American Akita

Everyday life

Shared walks, opportunities to explore scents and brief training sessions suit an American Akita. The pace should reflect its age, fitness and the weather. Its strength makes comfortable lead walking especially useful. Teaching it to walk on a loose lead and turn its attention towards you around distractions helps with later encounters. Food or another reward the dog enjoys can encourage the behaviour you want.

Walking routes with a clear view ahead make it easier to allow room around unfamiliar dogs. Enough distance helps keep an encounter calm before the dogs are directly facing each other. A crowded dog park with many unfamiliar animals is often a poor choice for this breed. Off lead exercise should take place within secure fencing. Many American Akitas have a strong prey drive and may chase an animal that runs away.

Before bringing one into a home with cats or small pets, you should assess its reactions carefully. If it chases a cat, watches it with an intense stare or becomes very excited at the sight of it, you should seek help from a qualified behaviour professional. It should be possible to separate the animals securely. Holiday care also needs someone experienced with this dog. A Fellfolio handover can share suitable walking routes, feeding arrangements and advice for encounters with the person providing care.

Everyday dog training: recall, a loose lead and clear communication ↗

Day-to-day care

A thorough weekly brush helps remove loose hair from the dense coat. During seasonal shedding, undercoat may come out in large clumps. More frequent brushing then helps prevent loose hair from collecting in the coat. Several brief grooming sessions are easier to fit into daily life than a lengthy one that leaves the dog impatient.

Grooming also provides an opportunity to check the skin. Scaling, bald areas or a marked change in coat texture should be investigated. Overgrown nails can interfere with walking, so paws, ears and teeth need regular attention too. Brushing with dog toothpaste should be introduced gradually, beginning with brief touches around the lips and teeth. If the dog has ear problems, its vet can show you an appropriate care routine. Cotton buds should not be inserted into the ear canal.

Health

Before choosing a puppy, you should ask for an explanation of its parents’ health assessments. The Akita Club of America recommends hip, eye and thyroid examinations. With hip dysplasia, the hip joint is not sufficiently stable. Pain and arthritis can develop. Screening results therefore offer useful information even when the parents appear to move comfortably during a visit.

Sebaceous adenitis is another condition reported in Akitas. It causes inflammation of the skin’s oil glands. The coat may become scaly, change in texture and develop areas of hair loss. Such changes should be examined by a vet rather than assumed to be ordinary shedding.

Gastric dilatation and volvulus, often called a twisted stomach, is an important emergency. The stomach fills with gas and may rotate, impairing circulation. Unproductive retching, marked restlessness or a suddenly swollen abdomen require immediate veterinary help. Emergency contacts should be prepared in advance. Fellfolio can keep results, medication and observations together in the pet’s profile. An emergency card makes important information easier for another person to find quickly.

Could this breed fit your life?