Akita Nationals, we made the cut!!!!

[Jstpssng]

Congratulations! Most of us are happy when our dog sits, stays, and comes to us most of the time. You deserve to be proud.
Also thankful that your bride is recovering, but we'll keep on sending our prayers your way.

 

[s219]

That's awesome Eddie, she's a beautiful dog. And very glad to hear Karen is doing better.

 

[Bird]

Very glad to hear that Karen is doing well physically, as well as with the dogs. And how are things going with the horses?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Congrats.

what a pretty dog.

 

[EddieWalker]

Very glad to hear that Karen is doing well physically, as well as with the dogs. And how are things going with the horses?

We are on the same page with the horses. One of the first things she did was help feed the animals. For the first few weeks after getting out of the hospital, she could only walk to the chicken coop and help feed them, get eggs and pull baby chicks. That wore her out. Then a few weeks later, she was able to walk to the stable and help feed the horses. That wore her out even worse, but it was a lot more work too. Now she feeds all the animals again and feels good. This is one of the ways we have been measuring her recovery.

While feeding the horses, she has seen first hand how pushy the two are. They just keep bullying the older horses and taking all their food. I build more fencing and put in more gates so we can separate them, but Karen's seen enough to tell me without me bringing it up, that they need jobs or something to do. They are bored, full of energy, and would be better off at a home where somebody wanted to go ride them. So they will be gone as soon as we find a good home for them.

Currently hay is just about impossible to find, and nobody wants to take on more animals, so we'll just wait until that changes. It's not a rush to get rid of them, but it is something that will be happening. The other three horses will stay. There is no question about that.

 

[300UGUY]

Congrats on the dog and on your wife’s health. My wife had breast cancer, and it took most of a year to get back to where she was physically. She ends her chemo next year. We got rid of our horses years ago, we had the same problem, horses that really needed a home with more activity.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you everyone. Karen just got some great news today, our 16 month old boy puppy, Matsu, won Best of Breed in Texarkana. He is already an AKC Champion and working towards his Grand Champion title. One of the requirements for becoming a Grand Champion is beating two other Champions. He did that today!!

At 12 months he was 105 pounds at the vet. He goes back for more shots at 18 months, so it will be interesting to see how much he has grown. He is a big boy, but awkward looking. He grows in spurts and goes from looking good, to weird. Once he gets his height, then he will start too fill out.

We looked all over the world for the very best puppy out there, and found him in Saskatchewan. His father died 20 years ago and at that time, was the winning-est Akita in history. His mother is the top Akita in Canada, and the owner wanted to bring back the old traits of the Akita from decades ago when looking for frozen seamen. We feel the same. Matsu is going to be a monster in the ring. Their nicknames are "Bears" and he really does resemble a bear.

Something we noticed when we first started doing this is that all the other Akita people in the 300 mile radius around us, all know each other and all breed with each other. All their dogs look alike, or at least very similar. We found Kami in Northern CA because we wanted something different, and better then what was available here.

By the time Matsu matures at 3 years of age, we are hoping that he's one of the top Akita's out there!!! Matsu and Kami puppies should also be very interesting.

 

[EddieWalker]

The Death March starts June 27th and will run for 4 weeks in Oklahoma City, then Dallas, then San Antonio, and then Houston. This is huge for dog shows in this part of the country. These are four and five day shows, all are Majors with thousands of dogs being at each show. The potential for big points is massive. We are at the point that we wont tell anybody where Kami is competing because they wont go to those shows. The more dogs in the ring, the more points that she can earn if she wins. But The Death March is so big, that we're not worried about no shows since there will be points for second, third and forth place at these shows.

One aspect of showing is name recognition. The more Judges that know about Kami, the better she does in the ring. Judges get together and talk about the dogs that impress them. We've learned that Kami is talked about by some of the top Judges, and used as an example of what an Akita should look like. Our next step is buying advertising for her in Working Dog Magazine. We have a graphic artist that is working on our ad for us, and I'm trying to get as many pictures of Kami that I can for her to work with. I can't share those pics, but here are a couple fun ones that didn't make the cut that I took this morning.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Wow and congrats! I had no idea dog competitions were that competitive...especially the part about hiding from your competition..

Glad to hear Karen is getting better every day.

 

[Oleozz]

Matsu and Kami are beautiful dogs and look like true representatives of the Akita breed.
My game is field trial setters and pointers and know the effort, time, and money (also luck) it takes to find a great individual.
Best of luck in the Death March.