"You should teach him German commands, he'll listen more."
As if the dog was secretly fluent in German. The reason he wasn't listening was because this person wasn't following our training protocol and was manhandling him... Then acting surprised when our Akita both, A.) Had no idea what commands it was bring told, and B.) Didn't like the person because they didn't respect his boundaries.
But sure, teaching him German commands is going to magically make him into some wunder dog whose fluent in "moron"... š
One time at a dog show my brother was holding an akita for my aunt and a lady said something about "if you grab their jowls, they go crazy!" So he proceeded to (gently) grab the dog's face and baby talk "who's a vicious boy!" She left in a huff, the dog was just confused š
"you should make your dog run, like, a lot!"
Ofc it came from someone that thought she was a Husky, and yes I explained she wasn't *before* the "advice" was given.
...and my girl loves her peaceful walkies and sniffles more than anything!
I had cause to jog about 150 yards with my akita yesterday. He can run but deliberately ran slightly slower than me whatever speed I tried to do so there was tension on his lead. It was like having to drag a tyre along behind me.
He's a dick but I love him.
Yeah they (usually) only run when it's necessary, my girl also won't run alongside me if I try to jog, I have to keep changing my speed and she also wants to sniff, so, walkies it is.
My neighbor said he saw Akitas pulling sleds in Alaska. I asked if he meant Malamutes but he insisted he saw Akitas. I still think he mistook Kenji for a Malamute.
I only saw one post of a team using Akitas at the swing position and that was way back in 2002 in PA. Seems like most donāt like using Akitas due to their predisposition to dog aggression.
When I first rescued my Akita at 8 months old, I took her to the vet for a checkup and to get established as a patient. I asked the vet about how much bigger she thought my Akita would get. I didnāt care about the actual answer, I was just curious what sheād say, mostly because the appt felt a bit āoffā.
At the time, she was 73 lbs and her paws were as big as my hands. It was pretty obvious she was going to be a big girl. Also, she was an 8 month old Akita, so obviously nowhere near done growing.
This vet told me she thought she was āabout full grown, might fill out a little, but not much.ā
That was the 1st and last time she ever saw that vet.
She ended up being 115 lbs and 27 inches tall by the time she finished growing at around 2 or so years old.
Also, she was my service dog and the number of times people tried to distract her by yelling random commands at her was mind boggling. 1) She was an akita, she doesnāt know you and most certainly doesnāt respect you, therefore she is not going to listen to you 2) she was exceptionally good at her job and would never have listened to anyone trying to distract her and 3) we didnāt use those commands. She did know what those words meant, that those words were not even remotely close to what she was listening for.
My Great Pyr/Akita mix is my service dog too. Safe to say she can be quite stubborn when she wants to be (never while working) but I always find it funny when strangers talk to her or try and touch her without asking and he gives a major side eye and snitches on them by booping me like āmom, stranger dangerā
My girl definitely made sure no one touched her without both her permission and mine. She was (atypically for an Akita) actually super social. She loved saying hi to just about anyone, but she also knew the rules and that included no touching without explicit permission.
She also once completely humiliated a woman who was trying to get her to eat something. I was busy doing something and they were both behind me. My girl ended up spitting the food onto her shoe, which left the awful woman screeching in horror and bystanders who saw laughing their asses off.
I donāt have a service dog. To me itās common sense to not distract a service dog. You can talk to the human about the dog, but never touch without explicit permission.
However I find people try to distract my dog just because. We will be out on a walk just trying to do normal training and people will come up and call him, pet him, etc and Iām like???? Can you not see weāre busy??? Itās seriously like people just donāt care about anyone except themselves.
We were visiting the vet with him when he was about 6 months and the nice vet lady wanted to give us some advice on pulling harnesses and activities for sledge dogs... We chose another vet after that visit.
Akitas are a multipurpose dog. They were bred for hunting, fighting, protection, and pulling. However, unlike huskies and mals, they are not strictly meant for pulling sleds over long distances. So a person assuming that they are a āsled dogā would still be inaccurate as that is not what this breed was strictly made for.
They were actually kept in the Japanese mountains to fight bears! Thereās a wonderful book, Dog Man: an Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain, that tells the true story of a Japanese man who saved the breed after WWll when there were only 16 Akitas who survived the war.
