Breed Traits
Unique Features
The males stand 26 to 28 inches (66 to 71 cm) at the withers; females are 24 to 26 inches (61 to 66 cm). Their weights average 95 to 110 pounds (43 to 50 kg) for males and 75 to 90 pounds (34 to 41 kg) for females. Their thick, short, arched necks, dense coats, and bulky bodies give them the appearance of much larger animals.
Size
The males stand 26 to 28 inches (66 to 71 cm) at the withers; females are 24 to 26 inches (61 to 66 cm). Their weights average 95 to 110 pounds (43 to 50 kg) for males and 75 to 90 pounds (34 to 41 kg) for females. Their thick, short, arched necks, dense coats, and bulky bodies give them the appearance of much larger animals.
Colour
A particularly attractive Akita feature is the wide variety of body colours found in the breed. Virtually all colours are acceptable from white to black, including red, silver, fawn, brindle, and pinto. The attractive pinto colour patterns are said to be attributable primarily to a post-war dog named Goromaru-Go. He sported flashy red and white pinto colours that were indelibly stamped on his progeny.
Head
Akita heads also exhibit various colours and patterns. Some dogs have solid coloured heads; others sport impressive white markings. Masks and blazes are often seen, and if equilaterally balanced, they are acceptable and greatly admired.
Face
Akitas’ faces are dominated by wide-set small ears that tip forward, giving them an alert or curious appearance, even when resting, and these seem to lead your gaze next to their dark brown, smallish, almond shaped, oriental eyes.
Tail
The Akita’s tail is large and full, set high, and carried over the back or against the flank in a three-quarter, full, or double curl, always dipping to or below the level of the back. It has coarse, straight hair, with no plume, and is rarely stationary. Akita tails that aren’t curled or that are carried away from their backs are considered serious faults.
Coat
Akita coats, like those of other northern dogs, are double, with coarse, dense, plush guard hair, and soft, dense undercoats. The luxurious coat quality can’t be overlooked or understated. It shows no signs of feathering on the legs, and adds to the bulky, sturdy appearance of the entire body.
Akita Qualities
Typically, Akitas are bright, but reserved. They are happy dogs in their own bailiwick, but they are always possessive. Adults shouldn’t be silly or disposed to foolishness; timidity is a personality fault. An Akita should not be overtly aggressive. Several authors describe the most desirable Akita temperament as courageous or dignified. Those terms, if a bit esoteric, are fine descriptions. Unfortunately, they are adjectives that are difficult to apply to animals without considerable personal interaction with those creatures.
Akitas are affectionate creatures. They show no signs of aggression toward humans who are minding their own business, but they have a family loyalty defensive trait that is quickly shown to strangers who approach their homes. They are effective watch dogs, without any training or encouragement.
Defensive Qualities
Akitas seem to have innate, defensive qualities of their own. Akita owners and breeders seem to agree that you should always carefully introduce your Akita to your friends, making it plain that those people’s presence in your home is agreeable with you. The perceptive Akita will identify those persons who are not your friends without any help or training.
Akitas and Children
Akitas are not known to have short tempers with their family’s children; they are tolerant and usually prefer to retreat when the play becomes tiresome, rather than snap at youngsters. They have historically been associated with guarding children, and commonly show great affection for boys and girls with whom they are raised. Their hunting instincts, stamina, and playful dispositions make them wonderful playmates for children of all ages.
However, when strange children or adults enter the picture, the Akita may be more realistically depicted as a guard dog, and should be taken to the kennel or put out in the yard. Shedding its role of playmate and companion, the family Akita becomes defensive of the family and home. The pet that loves your children and would go to great lengths to protect them might see any stranger, regardless of age, as an interloper to be dealt with. A household filled with the confusion of children or adults passing in and out at random, makes a poor environment for an Akita.
Akita Personality
Some breeders will tell you that the Akita’s temperament is dependent on its environment as a puppy. That is only partially correct. The disposition of an Akita is the product of its early home life, handling, socialization, and heredity.
Dog-Aggressive?
Akitas are generally considered dog-aggressive. They are usually outgoing, fun-loving, and friendly toward other pets they have known since puppyhood, although this is not always the case. They are not always trustworthy around dogs with which they are raised, and should not be allowed off leash when other dogs are in the vicinity.
Adults should always be walked with a well fitting collar, preferably of the half check type, and short, stout leash, since control must be exercised when strange dogs are encountered. They are strong willed, and must receive early socialization and regular training to control their aggressiveness. They are fierce and dominating when challenged by other dogs, and their curious, mischievous natures sometimes lead to such challenges. Few if any timid or reclusive Akitas are to be found.
