He's so handsome and accomplished at such a young age! Go Matsu!
We still crate Leo too, and may have to for awhile. He gets into too much stuff if he's unsupervised. He sees what he wants to do and waits til no one is watching and does it (like dig up plants or destroy planter boxes or steal things and chew them) so, yeah, still crated.
Leo was not terribly interested in barn hunt though he loved the lure coursing they had there. We have to work on stay more before we can try cgc.
Matsu, you are such a good boy I love all his hiking pictures so much...sounds like a great companion! <333 i think this was a great litter as far as staying close to the trail and close to you...so happy to hear all of your guys' wonderful stories, adventures, achievements and lessons!! Give him a good scratching for me please!!
I saw on the Yamabushi fb page that you compared Matsu and Hanzo, which I love, because if you remember I've described Matsu as my *Kaideal* and now Hanzo will be coming home with me in 2 short weeks. I just went through this thread's pictures again and Matsu is such a great dog. I hope Hanzo continues to share similarities with his half brother as he grows. Looking through all this also made me want to see any updated pictures you might have of Matsu and of course the rest of the Stripey Squad! Oh, and any pics you might have from the meetup this last weekend!
ETA: I forgot to ask, when did you start Matsu with his pack, both empty and with weight?
- He learned to swim! He has also taken a liking to water retrieval of sticks I throw for him, and can pull himself out of the water onto a log with the power of his front legs. After we watched that dewclaws video that I think Claire posted a while back, I decided not to intervene and let him learn to pull himself up, and he does this very well.
- Matsu loves Juno. Juno loves Matsu.
- Here at 13 months, keeping an intact male has not been problematic. He isn't offensive, and I think is actually the least humpy of any of my dogs- none of which are especially humpy. He does mark - outside, not in the house- but no more than Reilly and Sage do. He is flirty and very interested in female dogs. After we got back from NIPPO Classic, he was pushy and intrusive about Reilly's bits and the girls' pee. It was annoying, and he was like this for a few months, but he's outgrown this now and interested but not obsessed. He does a little lip smacking teeth chattering thing after examining bitch pee. He hasnt tried to run away and look for females, he's been... a dog!
He has a nice mane, like all male kai ken should...
He loves to play chase/retrieving games
- We took an class "Agility Games" which was a confidence course of short tunnels and easy teeters and jumps and some try-its, like Treiball (he didnt get it huh? why? -despite being a nose-pusher) and he can do some cute tricks now like Hup and Under. It was a lot of distraction as there was only 1 other dog in class- a young intact female aussie shepherd. So I took him out for marking breaks, and kept his sessions short. By the end of the course, he could even be kinda bored near her.
Nice brindle as he grows up- I have really grown to love his kurotora, seeing the deep red color come out. I used to love akatora best, but now I really appreciate a rich kuro.
He had a good Meetup- he got to play with his shikoku pal, Beth's Miyu, as well as puppy Rajah (Akashi x Kumi) and get scritched by lots of people.
Ohhhhh I love the last picture of big bro. Matsu Matsu, if only I could come and give you the biggest of hugs! You're too cute *cough* i mean handsome!
Thanks Chrys for such a great write-up. I love love love seeing and hearing about Matsu!! He's looking a lot like his father in some of those pictures, especially the mane and chase ones.
I really like the kuro too and I'm guessing I'll appreciate it even more in person than I do in pictures. My tweenie is brindle, but the undercoat is very light so only when he's really out of coat (which seems like never) can you get a good look at his brindle.
I love that he's enjoying swimming now and that you let him figure out how to get out on his own. I referred a coworker to that dewclaw video, because he has a 10 month old chocolate lab he brings in every once in a while. Unfortunately, found out the breeder had already removed the dewclaws, but thankfully I think the pool or non-frozen lakes will end up being his only regular swimming holes.
That's cool there's a (new?) forum for trail dogs. I'll check that out and sign up since that's the main activity I want to experience with my dog; hiking and camping, even locally and on a small scale, would be great with Hanzo. He'll be an office dog during the day but I'm hoping to devote many afternoons to the trails around Charlottesville and weekends to Shenandoah National Park, etc.
You've got such a wonderful way of telling stories with words and pictures. I know you do illustration, but are you or have you thought about doing a webcomic? I would love to experience the adventures of Juno and Matsu with series' regulars Sage and Reilly. I'd probably even be willing to donate, as I'm sure some others on this forum and facebook would be, to make that happen. At least a miniseries and with such great strides in small batch printing a coffee table book wouldn't be far behind.
