New Kishu Momo
On the 11th I picked up my new Kishu, Momo. She's a 3 year old female, from the same dam as Baron's mother, so I guess she's kinda Baron's aunt. She was sent to me from down south as her previous owner decided to stop hunting.
She's been an outside dog her entire life, and came to me in not the best of shape, but I'm working on that. I was actually surprised that she warmed up to us pretty fast, but we're still working on her and the other dogs. Amazingly enough she and Haru get along great.
She's a semi-trained boar hunter, so was sent up to me to help bolster Haru and Baron as they're both still very inexperienced. She really seems to like women, and she warmed to my wife right away. I've been sleeping with her, it's something I do with every dog/pup I get as I feel it helps create a bond faster.
She's doing great in the house, and is so quiet it's easy to forget she's here. Very calm indoors but when she gets outside and catches a whiff of something she really goes nuts. She has had 0 training so I have my work cut out for me there. Thinking of pulling out the good ol' clicker as she's very food motivated.
I'm attaching a rather graphic picture in the hopes that is serves as a reference/warning to others shipping or just crating unsupervised dogs. Momo was shipped up to me in a wire crate. Pretty standard heavy duty crate, but definitely not what you'd want for an unsocialized dog travelling in a plane. When she arrived the cargo area was abuzz and I was called in right away as she'd pretty much destroyed the crate. There was blood everywhere, she'd lost a tooth and cracked a few others. She was very calm, head and shoulders sticking out of the crate where she'd chewed open a gaping hole when I first saw her. I had to ask for a pair of pliers to pry her out of the crate.
Her mouth is healing well, but she'll never get those teeth back. All in all it was a learning experience. If you're shipping a dog, make sure it's in a proper IATA approved crate, and that the dog has been crated before. I guess this would mostly apply to adult dogs travelling for the first time, rescues etc, as I can't see a puppy doing that type of job on a crate.
Either way, Momo is here, and I feel like it's going to be an interesting challenge to transform a non-socialized un-trained hunting dog into a well balanced companion. I'll try to update this thread as things progress with her. First off she has a few medical issues that need attention.
She's been an outside dog her entire life, and came to me in not the best of shape, but I'm working on that. I was actually surprised that she warmed up to us pretty fast, but we're still working on her and the other dogs. Amazingly enough she and Haru get along great.
She's a semi-trained boar hunter, so was sent up to me to help bolster Haru and Baron as they're both still very inexperienced. She really seems to like women, and she warmed to my wife right away. I've been sleeping with her, it's something I do with every dog/pup I get as I feel it helps create a bond faster.
She's doing great in the house, and is so quiet it's easy to forget she's here. Very calm indoors but when she gets outside and catches a whiff of something she really goes nuts. She has had 0 training so I have my work cut out for me there. Thinking of pulling out the good ol' clicker as she's very food motivated.
I'm attaching a rather graphic picture in the hopes that is serves as a reference/warning to others shipping or just crating unsupervised dogs. Momo was shipped up to me in a wire crate. Pretty standard heavy duty crate, but definitely not what you'd want for an unsocialized dog travelling in a plane. When she arrived the cargo area was abuzz and I was called in right away as she'd pretty much destroyed the crate. There was blood everywhere, she'd lost a tooth and cracked a few others. She was very calm, head and shoulders sticking out of the crate where she'd chewed open a gaping hole when I first saw her. I had to ask for a pair of pliers to pry her out of the crate.
Her mouth is healing well, but she'll never get those teeth back. All in all it was a learning experience. If you're shipping a dog, make sure it's in a proper IATA approved crate, and that the dog has been crated before. I guess this would mostly apply to adult dogs travelling for the first time, rescues etc, as I can't see a puppy doing that type of job on a crate.
Either way, Momo is here, and I feel like it's going to be an interesting challenge to transform a non-socialized un-trained hunting dog into a well balanced companion. I'll try to update this thread as things progress with her. First off she has a few medical issues that need attention.
Comments
Congrats! She has a very sweet face! ~
Do you think the missing/broken teeth have an effect on her hunting abilities (catching, specifically)?