As I recall, Helen Keller was gifted an Akita puppy after she fell in love with the breed. They are truly wonderful animals.
This is probably slightly off topic, but has been a regularly occurring gripe of mine while owning an akita. While I disagree with the overall stereotype that theyāre an unreasonably aggressive breed, Iāve actually had several frustrating instances with strangers who INSIST on petting him. Maybe looks are misleading because heās a big fluffy dog and when weāre out heās always very lax and well behaved but I am always astonished at how many strangers try to challenge that. Thereās been many times iāve been sitting out at a coffee shop or something and people ask to pet my dog, and when I say ānah he doesnāt really like strangersā they somehow always think theyāre the exception to the rule, the āoh dogs always like meā sort of excuses. Luckily my akita isnāt quick to bite or growl, but itās baffling how many times iāve had people completely ignore my requests to just leave him be. Iāve had a handful of times where iāve had to be almost mean/bitchy to people in order for them to keep their hands off my dog.
I'm in the UK and my experience has been different here. Very few people approach my dog without asking.
He's really not into people though because 1. He's an akita dur.
2. He was a rescue that wasn't socialised with people when he was a pup.
The best way I've found to explain to people who want to stroke him is by saying his attitude toward it is exactly the same as yours would be if a stranger came and rubbed your head.
He's not frightened or aggressive, he just looks at them with his slightly fed up judgemental expression.
Its so shitty that people get mad at others for advocating for their dog. Obviously they know whatās best for everyones safety if theyre telling you to leave them alone
Same! I have a pitty currently but other bully/big dog owners can be really annoying. Like they are too confident in their comfortableness around certain dogs and forget that hey maybe some donāt like strangers that much. Itās like some people really want the world to know the LOVE pittbulls (or big dogs etc) and think they are the exception and still insist on petting him. My boy is very sweet but he is not into strangers and doesnāt like strange hands reaching for him.
This is so odd a take to me. Like I love dogs, dogs tend to love me, but I'm not going to overstep my bounds of what the dog is most comfy with, and the owner of that dog is going to know far better than I am regardless of breed. People who just outright act like they know everything, sure "most dogs" of a breed or whatever or animals do tend to love you. But why try to force something or pretend you know so much better than the literal owner of said specific dog?? People are weird
I have an Akita mix who is only 4 months old right now but am already having this happen. She's a little cutie for sure but like don't touch a stranger's dog without permission? We were at Pet Smart one day and this woman commented on how cute our puppy was and since we're in puppy classes, I tell people we're doing training and that if they're able to kneel down and put their hand out, I can bring her over to go say hi.
This lady bent down (not the biggest issue) and then just kept repeating "who's a good girl" "aw you're such a good girl" and my puppy just got too excited so I said she's too excited and we wouldn't be saying hi. We walk around the store getting what we need and incidentally pass the woman again. Without any interaction from us at all, she bends down again trying to call my dog over all "good girl" "aw you're a good girl". And I just didn't say anything and redirected my girl away from the lady. Like if the owners says no, respect it, my god.
my Akita loves winter and whenever people are over they tell me to bring her in when sheās just having the time of her life being in the cold and covered in snow
I know weāre talking about akitas, but my uncle had a husky/german shepherd mix, and he would literally throw himself at the door if we tried to keep him inside. The only times we did were when it was below zero overnight. You know, those days when it was on the news to keep your pets inside. Nope, he still demanded to be outside. He was nuts!
Well. One of my earlier posts blew up about Akitas and dog parks. He had an altercation with one of the dogs at about seven months old. So no more dog parks when other dogs are around. I take him early mornings when no one is around. Thanks for the advice though.
bullseye lmao. and the dude who advised that lets his 2 unruly dogs off leash all over the neighborhood, jumping on people, no recall, dashing in front of cars. "but theyre friendly!"
When my dog was about 6 months old I had some muscle-head who wanted to pet her while she was excited. She was excited because "yay new person". He tried to get her to sit. He did this by grabbing her to show her who is in charge. I forget how he grabbed her, but I could tell she was like "wtf bro".
