How to Care for an Akita Inu

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Nancy Frensley. I'm the training manager at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society. I'm here today to talk about the Akita Inu. That is the Japanese full name for a breed called Akita. The Akita is a large Northern Spitz. They are in the working breed category as defined by the American Kennel Club, and they are usually kept as family pets. Once of the good things about Akitas is they don't need a lot of exercise. They're very happy with a couple of walks a day, or maybe even one. Your Akita, however, has a really long, lush coat, and that coat's going to require some care, and it's also going to blow out in big hunks about two times a year. You're going to get big, huge hunks of hair all over the place. You can reduce this, of course, with regular brushing, and generally good coat care and good coat supplements, for that matter. But the thing that you need to know most before you decide to get an Akita, is they are largely what we call a one man or one family dog. They don't tend to be real friendly to strangers. Most of them will simply ignore strangers, but some take it a step further. So, the Akita Inu will need good direction from you in terms of knowing how to behave around other people. So you're going to have to be on top of that, because if they make up their own mind, they could make a mistake. Otherwise, loving, sweet, affectionate dogs."