Thanks for all the kind remarks. We do love our baby girl very much. The joy of living with an Akita is one that has to be personally experienced, no words can adequately describe it. Of course, it always come with a price.
Will post some more pictures of Aki having a play date last Sunday with Jojo a female Lab/Retriever once I'm not too lazy to transfer from camera.
Nice pics and cute girl. In the last message, I like the first picture!!!!
Love the akita's glance!!!! It has something that........I don't know, only I'm love it!!!!
Words of positive encourage mean a lot to the parents. Thank you very much for the continue support from this community. We definitely benefit from the help from this forum.
As for the manners, it does take work. We as loving parents we rather spoil her than discipline her sometimes; but I find that not letting her get away with undesirable behavior does mold her to have better manners. On that topic, I have few comments/questions:
1) She is absolutely friendly to EVERYONE, even strangers. Will that change as she grows? She's even friendly to strange dogs. During our walks in the neighborhood, if other dogs show aggression towards her by growling or excessive barking, she just ignores them. Will that change also in the future? Can it be a problem if a dog is "TOO NICE"?
2) Brad posted a thread about self-handicapping. I see that in Aki. When the play gets too rough, she gets herself in a down position to invite others to continue to play with her.
Thanks again everyone. I hope to continue to see all our beloved pets live a good life with us.
Not sure about an Akita, but I can tell you about my Kai male at 9 months.
She is absolutely friendly to EVERYONE, even strangers. Will that change as she grows? Koda has taken to barking at males when they come near us on walks. We are working on getting him to stop. He is doing really well at only doing a huff and a puff then I say thank you and he stops.
She's even friendly to strange dogs. During our walks in the neighborhood, if other dogs show aggression towards her by growling or excessive barking, she just ignores them. Will that change also in the future? Can it be a problem if a dog is "TOO NICE"?
Koda ignores dogs who bark at him. I have often worried about him being too nice to other dogs, then last week a dog bit him at the park and he caught it by it's throat. Didn't bite hard no blood or anything, but got him to go away.
Brad posted a thread about self-handicapping. I see that in Aki. When the play gets too rough, she gets herself in a down position to invite others to continue to play with her.
Koda is very good at this, and he is great with smaller dogs and puppies because of it. His Shiba girlfriend, half his size, can kick his butt because he throws himself on the ground for her and runs slower so she can keep up.
I was kind've proud of him with that other dog. I don't like my dogs to engage their mouth, but it bit him twice. A couple of months ago he would have runaway in fear. I think that 9 months old is just changing him. Wait a couple of months and Aki will get there too. Hopefully, she won't have to use her mouth though. lol
1) She is absolutely friendly to EVERYONE, even strangers. Will that change as she grows? She's even friendly to strange dogs. During our walks in the neighborhood, if other dogs show aggression towards her by growling or excessive barking, she just ignores them. Will that change also in the future? Can it be a problem if a dog is "TOO NICE"?
If you continue to socialize her it shouldn't change. She may not be as excited, and she may start to be more pickier as to who she likes and doesn't like (with dogs), but (if you continue all the great things you are doing with her now) she should never go the other way (the non-social way).
Akita Inu should be friendly to strangers and tolerant of other dogs, they may not LOVE other dogs, but they should at the very least tolerate them.
Aki sounds perfect to me. It sounds like you have done a GREAT job with her.
When we first read about Akitas, we thought that Aki will grow up to be discrete with her friendliness towards strangers. Since we do not do any special training to instruct her otherwise, it's rather unreasonable to expect her to act differently. I think you are right that Aki will remain friendly. We just have to give up the expectation that she will instinctively perform as a guard dog, and we are more than OK with that.
@ Tara:
Yeah, we do hope that Aki will grow up nicely like Koda when she's 9 months old. 2 more months to go and I'll report back.
Panting is something dogs do for a number of different reasons. The most common is to disperse heat. Dogs don't sweat like humans do, so they reduce their body temperature by panting. The second most common reason for panting is stress. So, if you can eliminate heat and stress as factors in her panting, then seeing a vet may be a good idea to rule out a medical condition.
