Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Weight

Just weighed the dogs today. Been trying to fatten them all up a bit recently. Haru because she was a bit thin after the hunting season, Momo because she was a bit malnourished, and Baron because he's a growing boy.

Haru weighed in at 14kg which is the heaviest she's every been to date. Baron is at 19kg. Momo weighed 14.8kg when she arrived here in March, but now weighs 16kg.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Short Video of Kai Pups

Just a short video I took of the pups yesterday. The red is my favorite, with the pink coming in a close second. The pink pup LOVES people, but I personally prefer pups that are not quite THAT friendly, haha.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Kai Puppies

Went to look at a litter of pups today as I'm thinking of adding another Kai to our pack. These pups were sired by an aka-tora (red brindle) male, and chu-tora (medium brindle) female. The sire is from a kennel that shows and hunts with their Kai.

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Training

Finally some nice weather and the day off! After much thought I loaded up all three dogs into the Jimny. It's kinda crowded, but at least all my dogs are well behaved in cars. The main purpose for taking the dogs out was to see how they are when solo, so I walked one at a time. Ended up doing nearly 20km, but it was worth it. A beautiful day out in the mountains with the dogs.

Took a bit of video, but be warned that I filmed while walking so prepare for motion sickness. All the dogs did great and are coming along nicely. We didn't come across any boar as they were not where I'd expect them to be.

Had a bit of drama at the end of the day with Momo and Haru. Momo jumped Haru as she does every so often. Funny thing is that Momo always seems to come out worse for it as the cut above her eye attests. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work with Momo to solve her dog aggression issues. If she were a house pet it would not be a problem, but as a hunting dog that is let loose in the mountains it is a liability. Rather than saying she's dog aggressive I chalk it up to lack of socialization. She doesn't greet dogs well for the first time, and actually gets up in their face. The other issue is that she's definitely not used to having other dogs around her food or things she considers valuable, and that is where the problems with Haru kick in. Either way, will put in a bit more work and see if this can't be fixed.






Sunday, April 11, 2010

More Tenrankai

Here's a video of a Kai going through some training outside the Tenrankai ring.



And a group shot with the overall champion flag.

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Friday, April 9, 2010

Kai Ken Aigokai Tenrankai Spring 2010

So last Sunday was the Spring Tenrankai (exhibition) of the Kai Ken Aigokai (preservation society?). It's held every year in Yamanashi prefecture on the first Sunday of April and the last Sunday of October.

This year was my first time showing a dog there, Haru made her debut. I get a lot of mixed reviews on her. She's a gorgeous dog, very sound and extremely athletic, but has a few flaws. Regardless I decided for her sake and mine to show her this year. The weather cooperated and the cherry blossoms were beautiful. There were just over 160 Kai entered, with many more there to watch the show.

A couple from Oregon who've been looking for Kai pups managed to arrange their schedules so they could come to the show, and we had a grand time together. Everyone loved having the 'gaijin' (foreigners) there and many stopped to talk with them and take pictures. We even had the judges coming over to talk and look at the pups that were going over to the States. They were very impressed by the male pup that was going over, with one gentleman even asking if Kaito was for sale.

Inoue-san (Haru's breeder) returned the overall champion banner that his male Riki won last Fall at the opening ceremony, and another friend of mine who's female Tsuki finished second to Riki returned the Terada trophy cup. Inoue-san had a wonderful time introducing the foreigners to everyone, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the day.

Haru was entered in the juvenile female category against 20 other bitches, and ended up in 12th place. I had a good laugh as after the morning 'kotai shinsa' (conformation check) I randomly guessed she'd be 12th, but if we were lucky maybe 10th. All in all it was a great experience for both man and beast, with Haru doing exceptionally well in the ring. She's usually very energetic and it's hard to get her to do her 'stand', but as soon as we were in the ring she got right into her groove. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am seriously hooked now. Just thinking about the fall show gets me excited.

So without further ado, here are some pictures. I didn't take any pictures or video this show as I was busy with Haru and running around translating. These pictures and video are courtesy of my new friends from Oregon. Good luck with the pups! I'm now catching up on all the sleep I missed out on for the past 2 months. Here at my place we're now back down to 3 dogs, Haru, Baron and Momo. Haru and Momo are both coming out of heat and not a moment too soon.

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More Video

Here's a couple more videos I took at the Kanagawa Nippo Regional and at my friend's kennel. I also have a lot of stuff from the Kai Ken Aigokai Spring Tenrankai to upload. The Tenrankai was last Sunday, and I will post about it later.







New Videos

So after several months of working with sub par computers, I finally put together a new one. Got to work capturing/uploading video, so here's a few new ones.