Unta x Bishoume: 10 Months

The first litter born at my kennel was from a breeding put together by Mr.Yano of Izumo Yano Sou. They were out of Unta http://www.shikoku-pedigree.com/details.php?id=63463 and Bishoume http://www.shikoku-pedigree.com/details.php?id=63352

There were four pups in the litter, 3 males, and 1 female. 1 male stayed in Japan in a pet home, the female went to Italy, and the two males to the US. Of the 3 pups that went overseas, the red sesame male turned out to be cryptorchid (1 descended testicle) even though at 2 months both could be felt in the scrotum. This male also looks to have mild dysplasia in 1 hip.

This is the red sesame male 'Kurama'




And an update from his owner:
"So, as promised, here is the update to Kurama's surgery. The 1st 2 pictures are his prelim x-rays as a refresher at 8 months of age (he was born 8/31/2013). Three weeks later after consultation and a lot of discussion with my spouse, he underwent the Triple Pelvic Osteotomy (TPO). Remember that the prognosis and efficacy of such a surgery is at its highest when the dog is between 5-11 months old. You can see the after pictures immediately following the pre-op x-rays. Personally I don't think they did a great job shooting the post-op x-rays. However, time will be my judge whether I made the right decision or not. But I am encouraged that the mere posting of my dog's x-rays sparked a necessary discussion about the breed health and touched a bit on dog ownership."




Here is the black sesame male 'Kiyoshi'
His health checks will be done at some point in the near future. He has both his testicles.



And from his owner:
"Kiyoshi is very well behaved, sleeps until noon normally. Very calm demeanor, has a bit of a stubborn streak.  Extremely high prey drive and great nose.  He has his first barn hunt end of this month.  We're also training for SAR, he has potential although it will take years of training and fine tuning, I'm hopeful that he'll one day be the first SAR shikoku in the US. (I've always wanted to do it and it just so happens Kiyoshi has the drive to make it happen). He plays good with the ladies and has learned to take 'no' for an answer, although he still plays really rough. He's not at all shy towards people, very outgoing and will walk up to anyone for attention.  He has the BEST personality and you couldnt have found a more perfect match. He'll get his therapy dog certification in September. He's everything we could have hoped for and then some."

Here is the pup that stayed in Japan 'Jaq'
Jaq's got both his testicles as well.
He is loved by his owners, and seems to be doing very well despite not being the strongest or largest pup of the bunch. Hopefully I'll be able to see him soon.

Lastly, there is 'Kazumi', the black sesame female that went to Italy




She's got a terrific home and terrific owners (just like all the pups out of this litter!). Her health checks are pending, At the moment she's quite high in the rear (like her dam), but I'm hoping she'll even out a bit as she matures. She's got a beautiful face (like her dam). I had the chance to see her once while I was in Italy, and was happy to see that she remembered me.

Breeding Shikoku is fraught with risk due to the complete lack of testing on the breed here in Japan. I'll be blogging more about this soon. For now, fingers crossed that the health checks on these other pups come back with positive results!

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