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Puppies' Diary - Part 3.
This page was last updated: 2004-02-27
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June - July 2002
This page continues the story of living with all three puppies in the house.
7th of July, 2002 - Telling you
about the puppies.... (Fuji) (Aibu)
(Kanzi)
17th of July, 2002 - Fuji's departure..
As already told, I have been busy with the dogs, the horses, my work and the Aloe Vera project, so I haven't had as much time to write, as I would have wanted.
Therefore, I haven't managed to write in the "diary-like" form, I started out with about Fuji and about the Kindergarten. All I can do now is to give you an overall impression of the life with all 5 dogs in the house.
The daily routines are pretty much the same, as they were also in May... Walking Ikiru and Tora in the mornings, then walking them and the puppies again in the evenings in some sort of order. What has changed is that we do no longer walk as much on the beach as we did a couple of month ago, because there are now lots of other dogs and lots of tourists at the beach every day, so it has been harder to find a time of the day, where we can have it all for us and the dogs would be able to run completely free, as they have been used to. Therefore I have been walking them mainly out from home - or, I have brought the puppies for walks in nearby towns etc. for socialisation.
I have also changed the "order" of my walks a bit, instead of walking Ikiru and Tora together, and then the three puppies together, or eventually Kanzi alone for training purposes, I have been bringing Fuji or Kanzi on my walks with Ikiru and Tora. This way, I can walk them at their flexi-lines, two by two (either Tora/Fuji or Tora/Kanzi or Fuji/Aibu or Kanzi/Aibu) and Ikiru runs off leash as usual. It is of course much more fun for the pups to be walked at the 8 m flexi-lines, than being walked at normal, shorter leashes. On the other hand it is a bit more demanding of me, as they tend to be experts in getting the flexi-lines flocked into each other... Well, actually it is not that bad! Most of the time, they are walking nicely, but especially at the beginning of the walks, when they are still a bit eager and excited, I need to be careful....
Beside these "technical" things, the most interesting thing over these past few months has been to watch the puppies mature and develop their individual personalities. They are actually quite different, which I find both funny and interesting considering that they are puppies of the same breed at almost the same ages.
Fuji has developed into a very handsome fellow and a real "male". But, he is also still a sweetie that loves being padded and cuddled, sometimes so much that I have to remind him that he is a "big, strong male dog"... In some ways, he is quite a softie and a very friendly softie too. But, in other ways he is also very naughty, sometimes driving Ikiru to the edge by teasing her (and sometimes driving her over the edge, which he then "feels" immediately after....). He is also sometimes provoking poor Tora quite a lot, but whenever he pushes him over the line, Tora will tell him, and then it will be very clearly that Fuji still accepts Tora as "alpha male" - without questioning his status at all. It is actually quite funny to watch the two boys (our boy-gang, as we call them), because they have become real friends over these past months. They obviously enjoy "doing things together", they play with each other, and Fuji is always very proud whenever he is "allowed" to be together with Tora, or if I take him for a walk with Ikiru and Tora.
Fuji also loves being outside, a passion he shares with Ikiru. At this time of the year, whenever the weather is good enough (meaning: not too cold, not too rainy nor too windy), we leave our front-door open when we are at home, so that the dogs can choose freely between being outside or inside with us. During the day, if the weather is really beautiful, all dogs are mostly outside. But in the evenings, Tora and the girls often prefer to be inside, and so Fuji and Ikiru are the only ones to stay out, which seems to make Fuji very proud... I have watched him on those evenings, crawling closer and closer to Ikiru, who on the other hand seems to be quite pleased with his company... Not that she would ever dream of showing it of course, but anyway that is the "impression" I get from watching them... She is also very tolerant towards Fuji, and accepts things from him, I wouldn't have expected her to...
This week, on Monday the 1st of July, Fuji had blood drawn for his titer testing. So, now we are anxiously waiting for the results. If they come out positive (sufficient titer), he will be going "home" to Sweden within a couple of weeks. And though we are in one way looking forward to only having our own three dogs left, and Fuji leaving for Sweden will be the first step towards this, we are also going to miss that little guy, when he is no longer here. And I am sure, Tora and Kanzi are going to miss him too (and maybe even Ikiru?).....