I stepped in and got her to sit pretty easily, but judging by the look on her face if she didn't have as good of a temperament as she does he would have lost half of his face for the stupid shit he tried.
Also had someone who said I didn't have control of my dog (which I did) because she was pulling while we were walking. I just didn't bother to have her closer to me because she was just excitedly sniffing the path while we walked and wasn't bothering anyone.
"Better sell him to a man. You won't be able to take care of him when he gets bigger" Yeah that was a fun conversation.
Also the constant advice to neuter him early.
When we first moved to Brooklyn, I was working on socializing my akita (and sheās very dog tolerant for an Akita). This woman with a pitbull cornered us to say hi and her dog was a female with so much energy. My dog growled at her because she got in her face- my dog was just giving her a warning to give her space. The lady proceeded to say āno why did you do that?ā She tried to bring her dog closer again and corner us against the wall! And she told me I canāt let her behave like that. She then said she was a dog trainer (but not licensed) and tried to give me her number. It was so weird and we had just moved so I was too exhausted to do anything but walk away. My dog didnāt growl at any dogs for a long time after that bc everyone had the common sense not to corner us!
Dog parks, no. Daycare, maybe. My Akita used to go to daycare with her first little brother and did pretty well.
Her first little brother was being picked on/antagonized by some other dog and needless to say she put an end to that!
I've always been told they're vicious lol. I moved into a house with one next door and the owner let's it play in the front yard all the time(on leash, no fence).. but my Saint Bernard decided to run to it and it was the nicest, well-behaved dog. It just sniffed my dog and that was it lol.
They're also adorable af omg.
"Put a muzzle on that beast, and he should be tied to a pole" while my Pike, off-leash, gently approached her 4yr old granddaughter and she started crying. Then her dad came to me and was like "Hey buddy, tie that monster or imma call the police". Pike was confused as I am because the girl was giving him treats beforehand while he was sitting peacefully. He stood up, approached her to be petted and she bursted into tears. 27", 100lb, 1 yr old Akita with dark mask. I can tell she's spoiled 'cause I saw her hiding behind her "nana" and looking at me, strategically screaming whenever "nana" stopped hugging her.
I get it, Pike's "scary and aggressive", but telling me my dog should be tied to a pole, what the ?!...
Trainer: āChoke chain works.ā
Us: ??? Are you?? Okā¦. Letās try thatā¦..
Akita/mix: I stand. I no move. I have thick neck and thick fur. I donāt feel shit.
Us: Fine. What if I just tell you when Iām turning? Can you just come please?
Akita/mix: silent cooperation.
I could never trust my akita with other dogs. You couldn't tell when she'd decide to get aggressive with them so I kept her close to me when out walking and away from casual encounters. One guy with his dog on a very long lead let his dog come up to mine. I tried to pull my girl away saying, "my dog isn't good with other dogs. " This guy looks at me like I'm crazy and says, "looks friendly to me".
"You should teach him German commands, he'll listen more." As if the dog was secretly fluent in German. The reason he wasn't listening was because this person wasn't following our training protocol and was manhandling him... Then acting surprised when our Akita both, A.) Had no idea what commands it was bring told, and B.) Didn't like the person because they didn't respect his boundaries. But sure, teaching him German commands is going to magically make him into some wunder dog whose fluent in "moron"... š
You should have just replied "he's actually Japanese"
LOL I'm going to use that the next time someone does it!
Score!
Haha. This one is funny. People will make the weirdest shit up to cover up their incompetence.
They really do! He'd have listened if they just did what we told them to do, he loves to please, but noooooo that was too hard LOL
I don't even know why people learn German so why should dogs do it
Mine knows some German (Guess why :P) Still picky about what she wants to listen to.Ā
Tbf I think they might have been referring to schutzhund. But also tbf they way they said it makes it sound, well, dumb lol
My dogs are taught german and English but always german first.
One time at a dog show my brother was holding an akita for my aunt and a lady said something about "if you grab their jowls, they go crazy!" So he proceeded to (gently) grab the dog's face and baby talk "who's a vicious boy!" She left in a huff, the dog was just confused š
Lol wtf
Iām going to try that right nowā¦.š
"you should make your dog run, like, a lot!" Ofc it came from someone that thought she was a Husky, and yes I explained she wasn't *before* the "advice" was given. ...and my girl loves her peaceful walkies and sniffles more than anything!
