Akita
Japan's national dog and a bear hunter by origin. Hachiko, who kept meeting the same train for nine years after his owner died, was an Akita.
Overview
The Akita is a Japanese hunting dog from the mountains of Akita prefecture, bred to hold large game including bear until the hunter arrived. It is powerful, heavy boned and thickly coated, and it carries itself with a stillness that reads as reserve rather than calm.
It is also a Japanese national monument, protected as a cultural treasure since 1931, and Hachiko, the dog who waited nine years at Shibuya station, was one.
Temperament
Loyal, dignified and genuinely difficult, and it is worth being direct about that. Akitas are devoted to their families and deeply suspicious of strangers, and many are seriously intolerant of other dogs, particularly of the same sex.
They are quiet and clean in the house, almost catlike, and they do not bark much. They are also strong willed and slow to obey an instruction they see no reason for. This is not a first dog, and it is not a dog for a household that cannot commit to early and continuous socialisation.
Care and grooming
The double coat sheds moderately most of the year and enormously twice a year, when the undercoat comes out in handfuls for weeks. A weekly brush becomes a daily one during that.
Hip and elbow dysplasia, hypothyroidism and an autoimmune eye condition all occur in the breed. Akitas are also sensitive to some anaesthetics and to certain vaccines, which is worth flagging to a vet.
Living and exercise
Moderate exercise, an hour or so a day, and a very secure garden. They are not endurance athletes and they are not couch dogs.
The prey drive is real and it applies to cats and small dogs. An Akita in a multi pet household needs to have grown up there rather than arrived into it, and even then it is a judgement call rather than a safe assumption.
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