Hello everyone, I just brought home my Akita puppy, her name is Kiyomi and she is 12 weeks old. She is an extremely good puppy. Any advice forum will be appreciated as I'm a novice dog owner. Luckily my boyfriend has had an Akita in the past so he is very helpful. Since I'm the one who is home with her all day, I welcome advice on how to train her.
Welcome and glad to hear about your new addition to the family. Your boyfriend previously owning an Akita will be a huge help to you. This is my first Akita (on my avatar), Luna, 8+ months old. These dogs think big even when they are small, so you can see that Akita stubborn trait very early on. Hella cute when they are tiny, but they grow so fast it can become a problem in no time at all. So lessons in manners starts at day one. Even now when I scold mine she ignores me for 2 minutes, its like she puts 'me' on a time out for not letting 'her' do something. Start your basic training commands right away, they pick them up ridiculously quick. One of the most important things right now is socialization with both people and other dogs. Get her into a puppy class right away, even if she learns nothing from it, the interaction with the other dogs alone is worth its weight in gold. Make sure she meets all the family members too, the more the merrier, no one can resist an Akita pup (cub) anyway so that won't be hard to do. And I believe its the law for you to provide Akita puppy pics now
You must be so excited of your new arrival, we were. We got Yoji at the same age and he is 6 months old soon. We found he was very ' food driven ' so we used it to our advantage when we were setting our house rules, all I can say is decide how you want her to behave, tell her, keep telling her and stick to yours guns, don't falter or she will take advantage. How have your early days been ?
Thank you all for your responses. My youngest turns 24 today so it's been a long time since I've had a "pup". I have to watch her constantly! I will enroll her in training for sure! How much do you feed a 12 week old pup? Currently I'm giving her 3/4 cup 3 times a day. Is that enough?
Wow she is a Beauty! She's already like a fully grown Sheba Inu, lol You could round that up to 1 cup each meal if you wanted, I always heaped the measuring cup anyway so it was more like 1.25 cups. Some kibble expands a lot and some stay generally the same. You could put some water on her kibble and let it expand in the bowl first for about 10 mins and see, less chance of it swelling up in her stomach causing pressure. That way when she gets full she can stop, and what she's eaten already won't further expand in her stomach. Eating it all dry just swells inside and they throw up on your floor 10 minutes later cause it was too much. I noticed mine didn't chew up the kibble at all, just swallowed it whole, then turns and looks at you as if to say "Ok next course". Really like that tiled floor btw.