Are those puncture wounds on her muzzle?
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As far as her losing teeth, it definitely makes a difference in a dog's catching ability. If you don't take care of a catch dog's teeth properly they can end up losing them. Mainly though a hunting dog needs to keep its 4 canines (fangs) to get a good bite. Once they lose those it becomes much harder for them to function. Luckily looks like Momo only chipped one canine.
I look forward to hearing how things progress on both the home-life and hunting fronts with her.
Good luck on getting her back on the right track, Shigeru!
It'll be worth it!
Glad that she is now safe with you and will hopefully start her training off well. Good luck, and keep us updated on her!
The first few days she was very quiet and mostly trying to figure out what was going on. She's not very socialized so has issues when greeting other dogs. Her first reaction is to growl, and if they keep coming she'll snap at them. I laid off introducing her to Haru/Baron and the Kai pups. I had to keep her separated so parked her in a spare room. She's never been crated, so reacts very badly and starts trying to tear her way out of any sort of confinement. After getting more comfortable she started trying to chew her way out of the spare room to find me. I noticed quite a bit of blood in her urine, and her hip bones protrude quite a bit. She's rather gaunt. I weighed her and though larger than Baron she's just under 15kg. Every dog I get sleeps with me for the first few days till I feel they're comfortable. Today at day 12 Momo now sleeps on her own.
Day 2 I discovered Momo loves women. Total strangers whatever, she gets all happy and waggy. Warmed up to my wife right away, took till the end of second day before she started reacting that way to me. She's still very calm and quiet. After all the dogs had been walked I opened the door to Momo's room just a crack and walked the other dogs by one by one. She growled every time, and I felt that was enough for today. I started feeding her in an open crate and she's fine with that. Very food motivated. On walks she does well, but anytime a scent catches her interest she lunges forward with all the power she can muster. Noticed she's got A LOT of hunting drive. Won't give up easily. I can call off Haru and Baron most of the time pretty quickly. She's very reactive toward cats, and it's been hard to keep the house under control so they don't get into the same areas. Talked to my vet about her health issues, she took a quick look and said she's malnourished. We've formulated a 6 month plan to get her back in shape. On the night of day 2 I did the door thing again with the other dogs, same result.
Day 3 Momo is still quiet, but has started tearing at the door to get out if left alone. I let her roam around the downstairs area now, and she's fine with that. She's very comfortable setting up shop at the end of the hallway just watching me come and go. She's walking better, pays attention to me, but still lunges a lot. She rustled up a raccoon dog (Tanuki) at the park on our walk. Quite an adventure as I didn't realize there were any near the house, have only seen a lot of Civets and that's at night. On the night of day 3 I introduced Momo and Baron first thinking that the male/female combo would be less troublesome. Didn't go too well, Baron's still a rude pup, she kept telling him off. Put him away and later introduced Haru. Haru wins an award for most polite canine. When dogs need space she gives it to them and waits till they're ready to say hi. Haru and Momo did very well together after a few minutes.
Day 4 Haru and Momo got into a short scuffle when letting them say hello after morning walks. Was over very quickly and not too big of a deal. Momo got in Haru's face, Haru grabbed her neck and Momo gave in. Suddenly Momo seems much more comfortable, the tension you could see in her body as she moves around is gone. She and Haru are doing well. Later that day I let Haru/Baron/Momo out together. Momo initiated play, and a few minutes later they were all playing NK style. Took Momo to the vet, looks like she has a UTI so she's taking anti biotics. Her urine was quite red, and smelled awful.
Day 5 Momo's urine cleared up really fast. Very little blood, and the smell is much more normal. Apparently the bacteria cause the stench, so the anti biotics are working. The dogs played together again for a bit, Baron loves playing with Momo. Found at Momo does NOT do well with small dogs. She thinks they are prey, lack of socialization there. Tried to introduce her to a friend's Pom, she was trying to figure out what it was for the longest time, but toward the end could see her trying to stalk/chase/bay it like she does with cats, so that was the end of that. Been working on recall with her on the long leash every walk.
