Junya's Diary
For those interested I thought it might be nice posting more about my Akita puppy Junya Tokimistu, son of vice world champion Kaishi Go Shichimen Kensha and Dosshiri Go Des Dragons Du Soleil Rouge. Please feel free to drop some comments...
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The Pick-Up
Yossha!! We finally picked up our über-cute Akita puppy Junya Tokimitsu today. As usual, Tokimitsu’s Catharine Hoebeke welcomed us with some great Belgian hospitality. Following a final hour of play with his siblings, his mom Dosshiri and aunties Haruka & Tamasakura (and us accompanied with a Belgian beer), we talked a bit and were given final advice before taking Junya home. After receiving all neccesary things (papers, 3kg of puppie food, a toy, etc.) it was time for the separation from his family. Plus a 2 and half hour drive back home, which took a bit longer, but went completely perfect. Our first impression: just as we thought Junya really is a lovely little fella. After some initial excitement he slept almost during the entire ride. But what did you expect? What’s better than laying at the back seat of our car with owner Peter by his side to give him the occasional petting, puppy biscuit and some water? (yes, Liset was driving this time)
“Neko to Inu wa…?”
Arriving back home it was time for challenge number one. A first encounter between our cats and Junya went “ma ma desu”. Our cat Jiji (yes, named after Jiji from Miyazaki Hayao’s Majo no Takkyūbin) was a bit surprised by this strange creature suddenly turning up in HIS garden and a “Same here!” for our other cat Nemo. After Junya doing a bit of pee-pee and poo-poo, Liset took the cats upstairs and I let Junya into the living room to wander around his new place. At the end of his first exploration Junya was taken back into the garden again, so that Jiji and Nemo could reenter the living room. A window in between to separate them and both parties (but mostly the cats) highly curious. No hostile tension at all… yet. Logically, we also needed........ (read on at Junya's site JunyaTokimitsu.com)
Day 2 - April 12 2010
“Ohayo gozaimasu!”
It’s holiday for us, but still we started our morning eaaaarly and half sleepy. This little fella needs to do his pipi-time often as his blatter still can’t hold much. Last night we went to bed around 12 o’clock and had a toilet intermezzo at 2.30 and 5 o’clock. Wake up was already at 7.15 and after taking Junya out to the garden for some toilet training it was time for some doggy play. His energy didn’t seem to end, what a playful puppy. Luckily also with good result, as spending all that energy gave us some time to relax to catch up our lost sleep; at this moment of writing Jun-chan is nicely sleeping in his bench. And with style; laying out fully streched on his belly after he removed all irrelevant stuff from it yesterday. For example a cuddly teddybear, which according to Junya obviously is only nice to bite in, but next to that only takes up (sleeping) space. And so Mr. Bear had to go.
Learning Already
Coming back at this morning’s playtime, we started with our first command. Yesterday Junya already began to get more and more familiar with his name (numerous times it was “Junya!” + puppy biscuit), today it was “Kom!” (Dutch for “Come!”) + puppy biscuit. Our current conclusion: Junya learns mightily fast. Especially compared to our cats Jiji and Nemo. ^_^
Chilling In The Garden
After a looong afternoon sleep it was garden time again. This time toilet training didn’t go that well, probably because of all the excitement as my mom came by to see Junya for the first time. She was impressed by Junya’s size and cuteness and so was Junya, who went peeing on the floor before he was into the garden. Again proof that a toilet trained pup doesn’t come overnight. Anyway, “Kom!” went well and another thing that went well was garden shaping. Yes, as was to be expected Junya found out that digging is a fun thing to do. For the moment we are not sure what to think of it as he might eat some stones. And let’s not forget grass, Junya likes eating that as well. Our current solution is to distract him with an alternative by giving him one of his toys (but your comments / advice on both of these things are of course always welcome).
Toilet Time: More Success
Well, those having dog surely don’t need to be told, but we’re happy to tell you that repetition is key. The following attempts of toilet training later on today went much better. Junya definitely understands the commands now and he’s such a proud dog when he does well. A typical Akita!
Original post to be found at Junya's own site JunyaTokimitsu.com
Day 3 - April 13 2010
When Will We Sleep?
Last night was... well, let’s say a bit of sleeping challenge. The very first night we slept in the livingroom together with Junya to make it as stressfree as possible for him, but this time we made things like they are supposed to be: we upstairs in bed and Junya downstairs in his bench. To try and prevent Junya of peeing there, we set the alarm on our mobile to go off every two hours to wake us up and take Junya into the garden and do his pee / poo. It was challenging to ignore Junya’s howling, but what has to be done has to be done. One time we waited to long as the alarm we went off and we didn’t hear anything. We thought to try and extend it, but that turned out to be a wrong decision as Junya didn’t make it into the garden. Anyway, we’re starting to get to know the difference between a squeek for attention and the ones for when he wants to pee and for the coming night we’ll pay attention to that.
“Neko Ga Daisuki Desu!”
Today we reached a real improvement with Junya and the cats. We decided to let Junya just chase the cats, but only in a very slow pace and without running. Yes, this Akita pup needs to know that cats aren’t playtoys and that he needs to leave them alone. Logically, Junya received a lot of praises when he just laid there looking at Jiji and Nemo and not doing anything else. Junya still wants to chase them, but things are going quite well between them.
