Hello, I've just brought home a lovely little boy akita and am a little concerned about whether it should be possible to hold and restrain him. Many of the books advise we should be able to hold the dog down (or pick him up, have him sat on our knee, whatever) and get him to relax - for use in emergencies, not as discipline!

We have tried this numerous times over the weekend and it ends in distress for the puppy and a lot of biting and scratching. We have tried holding him gently on our knee with lots of stroking and treats and more firmly - my boyfriend pinned him against his chest as Dr Ian Dunbar's puppy guide recommends and we ignored struggles but it just doesn't work, he does not relax even for a second. My sister's terriers took 5 minutes to submit at the longest but we tried for several periods of 15 minutes or more and he was just getting more and more distressed so stopped.

I also have concerns that he bites me a lot. He is always chewing on my hands and at my trouser legs, but more recently he has begun to turn and snap. The bites aren't too painful, he's only 7.5 weeks at the moment so not very big, but I do not want it to continue. What is the best way of getting across that it is unacceptable behaviour without being cruel? My boyfriend removes him from the room for a short time out when he does something we don't like but at this rate he will end up growing up in the hallway! Oh, and when he is with my boyfriend he is quiet and settled but when i come home he goes nuts chasing me about (until he is removed from the room).

I would appreciate any breed specific advice, we did a lot of research before getting the dog and appreciate the breed is dominant but I've never had a dog before and am struggling to see the difference between playing and dominance.

It sound like to need to hire a trainer with breed experience. This is a very dominant breed that requires strict professional training from an early age. With the help of a trainer you should be fine.

Hi, and welcome to the forum and weclome to the world of Akitas.

The Akita can break some of the rules when it comes to training and forming a bond. These can come a little slower to an Akita, not because they are a dumb dog, they are far from dumb, but being so independant, they need to understand the purpose of your expectations, before they are willing to comply.

First thing first, answering your first question. Try and avoid pinning down and holding an Akita, particuarly at this early stage, while you are still building a bond and trust this exercise will potentially damage an Akitas faith and trust in you. Some books and trainers may suggest the pin and hold to express dominance........with an Akita we have found that this is very unsucsesfull and generates a stronger detirmination to get one over you.

I would suggest given that you and your akita are only just becoming aquainted to not pay any real attention to any specific training at this stage, your focus should be creating a bond, and a trust, once you have established this, you are in a better position to begin training.

Remember at only 7.5 weeks, preferably a pup should still be with its litter and its mother, it is at this stage that they begin learning their bite inhabition, but now that he is with you, you need to be the litter and your pups mum to begin teaching him not to nip and bite.

The most commonly used technique which is usually pretty reliable and mimicks what would happen with the rest of the litter, is when a pup bites, yelp like a pup would when being hurt, once it stops walk away, dont remove the dog, remove yourself. If he approaches you again, and is gentle, play a bit as soon as the nipping starts yelp and walk away. Keep this up, you should find a decrease of nipping over time. If not, let me know, there are other methods, but try this one first, as it is the closest to what would naturally happen within a pack of dogs.

Dominance training.........We found a wonderful method of teaching dominance particuarly good with breeds like the Akita. When Kato was a young pup, he spent his first many weeks attached to a member of our household by a long lead, we used this technique to teach him that he needed to rely on us for absolutely everything. Play, sleep, feeding whatever it was all done with a lead attached to human and pup. We would carry on our normal dayly tasks, Kato was made to follow us doing whatever it was we were doing. This helped in several other things, we were able to watch closely when it was near toilet time, we very quickly were able to recognise the signs of needing to go and get him outside in time. Also with food control. Keep in mind that Akitas can be very food and toy possesive, the earlier you teach them that you control these things, not the dog, the better.

We began feeding Kato his meal touching and patting him stroking his face and touching the bowl, if he growled we removed the food and come back to it a couple of minutes later. If he accepted our touching and stroking we would add a special little treat......a tiny bit of bacon or cooked chicken were the favorite.

Once he accepted us handling him whilst eating we began removing his bowl mid meal, if he growled or got upset we would as before, leave it for a few moments then come back to it, if however he accepted the removal the extra treat was added and the bowl returned.

This all only took a very short period of time, really only within a week. We then moved onto making him wait to eat, we would put the food down, and hold him just a small distance away by the lead asking him to "leave it" once he settled down the lead was released and he was allowed to eat, we then began practicing removing of food mid meal using the "leave it command" so we could get to the point of him relinquishing food without us having to physically move him or the food bowl out of the way. You can follow similar methods when it comes to playing with favorite toys too..

The point of these exercises is it does build trust, and a bond, with your Akita pup beginning to rely on you for these things, it will not take him long to realise what behaviors lead to really yummy or fun things. And that poor behaviour generates no response whatsoever from you. You have now begun to exert dominance using no physical dominance excersize, you are beginning to win an Akitas respect which will then lead to an ability to have him start working for you to please you and a want to make you happy. Doing it all on lead also prepares him in readyness for heel training, he will have become farmiliar with the sensation of resistance against a collar and lead, and will not fret when it comes into play for further training. This however i suggest you leave for the next couple of weeks, and focus on building your relationship and help your pup to understand that you are boss, you are in control, and that you are always calm and a person worthy of leadership in his eyes.

