Anything that surprised you/you wish you'd known?
I know there is a topic (somewhere...) asking if there's anything you would have done differently with your dogs, but what I am curious about is this:
Is there anything that you wish you'd known before getting your first NK? Of course we all do lots of research and ask around before that first dog comes home with us, but is there anything in particular that you remember being surprised by?
Hopefully this isn't a repeat of a preexisting thread! I haven't had much luck with the search function...
Is there anything that you wish you'd known before getting your first NK? Of course we all do lots of research and ask around before that first dog comes home with us, but is there anything in particular that you remember being surprised by?
Hopefully this isn't a repeat of a preexisting thread! I haven't had much luck with the search function...
Comments
I'd also like to tell my past self to relax, because no matter how much socialization and training classes I do, there's still the possibility of a breed prone to DA becoming DA. About 10 years ago I was of the mindset where its "all in how you raise them", versus now when I know that's definitely not the case.
What else... I wish someone told me how expensive dog shows were. haha. Another reason I wish I'd looked into AKIHO JA is because I showed my (non-AKIHO) dog through UKC but was not entirely impressed by the Western judges. I still have my issues with conformation in general, but I'd much prefer to show under a judge from the dog's country of origin.
On the other hand, I'm glad I did have experience with "difficult" breeds and had experience working with a professional about resource guarding in the past, because both helped a lot with my Akita inu.
I was also surprised at how human friendly she is. I call her obnoxiously charismatic because she greets humans well and charms them into loving her. She's so popular that the boyf's coworker has a bunch of pictures of Koharu on her phone and shows them to people more than her own dog!
I don't know if this counts as a surprise but Koharu also seems like she exactly fits the Shikoku standard, height/size-wise, though I'm not sure how good her structure is since I don't have a trained eye for it and we haven't done any showing. Personality-wise, I think the North American Shikoku Club has a page on what to expect with a Shikoku, and going down that page is a whole lot of nodding and agreeing haha. It's what's what we wanted and signed up for, so I'm glad it's what we got! It really reinforced, for me, that research into the right breed is super important and I guess the surprise is more when people get a certain breed and are surprised that their dog exhibits x breed trait, which I suppose ties into what Kouji said too.
I have to say I've been very lucky. I've definitely underestimated their ability in the past, though. There's a difference between knowing "this is an athletic dog" on paper and witnessing your dog jump/climb an 8 foot fence to get a rat she saw slip under it.
I thought I was an active individual but apparently I need to be going on km hikes, on multi surfaced terrain, daily, to keep up with her. I had assumed that raising a Shiba was as difficult as they get but Shikoku’s are about 10x more than that lol. They definately do have their plus’s though, they are very affectionate and sooo attentative, so they take direction well and are actually always waiting for direction or to please you, to stimulate their smart minds. I’d compare their energy levels similar to a Border Collie or Australian Shepherd.