People-Aggressive?
Akitas are also considered by most breeders to be people-aggressive if not properly socialized while still puppies. To reduce this human-aggressive trait, they should be taken for walks in the park and put in contact with humans at every opportunity. Socialization is most effective when the dogs are young. As soon as your pup has had its vaccinations, teach it people manners while its leash training is underway. An Akita isn’t apt to attack human beings who are minding their own business, but it should be introduced to other humans, and the earlier the better.
Some Akitas are non-aggressive until a year or more of age, when they change and become notably dominant. To their families, they are always intelligent, lovable, and trainable, yet stubborn – they definitely have a mind of their own. After a year of age, most Akitas will become more possessive and defensive of their families and property. At maturity, they are usually aggressive toward other animals, and sometimes toward strange people.
Health & Care
As with all dogs, an Akita should be wormed on a regular basis, two to three times a year, using a veterinary-licensed worming product.
Akitas may be extra susceptible to certain medications, particularly anaesthesia and sedatives. Always point this out to your vet, and avoid if possible the use of ACPs or similar travel-sickness type pills.
Routine vaccinations are not a good idea with Akitas; it is more prudent and safer by far to have a blood test done by the vet to ascertain the state of the dog’s immunity, as a booster may not be necessary.
Akitas shed their coat on average twice a year, and this can look quite alarming as it comes out in large clumps like “Bunny Fur”. The removal of these clumps with a rake type comb will speed up the moulting process and improve the quality of the Akita’s coat.
Akitas often enjoy a bath, and will tolerate it more if the water is not too hot. Never use washing up liquid to bathe the dog – a good quality dog shampoo is far less of an irritant to the skin, and an oatmeal-based one is also very soothing.
Although food allergies are rare in the Akita, it is thought by many to be better to feed a gluten-free all-in-one type diet. Some owners use the BARF (Bones as Raw Food) diet with great success, although this should not be ventured into lightly or without careful reading and understanding of the principles involved.
Akita History
The Akita breed is steeped in history. Early historical accounts include its flesh as a menu item, and its skin was valued for making warm garments. It served as a working dog, a fighter, and a hunter; some have been used in the fishing industry. Details of the Akita’s history have been obscured by centuries of isolation on the remote Japanese island of Honshu, and sometimes it has been muddied by language and translation problems.
Typical Akita-like dogs, with tightly curled tails and erect ears, were evident as early as 1150 A.D. The Akita was known as Matagiinu, the esteemed hunter, by Japanese royalty, and at one time, ownership of an Akita was limited to the rulers of Japan, who decked them out with special collars to designate the rank of the owner.
During the next several hundred years, Akitas’ popularity rose and fell with the Japanese dynasties, depending on the habits and desires of the ruling classes. Then, in the time of Emperor Taisho, around the turn of the twentieth century, keeping dogs became popular, and following the fashion in Great Britain, France, and Spain, dogs became a status symbol among the populace and royalty alike. The European influence revived the interest in Akitas, and once again they gained importance in Japan.
The Akita stud book
Although Akita-type dogs were raised in many Japanese regions, the large northern strains produced in the mountainous Akita Prefecture were undoubtedly the most influential ancestors of today’s Akita. In 1927 the Akita Inu Hozankai society was given the task of recording and maintaining a stud book that documented the parents of every litter produced in Japan. It persists today and helps to preserve the purity of the breed.
Odate Dogs
Originally known as Odate dogs, Akitas were recognized in 1931 as a national monument and were officially named as a pure breed. That action was taken by the mayor of Odate, the capitol of the Akita Prefecture, the northernmost province of the Japanese island of Honshu. Japanese dogs are customarily named for the region in which they prevailed, and their original name was Akita Inu (Akita dog). They were the largest of seven Japanese breeds established in 1931. Akitas’ pedigree documentation has been carefully maintained at Odate since that time.
World War II and onwards
Akita numbers dwindled in their native Japan during World War II when they were in demand for food and pelts. Others were destroyed to conserve food that might be used for human consumption. Although they neared extinction, representatives of the breed somehow survived, and they began to flourish again in the post-war years of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Akita breeding during that period resulted in the production of two bloodlines, the descendants of which have immigrated to virtually the entire world.
Allied servicemen are probably responsible for the early popularity of Akitas in the West. Many soldiers were so enamoured by the sturdiness, loyalty, and beauty of the breed that they acquired the dogs and brought them home. During the post-war years of 1945 to 1955 a great number of Akitas were imported into the United States, England, and Canada.
