It's amazing how smart dogs can be. We always make fun of our dogs and call them stupid (although one of them really is stupid), but dogs can be super smart.
Absolutely, and they're amazing.
An Akita overdoing it on being protective of its owner is also about par for the course. No dog dislikes other canids quite like a grumpy-ass Akita.
Definitely on the dislike of other canids. A friend of mine in high school's mom bred Akitas and she had to give it up when one escaped and immediately jumped over the neighbor's fence and killed their dog.
They are very handsome dogs, but after that, I wouldn't get one unless no one around me had a dog too. (I wouldn't get a purebred anyway, but that's another issue.)
I'm very glad Hero was a hero though.
Our mix was a sweetheart to humans (for 99% of her life), but occasionally lashed out at two of our other four dogs who overlapped with her in our household. She was indifferent to the other two.
We had things managed pretty well for several years, but when she started getting older, about ten, she started getting confused, and forgetting to eat, and losing a lot of weight, and getting grumpier and making terrible decisions. When it spread to humans (she bit my hand twice in two days), we knew her time was up, but we gave her a send off in accordance with her being a good girl, as they all are.
I'm sorry for your loss. It's always hard to lose a dog. I've had four in my adult life and two are gone and I miss them all the time.
Not only are they smart, they have empathy, too.
I owned 3 Akita's growing up. And trust me they are the most fiercely loyal and protective dogs I've ever owned. There is a reason its in Akita in the famous true story of Hachikō
All that said Akitas are a very particular breed. And they are not just for any owner. Especially a person new to dogs.
I'm still trying to figure out how the owner was stranded in the ditch. I RTFA and am no wiser.
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