Size of the Nihon Ken shika class

Kadmos

Concerning the six native Japanese spitz-type dogs, we are aware that Akitas are the biggest while Shibas are the smallest. In the medium category, what size rank does the Shikoku, Hokkaido/Ainu, Kishu, and Kai go under? That is, what is the order of (Akitas are #1 while Shibas are #6) of numbers 2-5? Also, what are good information sites (size and weight included) on the Ryukyu and Kawakami dogs? Thanks.

shishiinu

Well I'm not sure of a ranking between the medium sized breeds. Although cosidered a medium sized NK, the Kai falls between the shiba and the medium sized breeds so they are somewhat cosidered to be in their own class. Thats one of the reasons why the Kaiken aigokai was formed.

Nekopan

I have only met Shiba and Shikoku in person, and Shikoku are much smaller than they look. The standard is 52 cm for males and 46 cm for females, with a tolerance of 3 cm. Of course there will be out of standard dogs, but they are not large.

ayk

I have a book called "Japanese Dogs:Akita, Shiba, and Other Breeds" which puts the Kishu and Shikoku as the larger of the medium sized breeds, and the Hokkaido and the Kai as on the smaller range range of the medium-sized breeds. So based on the book, I would order it like this;

Akita
Kishu/Shikoku
Hokkaido/Kai
Shiba

BradA1878

Yea, I have that book too and was always under the impression the hokka was small but the one I met, which I was told was a typical sized Hokka, was Kona's size and female... So i have changed my mental model of the hokka. That book also says the Kishu was the breed used as the base for the NK standard, but I was told in Japan that it was actually the Shikoku. So who knows.

tjbart17

Well my Kais are: female 40 pds., male 55 pds. (Koda is finally getting muscle.) lol we can try and place them on this scale.

Why did I think that Hokka were small? And that Shikoku were smaller than Kais?

This is actually a good thread, since it seems that some of us (namely me) have the wrong impression about the other NK breeds.

In my mind, I was guessing
Akita
Kishu
Kai
Hokka
Shiba

shishiinu

I was going through a bookpublished by the NKHK and the listing showed in this order

Akita
Kishu/Shikku
Hokkaido
Kai
Shiba

TheWalrus

I think Gen's last post sums it up.

TaraA

Interesting topic! I don't know the size range for the other Japanese dog breeds, but my Shikoku, Panda weighs just under 30 pds at 9 months old.

Kenshi

My Kishu Tomoe is a wasp-waisted 31lbs right now at 16 months.

Interestingly, my wife and I vacationed in Japan last month (october) and spent some time in the mountains of northeastern Saitama prefecture, which used to be a part of Kai. I kept my eyes peeled and eventually we ran into a guy out for a run with his Kai Ken. She was really tiny! Much smaller than I expected. Could not have been much more than 20lbs, very lean.

On the other hand we were continually meeting Shibas who were considerably larger than I am used to. The one Shiba we saw in Saitama that was looked closest to the standard was easily 50lbs! He was a bit taller at the whithers than Tomoe but was just massive, rippling muscles everywhere. And not about to allow us to walk in front of his house without letting us have a piece of his mind!