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We had puppies back in February and kept one of the girls. Her name is Kaida, which is Japanese for "Little Dragon" Since Akita's are originally from Japan, we like to use Japanese names for our dogs. Kaida will be 20 weeks old on Wednesday and she weighed 54.2 pounds last Wednesday. One of her brothers was 66 pounds at the vet yesterday. She loves to play rough with her dad, and her muscle development is amazing!!! She is still clumsy and a little awkward, but every week, she gets better and better.
Her dad, Matsu, which means "the Protector" is 3 1/2 years old and weighs 120 pounds. He is an AKC Grand Champion show dog that is currently ranked number 8 in the country, and just before the shutdown, he beat the number one Akita in the country. Her mom, Kaminari, which means "Thunder Queen" passed away 6 weeks after giving birth and was an AKC Bronze Grand Champion ranked #14 in the country, but the number 3, and sometimes number 2, female Akita in the country. She went 14 shows in a row undefeated and beat the number 3, 5 and all sorts of top 20 Akita's. It got so bad that people where not showing up to shows if they knew she was going to be there.
One of the biggest advantages that we have with our dogs over the competition is our yard. It's 300 feet long and 100 feet wide. They run and chase chickens around the fence all day long, which builds up their muscles, which gives them very good movement in the ring. Most show dogs never get to exercise like ours do every day, and they tend to look pudgy and soft. Ours are rock solid muscle, and they look like Bengal Tigers when they walk. Walking catlike is a standard for the Akita. Most are wonky or choppy when they walk, which is very obvious in the show ring.
The other advantage that we have over the competition is our dogs only eat home made food. We have 4 crock pots and there is always at least 2 of them cooking their food. They eat twice a day, and it's super healthy for them. I've eaten it when I grabbed the wrong Tupperware and it was very tasty!!!
Kaida is bigger at her age then her dad was at the same age. Her brothers are much bigger then he was at that age. It's very rare to have a hundred pound Akita in the show ring. Her mom was 92 pounds when showing and bigger then some of the male dogs she competed against. There is a point of too big, but nobody really knows what that is since it's never happened with a show quality Akita in perfect physical condition. Their nickname is "bear dog" since they resemble bears. Mastsu has a massive skull, and it's very obvious that he is a bear dog!!!
As to the cause of death for Kami, we really don't know. We did a C section for the birth of 6 puppies so there would be zero risk to her or any of the puppies. The doctor is a specialist for this from Sweden. He did an excellent job. She didn't produce milk very well, so we where suplimenting that from the beginning. After 3 days, we it was too much of a drain on Kami. She became dehydrated and over the six weeks, she received 5 sacks of IV fluid. She went to 9 differnet vets, including A&M without anybody finding anything wrong with her. She received every test known, had blood drawn more times then I can count and was shaved on her neck, chest, and both front legs. In the end, she just quit living and passed away. She never looked sick, but she wouldn't eat or drink after having the puppies. She was 115 pounds when she gave birth and she was 70 pounds when she passed away. My wife fed her with a siring 3 times a day, and force water into her with a siring twice that many times a day. The best, educated guess as to why she died was post mortem depression. She just lost the will to live and we probably forced her to live several weeks longer then we should have, but there just wasn't any way that we could stop trying to save her. In the end, it was one of the most depressing, saddest things that I've ever gone through.
This is Kami
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