Komatsudera

This is the shrine closest to my house. It's tucked away in the mountains, making it the perfect peaceful spot to get away to. It's been there for hundreds of years and has a little pond/pagoda as well. Dropped by yesterday with some friends to chill for a bit.

Cafe Trained

Show off.

But really, it was tough but quite a bit of fun traveling with a dog. I might do it again with one of my other dogs for fun. Maybe Baron.

Peace

Just took a few minutes to take in the sunset that was going on.

Study Group

So we do this once a year, it's a study group organized by the NIPPO Chiba branch. We invite a judge, and anyone who wants to, brings their dogs. In the morning dogs are brought out one at a time, and the judge critiques. The owner can ask questions/opinions, as can everyone else gathered. It's a really useful situation as we can bring out new dogs before they are shown the next season, or just show everyone dogs with certain good/bad traits that we wouldn't usually show (which means no one would ever see them).




We all have lunch together, and in the afternoon the judge gives a seminar with a question and answer period regarding the standard, handling, new rules or directions in NIPPO.

Anyway, I figure I'd share something from the other day. What do you think about the color of this black/tan Shiba male?

I've seen a lot of very poorly marked b/t overseas, and I think it's due to lack of knowledge regarding what to look for when breeding them. You have to keep correcting color/markings every generation, and it's actually rather difficult. This male for instance, he's the first step in a direction you don't want to go (though he's a nice male). His coat is too black, and you see that he doesn't have enough white coming up on his tail. This is the start of too much black spreading, and something that will need to be corrected in the next generation. I see a lot of b/t in Europe especially that have too much red, and almost no urajiro/white. In all areas there should be 3 colors (even the eye spots), black-red-white.

Here's how the white on the tail should look.

Before the Rain

Just working to get the kennel roof on before the rain when this lil guy showed up.

Typhoon Incoming

Here we go. Typhoon's a'coming.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/two-dead-typhoon-noul-slams-philippines-way-japan-n356866

I know what I'll be doing tomorrow morning: battening down the hatches in preparation for the storm. Need to put a roof on the new kennel, pack up anything that might grow wings and fly, and maybe get around to caulking the leak in my roof.

Tricophyton Fungus

So I saw Chacha with this hair loss on her ears last year this time. She was not at my kennel yet, and it cleared up naturally. I assumed it was allergenic. But, she's at my house this year, and when she broke out, I had some testing done to see what it is.

I have her separated from the other dogs, and I just got the diagnosis a few days ago. Tricophyton Fungus, so I guess ringworm. The symptoms in Chacha are hair loss on ears with a bit of scabbing. The hair dies and can be plucked off leaving bare skin. Anyway, just putting this out there for educational purposes. Hopefully I'll get this cleared up quickly and for good.

Seki

Seki is out of Kotofusa x Hime, and is full sister to Goji. They just had their 1st birthday this week which I remembered while I was sitting out in the mountains sharing an onigiri (rice ball) with Goji and Baron. Seki's being pampered by her family in Australia. She looks a lot like Hime.

Umeshu

Umeshu (梅酒) is a Japanese liqueur made from steeping ume fruits (while still unripe and green) in alcohol and sugar. It has a sweet, sour taste, and an alcohol content of 10–15%.

And yes, I make my own umeshu. The ume tree in my field is starting to grow this year's plums which tells me that my batch from last year is ready to drink. First come first serve, next group of visitors at my house will be drinking home made mountain umeshu with me.

The Ocean

The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.

-Wyland

Inspected

Gun laws in Japan are very strict.
Gun ownership is a privilege, not a right, and there are a lot of hoops to jump through to purchase a firearm, as well as hoops to continue jumping through afterward. The yearly gun inspection is one of them.

Every year after the hunting season all firearms owners are required to take all their firearms to the local police station for inspection. They check that the firearms have been used for their registered purpose, that no illegal modifications have been made, and we all have to be interviewed (are you a drug addict? etc).

Everything went smoothly as usual, and I cleaned the M3 and put her away till the next time we hunt (next week maybe?).







Friend of mine snapped this from the treehouse. Looks like she's got some photography skills.

All Kanto Regional NIPPO 2015 Spring

So the show season for the spring has drawn to a close. Last week was the all Kanto regional, and it was held here in Chiba with 253 dogs entered.

I entered Mei (Kotomi Go), but ended up showing Kuromasa as well. He's out of coat, and has a bad habit of wagging his tail in the ring which is a big no-no for NIPPO. It's what he's famous for... the strong sickle tail that starts to sway.












Anyway, we were just showing him so that everyone in the area who has not seen him yet could get a chance. We retired after the morning round.

There was a bit of drama in the morning as while I was walking Kotomi after arriving, a Kishu escaped and came running toward us. She came up and was sniffing us, and around 5 people took the chance to surround her and grab her. The sudden grabbing and the Kishu freaking out really bothered Mei, and she dropped tail for quite a while. I took her back to the car and into her crate to calm down, hoping that she wouldn't be scarred by the experience. With Shikoku often all it takes is one negative experience like this to ruin them for life...






She was definitely bothered when we got in the ring, and almost dropped tail when the Kishu next to us moved toward us. I moved us away from the other dogs, and luckily she held up alright, though it was hard to get her in a strong stack. I stood between her and the sun to try and keep a shadow over her as it was a pretty damn hot day, and she seems to heat up pretty quickly. Overall we did fairly well, ending up third in class again, but in a pretty strong waka2 class it was a good end to the spring season.




My thanks as always to the Yajima's for the pictures.