Koga the Shikoku
My friend Koga, originally known as Gakuto, born on May 19, 2014. Spends most of his days pretending to track any scent he can come across.
My friend Koga, originally known as Gakuto, born on May 19, 2014. Spends most of his days pretending to track any scent he can come across.
Comments
Hard to keep up with him when he is moving so quickly!
He looks like he's really enjoying himself in mid-leap!
Jesse
Unfortunately, like most Shikoku, he can't be trusted off leash. He tends to roam around, but does frequent check-ins with us. We usually let him out 1 to 2 hours 2x a day. We eventually put him back on leash during his last check-in
When Koga is off leash, he is still in a controlled environment. We have 5 foot fencing surrounding the property, but the area is big enough that we can't really find him if gets too far, and we have to wait for him to come back in what we consider as "check-ins" When he comes back to the house, he usually checks on us or take water breaks. Even under these conditions, I am always very nervous when he is roaming around out of sight, and my girls sometimes have to get on an ATV just to find him and get him to come back. When he is roaming around, and we see him, he does respond when we call him, but that is only if he feels like listening to us. The pictures above are of Koga running around playing games with my daughters who were speeding around on an ATV with him running around with him which was a good way for him to release all his pent up energy.
Yes, Koga has been pretty good off-leash in a controlled environment. If we didn't have the property fenced off, we would never let him out the way we have been. Sometimes we do watch him from afar to see exactly what he does. I always get nervous when he walks along the fencing as there is nothing that stops him from trying to dig under the wire mesh along our fence(its buried about 6" deep). Right now, he is not leashed, but he is taking a nap just outside the house with our other dogs. We find that once he gets all the energy out of his system, he will tend to just hang out near the house with the other dogs.
Thank you for the compliment! We live down in Southern California. We are from the San Francisco Bay Area though. We really love all the redwood trees that grow in the Bay Area, so we have tried to replicate that here in SoCal where Redwood trees don't grow too well. We have around a 100 redwood trees on the property, but it's difficult keeping them green these days with the multi-year drought. Redwoods are thirsty for water, but if you don't water them, they can become fire hazards.
The great thing for Koga is that there are lots of little hills and forest area with plenty boulder formations, so its fun seeing him traverse boulder formations and chase after all the jackrabbits
TK, my Shikoku, is my oldest dog and I got him as a rehome - he was raised by his other family for 6-7 years of his life. He'll be 9 in November and he is the best off-leash dog I've had. He's way better *off* the leash than he is ON the leash. He rarely goes out of sight and is always super-responsive. When he's overwhelmed, he kind of blocks me out, but that's very rare. The first time I let him off leash was a month after I got him. I was never really worried, for whatever reason.
My Kishu, on the other hand, are punks. They like to explore and do their own thing. It took me a year before I trusted Nami off the leash and even now that I do, I only go places where I'm sure no one else will be to minimize distractions. Her pup, who I've had her whole life since the day she was born (Fionna) is even worse off leash. I keep a bell on her because she doesn't actually GO far, but she's almost always out of sight with few check-ins by herself. I only let her off the leash for hiking in the middle of nowhere...
I had him run off on me once in the winter time so I don't exactly trust him off leash. I'm working on his recall at the dog park with a 50 foot lead a few minutes at a time. It's slowly improving with lots of bribes.
Thank you for the compliment and Meitou is awesome too! Following your posts and Meitou made us want to get a Hokkaido also!