Akita Breed Standard
Akita Breed Standard
Working Group
General Appearance
Large, powerful, alert, with much substance and heavy bone. The broad head, forming a blunt triangle, with deep muzzle, small eyes and erect ears carried forward in line with back of neck, is characteristic of the breed. The large, curled tail, balancing the broad head, is also characteristic of the breed. Learn More…
Training Your Dog Not To Weep When You Leave The House
When you leave your dog behind when going out of the house, does she cry and weep like there is it is the end of the world? Although it is sad to see, virtually everyone’s pet dog becomes upset to see their owners leave home, even for a moment. “Some dogs truly go off the deep end” says Karen Overall, V.M.D., Ph.D., a lecturer specializing in behavioral medicine in the Department of Clinical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.
Extreme cases of anxiety have been documented by vets that describe dogs actually chewing through drywall, bending metal crate bars, or even jumping out of windows to their death to get to their owners! While the reasons for such high levels of anxiety in dogs are still unknown, what we do know is that “dogs are pack animals. Some are utterly lost when left alone,” says Myrna Milani, D.V.M., author of The Body Language and Emotions of Dogs.
Below are 5 ways that veterinarians recommend to help ease the pain of separation:
Step (1) Leave the house without leaving the house. As simple as this method is, most dog owners overlook it. Choose a room in your house to put your dog in where you can open and close the door. Give your dog a treat and leave the room for a minute, while shutting the door behind you. After just a minute goes by, return to the room to greet your dog. In your dog’s mind it will feel like that one minute was an entire week. The next time you practice this training method, increase the time away to 5 minutes, then 10, etc., until you reach the point where you can spend a couple of hours without the dog crying.
Step (2) Take short breaks outside of the home. Now that your puppy is able to withstand periods of time away from you in the room, take it to the next level and physically leave the front door of your house for 15 minutes at a time. Be sure not to make a big deal of your departure by coddling her. Just leave her a special treat and take a break from the house. This way the dog will not think it is any big deal that you are leaving and with a nice chewy treat left behind, she may even look forward to your departures.
Step (3) Repeat! As you can see it is not an extraordinary painful ordeal to reprogram your dog’s mind not to be fearful and anxious when you are away. You should repeat the steps above until your pet is totally comfortable with you departing. And above all, please make sure that you take the advice of leaving something chewy and special behind when you are away. This can cut training time in half in virtually any breed.
Shedding, 6 Ways To Keep Fur From Flying
Regardless of the length of coat your dog has when summer gets here, they all shed, some more than others of course. Loosing that winter coat can mean having thousands of dog hairs floating around your house per day. And when these little hairs go floating around they end up sticking to everything possible – your clothes, your furniture, your couches, etc.
Of course not all dogs shed in one huge fashion like this. There are certain indoor pets that shed all year long, but the hair is minimal, nothing like a dog shedding for the summer.
Try these tips to help keep the dog’s coat clean and your house “hair free”:
1. Ask any professional what the best thing to do when your dog is shedding and they will all invariable agree that brushing your dog on a regular basis during shedding season is by far the best thing that you can do. You will need a brush that is tailor-made for your pet’s coat. You will probably spend anywhere from one time per day brushing your dog’s hair or as little as one week depending on what breed of dog you are dealing with.
2. Brush very deeply with firm strokes. Use short strokes instead of long ones because they penetrate the coat more thoroughly. If you are running over the coat quickly with the brush then you are not really getting deep into the area that you need to make the brushing effective.
3. Go against the direction of the growth as you brush the second time around. This will help loosen any hair that you may have missed on your first round of deep brushing. This may cause some static unless you have a static free brush so it is recommended that you get one so as not to shock your dog.
4. A second brushing technique is to use a comb to brush the dog after you have deep cleaned him with the first 2 brushes.
5. There are some dogs that just will not stand still for a good coat brushing because of the strangeness of the brush. For these types of situations there is a perfect solution called a grooming glove. And like the name says, it is a glove that fits on your hand to groom your dog. What makes it a grooming glove is that there are hundreds of tiny plastic or rubber teeth to help brush those dogs that simply cannot sit still for a standard brush.
6. Last but not least, it is advisable to properly bath and groom your dog all year round not only for the health and well being of your pet, but also it minimizes the amount of hair when it comes time to shed.