Something Wrong. Something Right.
After a large part of of the afternoon with Junya being stubborn and less responsive to our wishes (being commands like “come”, “sit” and “lay down”), we started to think if were doing something wrong today. Things had been going well. Was it perhaps too much attention? Too few sleep? Was it us being too demanding? Anything else? In search of answer we decided to take a step back, relax a bit more and throw in an extra amount of loving. Though in line with the rules of Amichien Bonding (we read four of Jan Fennel’s books - highly recommended!). Junya is our first Akita Inu and so we still need to learn and I don’t know if found a solution or just luck, but that afternoon Junya was waaay more obedient. And sweet as well. Later on Liset’s sister Evelien and her husband Wilco came by for dinner and meet Junya, we had some kids playing outside and introduced Junya to the neighbor and his little son; all in all a nice bit socialisation. Oh, and Junya & the vacuum cleaner also went well today. We started with Junya outside in the garden and the door slightly open. Slowly coming closer we let him gradually get accustomed to the noise. He didn’t seem to bother. Mission accomplished!
Original post to be found on Junya's site JunyaTokimitsu.com
And I love that you named your cat Jiji! I love that movie.
Day 4 - April 14 2010
A Good Night Of Sleep
What a breakthrough. When we went to bed last night, Junya was such a good boy. In the bench it took him only 1 minute to be quiet. The toilet breaks around 1.30, 3 o’clock, 4.30 and 6.00 were silent as well and so we finally had quite a good sleep. In terms of quality that is. In terms of quantity... Well, let’s say we wished it was a bit longer. Still, were surprised Junya was that quiet in the bench. He really understands what we want now. Bench = sleep!
Leash Training
Starting yesterday Junya has been walking around with his collar on. Gladly this wasn’t any problem. Only when Liset her sister and husband came by, Junya was occasionaly trying to scratch it with his backleg, but nothing big. Anyway, today we started to build that up a bit further. So we attached the leash and of course... Junya started to bite in it. Perhaps out of play or knowing that it limits his freedom, but at least not something we want. Trying to solve it wasn’t much of a success so in the end me removed the leash and decided to start over again one hour later. This time taking a step back by first learning Junya to stay beside us and then to walk beside us. All went ok, but nothing super special. Actually, I am afraid we were praising Junya too much with puppy food, so told Liset to mix our praises a bit with simply giving Junya a petting as well. Don’t want an Akita that only listens when receiving a snack!
Lazy Junya?
Of course pups sleep a lot, but today Junya has been master of sleeping. All cudly sleeping on my chest as well. A playful pup is of course nice, but I guess it’s just neccesary for growth. Let’s see how energetic he will be when he wakes up.
Day 5 - April 15 2010
A Test At Night?
Last night Junya was again quickly quiet after each toilet break. But one time it was different... “Okashi desu ne?” What? Well, that particular moment he was again quickly quiet when he went back into to bench, though when I went upstairs he started howling again. We thought it wouldn’t do our build up bench training success much good if we’d let Junya out and so we left him howling there. Was it perhaps a test? We defenitely didn’t want to establish the relation of “howling = Liset or Peter will come downstairs to let me out of the bench”. Anyway, normally he takes about 1 minute or maybe a tidbid longer to get quiet, but already for ten minutes Junya was making his wolfy sounds. “Scr*w it, this isn’t helping much. Let’s just let him out and see what happens!” A wise decision as it turned out Junya also want to do a poo-poo. Afterwards we asked him to get back in the bench and after two minutes he was quiet again. And left us sleeping softly...
More Leash Training
Eventhough Junya hasn’t gotten all his vacinations, we started with some walks around the neigborhood. Just because we think it’s better for him to have these experiences as young as possible. Nothing big, just around the house and avoiding any places where a lot of dogs come (as not all of them might be vacinated), like lawns where he might catch something like Parvo or whatever. Anyway, Junya was especially interested by sewer puts, he had to inspect everyone of them. It was fun trying to learn Junya walking
Day 6 - April 16 2010
Chilling at the Shops
We went for a drive with the car to go and check out a small shopping place nearby. It was rather crowded because school was just out and so kids were taken home by there mom. “Look, a small dog!” some people went, but also a lot of kids left Junya alone. Are kids these days thought by there parents to leave dogs alone as they might attack? Anyway, it was fun walking around with Junya, who was rather curious when walking around, but not afraid of anything. Well, except a bit for some kids who were loudly playing around and making strange movements, but we walked by as if nothing happened to make Junya think as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Junya’s First Visit At The Vet
... was a big success! The vet told Junya was “ really easygoing! Try to keep it that way!” Jun-chan was quickly checked to see if everything was ok and... it was. His eyes have been a bit dirty, but that was nothing special. We were given some eyedrops to solve that and also brought home the neccessary things against flees and worms. By the way, at the vet it was also the first time for Junya meeting a strange dog up close. And as we hope it was good experience. It was nice to see how the strange adult dog and Junya were sniffing each other. Also, meeting as many people as possible is good for his socialisation, so when we left the vet clinic we also quickly dropped by at Liset her work nearby. Her colleagues, especially Nina, thought Junya was very cute.