Talk:Akita Inu

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[edit] OJ Simpson trial

I've added information about Nicole Brown Simpson's pet Akita Kato in the trivia section. His bloody pawprints were a key piece of evidence in the "trial of the century", making him the most famous member of his breed in the mid 1990's. I think that's worthy of mention in this article. --M.Neko 07:56, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] photos

Need photos. There are some on this foreign language site but I have no idea whether license is any good. Elf | Talk 20:25, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

We are trying to have each dog breed article conform to the following standards: each has a table and each will have the sections appearance, temperament, health, history and trivia in that order. For more on this please seeWikipedia:WikiProject Dog breeds and Wikipedia:WikiProject Dog breeds/General

[edit] Misnomer

I am not involved in the dog world, but I do know Japanese. Referring to this breed as "Akita Inu" is strange. The word "inu" does mean "dog" in Japanese, but that's not what this breed is called in Japanese--it's called "Akita-ken" ("ken" also means "dog" in this context--in fact, it's written with the same Chinese character). "Akita Inu" comes across as if it is trying to sound Japanese and failing.

I just checked the AKC's website, and they just call it "Akita", which frankly strikes me as better for English audiences. If "Akita Inu" really is accepted usage among dog breeders, then pardon the interruption. adamrice 14:07, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ack, you just HAD to mention this, didn't you! :-) Yes, "Akita Inu" is commonly used although it's not the official breed name anywhere that I know of. After poking around a bit, I discovered not only that Akita is the name specified in our master list, and I'll move this article appropriately (it'll have to be Akita (dog) because the main name is a major DAB), but also that there are TWO breeds of Akita (although not all kennel clubs recognize them as separate... I think... more research coming...): The Japanese Akita or just Akita, and the American Akita or Great Japanese Dog. So now this needs rewriting, reorganizing, blah blah and i just wanted to check copyedits. :-) To inifinity...and beyond... Elf | Talk 22:42, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Oh, Adam, wer really appreciate your bringing this up (cough, cough, splutter). No, seriously, we do.
AFAIK, "Akita Inu" was the old term, the 'Inu' has been dropped on the basis that that's like saying Akita Dog Dog. (Course, that doesn't explain the Shiba Inu, now does it?) Another candidate for that section we need to write on "inconsitent and capricious nomenclature", Elf.
I just looked at the English and Japanese writeups for the Akita and Shiba breeds. Although I've never heard a breed referred to in spoken Japanese as X-inu, only X-ken, the Japanese entries for both those breeds show both X-ken and X-inu as readings for the breed names, to my own surprise. Akita is a place name (I think Shiba is too), btw, same as, oh, Dalmatia. The dogs are named after the places.
I'm going to check out if the JKC has any suggestions, when I have a mo....
Quill 23:08, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Links I had to JKC site in English no longer work. Quill 23:29, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I have also never heard of "Akita Inu," only "Akita-ken" (especially when referring to the dog Hachiko) in spoken Japanese. However when I looked it up in 大辞林辞典, there was an entry for akita-inu[1] but none for akita-ken[2]. Surprise, surprise. —Tokek 22:58, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

Every Japanese person I've met from outside of Akita prefecture reads it as "akita ken". Within Akita prefecture, I found a mix of "ken" and "inu" as the reading when spoken, about 50/50. In and around Odate City, everyone used "akita inu". (Although in the local dialect, the pronunciation of akita inu actually comes out sounding more like "aksain".) In addition, every written reference to the pronunciation I've found gives the reading as "inu". My own conclusion is that "akita inu" is the historically correct reading, but "akita ken" is far more common over most of Japan. Azamiryou 19:57, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

inu and ken are the same kanji meaning dog. akita + inu = akita ken. shiba + inu = shiba inu. the reading of the second kanji changes according to the preceding kanji that is being connected to it.

[edit] Renaming akita articles

Here's what I propose to do:

  • Move Akita Inu to Akita (dog) because the Inu form is not the official name in any registry. (Then of course fix all the redirects...)
yeah, good luck with that...Quill
  • Move the current content to Japanese Akita, since that's mostly what it seems to describe...
  • Change the Akita (dog) article to be basically a disambiguation page pointing to Japanese Akita whose breed name is mostly commonly either just Akita or Japanese Akita and to Great Japanese Dog, AKA American Akita.
  • Create at least a stub called Great Japanese Dog (per FCI naming & our master List of dog breeds) as a place holder because this is all so confusing. What's worse is that what AKC calls Akita is apparently = GJD, not Japanese Akita, which is what others mean when they refer to Akita.

