Nami the sesame Kishu Ken
As all of my facebook friends have seen (repeatedly) over the last day, I finally have a third dog in the "pack". 
Meet Nami! She's a 2 (going on 3?) year old Kishu Ken who was living with @shishiinu until she was recently placed with me. I couldn't be happier with her and I am SO glad to have this opportunity and thankful for all the help along the way (and Nami's)! Since there aren't a whole lot of active Kishu owners, I thought I'd make her thread sooner, rather than later. I was going to wait until this time next week, but... there's no harm in posting sooner! Now you get to be part of the adventure.
So far, Nami has been super sweet with people. She's leery, but curious, and recovers easily. She's a huge step forward from the last dog I got off an airplane. (We're looking at you, TK.)
She is, however, very reactive when she feels threatened or challenged, and pretty hard-headed. She's super smart, but wants to do things her way. I haven't convinced her I'm someone to take direction from just yet. We got somewhere with "sit" today - which I'm sure she knows, but she didn't want to do it for me. She reminds me of my Malamute in that aspect: she wanted to do anything and everything else in order to get the treat I had... except for what I was directing her to do.
On the plus side, she loves food more than anything else we've encountered so far! Yay!
She had a VERY busy first day with me. She wouldn't stay quiet in the crate and was able to jump the gate with some help from the counter next to it, so I took her with me on my errands after she got in. They weren't long, but I had to stop by my grandmother's house (where we took her and my brother's more sensitive dog for a walk - with good results), stop by my mom's work (where she got treats), stop by my brother's girlfriend's work (where she also got treats), and get some flowers for my grandmother (where she slept in the car).
She seems to like TK (Shikoku) and my brother's dog, Russell (mixed breed, medium-large)... but she's not a huge fan of Joseph (Pyr mix, brother's dog) or London (Malamute). Size probably has something to do with it, but London and Joseph can both be kind of prickly, so it could just be their personalities (whereas Russell and TK are much less combative).
Meet Nami! She's a 2 (going on 3?) year old Kishu Ken who was living with @shishiinu until she was recently placed with me. I couldn't be happier with her and I am SO glad to have this opportunity and thankful for all the help along the way (and Nami's)! Since there aren't a whole lot of active Kishu owners, I thought I'd make her thread sooner, rather than later. I was going to wait until this time next week, but... there's no harm in posting sooner! Now you get to be part of the adventure.
So far, Nami has been super sweet with people. She's leery, but curious, and recovers easily. She's a huge step forward from the last dog I got off an airplane. (We're looking at you, TK.)
She is, however, very reactive when she feels threatened or challenged, and pretty hard-headed. She's super smart, but wants to do things her way. I haven't convinced her I'm someone to take direction from just yet. We got somewhere with "sit" today - which I'm sure she knows, but she didn't want to do it for me. She reminds me of my Malamute in that aspect: she wanted to do anything and everything else in order to get the treat I had... except for what I was directing her to do.
On the plus side, she loves food more than anything else we've encountered so far! Yay!
She had a VERY busy first day with me. She wouldn't stay quiet in the crate and was able to jump the gate with some help from the counter next to it, so I took her with me on my errands after she got in. They weren't long, but I had to stop by my grandmother's house (where we took her and my brother's more sensitive dog for a walk - with good results), stop by my mom's work (where she got treats), stop by my brother's girlfriend's work (where she also got treats), and get some flowers for my grandmother (where she slept in the car).
She seems to like TK (Shikoku) and my brother's dog, Russell (mixed breed, medium-large)... but she's not a huge fan of Joseph (Pyr mix, brother's dog) or London (Malamute). Size probably has something to do with it, but London and Joseph can both be kind of prickly, so it could just be their personalities (whereas Russell and TK are much less combative).
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I guess Nami is pretty "normal sized" as far as the other breeds go, but I think she's a small Kishu. She's also my smallest dog by far, so she seems pocket-sized!
We had another busy day juggling dogs. I took the boys out for a walk earlier. I wanted to take Nami and TK, but she was being pretty argumentative earlier and I wanted it to be a good experience for everyone.
I took her to my grandmother's house to do some things for mother's day. She met my family and my brother's friends and was super sweet with everyone. She met my oldest cat (Joey) who was decidedly very boring to her--she tried to chase her and snarl at her and get Joey to run, but when Joey did nothing, Nami settled down and forgot about her.
She likes my brother's dog, Russell, but about an hour into our visit, a door slammed and scared her a bit. She didn't settle down after that and ended up taking it out on poor Russell. They didn't get at each other, but she went for him in a hurry!
