Guess who's getting a Kai Ken!!!
ME!!!!!!!!!!
Well, as you all know...I have been drooling over Kona ever since Brad got him. After meeting him, I really fell in love. After that, I went out on my search for a Kai Ken. Contacted Marian and Roberta. I wasn't expecting to get a pup until early 2009. So I was just waiting and doing lots of research. A couple weeks ago, I found a breeder in CA, about 1 hour and 30 minutes away from me. I emailed her and she said that she no longer bred Kai Ken's.
A couple days later, she emails me and said that a family she placed one of her pups with is moving and can't take their Kai with him (LAME, I know). So I asked to see pictures and if she could send me some information about him. After looking at the pictures and getting some info on him, I talked to John and we decided that we will at least just go out to meet him and take the pups and see how they interact together.
So we made an appointment to go on Saturday at 3pm. (thats when the family was dropping him off to her). We get there and decide that John and I will meet the Kai first and then bring Portia out and then Ninja. So we left Portia and Ninja in the car with the AC on and went to go meet the Kai. OMG - HE is a LOVE! The breeder had told me he is a bit wary of strangers, but was well socialized with people, kids, and other dogs. So for the first 5 minutes, we were just chatting with the breeder letting the Kai sniff us and get used to our scents. I kneeled down and put my hand out, but didn't look at him. He came up to me and started licking my hand. After that, he was very social with us, he let us pet him and touch him without a problem. He has such sweet eyes too!
After about 10 minutes, we decide to bring Portia out to meet him, since she is super submissive. He went up to sniff her, actually he was sniffing her quite a bit, to the point where I think she felt uncomfortable and just sat down so he couldn't sniff her butt anymore. After he got his information about her, he was very calm. Portia got really excited and started rubbing herself all over him and bumping into him like she was blind. I think she has a crush on him
.
10 minutes later, we take a deep breath and decide for Ninja to come out. The Kai attempted to sniff Ninja, as soon as Ninja saw the Kai approaching he started growling and showing his teeth and tried to charge him. We corrected Ninja and turned his back to the Kai. John walked Ninja by Scrappy and he started to growl and show his teeth again, so we did another correction. After the second correction, I thought we would take a break with Ninja approching the Kai. So I decided that I would take the Kai's lead and have a little walk around the yard with him and so that Ninja could see. After I walked the Kai, I told John to do the same thing.
At this point, Ninja isn't even paying attention to the Kai anymore. So I decided we will try it again with Ninja and the Kai, also so I could get video of it and send it to my behaviorist. This time Ninja did very well. I told John to walk him by the Kai and slowly let them get closer and closer. I was really amazed with the Kai's calmess with Ninja. The times when Ninja charged at the Kai or growled and showed his teeth, the Kai wouldn't even react to it. He kind of just ignored him. Well this time, the Kai turned his back on Ninja and Ninja went up to sniff the Kai! I was so surprised! Ninja NEVER goes up to a dog to sniff them. I was very impressed with the Kai's behavior around Ninja. Well after Ninja got his sniff, they seemed to be fine around eachother.
John didn't really think we were ready for another dog in our pack and was somewhat against it. But I convinced him to just go and at least meet him. At the end of the meet, John wanted to take him home that day! But I refused and said that I wanted to get our behaviorists input first to make sure we are making the right decision. I sent our behaviorist the video and pics of the Kai, he said that the Kai seemed Passive Dominant and that he doesn't see any problems with adding this dog to our pack, we would just have to work with Ninja more, but he doesn't think the Kai would be a problem. So that was great news to me!
So after thinking about it all of sunday, John and I decided that we would go ahead and adopt him! We think he will have a positive influence on Ninja and be a good role model for him.
Here is a little background on the Kai: His current name is "Scrappy". He is a 3 year old intact male. He was bred from Marian's dogs and has Mavrik lines. He is wary of strangers, but after a few minutes of being in their presence, he is quite the affectionate one. He had lost his packmate (a intact GSD) not too long ago with whom he was brought up with since puppyhood. His family is moving and couldn't take them with him, so gave him back to the breeder. He was an inside/outside dog. The family who had him used to live on a big property and would let the dogs roam wherever they pleased in the hot seasons, and kept them inside during the cold. I'm assuming he hasn't had much structure in his life. He has a good amount of Brindle on him, more than I had suspected from the pics I received. He was raised with children and other dogs and hasn't shown aggression towards them, even when the kids would take his food away. Overall, he seems to have a great temperment and has been pretty well socialized.
Now for the pictures and the video of Ninja and Scrappy's introduction.
These are the pics I got from the breeder:
These are the pics I took when we met him:
(sorry for bad pics, i was facing the sun, so you can't really see his brindle - I know...im a newbie photography!)
