Living requirements for an Akita
I'm considering adding a new NK to my family. I have a Shiba, and is looking into the other Japanese breeds. I believe all dogs to be house dogs, and want them to be themselves. I have a few questions about the Akita.
The info I got from the forum suggests they are not very active dogs. This does not mean they do not need a bit of space in the yard. Will they adapt to a smaller yard, or not?
Will the Akita and Shiba get along?
How does summer affect the Akita? Are they similar to the Nordic breeds regarding heat, or more sensitive?
If they are well socialised, are they aggressive towards strange dogs on neutral ground? (Asking only as 'need to know', not a determining factor)
Should I rather be looking at another Shiba, or maybe some of the other NK breeds?
Have a lovely day
Johan
The info I got from the forum suggests they are not very active dogs. This does not mean they do not need a bit of space in the yard. Will they adapt to a smaller yard, or not?
Will the Akita and Shiba get along?
How does summer affect the Akita? Are they similar to the Nordic breeds regarding heat, or more sensitive?
If they are well socialised, are they aggressive towards strange dogs on neutral ground? (Asking only as 'need to know', not a determining factor)
Should I rather be looking at another Shiba, or maybe some of the other NK breeds?
Have a lovely day
Johan
Comments
I have two Shibas and an (American) Akita. I live in the mountains of New Mexico, where we have real winters, but it gets pretty hot in the summer. My dogs have adapted well, though they all much prefer winter--and snow--to summer weather. My Akita has slightly longer hair than my Shibas, and he is a big boy (120 pounds) and the heat does bother him--he tends to sleep during the day and be more active at night in the summer. That said, he doesn't really have any problems adapting.
I ran into some problems with the Shiba/Akita combo--not with my dogs, but with perceptions of the breeds. Several breeders/rescue groups would not work with me because they said Shibas and Akitas can not be together. While I don't believe that--I believe it is very much based on the individual dogs instead--I understand why they said that. A lot of Akitas (and I only know American Akitas, so this may be different with Japanese Akitas) can be slower to rouse, but they don't back down from conflicts. And a lot of Shibas are quarrelsome and snarky and tend to start stuff, and given the huge difference in size, if a fight starts and neither dog will back down, it is the Shiba that is going to get hurt. We've had a couple of scary scuffles over food in our house, that thankfully didn't escalate, but I could see how it could be bad.
That said, we got the Akita as a puppy, and my female Shiba was his foster mom, and they get along pretty well. I do kind of wish they were closer in size--he plays rough with her, and she doesn't like that.
also, my Akita was WAY more easy to train than the Shibas! I gave my breeder a lot of info, about my dogs and said I wanted a pretty mellow, biddable Akita, and we got the most easy going puppy. He has grown into a sweet tempered dog who steady and easy to train. He's an Akita, so he can doesn't like his food or toys messed with, and he's cautious with dogs he doesn't know. He will not tolerate any rudeness in unfamiliar dogs, but what that looks like is a warning from him--a growl, and it's never escalated from that. That said, I do have another (male Shiba) who is always separated from the other two and they don't like one another at all, and I know if they accidently got together, that would be very bad indeed.
I don't know about the other NK breeds as I don't have one (though perhaps I will have a Kai someday! I hope so!), but I do think Akitas and Shibas can get along. Oh, I should add that we decided a puppy would be the best bet since we couldn't be sure an adult Akita would fit in with our rather complicated family situation. Puppies are easier to integrate I think (if not easier in other ways!
eta: oh, activity level. We have a very large (1/2 acre) yard, so our dogs do have space to entertain themselves and do. But I think an Akita would be fine with a smaller yard as long as they had good daily walks. Mine is not terribly active (and he's almost two) but he enjoys playing chase in the yard (for about 10 minutes) or walks. Most Akitas don't need a ton of exercise.
How they get along depends on the personality of the dogs and how introductions are done. While generalizations can be made, there's as many exceptions as there are those who fit the stereotype. With any of these breeds, it is highly recommended that you have opposite genders if you have a pair of them. It will also be easier if the non-established dog is as young as possible.
I have three Akitas on an 8,000 sq ft lot backed by a school yard. They could care less about the space! When they're outside, they spend their time sleeping on our tables on our patio. When they're inside, they spend their time sleeping in the livingroom, my office, or the hallway between the two. They'll run and play for 30 minutes with encouragement or when there is a visitor over to play with. But even then, they tend to do laps around the part of the yard by the house and rarely go all the way to the back. At least for my dogs, I don't think they really need all the space we have.
An Akita's coat insulates against heat as well as cold. The general rule of thumb is that if you are uncomfortable in the temperature, the Akita is uncomfortable too.
Again, generalizations could be made about their aggression levels with strange dogs, but each dog is different. I would always be extra cautious with an Akita around other dogs, no matter how well socialized. Socialization is an ongoing, lifelong process, and dogs can change as they mature. I have found that despite heavy socialization with Gojira, after she hit a year old she really became much more reactive towards other dogs and people coming to our home.