So now we're home. I think Nami is going to nap and I'll just take her out on a walk later tonight when its cooler.
Here's the pretty girl.
Day number three went by pretty well. Nami continues to do amazingly with people. She's a little leery at first, but never snappish, and doesn't startle easy. She just wants to know what people are about before they touch all over her, which is cool!
She did, however, try to eat my oldest cat when we visited my grandmother's house. The cat was right behind the door when I opened it and Nami just went for her. Me, being dumb, stuck my leg in the way and ended up getting bit... and Nami was pretty stressed out after that, so we had to leave.
She ran mother's day errands with me and my boyfriend - we alternated Nami-watch with each stop so she got out to explore. She always seems very curious and eager to understand her setting. She's outgoing and fairly easy-going as well.
Found out that she seems to have a high toy drive right now, so I hope she keeps it! I'd like to do something with her that challenges her and gets the breed out there... looking at agility, flyball, and nosework right now.
I could not get her to get in the Jeep with my Malamute this evening for a jog, even though he was in the boot and I was trying to put her up front with me. She got in the seat and immediately began snarling at him. He didn't react, but I was worried she was going to launch herself over the seat to get to him and ended up leaving her home.
She has, on the bright side, stopped reacting to London in the house. She also doesn't react to my Siamese, but she doesn't much care for TK and likes to try and spook my other cat.
For day three, I think she did well. I suspect things will get worse before they get better. She'll probably be separated from the household for a while longer.
I did put the cats and the boys away to let her wander around our living room (the room that connects the whole apartment). She was really stiff and tense during her first round, but quickly found London's toy hoard and got busy with some bones. I let her keep one.
I'm going out to meet a friend of a friend who is interested in the Japanese breeds tomorrow. Nami and TK will be coming with me so she can meet a Shikoku and a Kishu - I just have to crate Nami while she's in the Jeep. We'll be going for a hike after the initial meet... but I'm not sure I'll bring Nami. We'll see how she does. Everything is very experimental and flexible right now.
She has really taken the change with a lot of grace. More than TK did in his transition (who was much more sensitive), for sure. I mean, I'm sure she's still anxious and worried about where she is, but she doesn't "show" a whole lot of it. She's a very brave little lady.
Nami does VERY WELL out and about. She is not reactive to other dogs beyond the initial meet-and-greet (which really could have been TK's fault because he's reactive to everything). She is reactive only when she is in her crate or in a closed space in general (car, house, etc). Outside, where she's comfortable, she's a totally different animal! I hope we see a little more of that once she starts to get used to everything.
Here she is, post-hike and post-swim, looking very tired.
Part of the reason she was placed with me was because we suspected she was having fertility issues. Today, our repro specialist said that he suspected she was simply going through silent heats and that it was possible she only came into season once a year (and to check if such a trait was in her family history - but there's no chance of getting that info).
We drew some blood for a thyroid test. He said that if she was in the low normal or just plain low range that we could put her on thyroid medication to try and make her cycle more overt. If that doesn't come back conclusive, there are some other things we can do.
I think the next time she goes in, I'm going to order an allergy test... just to see if it comes back with anything. Gen tried it on one of his pups in the past and it came back inconclusive, so we'll see!
Today was, overall, a good day. She wasn't into her bath... at all. Like, I hope I never have to do that again kind of "not into it". Her nails and ears were perfect.
She hasn't reacted to my cats at all today, which is... good. We'll see if that lasts. She also didn't react at all to TK, but was grumbly with London when he got excited over food time. He IS kind of giant and obnoxious, so I don't blame her.
Today was an easy kind of day, I feel.
I got a couple pictures. Nothing too awesome... but, you know, for posterity: here she is.
She's doing well. Getting better with the dogs inside the house. She's more focused on the cats now, but I had her on the lead in the house on the couch with me tonight and she did pretty well - ignored them after a couple minutes. I'm cautiously optimistic. I don't think I'll ever be able to trust her in the house alone with them, though. (That's okay! That's what baby gates and crates are for!)
Here's a picture update.
I totally understand not always trusting an NK with a cat.
And can I say, I thought she looked a bit distended in the pics!
Surprise!
Was it an intentional breeding? She totally jumped from one end of the fertility spectrum to the other!
Do they know how far along she is?
It was not an intentional breeding, but she was only around Taro, so the puppies will be purebred and NIPPO registered. She's about 6-7 weeks along.