Thursday, April 26, 2012

More Japanese Names

This sight was linked to the blog here by @Addy http://japanese-names.blogspot.jp/

Thanks! There's a lot of great Japanese names there, and for those of you that were asking for meanings to be included, this sight includes that information. Enjoy.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Akita Inu Fosters Foxes

I enjoyed watching the videos in this article of a Akita Inu fostering 2 orphaned fox pups. It was posted on the Nihon Ken Forum by @shibamistress. 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Japanese Dog Names: Sword smiths

How about naming your dog after a famous katana smith? Take a look at this short list.

Kawakami Ken Video

The Kawakami Ken is a strain of Shiba native to the area around Kawakami village. There are around 300 in Japan. I found a video of some Kawakami pups playing around.


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

4 Month Shikoku Ken Pup

This is Cho-un-go, a black sesame Shikoku Ken pup from Shimane prefecture. He's holed up with me for a bit till I figure out how to get him to his new overseas home. This guy has not had a single accident, is very quiet (for now), walks well on the leash, is friendly... I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm sure he'll soon show me his true Shikokuness.

It's nearly impossible for me to get a good picture of him on my phone, so a video is all I've got. He's got a very shallow stop, a very different type of head than a lot of the Shikoku around nowadays.


Sunday, April 15, 2012

Current Puppy Status

Thanks for all the inquiries about Shikoku pups. As of today all the pups that I've been looking to place have found homes, mostly in Japan (I guess that's a good thing).

###edited to add: Still looking for a home for the Kai male pup.

NIPPO Chiba Regional

Today I went to the NIPPO Chiba Regional. I did this on limited sleep, and with work in the afternoon, only because my mentor could not show his dogs due to his duties as an assistant judge. There's a female that is just over a year old now named Koharu that's turning out really nice. I've been able to watch her mature from when she was a few days old, and the plan was for me to show her this season.



This is the first time that my schedule has matched up properly, so I got down there bright and early, and gave Koharu a long pre-show walk around the park. She gets carsick, is a bit skittish, and hates the car/crate, so she's got a ways to go before the whole show atmosphere is a comfortable environment for her. Last week at the Tokyo Regional she got spooked by an engine starting up next to her just before showing, and forfeited.

I seem to do really well with handling dogs with confidence issues, and she did well for the most part, though I'm out of practice and my handling was pretty atrocious. We completely messed up the trot around the ring, and in the final judging stage I had trouble keeping her in her stack. Amazingly enough, we were called into first place, and managed to maintain position. All credit goes to Iwahori-san for having her in such great shape, my handling really was terrible. Anyway, a great learning experience, and a great result. No pics since I was busy, other than one consolation picture I took of a rolypoly Shiba pup as I was hurrying back to Tokyo for work.




Friday, April 13, 2012

Nihon Ken Pack

Here's the pack from Gotenyama Kennel walking in the mountains. Ogawa-san takes them up there quite often, and as you can see, off leash. They run into dogs and people up there and seem to do fine. Even the males who I've seen put on quite a show toward other dogs at home, and even get into fights, seem to do fine when off leash.

You can see a lot of Kai Ken, and a couple Shiba if you look closely.




Here's a male Kai puppy and female Shikoku puppy. They're both looking for homes.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Spring Has Arrived

Warm breezes, cherry blossoms blooming, blue skies, beer and smiles everywhere... spring has arrived in Japan. Hope you're all enjoying the day wherever you may be.

The new Subie BRZ parked under some cherry blossoms.

Yoyogi park was overflowing with people and fun.


Random jump rope going on, people were walking by and randomly jumping in.

Tokyo NIPPO regional on Sunday.

Thought I'd put some pics up of the traditional show collars etc for anyone interested.

Show leashes. Yes, things are expensive here.

The Little Prince

I was just sent some pictures of a Shikoku pup that I placed here in Tokyo. I loved this picture, so got permission to put it up. Look at this little guy surveying his domain!



Japanese puppies are damn cute, and this guy is a heartbreaker/troublemaker.