Aibu is our little funny girl... She is a very active Akita, almost always about to be "doing something"... I am not sure, if she always knows herself, what it is she is about to do, but she has to investigate a spot in the garden, or sit and watch the horses or the birds at their pasture, or she has to try to dig a big(ger) hole somewhere in the garden, or try if she can find any leftovers from their meals - or she is just sniffing about in the garden. Or she is playing "wild", especially with Fuji.. She also plays with Kanzi, but they have a more "calm and quiet" way of playing, when the two girls play together compared to how each of them plays with Fuji.... Aibu is also a dog that loves to be padded and cuddled, and she is a very happy little soul, who is almost always up to a play or a pad whenever she is invited (and sometimes even she also invites herself....). She is quite obedient, even without training, as she is quite food "interested" and so is easy to get attentive for what one want her to do.. That said, she has a very hard time concentrate on anything for more than just a short time, so even though, she is quite easy to make do things, she isn't that easy to train anyway.
She is the "little one" in our pack of dogs, and I think that irritates her a bit sometimes, as no one really seem to pay much attention, if she is trying to "make herself heard"... Only exception being her defending her food-bowl - or anything that has to do with food. I believe, Fuji and Kanzi learned their lessons from day one - that even if she isn't very big, and even if they can do a lot of things to her in any other situation, they should NOT try to steal her food! But, this is also ok, I don't allow them to steal food from each other anyway, so it just makes my job easier that she is able to watch out for her self. But, it also shows that she has quite a temper, when it comes to it, so I am a bit curious, how she will be to work with on a longer term...
There were a few weeks, where Ikiru was a bit hard to her, I never really understood why, as I couldn't find anything that should trigger this behaviour from Ikiru. But it also lasted only a very short time, and now we have had "peace and quiet" for a long time. But, these few days meant that Aibu now pays a lot of respect to Ikiru.... most of the time..... when, she isn't barking at her, when she moves around in the yard after dark... or using her as an extra "step" to be able to reach higher for greeting one of us... But, it seems that Ikiru has gotten used to this odd behaviour from Aibu - most of the time... though I can't say, Ikiru really likes her, when she behaves like this...
Aibu is also a very curious little dog, always wanting to investigate whenever we meet new things... This added to her occasional lack of concentration has led her in a couple of "bad-luck" situations, but it doesn't seem to bother her that much, she is getting over with this very quickly and continues as her happy self.
Aibu is going to have her blood drawn beginning of August, and then - if things are ok - we are planning her to be picked up the last weekend of August, where we have our yearly Akita/GJD gathering, and her going to Norway will then be "the end" of our Kindergarten this year...
Both Fuji and Aibu have developed into confident and happy dogs that meet most things on their way with curiosity rather than fear. Of course, there are a few things, they "don't like" that much - but all in all they are functioning very well in our daily life and routines.
Kanzi on the other hand is a somewhat complex little dog. In some ways, she is the most confident, self-assured, calm and mature young female, I have ever met. In many situations, she is the leader of the puppy-pack, the one that always "dares" investigate things that look a bit frightening to the puppies etc., but there is one area, where she seems to loose all her confidence and maturity - when meeting new people, or when being in the city, or just passing by people on the street.
Though, she is much better now, than at the beginning, she still reacts very typical "in-secure" in these situations, and typical for her mental strength, she doesn't seem to be influenced much by the reactions of the other dogs. As both Ikiru and Tora are very confident dogs that don't react much on "things or people", when we are out - and certainly are not afraid of people coming to our home, I had hoped that Kanzi would learn from them... Which I also think she does.. But at a much slower pace, than I expected... So, this is a major reason why, I am taking her on more walks together with Ikiru and Tora, because this a "thing about her" that I really want to change.
She is also a very independent little dog, which makes it even harder to train her to calm down in "dangerous" or new situations, as she doesn't seem to be wanting to "lean" on me for support, as much as most other dogs would. However this is slowly changing, which of course makes her training a whole lot easier.... She also is more of a hunter, than any of the other dogs I have known... She reacts on EVERYTHING that moves... So, I am afraid, she will have to stay leashed for a long, long time - maybe except for the beach in wintertime - if I ever get her so far that I would trust her off leash anywhere. By the way, she already proved herself a hunter, as she has caught her first mice without much trouble. Fuji and Aibu on the other hand have been trying to catch a mouse for the past couple of months without much success... Again, it is probably a question about concentration and focus, which seems to be some of Kanzi's strengths....
