American Akita

FCI:

American Akita Group V. – Spitz and Primitive type, Section 5 - Asian Spitz and related breeds. Recognized in 1999.

General Appearance:

The American Akita is basically friendly, alert and responsive dog appearance dignified, docile and courageous, that admirably and effectively polices. Man´s favour it always appreciates, but it is never about begging. It is proud, confident and has its dignity. It is very intelligent, it learns quickly.

Temperament/Behaviour:

This breed is not for beginners, it is suitable for people who are gifted by natural authority, quiet, discreet, knowledgeable and totally consistent. Any attempt to gain a leading position in the pack it must be thoroughly dampened from beginning, but not by violence. Akita must always be perfectly manageable, hence the importance of early socialization.

If it is really well behaved, it can be left alone with more appropriately knowledgeable and friendly. Relationship to other dogs and other pets it is not clear, some individuals may be aggressive toward other animals, including small dogs (but e.g. as well as birds). They tend to consider them as prey.

Dog may attempt to catch, hunt all. Animals, who knows since young age and with whom it grew up is friendly. The unknown strange animals it may be less tolerant. Who wants to keep it together with another dog, the person should choose individuals of the opposite sex.

It is recommended not to be during walks without a leash, free range is completely safe only on really well fenced plot (fence must be thorough and must have appropriate height as excellent climbing and burrows). Urgently it needs close contact with the owner and family. It can never be permanently closed in an outdoor kennel.

Body:

This is a big dog, sturdily built, generally massive, harmonious construction and strong bones. Height at withers, male is from 66 to 71 cm and female is from 61 to 66 cm.

The head is typical, massive, above is a blunt triangle. The skull is flat and above the earlobes wide. Front slope must be declining and the muzzle must be broad, deep and full. The nose is broad and black and white dogs are admitted lighter pigmentation of nose or no pigmented spots clearly limitless.

Lips should not be too loose and the edges should be black, tongue is pink. Jaws must be very strong, powerful. Teeth should be strong, evenly spaced jaws. The bite is required to complete, preference is given to the margin, but the bite is also acceptable.

The eyes are dark brown, relatively small, not bulging and triangular in shape. The eyelid rims should be black. The earlobes are firmly erect and in proportion to the head of a small, triangular, slightly rounded tops, with wide bases. They should not be set too low. Ears bent forward, reach ear tips to the upper edges of the eyes.

The neck is strong and muscular, with the least dewlap, relatively short, towards shoulders are clearly expanding. The back is strong and straight, shoulders are firmly muscled.

The tail must be massive and heavily coated, set high and carried over the back and shoulders so that the tip is directed to the back or to the groin. It can be curled three-quarters full or twice, at the back or underneath. At the root is large and strong. There is lying down last vertebra reaching the hock. The hair is rough, straight and dense.

The chest should be broad and deep, ribs well sprung. Belly should be slightly tucked. The forelegs are well boned, straight, strong and powerful blade. Pasterns slightly angled. Feet should point straight forward, they are circular in shape, with a correspondingly arched toes and thickly padded.

The hindquarters must be powerfully muscled, broad, strong bones. Thighs are strong, very strong and parallel. Knees should be bent appropriately. Dewclaws on hind legs customarily removed. The movement is vigorous, large and meaty, parallel.

COAT consists of fine, very dense undercoat, which is shorter than outer coat and the outer coat consisting of straight, hard and slightly protruding hairs. Hair on the head, the end portions of the limbs and earlobes is short. At withers and back is approximately 5 cm. Hair colouring can be any - red, yellow, white, etc., even spotted or striped, with a "mask" on the face or without it, eventually. There is a bald on forehead.

The colours should be bright and clear, well-balanced characters. Uniformly white individuals have no mask. Brindled ones have a white ground colour with large, evenly placed patches covering head and more than one third of the body. Colour of undercoat may be a different colour than the outer coat.

Faults from all requirements of the standard are considered a fault and assess accurately the degree of expression. The serious defects belong to a lack of substance (generally weak physique) and lightweight frame. To negative defects counts or aggressive timidity, total no pigmentation of the nose, the nose with clearly demarcated no pigmented patches, hanging ears, drooping forward or backward folded, overshot or undershot, sickle curved or straight tail, height at withers is less than 63.5 cm , male and 58.5 cm for female. Coat requires regular care!