Clear as mud? Yea/nay? Elf | Talk 22:54, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Works for me. The only problem I see is that last point, where the AKC calls the GJD the Akita? Bears looking into (and no, I'm not volunteering!)
Quill 23:12, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yo, i have some really good Akita pics but i dnt know how to put them on, all these other photos are not very good or clear to represent the breed. You should talk more about the american akita as well and include pics of those.

[edit] Bizarre missing chapter.

I was going to add the following content to the article, but as soon as I tried to update the page, the section vanished. If anyone can figure out how to plug the information in, please feel free:

Some of the health conditions known to affect this breed include:

  • Canine herpes, a strain of the Herpes virus that happens to affect canines;
  • Gastric dilitation volvulus (GDV), a condition associated with bloat;
  • Pemphigus, which causes the autoimmune system to attack the dog's skin (leading to pustules);
  • Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), an adult-onset condition which gradual degeneration in the eye cells (i.e. rods & cones);
  • UveoDermatological Syndrome (UDS), known as Volt-Koyanagi-Harada disease in humans;
  • Sebaceous adenitis, an autoimmune condition which attacks and destroys the dog's sebaceous glands;
I don't know why it disappeared; I added this text to the article. Elf | Talk 07:39, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

american akita don't apear it the AKC or arba


[edit] Is the temperament section objective?

It seems to me that the current temperament section isn't very objective. For instance, it states that "One of the most famous things about Akitas is that they make people feel calm and relaxed so an Akita is an ideal dog if you have stress problems" but doesn't mention a reference. I'm not an Akita expert, but I do know a bit about dog breeds, and I've never heard of this. While it doesn't make any direct misstatements (to my knowledge) about how Akita are with other dogs and training, it seems to downplay it. Everything I've read (for instance, the dogbreedinfo.com entry on Akitas) has said that Akitas are very aggressive to dogs and other animals (not just dominant), and that they require firm training and are capable of being vicious without proper handling. Finally, it ends by saying "The loyalty and devotion displayed by an Akita is phenomenal. The typical pet Akita will follow you from room to room, yet has the uncanny ability not to be underfoot. Your Akita lives his life as if his only purpose is to protect you and spend time with you." I'm sure Akitas do enjoy spending time with and protecting their people, but this takes it to an extreme; and the sentence about an uncanny ability to not be underfoot is exagerated. I've seen young Akitas that are definitely underfoot.

Anyways, this article seems to me to really play up the Akita's good traits and play down their bad traits. I think it would be great if someone who knows a lot about Akitas would revise it to be a little more objective in tone.

--Tempeste 16:49, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

"very laid back" is a very favourable thing to say about this dog. i've seen many newspaper reports documenting attacks other dogs. my sisters boyfriend also brought one round to our yard, and it knocked my grandma over, and would have done the same thing to me, had i been less steady on my feet


I'm not an expert on the subject, I have only had three. Essentially most of the traits listed I thought were fairly accurate although they are excessively dog aggressive in my opinion. I have had to break up more than one Akita fight that ended up in vet visits and a trip to the hospital. If they are well socialized this usually isn't a problem so long as they're leashed around strange dogs. There are anecdotal stories of how protective they are in the US, and I have found that for the most part these stories jibe with my own experiences. I will say that they can be a difficult breed to deal with and they seem to require a higher amount of "dog skill" than simillar breeds. Ctordtor 04:46, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dangerous Dogs?

I looked at Akita after reading this article on the BBC news site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/6161389.stm