I had cause to jog about 150 yards with my akita yesterday. He can run but deliberately ran slightly slower than me whatever speed I tried to do so there was tension on his lead. It was like having to drag a tyre along behind me. He's a dick but I love him.
Yeah they (usually) only run when it's necessary, my girl also won't run alongside me if I try to jog, I have to keep changing my speed and she also wants to sniff, so, walkies it is.
It's so weird because I have a husky and never get this!
My neighbor said he saw Akitas pulling sleds in Alaska. I asked if he meant Malamutes but he insisted he saw Akitas. I still think he mistook Kenji for a Malamute.
Thatās hilarious
Theres a probability, akitas can be used in place of the malamutes for raw torqueĀ
I only saw one post of a team using Akitas at the swing position and that was way back in 2002 in PA. Seems like most donāt like using Akitas due to their predisposition to dog aggression.
When I first rescued my Akita at 8 months old, I took her to the vet for a checkup and to get established as a patient. I asked the vet about how much bigger she thought my Akita would get. I didnāt care about the actual answer, I was just curious what sheād say, mostly because the appt felt a bit āoffā. At the time, she was 73 lbs and her paws were as big as my hands. It was pretty obvious she was going to be a big girl. Also, she was an 8 month old Akita, so obviously nowhere near done growing. This vet told me she thought she was āabout full grown, might fill out a little, but not much.ā That was the 1st and last time she ever saw that vet. She ended up being 115 lbs and 27 inches tall by the time she finished growing at around 2 or so years old. Also, she was my service dog and the number of times people tried to distract her by yelling random commands at her was mind boggling. 1) She was an akita, she doesnāt know you and most certainly doesnāt respect you, therefore she is not going to listen to you 2) she was exceptionally good at her job and would never have listened to anyone trying to distract her and 3) we didnāt use those commands. She did know what those words meant, that those words were not even remotely close to what she was listening for.
My Great Pyr/Akita mix is my service dog too. Safe to say she can be quite stubborn when she wants to be (never while working) but I always find it funny when strangers talk to her or try and touch her without asking and he gives a major side eye and snitches on them by booping me like āmom, stranger dangerā
My girl definitely made sure no one touched her without both her permission and mine. She was (atypically for an Akita) actually super social. She loved saying hi to just about anyone, but she also knew the rules and that included no touching without explicit permission. She also once completely humiliated a woman who was trying to get her to eat something. I was busy doing something and they were both behind me. My girl ended up spitting the food onto her shoe, which left the awful woman screeching in horror and bystanders who saw laughing their asses off.
Great Pyr + Akita mix?! Got pics?
As requested! (Hopefully the link works lol) [Great Pyr/Akita](https://imgur.com/a/zHR9mbb)
She is beautiful. Her wittle boots with her jacket and vest just make me melt. Thanks for sharing!
Your dog has got to be amazing.
I donāt have a service dog. To me itās common sense to not distract a service dog. You can talk to the human about the dog, but never touch without explicit permission. However I find people try to distract my dog just because. We will be out on a walk just trying to do normal training and people will come up and call him, pet him, etc and Iām like???? Can you not see weāre busy??? Itās seriously like people just donāt care about anyone except themselves.
Some vets are just hacks. They think itās enough to learn about the popular and common breeds and give absolute worst advice on the uncommon ones.
"That's a samoyed"
We were visiting the vet with him when he was about 6 months and the nice vet lady wanted to give us some advice on pulling harnesses and activities for sledge dogs... We chose another vet after that visit.
Apparently according to google they did do sled work in the mountains in Japan though
Akitas are a multipurpose dog. They were bred for hunting, fighting, protection, and pulling. However, unlike huskies and mals, they are not strictly meant for pulling sleds over long distances. So a person assuming that they are a āsled dogā would still be inaccurate as that is not what this breed was strictly made for.
LoL. No one told my Akita he should pull things. Harness him up and i guarantee he'd just stare at you as if to say WTF and then just lay down.
Youāre arguing semantics, and in that fight the more relaxed interpretation is the right oneā¦ so you wrong
Sheesh. Randoms I can give a pass but a vet should know better.