Yes, he is definitely his father's son, with some nice mods from his mom. I have lots more pics on fb, its a one step process to post there, so I tend to throw up a lot of shots.
I let him learn swimming at his own pace, too- he just saw Juno and Reilly swimming and finally when Juno got far enough away one day and he felt ready, he just went for it to be with her. Juno swam much sooner, but she was a spring puppy and Matsu had snow and ice till he was 7 months old. He needed to learn that wading was ok and fun and then getting deeper, and then swimming.
The Trail Dog Forum is the latest Brad production, and I've been contributing some startup articles and the banner. If you like to hike with dogs, you should certainly join it and help us get some content up!
Thanks for the kind words! I have often thought of projects to draw and write, and I need to get out of my own way on that.
Gah, maybe one day I'll get talked into joining facebook or at least maybe my dog will
Aww, he's a sucker for a lady. Since Hanzo will also be winter first, maybe I'll start in the bathtub or see if there's an indoor pool I can take him too. I'd love to take him to the James River and one of the lakes in the area when it's warm enough.
Done and done.
I'm totally serious about the webcomic (or similar). If you build it, I will support it.
You are right, Shigeru, he does have a long body. I often wondered if ideal is more square- is it like a 10:11 ratio? Juno doesn't seem as long proportionally.
Height (to withers) 100: Torso (back of thigh to front of chest) 110 Females should have a slightly longer torso.
In this picture Matsu looks closer to 90:110, but that could be the camera/picture/angle, and the fact that his tail is down probably makes him look even longer.
Ok so I am a little confused by ratios, what is that in terms of cm? Say from point of chest cm to say point of hip across and where it falls into the acceptable range? Does rounding of rump or slight rise at top line, above loin, count or discount for anything? As a general observation across dogs, it becomes tougher to get a strong loin the longer a body is without really super strong rears.
Yeah, it's hard for me to grasp the ratios aspects since there isn't anything to go on as far as diagram. Eyeballing seems so subjective to me.
Not that it really matters....He seems pretty strong obviously and gets some great attributes from Nio, nice head, front etc etc. : )
What's interesting from the diagram as well is that the E+D measurement is to the withers, and I have noticed over the last several months that Matsu has been growing height there at the shoulder. He used to have higher hips than withers and now he's about level to a little taller than the hips there. I wonder if his D or E measurement is still growing...it looks like the withers height should be more noticeably taller than the hips. But if I look at the shape under the dog- back of the front legs, belly, front of the back legs- the line of Matsu's belly is def longer, the B distance.
I had saved a broken nylon leash from long ago and just cut off a few inches of that, sewed it into a loop and slipped it over the collar. I think you can get leash/strap type material at a good fabric shop. Probably at a camping store, too. There's also a place online that sells all kinds of buckles, straps and materials to fix your own camping gear... or leashes! Ive ordered from them reliably.
Very nice thanks. I do have a old leash not being used I might try it, but it might be too thick need dig it out of box to see. I'll try the website if it is too thick.
Recent pics of my buddy Matsu. He's 44 lbs now, and a good size- and a good boy. He's fun to have along in town, or on a car ride, as well as hiking and hunting. Matsu is crazy for grouse and we spent a lot of hikes this winter finding and flushing, checking sign and learning where they hang out and shelter up. He's really good with training and likes to learn new things- our new game is a fur tug tied to the end of a lunge whip, but maybe his favortie yard game is chasing the donut (below). Like his father, Nio, he loves to chase and retrieve.
Matsu is intact and had his xrays for hips and elbows, earning a "good" rating from OFA and clear for luxating patella and elbow dysplasia. I'm still catching on to all the stuff you do besides just not-neuter your dog in order to actually be a cooperative breed preservation owner. It is both that simple, and yet it's really not.
Matsu is oh-so-handsome. Glad to hear his tests are coming back with favorable results. Meitou would be super jealous of all those epic hiking spots if he had any idea what he was missing. He'd love to be free to run an explore like that.
Comments
We still crate Leo too, and may have to for awhile. He gets into too much stuff if he's unsupervised. He sees what he wants to do and waits til no one is watching and does it (like dig up plants or destroy planter boxes or steal things and chew them) so, yeah, still crated.
Leo was not terribly interested in barn hunt though he loved the lure coursing they had there. We have to work on stay more before we can try cgc.
ETA: I forgot to ask, when did you start Matsu with his pack, both empty and with weight?
Matsu is now 13 months old,
- He learned to swim!
- Matsu loves Juno. Juno loves Matsu.