Maybe this article needs to be redrafted to say that in some instances these dogs can be dangerous rather than the wholly positive view on here. I'm not against these dogs but clearly their temperament as described on these pages is not objective and could be misleading for some potential owners. twitter 15:40, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I've never owned an Akita, but from what I have witnessed they are extremely aggressive to other dogs, and there have been many documented cases where they have killed other dogs —particularly terriers, who tend to not back down in a fight but are obviously no match for a dog of an Akitas size and power — they are fighting dogs after all, so it is in their nature to be aggressive. I have added a small section about their aggression at the end of the article, as I couldnt see it anywhere else. There is possibly more that can be said though, such as their possible aggression to humans (as in twitters source above). I referenced the bit I added, but I think some of the other statements in the temperament section need to be sourced if they are to remain. The language should be altered slightly too as some of the statements seem to generalise too much and that can be misleading.Gungadin 01:14, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
I would like to chime in here also; I've owned 3 of the American Akitas, and the article struck me as pertaining only to the Modern Japanese Akita. From my understanding of the subject, starting after WWII the Japanese started efforts to "mellow out" Akita's, trying to breed out the aggressive tendencies and slightly reducing the overall size of the breed; the justification seems to be that they are trying to return to the spirit of the dog that was known before it was commonly used in dog fighting. the Arguments against have been that they are making up this ideal Akita from whole cloth, as the breed apparently went straight from being a Bear hunter & war dog straight into dog fights without any modification.
From what I've read, and I agree, is that the closest thing to a traditional, historical Akita is an American Akita; the modern Japanese Akita is the result of a concerted effort to restructure the breed so it will fit in to modern Japanese lifestyles better.
FWIW, my Japanese-line akita is good with cats (we think because he was the non-dominant of a pair of brothers growing up, until 8 months or so when we got him) and with dogs that are either female, old, or smaller than he is, but he still has aggressive tendencies that make him a poor fit in most dog parks and other social contexts that involve mixed socialization of different kinds and breeds of dogs. While I agree that the Japanese lines are breeding for something different from the American lines, and the builds of the two branches are markedly different by now, and further that temperament of the Japanese lines is significantly less aggressive (I know a few American-line Akitas), I find myself puzzled by and unable to comment authoritatively on the larger goal of this thread - seemingly to determine whether either Japanese-line or American-line Akitas are more faithful to the original ideal of the breed. Mainly what causes me to question this assertion is, if the original bear-hunting Akitas were bred to hunt bears in packs of 8-12, how would hunters keep the dogs from killing each other first (if they were bred for pure aggression/strength)? I think it's well known that American Akitas are not usually well-paired beyond two unrelated Akitas of opposite sex. What would be the logistics of keeping a large group of Akitas in hunting trim without losing some during the hunt due to other Akitas? --MalcolmGin 18:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
I've never read that they hunted in packs that large; the breed profiles for american akitas (and other accounts I've read) state that they hunted Bear, boar & Deer with a mated pair, which seems to fit perfectly with my experience. My first pureblood loved the family cats and the family guinea pig; he was raised as a puppy around them, and completely accepted them; he would carry the cat around in his mouth, and I would often see the cat sleeping on him. If out of the yard he would ignore strange dogs until it was impossible to do so. The reason I originally commented is not to say that American Akitas are more "authentic", even though i think they are, but that the article needs to clearly state that it is not referring to American or Classical Akitas, but only the modern Japanese version.Paganize 10:26, 11 March 2007 (UTC)


An American Akita is a total handfull; they are fiercely aggresive to anything that they feel is a threat to their family or their territory. You can socialize one at an early age so that they will be more tolerant of strange animals and people, but even if socialized heavily they are still extremely dangerous to anything they feel is a threat. The children a Akita is raised with will be completely safe in the dogs presence, but do not be surprised if your toddler starts crying because the Akita got nervous about the environment, and either drags the kid to a more controlled place, or knocks the child down; it is a BAD idea to leave kids with an Akita in a place where surprises in the form of strange animals or people may pop up.
As an example, my HEAVILY socialized Akita KoKo was being taken for a evening walk about 5 years ago by my wife; a German Shepherd was roaming the neighborhood, and started barking at KoKo; my wife reported that KoKo completely ignored the dog for a good while, until the dog came within the leash's reach behind her; KoKo turned, hopped(?) twice, grabbed the dog by the neck, shook him, there was a loud pop, the Shepherd was dead, KoKo returned to his position in front of her and sat calmly, waiting to start the walk again. He never even growled.
They need a lot of space, and they need exercise. Do not try to raise one in an apartment, although you could do it briefly. They need absolutely no training to be guard dogs, and I've seen discussions where sending them to guard dog training was disasterous.Paganize 07:57, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Can provide pictures of a pedigreed but undesireable (accdg to beed standard) Japanese line Aikita with long hair (moku)

My dog is a pedigreed Akita from Japanese lines, but is neutered and unable to breed/show because he's moku (long haired). He is brindle-patterned with a big white patch on his chest/belly. He has the standard build of a Japanese-line Akita.

If pictures of him would help with the requested images for this article, I can provide. if not, no hard feelings. --MalcolmGin 17:52, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure everyone would really appreciate you doing that. If you upload them to wikicommons then they can be used in other wikiprojects too and perhaps an image gallery section can be added to this article if there are several good pics available.Gungadin 13:58, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
I'll gather pictures from my private archives and see if they fit the informative profile, clear it with my fiancee and then upload them to the commons. --MalcolmGin 23:45, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Have added several cc-by-sa-2.5/GFDL licensed pictures of my moku, Japanese-lines akita inu to the commons

Photos are best accessed by my userpage gallery, one of which is here. Do as you will (of course) with the pictures. As we take more suitable pictures, I'll upload them, but the ones that are already uploaded show him with long, clipped, and half-grown-out fur. Not all of the shots are ideal from the point of view of breed or breed-standard illustration, but maybe they will be of some use. --MalcolmGin 02:20, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

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