And this is the video of Ninja and Scrappy's 3rd introduction:
He did seem a bit stressed, and who can blame him, his packmate just passed away and his family left him after being together for 3 years. The only time his tail went up and started wagging was when Portia would approach him, it was really cute
We are planning to get him on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday depending if we want our behaviorist to be present or not.
Im so stoked! YIPEEEEE!!!!
Well, as you all know...I have been drooling over Kona ever since Brad got him. After meeting him, I really fell in love. After that, I went out on my search for a Kai Ken. Contacted Marian and Roberta. I wasn't expecting to get a pup until early 2009. So I was just waiting and doing lots of research. A couple weeks ago, I found a breeder in CA, about 1 hour and 30 minutes away from me. I emailed her and she said that she no longer bred Kai Ken's.
A couple days later, she emails me and said that a family she placed one of her pups with is moving and can't take their Kai with him (LAME, I know). So I asked to see pictures and if she could send me some information about him. After looking at the pictures and getting some info on him, I talked to John and we decided that we will at least just go out to meet him and take the pups and see how they interact together.
So we made an appointment to go on Saturday at 3pm. (thats when the family was dropping him off to her). We get there and decide that John and I will meet the Kai first and then bring Portia out and then Ninja. So we left Portia and Ninja in the car with the AC on and went to go meet the Kai. OMG - HE is a LOVE! The breeder had told me he is a bit wary of strangers, but was well socialized with people, kids, and other dogs. So for the first 5 minutes, we were just chatting with the breeder letting the Kai sniff us and get used to our scents. I kneeled down and put my hand out, but didn't look at him. He came up to me and started licking my hand. After that, he was very social with us, he let us pet him and touch him without a problem. He has such sweet eyes too!
After about 10 minutes, we decide to bring Portia out to meet him, since she is super submissive. He went up to sniff her, actually he was sniffing her quite a bit, to the point where I think she felt uncomfortable and just sat down so he couldn't sniff her butt anymore. After he got his information about her, he was very calm. Portia got really excited and started rubbing herself all over him and bumping into him like she was blind. I think she has a crush on him
.10 minutes later, we take a deep breath and decide for Ninja to come out. The Kai attempted to sniff Ninja, as soon as Ninja saw the Kai approaching he started growling and showing his teeth and tried to charge him. We corrected Ninja and turned his back to the Kai. John walked Ninja by Scrappy and he started to growl and show his teeth again, so we did another correction. After the second correction, I thought we would take a break with Ninja approching the Kai. So I decided that I would take the Kai's lead and have a little walk around the yard with him and so that Ninja could see. After I walked the Kai, I told John to do the same thing.
At this point, Ninja isn't even paying attention to the Kai anymore. So I decided we will try it again with Ninja and the Kai, also so I could get video of it and send it to my behaviorist. This time Ninja did very well. I told John to walk him by the Kai and slowly let them get closer and closer. I was really amazed with the Kai's calmess with Ninja. The times when Ninja charged at the Kai or growled and showed his teeth, the Kai wouldn't even react to it. He kind of just ignored him. Well this time, the Kai turned his back on Ninja and Ninja went up to sniff the Kai! I was so surprised! Ninja NEVER goes up to a dog to sniff them. I was very impressed with the Kai's behavior around Ninja. Well after Ninja got his sniff, they seemed to be fine around eachother.
John didn't really think we were ready for another dog in our pack and was somewhat against it. But I convinced him to just go and at least meet him. At the end of the meet, John wanted to take him home that day! But I refused and said that I wanted to get our behaviorists input first to make sure we are making the right decision. I sent our behaviorist the video and pics of the Kai, he said that the Kai seemed Passive Dominant and that he doesn't see any problems with adding this dog to our pack, we would just have to work with Ninja more, but he doesn't think the Kai would be a problem. So that was great news to me!
So after thinking about it all of sunday, John and I decided that we would go ahead and adopt him! We think he will have a positive influence on Ninja and be a good role model for him.
Here is a little background on the Kai: His current name is "Scrappy". He is a 3 year old intact male. He was bred from Marian's dogs and has Mavrik lines. He is wary of strangers, but after a few minutes of being in their presence, he is quite the affectionate one. He had lost his packmate (a intact GSD) not too long ago with whom he was brought up with since puppyhood. His family is moving and couldn't take them with him, so gave him back to the breeder. He was an inside/outside dog. The family who had him used to live on a big property and would let the dogs roam wherever they pleased in the hot seasons, and kept them inside during the cold. I'm assuming he hasn't had much structure in his life. He has a good amount of Brindle on him, more than I had suspected from the pics I received. He was raised with children and other dogs and hasn't shown aggression towards them, even when the kids would take his food away. Overall, he seems to have a great temperment and has been pretty well socialized.