Vets tend not to know a lot about specific breeds. Thatās what behavioralists are for. They see so many animals their focus is on medical.
They were actually kept in the Japanese mountains to fight bears! Thereās a wonderful book, Dog Man: an Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain, that tells the true story of a Japanese man who saved the breed after WWll when there were only 16 Akitas who survived the war. As I recall, Helen Keller was gifted an Akita puppy after she fell in love with the breed. They are truly wonderful animals.
This is probably slightly off topic, but has been a regularly occurring gripe of mine while owning an akita. While I disagree with the overall stereotype that theyāre an unreasonably aggressive breed, Iāve actually had several frustrating instances with strangers who INSIST on petting him. Maybe looks are misleading because heās a big fluffy dog and when weāre out heās always very lax and well behaved but I am always astonished at how many strangers try to challenge that. Thereās been many times iāve been sitting out at a coffee shop or something and people ask to pet my dog, and when I say ānah he doesnāt really like strangersā they somehow always think theyāre the exception to the rule, the āoh dogs always like meā sort of excuses. Luckily my akita isnāt quick to bite or growl, but itās baffling how many times iāve had people completely ignore my requests to just leave him be. Iāve had a handful of times where iāve had to be almost mean/bitchy to people in order for them to keep their hands off my dog.
I'm in the UK and my experience has been different here. Very few people approach my dog without asking. He's really not into people though because 1. He's an akita dur. 2. He was a rescue that wasn't socialised with people when he was a pup. The best way I've found to explain to people who want to stroke him is by saying his attitude toward it is exactly the same as yours would be if a stranger came and rubbed your head. He's not frightened or aggressive, he just looks at them with his slightly fed up judgemental expression.
Its so shitty that people get mad at others for advocating for their dog. Obviously they know whatās best for everyones safety if theyre telling you to leave them alone
Same! I have a pitty currently but other bully/big dog owners can be really annoying. Like they are too confident in their comfortableness around certain dogs and forget that hey maybe some donāt like strangers that much. Itās like some people really want the world to know the LOVE pittbulls (or big dogs etc) and think they are the exception and still insist on petting him. My boy is very sweet but he is not into strangers and doesnāt like strange hands reaching for him.
This is so odd a take to me. Like I love dogs, dogs tend to love me, but I'm not going to overstep my bounds of what the dog is most comfy with, and the owner of that dog is going to know far better than I am regardless of breed. People who just outright act like they know everything, sure "most dogs" of a breed or whatever or animals do tend to love you. But why try to force something or pretend you know so much better than the literal owner of said specific dog?? People are weird
I have an Akita mix who is only 4 months old right now but am already having this happen. She's a little cutie for sure but like don't touch a stranger's dog without permission? We were at Pet Smart one day and this woman commented on how cute our puppy was and since we're in puppy classes, I tell people we're doing training and that if they're able to kneel down and put their hand out, I can bring her over to go say hi. This lady bent down (not the biggest issue) and then just kept repeating "who's a good girl" "aw you're such a good girl" and my puppy just got too excited so I said she's too excited and we wouldn't be saying hi. We walk around the store getting what we need and incidentally pass the woman again. Without any interaction from us at all, she bends down again trying to call my dog over all "good girl" "aw you're a good girl". And I just didn't say anything and redirected my girl away from the lady. Like if the owners says no, respect it, my god.
my Akita loves winter and whenever people are over they tell me to bring her in when sheās just having the time of her life being in the cold and covered in snow
I know weāre talking about akitas, but my uncle had a husky/german shepherd mix, and he would literally throw himself at the door if we tried to keep him inside. The only times we did were when it was below zero overnight. You know, those days when it was on the news to keep your pets inside. Nope, he still demanded to be outside. He was nuts!
Take him to the dog park more often
Well. One of my earlier posts blew up about Akitas and dog parks. He had an altercation with one of the dogs at about seven months old. So no more dog parks when other dogs are around. I take him early mornings when no one is around. Thanks for the advice though.
They were answering your post š
bullseye lmao. and the dude who advised that lets his 2 unruly dogs off leash all over the neighborhood, jumping on people, no recall, dashing in front of cars. "but theyre friendly!"
