Height of male akita
My male akita is almost 8 months. I think he is small for this breed. He is little over 23 inch. Does akita grow after 8 month old? How many inches they grow after 8 month?? Both of his parents are really big akita and i want this pup to be atleast 27 inches. Is this possible?
Comments
i know the standard of JA. but also in Japan they like little bigger male.
Female needs to be within standard but little over standard is ok for male.
alot of meiyosho are 68+cm and some of them are 70+
27 was my dream height for Male. but 25-26 should be ideal. I don't think tachi won't be that tall either.
but still he has good structure and head so I guess he will be ok.
can't get everything right? lol
thanks for advise sean and email me your address so i can send you my application.
Secondly, saying that dogs should be eliminated from the breeding program, when the population is already very small, shows a clear lack of understanding of how height is inherited in dogs and no consideration for entire strains of desirable genes that could be easily wiped out by such a brash selection process.
Height is an example of additive inheritance and can only be described through quantitative genetics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_genetics. It is controlled by many genes, the effects of which are additive when considering the entire height of the mature dog. A very simple example is outlined on the following webpage; this is not accurate and does not account for all of the genes involved, but reveals how complex the situation is.
"[Height] is not a simple genetic trait. At a minimum, it depends on the genetic codes for growth hormones, the genes that dictate when and how much growth hormone is produced, probably genes that code for receptor proteins that respond to growth hormones, genes that control bone shape and angulation between bones, and other genes affecting various metabolic processes. We don't even know the whole list, or how to determine what makes a particular dog large or small. In some cases the gene for larger size would be dominant, in some cases recessive, in some cases the dog heterozygous at a particular locus would be intermediate is size." - http://bowlingsite.mcf.com/genetics/GenSize.html
Because height is so complex, there are hundreds of genotypes (combinations alleles in the dog's genetic makeup) which can produce the same phenotype (height at the withers). Two average sized dogs can produce a litter of puppies that range all over the height map for the breed. Two short dogs can produce tall offspring, and two tall dogs can produce short offspring. A short and a tall dog might produce only short or tall offspring, or might produce a wide variety in the middle. What is often attributed to "hybrid vigor" and taller dogs is often a result of a new combination of the many genes which control height.
There is no way to know a dog's height genotype. We can only know its phenotype, and until the dog is bred, there is no way to know how its genes might affect the height of it's offspring. Moreover, just because a bitch produced short or tall offspring with one stud, does not mean her genes will combine in the same way with a different stud.
There is absolutely no way to reliably predict the height of offspring of a pair of dogs who have not been bred to each other previously. Breeding like to like only works at the extremes of the scale - tall x tall or short x short will more likely produce the same height offspring. When you breed dogs that are of average height for the breed or tall x short, all bets are off.
Meeting the breed standard is important. But height is only one component of many as far as the standard goes. Health, temperament, and the ability to perform the breed's traditional work should ALWAYS come first. Personally, I care more about good front and rear assembly and movement, followed by a typey head, "thick bone", correct body proportion, and great coat. A dog that is over the average height is nice, but only if I can use it to correct dogs in my line that are losing height. Otherwise, its just a minor "perk" like a beautiful earset or donut-shaped tail.
I would no sooner cull a dog from breeding based on height alone than I would because his tail isn't perfect. NO DOG is perfect after all. Even suggesting such a sweeping cull, when there are only a few thousand Japanese Akitas in the world, is insane. We lost an estimated 7% of all AKIHO Japanese Akitas in the wake of the disasters in Japan last year... the breed population is clearly in a very delicate situation.
EDIT: Additionally, greater height is associated with greater health problems. I see no reason to breed monstrously tall dogs when they're all going to get hip dysplasia and bloat. A moderate height, as close to the breed standard - neither significantly above or below it - is best. If I had to pick, though, I'd rather have a dog that is too short than too tall!
http://www.akitapedigree.com/testmating.php?dam=70924&sire=70923