Maybe this will help you to gain more information about Akita...

Dog Obedience Advice | Akita Training

Hope this will help...

Thank you for the advice nattiej, I had seen your comments to other akita owners and hoped you would respond to this! Another concern is that he doesn't seem particularly bonded with us, but following your guidance should help with that. He can be very good and will do many basic commands, tells us when he needs to go outside and has been wearing his collar since day 2, but doesn't seem bothered about us (unless I offer hands which he'll happily pounce on) - his tail rarely wags which is very distressing! We will definitely try removing ourselves from the biting situation instead of removing him (he seemed to win in that case anyway - we overanalyse where we went wrong, he vents his frustration on my slippers in his den!).

Very glad we don't have to try the physical restraining bit any more, it is so upsetting for him and gets us nowhere. Perhaps wanting to get one over on us explains why he'll merrily pee on the living room carpet right in front of us even though the other 95% of the time he'll go to his papers! When he does that, do we shout no or take him calmly to papers and reward him when he gets it right? He knows where to go, I'm convinced he's doing it deliberately!

Will work on the food stuff, he's generally ok with eating and being interrupted - he always sits before dinner and is happy to be stroked while eating, but still launches himself at the dish when its a foot off the ground. If he has a lead on it would be a far better way of enforcing the leave it command than just yelling at him! If only dogs spoke english...

He is at the vets for his first shots on Thursday, we will get some recommendations for a trainer when there just in case we're continuing to struggle. He's so gorgeous, it would be criminal to not do everything we can to raise him well.

[lil mutt]

The previous poster has pretty some good points about how to properly train your akita. If what you are currently doing is not effective i guess following nattiej1976 advice can help you.

update us with you pet...

Many Akita i have met lack tail wag, Kato is not a big tail wagger either, and at first it does become disheartning. We have learned now, that when that tail wags every little movement means the whole world and makes all the effort worth every tiny inch.

You will see this tail wag I promise you, but you may find that it will only ever be for you and very close friends or family..........but thats OK, thats what means the most.

I would not put it past an Akita to pee on the floor out of spite or for a reaction of some sort, I would suggest, to just take him where he has got to be and reward when he gets it right over shouting. Too many Akita owners will report that shouting seems to just bounce straight off them, and they will turn away from you.

Reward reward reward good behaviour always, and if he is misbehaving walk away until you calm down again, you will keep confronting resistence from him if you are approaching him with any frustration or anger. Many dogs, but particuarly the Akita is very emotionally driven and will sence and ride on the emotions of you, if you are happy and excited, he will follow and work with you with enthusiasm, if you are angry and frustrated, he will read this as a weakening and will push buttons until you either snap or surrender.

We have a tendancy to work on theory of reward good behaviour ignore the bad. However when I say ignore the bad, I dont mean leave him to chew the power cord, and pull apart a peice of furniture, just do what you have to do to remove the destraction with no sort of response, silently, quickly no physical or verbal response except for a calm but firm "leave it"..............if he leaves it, or releases quickly reward for the good "leave it" but dont over reward, a quick and excited tone of "good leave it" and a pat on the head is a good way to go. (i feel that using food rewards in these situations can become countractive, and may generate further undesired behaviour for the ultimate food reward)

finding a good training school is a must, it will help you create a support network and begin establishing good socialisation. If you can try and find a training school where there are or have been some knowledge of Akitas and the requirements.

Now I must ask.............Can you please PLEASE share some pics?:mrgreen:

I've been trying to figure out how to show a profile picture (which is of course, the little terror himself - or Dylan as he is otherwise known) so I can show him off - I've set up a little photo album in my profile i think with a few pictures in if you want to see what he looks like. I'm new to the site, still trying to figure a lot of stuff out!

The advice is working well - I emailed it to my boyfriend who was very relieved that we don't have to keep trying to pin him! We've both been home at lunchtime and had him running round on his lead with the encouragement of freeze dried liver treats, he's so smart I'm sure it will be a matter of days before he figures out that the lead is his friend and not a new chew toy. Also - he was out playing in the garden when i got back and when i called him he nearly wagged his tail off! And was happy to come over for a kiss and a cuddle without biting (hoorah!). We are definitely going to keep working on the bite inhibition thing, he was the biggest of the litter and had already figured out how to bully his siblings and the cat when we got him.

He's got to be peeing on purpose - he looks right at us when he does it, the cheeky little monkey. But the vast majority of the time he's getting it right, so we're focussing on the positive. At least he's not howling through the night any more! The vet's does puppy training classes and obedience (clicker) training so we're getting him enrolled as soon as we possibly can - while he's little he gets to have little trips out in a waterproof tote bag so he can see the world without getting exposed to anything dangerous.

I like the concept of the clicker training, wish we had have done that one earlier in the show. Have been very tempted to begin now, and see how we go with it.

Im sooooo glad you got your tail wag.

Alternatively after lifting, place the piglet over your forearm with the chest in the palm of your hand and the legs hanging either side of your arm.
It is very naughty. Without me it can't be control to another members.

I tried that method of holding him last night after he bit my face! Nothing is working with this dog.