Of course, if you're concerned about it, there is no harm in seeing the vet. I've had more than my share of vet visits that resulted in a "there's nothing to worry about" diagnosis. :-)
It's been a while since we "show off" Aki with some updates. We sometimes still can't believe we are blessed with this wonderful girl. We are chasing "LOST" up to date with Aki on our bed most evenings now.
MnV - she looks great. I am late to this post but don't worry about the panting -Kaeda does this all the time. Sometimes I think it is almost expressive.
Comments
These are a few better pictures we took using our first DSLR on a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens.
It's been a while too since we have any updates on Aki. She's a little over six months old now. She's spayed recently.
Will post some more pictures of Aki having a play date last Sunday with Jojo a female Lab/Retriever once I'm not too lazy to transfer from camera.
Love the akita's glance!!!! It has something that........I don't know, only I'm love it!!!!
Thanks for sharing!
----
Aki is turning into quite the beautiful lady.
As for the manners, it does take work. We as loving parents we rather spoil her than discipline her sometimes; but I find that not letting her get away with undesirable behavior does mold her to have better manners. On that topic, I have few comments/questions:
1) She is absolutely friendly to EVERYONE, even strangers. Will that change as she grows? She's even friendly to strange dogs. During our walks in the neighborhood, if other dogs show aggression towards her by growling or excessive barking, she just ignores them. Will that change also in the future? Can it be a problem if a dog is "TOO NICE"?
2) Brad posted a thread about self-handicapping. I see that in Aki. When the play gets too rough, she gets herself in a down position to invite others to continue to play with her.
Thanks again everyone. I hope to continue to see all our beloved pets live a good life with us.
She is absolutely friendly to EVERYONE, even strangers. Will that change as she grows?
Koda has taken to barking at males when they come near us on walks. We are working on getting him to stop. He is doing really well at only doing a huff and a puff then I say thank you and he stops.
She's even friendly to strange dogs. During our walks in the neighborhood, if other dogs show aggression towards her by growling or excessive barking, she just ignores them. Will that change also in the future? Can it be a problem if a dog is "TOO NICE"?
Koda ignores dogs who bark at him. I have often worried about him being too nice to other dogs, then last week a dog bit him at the park and he caught it by it's throat. Didn't bite hard no blood or anything, but got him to go away.
Brad posted a thread about self-handicapping. I see that in Aki. When the play gets too rough, she gets herself in a down position to invite others to continue to play with her.
Koda is very good at this, and he is great with smaller dogs and puppies because of it. His Shiba girlfriend, half his size, can kick his butt because he throws himself on the ground for her and runs slower so she can keep up.
From what you've described, Koda has good manners, yet protective of the owner, and stand his ground when necessary. I think that's just perfect.
If you continue to socialize her it shouldn't change. She may not be as excited, and she may start to be more pickier as to who she likes and doesn't like (with dogs), but (if you continue all the great things you are doing with her now) she should never go the other way (the non-social way).
Akita Inu should be friendly to strangers and tolerant of other dogs, they may not LOVE other dogs, but they should at the very least tolerate them.
Aki sounds perfect to me. It sounds like you have done a GREAT job with her.
----
When we first read about Akitas, we thought that Aki will grow up to be discrete with her friendliness towards strangers. Since we do not do any special training to instruct her otherwise, it's rather unreasonable to expect her to act differently. I think you are right that Aki will remain friendly. We just have to give up the expectation that she will instinctively perform as a guard dog, and we are more than OK with that.
@ Tara:
Yeah, we do hope that Aki will grow up nicely like Koda when she's 9 months old. 2 more months to go and I'll report back.
Just a silly update.
The love we share together is growing stronger everyday.
Things that worry us is:
1) She pants a lot. I have no idea if it's normal or not.
2) She drools sometimes when she sleeps.
I think we should bring her to the vet.
Panting is something dogs do for a number of different reasons. The most common is to disperse heat. Dogs don't sweat like humans do, so they reduce their body temperature by panting. The second most common reason for panting is stress. So, if you can eliminate heat and stress as factors in her panting, then seeing a vet may be a good idea to rule out a medical condition.
Of course, if you're concerned about it, there is no harm in seeing the vet. I've had more than my share of vet visits that resulted in a "there's nothing to worry about" diagnosis. :-)
Aki tells us that she wants to give you all lots of kisses.