Samuel Mwagiru Karongo

Are Akita good service dogs? First of all, if you haven’t interacted with or gotten an opportunity to learn about the Akita, you should know his ancestors were bred as guard dogs. The short answer to the question is yes. But the longer answer is more interesting and filled with answers and additional facts you’d want to learn. The Akita is named after the place it originates from, a mountainous region in Northern Japan. They were usually bred as guard dogs and helped to hunt bears, deer and wild boars. They were restricted to nobility and perhaps, the ease by which the breed was honored as a national treasure in its native country. What makes Akita a good service dog? For instance, it has a large and intimidating posture. So it’s not the kind of dog that can be scared easily. This makes them great companions and family protectors. Of course, genes do not lie, their long guarding history adds on to this resilience. Let’s see why you'd choose an Akita as a service dog. Akita as service dogs Most programs that provide service dogs would usually go for the typical breeds golden retrievers, Labradors, poodles, and GSDs. The reason is not so many people are familiar with Akita as a service breed. However, they are great as service dogs. They require less maintenance in comparison to some of the other easy picks. They are dominant and focused. If you give the Akita a task they'll diligently perform it with fewer distractions. Besides, they eat less than their counterparts. You'll also notice that they don't require as many exercises in a day like most breed mentioned above. It’s good to note that there is a common misconception about Akita being a hard dog to train. And it's advisable to start their training when they are about 7-8 weeks old. The Akitas are closer to a wolf than a dog in terms of temperaments and dominance. Therefore, some of the common dog training methods might not work on Akita. Nevertheless, they are family-oriented making them great service dogs. Just as focused on performing their tasks, they require similar attention to their owners. There are reserved and territorial with strangers. They fit in most services as well. What kind of services does Akita perform? When you are looking for a service dog, you want them to be useful to someone in a meaningful way. It could be yourself or a family member. Akitas can be resourceful as a service dog for people with visual and hearing impairment, diabetes, mobility impairment, and mental illness. There is no doubt that Akita would be a great companion for most people with these limitations. For instance, a person with visual or hearing impairment would require a protective and courageous companion. The visually impaired individuals are secure with a dog like the Akita. Dog training tends to be individualistic and having a potentially easily trainable dominant dog breed is an advantage. Furthermore, the focused attitude in Akita means that it will be a faithful and resourceful companion. In the next section, I will highlight some of the functions of a service dog. It will help you get a clear picture of why an Akita is the right service dog fit. What is required of service dogs? There are a lot of specifics tasks a service dog is required to do. These tasks are potentially many because of the various categories of disabled people. They can be divided into four categories; visually impaired, hearing impaired, mobility impaired and mental conditions. For the visually impaired the Akita can be trained to: Stop them from harming themselves through repetitive behaviors such as injuring with items. To notify the handler of a potential anxiety attack. To bring medication when symptoms start to show. During a crisis, they retrieve emergency phones Performing trained therapy to calm their companion. They always, turn on the lights and search rooms before their handler enters. For the visually, mobility and hearing impaired the Akita service dog offers guidance and hearing by performing the following tasks: Notifying visually impaired persons when elevation has changed. Helping the visually impaired to navigate around obstacles. To help identify and locate objects when requested to. Help retrieve dropped items for the visually impaired. Help alert alarms and doorbells for the hearing impaired. Opening and closing doors for the visually impaired. Offering balancing support for their handler. Helping carry items. Helping a partner move from a wheelchair. If you have the skills and patience you can train your Akita or take them through a training program. Training Akitas as a service dog You can choose to train your dog on your own or take them through the training program. How you do it depends on what you wish to achieve through the training. If you got the skills or are confident enough then you can give it a try. As stated earlier, the best time to train an Akita is when they are 7-8 weeks old. As puppies, they are more responsive. Akita's demeanor and temperaments are different from most dogs, they are closer to a wolf. That said, you can still follow the following steps to train your Akita dog: Train them young. Train the mind, a trainer will achieve much more if they focus on the mind first, then combine that with physical behavior training. Train the do navigate the outdoors especially frequented streets. Give your puppy clear rules, set boundaries through clear marked signs and behaviors. Remember to reinforce confidence by rewarding the dog for positive feedback through treats and toys. Additionally, they can be given verbal praise when they show improvement in task delivery. Ideally, the best training should last about 10-15 minutes. The training should be done with new and fun-filled things. Also, you should start house training when the puppy gets home. Also, ensure that you help the dog socialize gradually. Remember the Akita is quite reserved around strangers. Akitas high energy The Akita large size makes it’s a difficult breed to manage. Due to its size, it comes packed with a lot of strength and endurance. Similarly, they need focused training to harness and channel all this energy. In the past, the Akita used to help hunt for large animals such as black bears. The hunters would use the dog to flush out these animals to make it easier for hunters to kill them. Also, to their energy, they show a lot of courage. Akita is not a dog for everyone. But they are quite intelligent and sometimes get bored with too much training. Type of services dogs From the four categories of service dogs I had shared before we can be more specific to about 8 service dogs; Guide dogs, they assist people who are visually impaired to navigate through the outdoors and indoors. Hearing dogs, assist the hearing impaired by alerting those to important sounds such as doorbells, timers, and alarms. Diabetic alert dogs; warn the owner about their sugar levels, either when they are too low or high. Mobility assistance dogs, assist people with mobility issues by opening doors, retrieve dropped items or even help them pay. Seizure response dogs; they are trained to assist an epileptic person in the event a seizure occurs. Autism service dogs; these dogs work with children with autism as part of the support system. They help to build confidence in autistic kids. Psychiatric service dogs; this is a collection of dogs that assist various people who have psychiatric issues including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. They the users when there’s a sign of anxiety attacks, panic attacks, and even flashbacks. Allergy detention dogs; help in picking scents that might cause allergic reactions to the owner. They warn them so they can avoid it. Common service dogs As I had stated earlier, the most common service dogs include golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers, poodles, and German shepherds. Golden retrievers; because of their gentleness, they make great service dogs. Plus, they are good at retrieving stuff and even carrying them around. They have an infectious attraction to people making them the right fit too. Labrador retrievers; their names are usually shortened to labs. They are easy to train and have an impeccable work ethic. They are a strong breed and quite a sociable dog breed. Poodle; they fall under the category of some of the most intelligent dog breeds. And they are good as allergic service dogs because they do not shed as much. Plus their smart wits mean they are easy to train. The only downside is that they are not as large as most dogs in this list. This means they are not a good fit for larger and taller people. German shepherd; when you think of service dogs, the easily formable picture is that of a GSD. The first service dog was a GSD named bubbly. They got well developed large bodies which make them great service dogs. People with mobility issues would find the German shepherd a good fit. Owner training Vs training program There are two methods of acquiring a service dog. One of them is through getting a puppy from a breeder while the other way is through adopting one. Once you have the puppy you have to train them yourself. The other option is to work with a local dog training program. Typically, these training programs will train a dog from a puppy to a full-grown service dog. They match the owner with a dog that fits perfectly and satisfies your needs and rhymes with your energy levels. Of course, there are varied public opinions on which is the best type of method. However, each has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, a training program is costlier than owner training. Similarly, an owner's training is time-consuming than a training program. Ideally, the owner of the dog needs to weigh each of the advantages and disadvantages to pick the best program. Akitas as emotional/therapy dogs There is a difference between a service and a therapy dog. Service dog involves most of what we've been discussing in the article. On the other hand, therapy is when dogs are used for therapy at school reading programs or nursing homes. Akita is a member of the American kennel club (AKC) working club. They have the proper traits to help in therapy in nursing homes and work with school children programs.