Now for the pictures and the video of Ninja and Scrappy's introduction.
These are the pics I got from the breeder:
These are the pics I took when we met him:
(sorry for bad pics, i was facing the sun, so you can't really see his brindle - I know...im a newbie photography!)
And this is the video of Ninja and Scrappy's 3rd introduction:
He did seem a bit stressed, and who can blame him, his packmate just passed away and his family left him after being together for 3 years. The only time his tail went up and started wagging was when Portia would approach him, it was really cute
We are planning to get him on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday depending if we want our behaviorist to be present or not.
Im so stoked! YIPEEEEE!!!!
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Scrappy is beautiful.. those silly people for giving him up! Your gain!
In the video - Ninja looks like he has a very keen attention to you and/or John - that is wonderful! That is the main difference we see if our shiba boy after behaviorist sessions - his new attention to our every move. I love it!!
Great job on being the leader!
I hope it all goes well - for us, it was added assurance for our behaviorist to be present when we introduced the 3rd shiba 2 weeks ago - it made US more comfortable, calm, assertive and able and I think that made the introduction all the more successful and we still have not had a single issue - good luck and CONGRATS!!!!
oh btw, he's so HANDSOME!! :-)
Romi is correct in saying that I wasnt all that enthusiastic about the idea of adding to our family, mostly because I was concerned with the mental stability of Ninja and how he would react to the addition. BUT, all of that subsided when I saw the calming affect that Scrappy had on Ninja.
I wouldn't have believed that Ninja would ever sniff, and/or be sniffed, by another dog without showing his fears. Man, was I wrong. It was definitely an epiphany.
Now, I can't wait to get him "home" and feeling comfortable. His eyes are so kind, gentle and full of curiosity!
I can't wait !!!
Thanks again everyone for your kind thoughts.
John
John
Congratulations on the new addition to the family. It sounds like you guys really did it right and are being super responsible with your decision making. I am way impressed and even more happy for you!
I cannot wait to see all the pictures that will be coming our way!
Congratulations again.
Those pics really don't do him any justice, he is such a beauty and a sweety!
Thanks again for the congrats, and I will be sure to spam you guys like crazy!
Im really excited, but super nervous at the same time. I've never introduced an older dog before, so im a bit worried. I've read a lot of the old posts about people introducing dogs and Brad gave me a lot of good pointers, so i hope all goes well!
We are definately going to change his name from "Scrappy" to something else. Scrappy just doesn't go with him. We're having quite a hard time finding a name though. So he may be nameless for a few days. Anyone have any suggestions
Its nice to see that Kai-Ken are growing in popularity on the forum.
I'm sure the intro will go fine, just be mellow and use your normal attentiveness to read their body language.
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His eyes are great, very sweet and deep! It's great that Ninja did good with him.
Or, I being more of an 80's dork - suggest Ninja and Sensei (as in Splinter of teenage mutant ninja turtles) or making me an even bigger dork knowing that Shredder, the Ninja's arch rival was also called Oroku Saki, which is a pretty cool name.
Perhaps while she's at it, she can change Portia's name to April O'Neil??
XD
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
j/k, I think Portia has a beautiful name that really fits her.
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We will be picking "Scrappy" up tomorrow morning between 10am-11am. I scheduled a vet appt. at 2:40pm. We should be home by 3:30pm and our behaviorist will be able to assist us with the introduction.
I bought another pen, so we have to set that up tonight (same as the pen I made for Portia & Ninja). I got him a nice comfy bed an extra food bowl and some toys, treats, chews, collar & lead. Do you think I should give him his own water bowl too? For Portia and Ninja, they have separate food bowls, but they have a community water bowl.
So far these are the names I like:
Hanzo - "Hattori Hanzo"
Daisho (Dai for short) - Weapons carried by Samurai
Kazumichi (Kazu for short) - Harmonious Way
Yasu - Peaceful
These are the names the John likes:
Katsu - Victorious
Kazuki - One Tree
Iwao - Stone Son or Rock
Thanks for all the suggestions guys! Im looking for a name that isn't TOO hard to say fast and that doesn't have much of an accent in it.
John
I like "Katsu" and "Kazumichi" [Kazu for short].
I would go with a community water bowl.
Let us know how it goes!
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That's great that you're getting him tomorrow. I can't wait to hear how it goes and see all the cute pictures of them hanging out! :-)
As for the names, I still stand by Ronin ;-), but if I had to pic one of your suggestions I would go with Katsu or Yasu.
Good luck tomorrow and keep us informed...I want the minute by minute run down. :-)
I also like alot of the Seven Lucky Gods Ebisu, Daikoku, Jurojin and Fukurokujo.
Ronin - as Dave suggested - is also a beautiful name.