- Here at 13 months, keeping an intact male has not been problematic. He isn't offensive, and I think is actually the least humpy of any of my dogs- none of which are especially humpy. He does mark - outside, not in the house- but no more than Reilly and Sage do. He is flirty and very interested in female dogs. After we got back from NIPPO Classic, he was pushy and intrusive about Reilly's bits and the girls' pee. It was annoying, and he was like this for a few months, but he's outgrown this now and interested but not obsessed. He does a little lip smacking teeth chattering thing after examining bitch pee. He hasnt tried to run away and look for females, he's been... a dog!
He has a nice mane, like all male kai ken should...
He loves to play chase/retrieving games
- We took an class "Agility Games" which was a confidence course of short tunnels and easy teeters and jumps and some try-its, like Treiball (he didnt get it
Nice brindle as he grows up- I have really grown to love his kurotora, seeing the deep red color come out. I used to love akatora best, but now I really appreciate a rich kuro.
He had a good Meetup- he got to play with his shikoku pal, Beth's Miyu, as well as puppy Rajah (Akashi x Kumi) and get scritched by lots of people.
and he's a lot of fun to live with
http://www.traildogforum.org/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/21/training-a-pup-to-accept-the-backpack
I really like the kuro too and I'm guessing I'll appreciate it even more in person than I do in pictures. My tweenie is brindle, but the undercoat is very light so only when he's really out of coat (which seems like never) can you get a good look at his brindle.
I love that he's enjoying swimming now and that you let him figure out how to get out on his own. I referred a coworker to that dewclaw video, because he has a 10 month old chocolate lab he brings in every once in a while. Unfortunately, found out the breeder had already removed the dewclaws, but thankfully I think the pool or non-frozen lakes will end up being his only regular swimming holes.
That's cool there's a (new?) forum for trail dogs. I'll check that out and sign up since that's the main activity I want to experience with my dog; hiking and camping, even locally and on a small scale, would be great with Hanzo. He'll be an office dog during the day but I'm hoping to devote many afternoons to the trails around Charlottesville and weekends to Shenandoah National Park, etc.
You've got such a wonderful way of telling stories with words and pictures. I know you do illustration, but are you or have you thought about doing a webcomic? I would love to experience the adventures of Juno and Matsu with series' regulars Sage and Reilly. I'd probably even be willing to donate, as I'm sure some others on this forum and facebook would be, to make that happen. At least a miniseries
I let him learn swimming at his own pace, too- he just saw Juno and Reilly swimming and finally when Juno got far enough away one day and he felt ready, he just went for it to be with her. Juno swam much sooner, but she was a spring puppy and Matsu had snow and ice till he was 7 months old.
The Trail Dog Forum is the latest Brad production, and I've been contributing some startup articles and the banner.
Thanks for the kind words! I have often thought of projects to draw and write, and I need to get out of my own way on that.
Aww, he's a sucker for a lady. Since Hanzo will also be winter first, maybe I'll start in the bathtub or see if there's an indoor pool I can take him too. I'd love to take him to the James River and one of the lakes in the area when it's warm enough.
Done and done.
I'm totally serious about the webcomic (or similar). If you build it, I will support it.
Females should have a slightly longer torso.
In this picture Matsu looks closer to 90:110, but that could be the camera/picture/angle, and the fact that his tail is down probably makes him look even longer.
Ok so I am a little confused by ratios, what is that in terms of cm? Say from point of chest cm to say point of hip across and where it falls into the acceptable range? Does rounding of rump or slight rise at top line, above loin, count or discount for anything? As a general observation across dogs, it becomes tougher to get a strong loin the longer a body is without really super strong rears.
Yeah, it's hard for me to grasp the ratios aspects since there isn't anything to go on as far as diagram. Eyeballing seems so subjective to me.
Not that it really matters....He seems pretty strong obviously and gets some great attributes from Nio, nice head, front etc etc. : )
Snf
In the diagram above, 'F' is the torso length (110), 'D'+'E' is the height (100).
Hope that's clearer.
Snf
I was wondering where did you get the stuff to attatch on the collar? do they sell it in hobby craft type stores, home depot or something?
I like the new bell has different sound from Bella's so no mistaken who is who. hehe
http://www.strapworks.com/Flat_Nylon_s/61.htm
Matsu is intact and had his xrays for hips and elbows, earning a "good" rating from OFA and clear for luxating patella and elbow dysplasia. I'm still catching on to all the stuff you do besides just not-neuter your dog in order to actually be a cooperative breed preservation owner. It is both that simple, and yet it's really not.
Anyway- pictures!
Im biased, but I say he;s one handsome dog.
Motts is an all-conditions adventurer
obligatory on the table shot
more all terrain kai action
Matsu is a well exercised kai.