I’m a day late and a dollar short but happy birthday to our beautiful girl!! Can’t believe how fast 2 years flew by, I miss the short time she was tiny 😭😭 ft. our facetime with her brothers 🎉

For context: on our way home from our walks there is a coffee shop/stand that we always stop by, almost every day. I know the owners and the people who go there and she loves hanging out with the people there. But for the past few days we haven't stopped for coffee for various reasons, and it seems like she's had enough and wants her daily dose of peoplewatching 😂

I don’t know why lol it keeps lifting up on her in the back like that

I recently lost my best friend of 15 years. I had to make the hardest decision of my life and let him go. Deep down, I know it was the right thing to do, but I still feel guilty every day, and somehow, it doesn’t seem to get any easier.
Days, weeks and now months have passed, yet I still think about him every single day. For those of you who have been through this, how do you get through it?
How old did your Akita live to be? And honestly, is it wrong to consider getting another dog so soon? Part of me feels like I’m not ready, while another part of me misses having that companionship in my life.
I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. ❤️

I get it, they are beautiful dogs

but they are beautiful dogs bred for HUNTING, GUARDING, UNFORTUNATELY DOG FIGHTING AND BEING HIGHLY INDEPENDENT

then these owners whine about:

My dog has high prey drive, my dog is dog aggressive, my dog cant be taken to the dog park and small restaurants, he cant be off leash

"Best dog ever but IF ONLY he wasnt dog reactive and could be trusted off leash"

Excuse me? Motherfucker have you even educated yourself about the breed?

Dog aggression and high suspicion of everything unusual, high prey drive and independence arent faults THEY ARE LITERALLY FEATURES OF THIS BREED!

Dogs that were used for ages for fighting other dogs arent social and have low tolerance for other dogs? Yeah no shit! How surprising!!!

Dogs that were used to hunt bears alongside their humans without their guidance have high independence and low will to please? How surprising!!!

Sorry for this rant, but please understand what kind of dog you chose and you will be much, much more appreciative of the breed.

They are an amazing breed but wanting a strong guard dog comes at a cost. Guarding and protection instincts come with high suspicion instincts and also some insecurities. Thats why golden retrievers suck in this regard.

Thats why fully trained GSD protection dogs cost 50k upwards - and even then its not guaranteed they work as good as guard dogs as akitas, if a real life situation isnt mimicking their training. Its super super hard to find a social and obedient dog with the same natural guardian instincts as an akita. And even then a lot of training is involved, often with high wash out rates because they arent reliable either in one or more regards.

I would just wish that more people would just leave the breed alone and get something more appropriate. I could cry if i see akitas with prong and shock collars on walks because their owners try to make the dog something it isnt, before giving them away to a shelter...

The akita lifestyle isnt for you if you want to have a companion dog that you can take everywhere without a lot of active management.

Are there outliers? Yes! As in any dog. There are also dog aggressive goldens who would rip an intruder to shreds. There are also super social akitas that would hide if an intruder gets into your house or would expect pets.

But buying one of the oldest primitive dog breeds in existence who was bred for fighting and guarding and expecting the "broken" version of it; is just fucking hilariously delusional.

Thanks for attending my ted talk

For positive emotions, a pic of my girl deciding we walked enough 🤣

We're looking for a new collar tag, and ran across the advice that some owners don't include their dog's name to prevent unwanted persons trying to spirit them away.

I'd be amused to see some poor fool try and I'll open a book on how many fingers he'd lose 🤣

my miniKita will happily take a snack, but she'll also take the head of anyone taking her away from us 😂

Is it not recommended to only use a collar on walks? For context I live in an apartment with my Akita, and when we go for walks I put on prong collar as he tends to pull (especially when seeing other dog), then I take it off when we get back home. Just wondering if a collar on at all times is beneficial. Thanks in advance!

Tired after long walk

Hello does anyone had their puppy ears like touching each other. Hi is 3 monts now bothh ears are up straight.hi got them up when hi mas like 2 months old but ears are going toward the center of head and touching each other. Has anyone had their puppy do the same and are they gonna separate eventually or they stay like that.

Thanks in advance.

Silly...

Mon chiot a 7 mois c’est un akita poilu un peu , il prend oryjen puppy large je pense qu’il a pris un peu de poids merci pour vos avis. C’est la première fois que j’ai un akita

Thinking he's Akita collie and possibly heeler...? He was a rescue 🛟 🐕

Hi akita owners and dog trainers! I'm currently in the market for a new dog and am stuck between either getting an american akita or a GSD. Looks wise, temperament wise, health profile and such i'm leaning quite heavily towards the akita. However i'm a pretty active person and i find the idea of advanced obediance training quite interesting so i was curious wether or not any of you guys have had succes with obediance training? Focus heeling, placing and general handler focused behaviours?

edit: I did just call and the ER said they have mailed out her prints to me. I didn't receive them when I picked up her ashes so that's what had me so worried. I would have been sad forever and ever.

Quick version: Does anyone or can anyone post a picture of a Japanese Akita paw print. Ideally like an actual ink print on paper, but just the actual paw picture would work and make me feel a ton better we could get creative with for later.

....For more info, I just had to put my 13 year old girl down last week. I knew it was coming so I planned on doing a print when I scheduled to have her put down, but she got GDV one night, and I decided to let her go to ease her suffering instead of trying to fix it since she was ready anyways. Well I never actually made the print or even took a close-up pic of her paw and it makes me really sad. (my advice is to never ever put things like this off, I went from having all the time, she was being wild and playing like normal, to her getting sick and gone within 3 hours). I have looked through pics but I don't have a clear pic. I figure they are basically all the same paws for Akitas, but I know Akitas themselves have more cat like prints than dog like.

I am going to call the emergency vet that put her down to see if they made a print, but I am not hopeful. I remember a girl asking me about paw prints, but looking back, I believe she meant for on the Urn I had picked out since it has some general paw prints on it.

I don't want to go further into her passing yet for this post, I just want to get this paw print thing off my mind because I want a watercolor Akita paw print tattoo eventually. Once I am in a better state of mind I will make a memorial post for her with lots of pictures for everyone to love on.

Thank you everyone for any help.

Recently we switched to a harness. She immediately pulled way less and showed less reactivity when dogs were nearby. We even connected the leash on the top clip instead of the front one.

Anyone else noticed the same thing? I feel as if the neck pressure promoted pulling more and increased her reactivity because she felt more restricted.

Now she notices tension on the leash and doesnt lean into it as much anymore. Its like magic