Day 6 Save for a few accidents in the house (peeing) Momo has done pretty well. Typical NK doesn't like to do stuff in the house. She urinated near the front door a couple times since she's been here, but I can deal with that. After her reaction to the Pom I've been putting off letting her meet the Kai pups. She's eating well, getting more relaxed. Had to go to the mountains as a deer and boar were caught in my friend's traps, so took Momo and Baron in the jeep to get her used to the car. They both were very well behaved all day, though she seems to get pretty anxious in the car, lots of panting. Probably car sickness, but she hasn't thrown up yet. Had a bit of a scare when I was getting ready to leave. I opened the back door a crack to put my butchering gear back in and out popped Momo. Behind my friend's house is a mountain we hunt a lot, and she headed right up. Figured there was no use chasing her, so slowly starting walking the slope like I was hunting it calling her toward me. She came, and I let her hunt just a bit more before bringing her back to the car. At least now I know she's pretty comfortable with me.
Day 7-12 (today) She's doing great with the dogs, terrible with the cats. Took all the pups to the Nippo Chiba regional, of course she can't be crated yet, and she managed to pop out of the car again. Slap myself for stupidity in not being more careful. Caught her within 30secs, pretty amazing since we were in an area with hundreds of dogs. She stopped when I called her. Momo's been putting on weight, and finally yesterday I was able to introduce her to the Kai pups. She's doing great with them now, loves to play. Since Haru's in heat it's pulled Momo in. She's a few days behind, but it's driving Baron nuts. Momo is still quiet, never barks except when she sees prey. I've built a heavy duty dog gate at the top of the stairs and moved Haru/Baron into the upstairs hall with her. It's working out great. She does great with visitors, loves to say hello. She still lacks manners, jumps on people for food, counters etc. Also gets snarky with prized items. She controls it well though, just enough to make sure she gets her space. I've learned that the most important thing to keeping multiple dogs is to make sure they have space to move. Anytime they're crowded into a small space all interested in the same thing it's a recipe for disaster. Give dogs enough room and they'll sort it out! Only two issues I have with Momo at the moment: not being able to crate her and her uncontrolled prey drive. She's a hunting dog, so drive is great, but she's had no training controlling it. I don't know if I'll ever be able to fix her cat issues, but I want to get her to where she only goes after pigs (which Haru and Baron are relatively good about at the moment).
All in all she's got a wonderful temperament. Absolutely silent and calm in the house, and then switching gears completely when it comes to hunting.She's got a very calm subdued air about her, very NK which I like. Just need to get her a little more under control before I'm comfortable hunting with her. May try a trip to the moutains early next month with just the two of us to see how she does.
Keep us posted on how you manage to slow down her prey drive on walks etc. I could use some suggestions/help with Maymay. There is no stopping her, even on leash, from trying to catch anything that she sees or smells outside. Thankfully, she's good with the cat so far but I don't trust them alone.
And thanks for the update, like Tara, I got quite involved in reading!
Hope to see new pictures of her soon
She's pretty much gotten over trying to destroy her way out of, or through things. It's helpful that she's not chewing through doorways anymore. She's also learned 'ma-te' (stay), so I don't have her attacking me for food. She actually ended up biting me once a couple weeks ago when trying to get her bowl.
We're still working on walks, there's a lot of lunging there. Good news is I've discovered she's not necessarily dog aggressive, just very possessive and a bit rude. She doesn't communicate well with other dogs. She's gotten into a few fights with Haru that she always comes out the worse for. At least it doesn't happen very often, and I've sort of got it figured out to where I think we can fix it. The whole over the top prey drive is on the back burner for now, one step at a time. She weighed 14.8 kg when she arrived, but I've gotten her to 16kg now and she looks a lot better. Not so many bones poking out all over the place. I'm thinking her optimum weight is around 17.5kg.
My Nikon decided to suddenly start working last night (wonder of wonders), so I took a few pics while we were out at the marsh today working on recall and heel. Here's one so you can get a general idea of her weight.
Post up more photos bro!
Other than that, I just need to get her on some boar and see how she does.