Nice looking pup!!!! I like Boerboel's. I have no use for one, but I like them. His coloring is really neat. But Chase still steals the show!
@jenz I don't want to steal cute Parka's thread, but I think you are thinking about people using Pit Bulls as personal protection dogs. My uncle breeds Rott's and a small line of working Staffordshire Terriors. He trains his dogs for PPD and bite work, and some of his Staffie's have gone onto working for the Police Department. They do extremely well with bite work and listen to their handlers. But a guardian breed needs to have a different quality. I'm amazed by how the guardian breeds just "get it". That Luytiy didn't have to be trained to guard the property or the dogs, he just inherently has that quality in him. His presence still impresses me from 16 hrs. away.
He is such a good looking dog! Love his brindle! And I loved the vid with Chase and Parka....so cute! Also, since I'm on a roll with the exclamation marks and just loving everything, I also really like the new Yamabushi Kennel pic in your sig!
Jess, I loved your "guardian" pittie pics too!
I was going to say something about guardians vs. PPD, but I see Tara beat me to it.
@Calia - Yes, I love the brindle pattern... but, in this case, I had no say in his coat color. Color doesn't (usually) play a huge role in our working dog selection.
@shibamistress - Thanks!!!!!! I added a few extra exclamation marks for you too! ) That little signature banner thing is taken from our new website design we launched last night.
Kaia is doing very well now, she's moved back into the office with me so we get to spend more time with each-other and I think that is helping both of us. For awhile she was kicked out of my office so Haru could have her pups in here. She's back now and doing well. She's recovered much quicker from this last hip surgery too - thanks to water therapy - it's like magic!
Parka is a special pup, he's not the BB norm. The BB breed should be great with children like he is, but the temp. of the BBs produced is all over the place - some even owner aggressive. While the breed standard says they should love children and never hurt family, I've come to learn that that is the exception and not the rule in the breed, unfortunately.
Tjbart- You're right... I am getting pers protection dogs mixed up with guardian breeds. This is what I get for spending the past 10 years wallowing around in sighthounds, LOL!! )
Brad, this is a silly question but... how can you tell Parka is "plush"? She looks so shorthaired already... I guess when I think of plush, I think of "breeds" like the Shiloh Shepherd, where plush=hairball. Is normal Boerbel hair supposed to be even shorter than hers?
@jenz - That's a good question, and maybe "plush" is the wrong descriptor. This is just the term Tashi (breeder) and I came up with. You are right, it's not longer, but it is softer and thicker.
So, in BBs the typical coat type is a single coat, made up of basically just guard hairs. Blue has this coat, but in the CC a single coat a fault as they should have a double coat (a "cow coat" - feels like velvet).
Parka's coat doesn't feel like Blue's (which is typical of a BB not a CC) and it doesn't feel like a "cow coat" either. This is why it's so hard to find the right term for his coat, it's softer and longer than the cow coat, but it is about as thick as a cow coat. Right now it's almost like he lacks the harsher outer coat that the BB and Blue has... LOL ... I'm not helping at all. I dunno what else to say, he's VERY soft tho, I can tell you that. I enjoy petting him. )
I'll tell you what he feels like, he feels like Maui, our cream Shiba Inu. I've noticed the cream Shibas tend to have a softer coat, like they don't have the outer guard hairs as nicely developed as the standard Shiba. Parka is a dilute too, like the cream Shiba, so maybe this example is surprisingly correct.
For Maui it makes him less cold-tolerant than, for example, Kaia. But certainly Maui is still more cold-tolerant than Blue (who has no undercoat). I expect Parka will be similar to Maui, he will tolerate temps that range cooler than Blue likes (25F-45F), but will not be able to take the very cold temps that our Ovcharka LOVE (and Blue HATES), which range -25F-25F. This should make him a bit more "usable" as a guard than Blue as he will be able to overlap with the CO some (30F-65F).
So I didn't really start out liking bully breeds at all. I love them now. Their sticky personalities and neediness really get to irritate me, but their devotion is awesome and their muscliness is amazing. I like Parka. He's beautiful! Okay, how do you pronounce "boerboel?" I feel like a fool.
I wasn't gonna share this since it's not NK related, but this story may be too good not to share with my forum family...
(and I so wish I could tell this story but have it be one of the Kai and not Parka in it)
Saturday I took Parka out on his first hike. I’ve wanted to get Parka out on the trails for a few weeks, to get him used to hiking with me, and finally I got some time to do that on Saturday. We hiked a trail called the North Boundary Trail, it’s a trail that starts close to town but snakes up into the mountains to a big meadow at about 11,000 feet.
