Hi Dog Lovers,

I have a 3 year old male neutered Akita that loves my wife and I along with people he has know since he was a puppy.

We have run into an issue with him and being a little over protective.

Situation 1: We have a Dog Walking service that comes to walk him when we are not home M-F during the day for a 45min walk. He is totally fine with the dog walker when he or she show up and let him out they walk on a leash for 35mins where everything is fine. Issue: When they walk back into the house and try take off his leash he starts to growl and has at one point launched towards the person’s feet. The dog walker is not afraid and corrects him and tells him NO. He stops but continues to test this process each time. What should we do?

Situation 2: When ever we have people over that are new to our home we have to put a muzzle on him as he has tried to bite 2 people. He has never done so since we stopped him as we caught as it happened. He made no growling or noise we just saw him move towards the persons. Even with the muzzle on he will go towards the person’s feet. Only after about an hour of having a person in our house will he give up and ignore the other people.

Please advise, we love our dog and want to work on making his world better for him and us.

Thanks,
Kuma

3 month Kuma over here...

Neutering him is what we're also planning on doing. But I thought that was supposed to help with aggression??

Anyway, I'm worried about our Kuma pulling stunts like that, and so I'm doing my best to make sure he knows his place as he grows from puppy to adult. so far, i think things are going okay, but i'll soon find out in a few weeks when he'll be good to go socialize.

Would like to know more about your experiences with having your Kuma. Shedding? exercises, training, etc...

Thanks.

Hi Kumasan,

Our Kuma is great other then this current issue. He listens to us fine repsonds right away to our commands. Neutering helps, but does not change the Akita natural part to be protective. As for you questions around Shedding--welcome to 2 times a year of more fur then you ever thought would come from one dog. Exercises--We walk him 3 x a day once in the morning for about 15-20mins then our dog walker shows up when we are gone mid-day walks him for 30-45mins and then in the evening for about 30mins. He loves running after sticks so he can break them. Training--he has gone through standard command training -sit, stay, down, etc...

Note: we never had any aggression issues until the last 6months...Vet has checked him and he is fine. So its an issue of use trying to figure out what behavior needs to help change him and us.

Originally Posted by Kuma70

Hi Dog Lovers,

I have a 3 year old male neutered Akita that loves my wife and I along with people he has know since he was a puppy.

We have run into an issue with him and being a little over protective.

Situation 1: We have a Dog Walking service that comes to walk him when we are not home M-F during the day for a 45min walk. He is totally fine with the dog walker when he or she show up and let him out they walk on a leash for 35mins where everything is fine. Issue: When they walk back into the house and try take off his leash he starts to growl and has at one point launched towards the person’s feet. The dog walker is not afraid and corrects him and tells him NO. He stops but continues to test this process each time. What should we do?

Situation 2: When ever we have people over that are new to our home we have to put a muzzle on him as he has tried to bite 2 people. He has never done so since we stopped him as we caught as it happened. He made no growling or noise we just saw him move towards the persons. Even with the muzzle on he will go towards the person’s feet. Only after about an hour of having a person in our house will he give up and ignore the other people.

Please advise, we love our dog and want to work on making his world better for him and us.

Thanks,
Kuma

Feet? In both instances you mention Feet as the attack point. Do you recall anything that might have happened before these problems that have anything to do with feet? Has somone kicked or tried to kick Kuma, or has there been several instances where new visitors have accedently trod on him?

Has one of the dog walkers maybe used feet and legs to try and control him or dominate him maybe?

Hi Nattie1976,

He was never kicked nor have people used feet to control him or dominate him. I know that Akita's used to be used to hunt bears and by attacking the back of the leg/feet they would be able to take down the animal.