Some well-known Akitas
No discussion of Akita history is complete without mention of two animals. Hachi-Ko was an Akita given to a Tokyo professor in 1924. The professor rode a commuter train to and from his suburban home daily, and Hachi-Ko accompanied him to the station in the morning and returned to the station to meet him each evening.
When Professor Ueno died from a stroke, Hachi-Ko continued to make his daily trips to the train station at the exact hours previously established, and after waiting for the train, and his master, he walked home alone.
Although the dog was only about 18 months old when the professor succumbed to the stroke, Hachi-Ko continued walking to the station every evening until his own death, nearly ten years later. A bronze statue of Hachi-Ko stands at Toyko’s Shibuya Station today, and a ceremony attracts hundreds of dog fanciers to the station to honour Hachi-Ko each year.
United States humanitarian Helen Keller met and fell in love with Akitas during a Japanese speaking tour in 1937. She was presented with a puppy, Kamikaze-Go, that she brought home to New York, but unfortunately it died before one year of age. In 1939 another Akita, Kanzan-Go, was given to her and it lived as her companion until its death in 1945.
The historical importance of and uses for the Akita
Early development of Akitas blended the stubbornness and strong wills of fighting dogs with the scenting ability of sporting dogs. They were used to trail stags, bears, and other game, yet some of the earliest reports of Akitas relate to their roles in pit fighting.
Although another Japanese breed (the Tosa, or Japanese mastiff) is better known for its fighting ability, the Akita’s prowess in a dogfight is awesome. That instinct hasn’t been fully erased from their memories, as is evidenced by their contemporary never-quit attitude, their natural dominance over other dogs, and their winning ability in canine conflict. Housing two adult male Akitas together is risky business at best; it is never advisable. A male and female, or two females that were spayed before six months of age, may live together in harmony, but two males or two intact females will inevitably fight. Once a brawl has ensued, it is unlikely that peace and harmony will be found in the future.
Hunting
Akitas have been known to “nose out” game, and although never having made their mark in the West as pointers or setters, in Japan they were used to locate and flush ground birds. History has it that they were accomplished soft-mouthed upland retrievers. They are large enough to bring down prey several times their weight and size, and were used to hunt deer and boar. Hunting bears was a challenge successfully met with a bow and arrow and a brace of aggressive and fearless Akitas that would keep the bear at bay until killed.
Water retrieving
Akitas are reported to fail the test for water retrievers because of the character of their double coats that tend to absorb water. In spite of that limitation, there are reports of Akitas that were trained by fishermen to herd fish into their nets by swimming around them. An enviable feat, when you consider the quality and abundance of their coats.
Herding
Akitas were apparently used as herding dogs in the seventeenth century in the mountainous, northern regions of Honshu. The cold, snowy, northwest Sea of Japan environment no doubt exerted strong influence on the dogs’ robust stamina, solid bone structure, and dense coats. Like other northern dogs of today, they retain much of the toughness of the environment of their origin.
Sledding
Akitas have proven themselves in weight-pulling contests on the ice, and those same dogs seem to be in their element when hitched to a sled. On the other hand, it is rare to find Akitas that are used in sled teams together with malamutes and huskies. The reason is probably associated with the Akita’s propensity to dominate all other dogs in its society.
They are frequently photographed carrying back packs, and sometimes are shown harnessed to carts. There are reports of Akitas in police work, but that doesn’t seem to be a suitable vocation for them, due to their natural aggressiveness.
Guarding
Akitas are strong-willed animals that seem to have a wired-in protective instinct that isn’t likely to be suppressed. All dogs have the ability to read human situations, probably through the detection and evaluation of certain pheromones (a type of scent given off by humans and perceived by the dog), originating from their owners, and perhaps from other dogs. They can sense fear or challenge when confronted by strange humans or dogs, even if no threatening gestures or sounds are made. A dominant Akita isn’t apt to back down from anyone or anything.
The solid, tough, determined Akita is therefore an excellent guard dog without any special training whatsoever. Little or no encouragement is needed to whet its instinctive interest in protecting its home and family. Its strength, loyalty, and agility make it a formidable living security system in your home. Though it is a peace-loving pet, it will meet any challenge it perceives.
Warning
To invest in guard training can be a serious mistake, and one that might convert a fine family companion into a monster. Some Akita breeders support this statement to the degree that they won’t sell a puppy to anyone who intends to put it to work as a guard dog. Akitas over-train easily, and take their training to heart, which ruins them as companion dogs and family pets. Akitas that have received guard training rarely make satisfactory pets.