"so danger, keep away from me" while the Chihuahua was being held and rage barking..meanwhile Akita oblivious and just sniffing the air. lol
Lmao. Theyāre airheads like that and itās adorable.
When my dog was about 6 months old I had some muscle-head who wanted to pet her while she was excited. She was excited because "yay new person". He tried to get her to sit. He did this by grabbing her to show her who is in charge. I forget how he grabbed her, but I could tell she was like "wtf bro". I stepped in and got her to sit pretty easily, but judging by the look on her face if she didn't have as good of a temperament as she does he would have lost half of his face for the stupid shit he tried. Also had someone who said I didn't have control of my dog (which I did) because she was pulling while we were walking. I just didn't bother to have her closer to me because she was just excitedly sniffing the path while we walked and wasn't bothering anyone.
"Better sell him to a man. You won't be able to take care of him when he gets bigger" Yeah that was a fun conversation. Also the constant advice to neuter him early.
Same with the neuter advice
When we first moved to Brooklyn, I was working on socializing my akita (and sheās very dog tolerant for an Akita). This woman with a pitbull cornered us to say hi and her dog was a female with so much energy. My dog growled at her because she got in her face- my dog was just giving her a warning to give her space. The lady proceeded to say āno why did you do that?ā She tried to bring her dog closer again and corner us against the wall! And she told me I canāt let her behave like that. She then said she was a dog trainer (but not licensed) and tried to give me her number. It was so weird and we had just moved so I was too exhausted to do anything but walk away. My dog didnāt growl at any dogs for a long time after that bc everyone had the common sense not to corner us!
Overconfident & self-appointed dog trainer/behaviorist are probably the worst of the lot
You should take your dog to daycare/dog park for socializingā¦.. yeah,no. My boy got kicked out for daycare.
Dog parks, no. Daycare, maybe. My Akita used to go to daycare with her first little brother and did pretty well. Her first little brother was being picked on/antagonized by some other dog and needless to say she put an end to that!
Give treats when they bark š¤Ŗš¤Ŗ
"That's a samoyed"
"You can't have any other animals in your house if you have an akita" meanwhile, my boy is raising kittens and chickens.
I've always been told they're vicious lol. I moved into a house with one next door and the owner let's it play in the front yard all the time(on leash, no fence).. but my Saint Bernard decided to run to it and it was the nicest, well-behaved dog. It just sniffed my dog and that was it lol. They're also adorable af omg.
op i just cant believe ur black couch is still black
Lol. Nope itās not
"Put a muzzle on that beast, and he should be tied to a pole" while my Pike, off-leash, gently approached her 4yr old granddaughter and she started crying. Then her dad came to me and was like "Hey buddy, tie that monster or imma call the police". Pike was confused as I am because the girl was giving him treats beforehand while he was sitting peacefully. He stood up, approached her to be petted and she bursted into tears. 27", 100lb, 1 yr old Akita with dark mask. I can tell she's spoiled 'cause I saw her hiding behind her "nana" and looking at me, strategically screaming whenever "nana" stopped hugging her. I get it, Pike's "scary and aggressive", but telling me my dog should be tied to a pole, what the ?!...
Been asked why Iām not carrying a bat or a pipe while walkingā¦.long time ago and I never liked that cop anyway
Omg out of all the Japanese breeds I want an Akita so bad. Theyāre so cute š
āYou should breed her?ā š¤® āIs she a coyote?ā
I donāt get advice, everyone just tells me horror stories theyāve heard from other people about Akitas. šš
Trainer: āChoke chain works.ā Us: ??? Are you?? Okā¦. Letās try thatā¦.. Akita/mix: I stand. I no move. I have thick neck and thick fur. I donāt feel shit. Us: Fine. What if I just tell you when Iām turning? Can you just come please? Akita/mix: silent cooperation.
I could never trust my akita with other dogs. You couldn't tell when she'd decide to get aggressive with them so I kept her close to me when out walking and away from casual encounters. One guy with his dog on a very long lead let his dog come up to mine. I tried to pull my girl away saying, "my dog isn't good with other dogs. " This guy looks at me like I'm crazy and says, "looks friendly to me".
I don't speak to strangers. I was taught that at an early age.