But, besides her little "problem" with strangers, she is functioning very well at home and in the pack. And, Ikiru seems to be accepting her much better than she does Aibu - probably because, Kanzi's behaviour towards the other dogs is a bit more natural and "sound", than Aibu's is - or especially was at the beginning, when she came here. And of course, we are very happy that it is Kanzi, who is going to stay with us, that is Ikiru's favourite of the two female puppies - it will probably make life a lot easier for us, when we are down to only 3 dogs in the house in a couple of months.
We have been hoping that both females would wait with their first heat, at least till Fuji had left us for Sweden (of course, we would also be happy, if Aibu would wait till she has left for Norway...), so we would only have to worry about Tora... But, this wasn't Kanzi's plan, which we found out on the 14th of June, when she started her bleeding. Typical for the very sound dog, she seems to be, it was also a "real" season already this first time... Which, considered the number of females, who are not having "real" seasons before their 2nd or 3rd heats, of course was a bit annoying, because of the two male dogs. And further, she even turned out to have a very loooong heat period of more than 3 weeks, with one full week of being VERY interesting to the males... This has of course made the last couple of weeks very "funny", with keeping the dogs in separate groups, altering the "group-members", so that everyone got a change to play and had their walks. But now it fortunately seems to be more or less over, so that we will be able to have all the dogs together again in a few days, which I am looking very much forward to!
This was a little about the puppies and how they have developed over the past few months. I hope, I will now be able to write a bit more often the last 1½ months, till both Fuji and Aibu are (hopefully) moved on to their respective families. We are of course a bit anxious, how the dogs will react as a pack, when Fuji leaves us. But that is just something only time can show.
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Last Friday, the 11th of July, we had the result back from Fuji's blood testing. His titer was sufficient for the journey to Sweden. So tomorrow we will visit the vet again for the de-worming and his Health Attest. And then on Friday, the 19th of July, Monica and Yngve will pick him up here and bring him "home" to Sweden...
Of course, it will be with mixed feelings that we say goodbye to that little clownish fellow (who isn't at all "little" any more....). On one hand this is what we have been working towards, and I also think that both Dennis and I are looking a bit forward to the day, when we are only having our own three dogs here. On the other hand, Fuji has a special place in our hearts since he was the first of the puppies to arrive here, and spent the first month "alone" with us and Ikiru and Tora.
I am also wondering a bit, what the other four's reaction on his departure will be. Fuji has been some sort of "link" between Ikiru/Tora and the girls, again because he was the first to move in here - and also because, Ikiru accepts him more than she does the girls - no wonder, as he is a male dog, but anyway I don't know, how the others will react, when this "link" is no longer present...
The past few days it has been quite hot here, we have had some "real" summer days, and so the dogs have been sleeping and dozing in the shadow most of the day... But, then in the evenings they have been playing and running around like crazy.... It seems as if they have become even more of a "pack" after Kanzi's first heat, they are now playing all of them - if not together - then at least at the same time... Ikiru is playing with Tora and some with Fuji, Tora is playing with everybody, and the girls are playing with Fuji, each other and Tora... Especially yesterday they spent almost an hour just having fun (which for Aibu includes digging big holes in the garden, which isn't so much fun, if you ask me.....) and running around like crazy... They obviously had a great time and were enjoying themselves... But in these "games" they are playing, it seems that Fuji is a major factor and initiator, and therefore I am wondering how things will be after Friday (except that we will all be missing that red clownish sweetie....!).
But besides the fact that Fuji is now going to leave us, everything is just fine. Because of the warm weather, I have mostly been walking the dogs out from home, and I think actually especially Ikiru misses her trips to the beach a bit. Normally we would have been there almost every day, when the weather is like this, but I don't really feel like driving there twice, once for each "set" of dogs, per day... Besides, Kanzi needs a little more training, before bringing her to the beach now, where there are quite a number of tourists down there, will be any kind of fun... So for now poor Ikiru will have to do with our walks in the forest or around the neighbourhood... The rest of the dogs don't seem to be bothered that much about it - but then again, they haven't been used to anything more like Ikiru previously has...
Anyway... part of me is looking forward to Friday, and part of me is definitely not... I will get back to you again a little later to tell you about the "reduced" Kindergarten...
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