So Parka and I were on the North Boundary trail, we had been hiking for about 2 hours. We stopped and took some pictures, then I decided we should turn around before it started to get dark. This whole hike Parka had been very alert and watchful, but I thought nothing of it (he’s a guardian, after all)...
Well, about 30 minutes after we turned to head back, as we were going around a blind ridge, Parka stopped dead. His eyes got very large, his nostrils got very large, and his lips started to wrinkle - then he let out a very deep growl. I figured it was due to a person coming toward us on the trail or something, so I reached for my treats to redirect Parka and move off the trail. while I was looking down in the treat bag Parka does this massive display - growling, barking, and dragging me forward (almost lost my balance)...
Then out shot a Mountain Lion!!! It ran up the mountain away from us, it was apparently hanging out behind a rock on the ridge to the left (about 4 feet above the trail)... If we had walked by we would have walked right under him!!!
At first I thought it was a deer or something, but then I could see his long tail, and he clearly didn't move like a deer or a Coyote. Crazy. I mean, he could have jumped right out and got both of us! I had NO IDEA he was there.
Maybe the lion was just napping, or chilling out in the sun. I dunno. But it was a kinda close-call even if he didn't want to eat us. This thing was BIG too... scary big.
Every year there is at least one person who is attacked by a cougar in this area (laster year the attack was only 15 minutes from our house)... I gotta wonder, if it wasn’t for Parka, would we have been one of those victims this year?
I take dogs with me on hikes a lot, and always thought they might be useful in a situation like this, but I never thought it'd actually happen, ya know? I’m so proud of Mr. Parka, he did his job!
I don't typically buy into much of the text written about a breed's history, especially with these recreated breeds, but I'll admit it: there is something rather romantic about my Boerboel protected me from a lion!
Very interesting story. Good thing you had Parka with you.
And if you're hiking w/ a Shiba and it starts sniffing the air and then sits down and refuses to move, you may want to turn around and not go ahead. Sukoshi did that as a puppy. She refused to move into an area where deer carcasses were found due to cougar activity.
Whoa that's awesome! Thanks for sharing Brad, I love hearing about your dogs even if they aren't Nihon Ken. He's getting big too! I personally am terrified of Cougars. Probably the scariest critter I've ever seen.
I've been an admirer of parka for a bit, such a beautiful young dog, but that kinda story makes me an even bigger fan. Great to hear ya escaped a possibly sticky situation brad!
Wow! That is a great story. I think I'd be in love with him forever after that. We've seen coyotes and such, but there are mountain lions out here, especially in the hills at my parent's house. I've yet to run into one that I know of, but I don't think Koda or Mei would be much help. A guardian who can hike in the heat would be ideal when I get a bigger home.
Comments
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5058/5512341805_585d751fc4_z.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5512940856_6cc8fce18c_z.jpg
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http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5052/5512950006_3775572b2f_z.jpg
He looks like a Tiger:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5059/5512948778_7519da42a0_z.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5096/5512349169_c259ff0e4d_b.jpg
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@jenz I don't want to steal cute Parka's thread, but I think you are thinking about people using Pit Bulls as personal protection dogs. My uncle breeds Rott's and a small line of working Staffordshire Terriors. He trains his dogs for PPD and bite work, and some of his Staffie's have gone onto working for the Police Department. They do extremely well with bite work and listen to their handlers. But a guardian breed needs to have a different quality. I'm amazed by how the guardian breeds just "get it". That Luytiy didn't have to be trained to guard the property or the dogs, he just inherently has that quality in him. His presence still impresses me from 16 hrs. away.
Jess, I loved your "guardian" pittie pics too!
I was going to say something about guardians vs. PPD, but I see Tara beat me to it.
@Calia - Yes, I love the brindle pattern... but, in this case, I had no say in his coat color. Color doesn't (usually) play a huge role in our working dog selection.
@shibamistress - Thanks!!!!!! I added a few extra exclamation marks for you too!
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Your new website is amazing!! Really nice design and great to see all the kais on there...
I saw Kaia in the video reminds me of Saya. lol How is Kaia doing?
I don't know much about Parka's breed, but they seem pretty cool from the pictures and info I've seen so far.
Nice website design I like it.
Kaia is doing very well now, she's moved back into the office with me so we get to spend more time with each-other and I think that is helping both of us. For awhile she was kicked out of my office so Haru could have her pups in here. She's back now and doing well. She's recovered much quicker from this last hip surgery too - thanks to water therapy - it's like magic!
Parka is a special pup, he's not the BB norm. The BB breed should be great with children like he is, but the temp. of the BBs produced is all over the place - some even owner aggressive. While the breed standard says they should love children and never hurt family, I've come to learn that that is the exception and not the rule in the breed, unfortunately.