I honestly think that the Akita temperament (in general!) is easier to deal with than that of a Shiba. Again, I haven't had a Shiba, so this is only from observing the dogs and listening to their owners. I really know very little about other NK temperaments; I hear some of them are very biddable, which must be nice. Which you get - Akita, Shiba, or other NK - is up to you. An important thing to consider is whether or not your current dog has issues with dogs significantly larger than it.
Right now, I have a JA puppy, 5 months. I must admit that I DO take him out to dog parks for socialization and he has a lot of fun. He does well. In my opinion, he does well because he is a puppy and puppies are more pliable in social settings and understood by other dogs that their bad manners when playing is due to their puppyhood. But just cause he does very well now doesn't mean half a year from now when he matures, he will do just as fine and be accepted the same by other dogs as he was as a puppy. I don't want to wait around till the day there is an altercation, probably at the other dogs expense, so pretty soon I am going to stop taking him to dog parks. dog parks are scary on in their own right, Akita or no Akita. I would say that would be a very, very minor pitfall to having an Akita, if at all. I'll find other ways to dog socialize my pup when he gets older
Even my very mellow AA has been a little more snarky lately (he'll be two at the end of May) with my female Shiba. He's fine with her for the most part, but has started to resource guard A LOT in just the past month, and he's not done that before. He's also more interested in fence fighting with the other dogs than he was. I do think they change some when they mature.
I have to say though, from personal experience, regardless of age or socialization, if another dog starts shit with an Akita, the Akita is not going to back down...and will probably have intentions of finishing the fight.
Toki was 5 months old, 40-50 pounds, when we were at a dog park and an American Bully, male, at least 100lb+, attacked him out of no where. I'm sure there was a reason, but the agressor was clearly the other dog. Toki was (and still is) very well socialized to other dogs and people. Nicks and scrapes was all that happened between the two, but Toki had defended himself even though being a 5 month old puppy, even dealing a bloody cut on the other dog's chin
(the thing that PISSED me off even more was the owner sat back and wouldn't get his dog off Toki, like he was interested in seeing how his dog faught, or how Toki held up. You should have heard the way he talked afterward....) ...and that's the downside of dog parks, but that's another discussion/another thread.
I guess my point is that despite socialzation and age, shit can still go bad with an Akita if someone is a dick to them. Or at least, that is my experience with my very mellow, friendly Toki. Just be aware!
And while a lot of stuff people say about Akitas is just breed hype, I have found that saying to be true: Akitas don't tend to start fights, but they will finish them. Obviously not across the board, but yeah. Oskar is polite with other dogs, but if they are rude to him, he will not back down.
It's something I have to really manage in our household, because I have Shibas too, who won't back down from fights either, and in fact, often like to start them. So even though Oskar and Bel get along well, if something starts, I suddenly have two dogs who won't back down (and of course they are quite mismatched in size, which is probably why some AA breeders think shibas and Akitas are not a good match--if a fight starts, then the Shiba may get very hurt). We've had a couple of scuffles because Oskar was resource guarding. Usually Bel will step away, but if Oskar really gets worked up, she does too, and she goes from 0-crazy in about 30 seconds. And she won't back down either.
It's something we're both managing and also working on training too, because we can't afford any fights here. (the ones between the Shibas were bad enough--I don't ever want to see an Akita/Shiba fight.) Luckily, Oskar is pretty obedient and also soft-mouthed, so while he recently got into it with Bel for encroaching on "his" stuff, he kind of just scruffed her--he grabbed the back of her neck and held her still, so she was slobbery but not actually bit. And guess what was so valuable that time? An ice cube. And Oskar sure looked puzzled to when he could only find a puddle after all of this was over.
Yea, Toki's fight def the first. More of an argument-with-teeth than an actual "fight", and it was fricken scary as shit! It looked and sounded way worse than the actuality of it all, thankfully, I guess. I'm just glad neither dog nor myself was actually injured.
She doesn't fight with other dogs--though she won't back down if one starts--only with Toby. She's actually a fairly skittish little thing, and tends to avoid confrontation, except with Toby. I don't muzzle her around other dogs--there doesn't seem to be a point. And I do not believe that dog/dog aggression necessarily translates to human aggression, so I'm not worried about her with people at all (anyway, she runs from people). She always got along well with my GSD (now passed on) and she gets along fine with my Akita, except for the occasional spats over food, always started by him. We're just careful, now, of not letting high value items be out. Who knew, though, that an ice cube would be high value? *lol*
Of course, that's also true of Shibas in general, and there are people who manage multiple Shibas in a pack situation and it works out. (And personally I think Shibas are more difficult that Akitas). So it depends on the individual dogs. One thing I liked about the breeder I got my AA from was that she was able to keep many of her dogs together, and the Akitas tolerated each other and other dogs--like the Basenjis--pretty well. But I noted that she had plenty of ways of separating dogs, and I don't think they were all together all the time. (Though her dogs did not live in kennels all the time, is what I meant that I liked).
I think you can manage multiple Akitas (or any breed really) if you're very careful about the dogs you choose, and you're really good about managing them. That still leaves room for unexpected problems, of course, but I think it can be done. But then again, I'm used to managing dogs that can't be together, so maybe I have a different view of it.