to have a 'past'. While its completely noble to want to give a dog a second chance, our lack of experience with big dogs means I can't honestly say I'd be prepared for a dog with issues.

So its a puppy from a breeder then.

Akitas aren't common dogs in England. We live in Birmingham, so it was important for us to have a breeder close to hand for the support they offer. My stepdad used to breed staffies, so he was good enough to give some pointers on how to tell a good breeder and bad breeder apart. We scoured the internet, read reviews, everything we could get our hands on.

Eventually we e-mailed Nosferatu Akitas (www.nosferatuakitas.co.uk) who were local to us, and did something no one else had. They asked us to come down and meet them, which is how we come to today.

I'll begin by saying that I've met Akitas before, and fell in love with them the first time I saw one. Claire, despite spending every free second looking at pictures, video's and reading about them, had never seen one in the flesh. I was a little apprehensive that their size would put her off.

So we meet the owners, sit down and talk with them for about an hour. They clear up all of our questions, they ask us a lot, which is a good sign. They clearly didn't want one of their pups to go to a person they didn't think wanted one for the right reasons. They asked us about our living conditions, which were fine as ours will be a house dog, they showed us all their show awards and gave us a great deal of information on the history of the breed. If nothing else, they were truly nice people to talk to on any subject, and I was already feeling like we'd found the right breeder.

Then it came to meeting the dogs. I was still a little nervous Claire wouldn't like them when she actually saw them. We went out into their garden, where a pure white Akita bounded straight up to claire, bounced up onto his back legs, put his front paws on her shoulder and started licking her face. Love at first sight. We saw about seven of their eleven dogs, they were all so friendly and playful (and so damn soft! An akitas coat is something else entirely from every other dog I've met). Even my mom, who had come along for the ride and probably would never go above a staffie in size, loved them and couldn't help but fussing them. We got to see dogs of different ages, including a very playful puppy of about 5 months. They had an Akita Inu which we didn't meet, mainly because we've opted for the American Akita, but it was still nice to see him in his pen, he was a good looking dog.

The highlight for me was meeting the sire and dam for our litter. The owners were certain the bitch was pregnant, I think after so long of doing it they can tell a mile off, but they're taking her to confirm the pregnancy next week. The sire was an absolutely magnificent dog, and was so friendly (and more to the point he kept coming back to me for more fuss, whereas every other dog seemed to want to play with Claire).

We left after a couple of hours, not really wanting to leave, but we'll have a phone call next week to say if the bitch is pregnant or not.

It took us less than two seconds in the car on the way home to decide that we will be putting a deposit down the second we find out.

Introduction

2009-05-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

We're getting a dog.

We is me (Johnny) and my fiance Claire. We've lived together for a long time and after months of deliberation we've finally decided to realise our dream of becoming dog owners. This blog is hopefully going to document the process of us finding our puppy and the lessons learnt in dog ownership.

So what follows will hopefully turn into the story of a dog's life, from either me or Claire.

All the help and advice we can get will be fully appreciated

Johnny