Actually, we discussed the breed at one point, and a member from SA gave some input on them... Seems they have the same temp. issues in SA too. Here is the thread: http://www.nihonken.org/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/5449
That is why I say Parka is special, he comes from a breeder who has worked really hard to get the right temp. in her dogs.
Here is Parka's 1/2 bro...
And his mother...
And his father...
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Brad, this is a silly question but... how can you tell Parka is "plush"? She looks so shorthaired already... I guess when I think of plush, I think of "breeds" like the Shiloh Shepherd, where plush=hairball. Is normal Boerbel hair supposed to be even shorter than hers?
Her brindling is exquisite....
Jen
So, in BBs the typical coat type is a single coat, made up of basically just guard hairs. Blue has this coat, but in the CC a single coat a fault as they should have a double coat (a "cow coat" - feels like velvet).
Parka's coat doesn't feel like Blue's (which is typical of a BB not a CC) and it doesn't feel like a "cow coat" either. This is why it's so hard to find the right term for his coat, it's softer and longer than the cow coat, but it is about as thick as a cow coat. Right now it's almost like he lacks the harsher outer coat that the BB and Blue has... LOL ... I'm not helping at all. I dunno what else to say, he's VERY soft tho, I can tell you that. I enjoy petting him.
I'll tell you what he feels like, he feels like Maui, our cream Shiba Inu. I've noticed the cream Shibas tend to have a softer coat, like they don't have the outer guard hairs as nicely developed as the standard Shiba. Parka is a dilute too, like the cream Shiba, so maybe this example is surprisingly correct.
For Maui it makes him less cold-tolerant than, for example, Kaia. But certainly Maui is still more cold-tolerant than Blue (who has no undercoat). I expect Parka will be similar to Maui, he will tolerate temps that range cooler than Blue likes (25F-45F), but will not be able to take the very cold temps that our Ovcharka LOVE (and Blue HATES), which range -25F-25F. This should make him a bit more "usable" as a guard than Blue as he will be able to overlap with the CO some (30F-65F).
I hope that helps to explain things. :oT
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Congrats again! ~
I love them now. Their sticky personalities and neediness really get to irritate me, but their devotion is awesome and their muscliness is amazing.
I like Parka. He's beautiful!
Okay, how do you pronounce "boerboel?" I feel like a fool.
(and I so wish I could tell this story but have it be one of the Kai and not Parka in it)
Saturday I took Parka out on his first hike. I’ve wanted to get Parka out on the trails for a few weeks, to get him used to hiking with me, and finally I got some time to do that on Saturday. We hiked a trail called the North Boundary Trail, it’s a trail that starts close to town but snakes up into the mountains to a big meadow at about 11,000 feet.
So Parka and I were on the North Boundary trail, we had been hiking for about 2 hours. We stopped and took some pictures, then I decided we should turn around before it started to get dark. This whole hike Parka had been very alert and watchful, but I thought nothing of it (he’s a guardian, after all)...
Well, about 30 minutes after we turned to head back, as we were going around a blind ridge, Parka stopped dead. His eyes got very large, his nostrils got very large, and his lips started to wrinkle - then he let out a very deep growl. I figured it was due to a person coming toward us on the trail or something, so I reached for my treats to redirect Parka and move off the trail. while I was looking down in the treat bag Parka does this massive display - growling, barking, and dragging me forward (almost lost my balance)...
Then out shot a Mountain Lion!!! It ran up the mountain away from us, it was apparently hanging out behind a rock on the ridge to the left (about 4 feet above the trail)... If we had walked by we would have walked right under him!!!
At first I thought it was a deer or something, but then I could see his long tail, and he clearly didn't move like a deer or a Coyote. Crazy. I mean, he could have jumped right out and got both of us! I had NO IDEA he was there.
Maybe the lion was just napping, or chilling out in the sun. I dunno. But it was a kinda close-call even if he didn't want to eat us. This thing was BIG too... scary big.
Every year there is at least one person who is attacked by a cougar in this area (laster year the attack was only 15 minutes from our house)... I gotta wonder, if it wasn’t for Parka, would we have been one of those victims this year?
I take dogs with me on hikes a lot, and always thought they might be useful in a situation like this, but I never thought it'd actually happen, ya know? I’m so proud of Mr. Parka, he did his job!
I don't typically buy into much of the text written about a breed's history, especially with these recreated breeds, but I'll admit it: there is something rather romantic about my Boerboel protected me from a lion!
Parka is 5 months old now...
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And if you're hiking w/ a Shiba and it starts sniffing the air and then sits down and refuses to move, you may want to turn around and not go ahead. Sukoshi did that as a puppy. She refused to move into an area where deer carcasses were found due to cougar activity.
I personally am terrified of Cougars. Probably the scariest critter I've ever seen.